Judy Bridges Founder of Redbird Studio.

Judy Bridges earned her living as a writer prior to founding Redbird. She writes fiction, nonfiction, plays and corporate communications. She holds a bachelor's degree in writing and a master's in adult education. Judy brings her own writing experience to workshops, plus the experiences of the many other writers she has helped at Redbird, Alverno College, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, The Clearing and other locations. In addition to workshops, she does public presentations and private consultations.

---

The four things I like best about my job:

1. I get to hang out with cool people. All of my Redbird friends - those who are in workshops and those who surround us - are interesting, smart, thoughtful, fun. Writers are like that.
   
   
2. I actually get to indulge my passion, which is to help writers find a voice - to say what they want to say in a way that will be heard.
   
   
3. I learn something every day - whether I like it or not.
   
   
4. I get to make the rules. This year's rule is to keep paying attention to the things I like best.

---

The following commentary was written to Redbird writers.

I Write, Therefore...

I write, therefore I help other people write.

Does that make any sense? Maybe not in any other occupation, but it's true in writing. Every writer I know gets a kick out of helping another writer over a hurdle. As one friend said, "We have to be the only professionals who work so hard to help our competition."

Why do we do this? We learn while we're helping, for one thing. And I suppose we like being in the company of other writers. And then there's this little ego thing: it feels good to see someone jump the hurdle and get where they want to go, knowing that you contributed to their success.

I guess that's the big thing for me. In the sixteen years since the Studio opened, and in the years before that when I wrote for a living, I got addicted to the thrill of seeing writers win. Like Doreen, when she wrote that first perfect story; Maria, when she heard the applause after her play was read; Gene, when he saw his book in print; Steve, when he sold his first article. The list goes on, happily, for a long, long time.

We see a lot of wins around here. Seems whenever I start out a day cranky, someone will call, or write, to say "Hey, guess what!" They'll say thanks, to me and all the other writers at Redbird who help one another.

So okay. We write, therefore... we help other people write. I think that's a pretty good thing to do with our time.

One day we ran a survey asking writers to finish the sentence: I write, therefore...  Here's what they said: "I write, therefore I spend a lot of time staring at my computer." "I write, therefore my family and friends think I'm unemployed." "I write, therefore I drink." A few answered: "I write, therefore I AM A WRITER." We liked that.  But we liked this better: "I write, therefore I think."