WORKSHOP RESOURCES
Looking for handout sheets from one of my workshops?

EDITORAL & CREATIVE SERVICES
Rates vary. Contact diana@dianabotsford.com for more information.

November 2025: The Things They Carry

Sponsored by PennWriters - Full Course

Explore how characters' interactions with objects can deepen your story. Learn to use props and "bits of business" to enhance characterization, add subtext, and propel your plot forward. Suitable for fiction writers of all levels and genres.

Format: Weekly on-demand lectures, worksheets, and live online workshop/feedback sessions with fellow writers

Duration: 4 weeks

When: Tuesdays 7-9pm, ET (November 4-25)

Price: $75 members, $100 non-members

DEVELOPMENT WORKSHEETS
A variety of worksheets to help you in plotting and rewriting your work:

• Character Development (Internal/External Goals, Motivations, Conflicts)
• Diagram: Six Plot Stages and Five Turning Points
• Plot Development Worksheet (Using the Six Plot Stages)
• Plot Map (Using the Six Plot Stages and Five Turning Points)
• Synopsis Worksheet (Combining the above Plot elements & Christopher Vogler’s Hero’s Journey Steps)
• The 1-Liner – How to Develop Your Logline to pitch your story

READ IF YOU WANT TO WRITE!
If you want to write, you need to read, and while the obvious locations such as bookstores and libraries serve their purpose, the following links can open you to wide world of free books, scripts, and more.

Prose

• Project Gutenberg – download over 30,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable device
• ManyBooks – Free eBooks for your PDA, iPod, or eBook reader
• Scribd – Open library to publish and discover documents online –
• Word Public Library – 400,000 PDF ebooks for download
• Wowio – Public domain, free legitimate copyrighted materials & Comic Books

Screenplays & Teleplays

• SimplyScripts – links to hundreds of free, downloadable scripts,movie scripts, screenplays, and transcripts of current, classic and maybe a few soon-to-be-released movies, television, anime, unproduced and radio shows.
• Google TV Script Collection – An extensive collection of U.S. & U.K teleplays and series bibles including both current series and classics.
• Internet Movie Script Database – A wide variety of scripts in HTML format

On Writing:

• YouTube: Jane Espenson and Tim Minear On Writing (Two of the top teleplay writer/producers around, their shared credits include Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Caprica, and much more)
• WGA: THE CRAFT: It’s Complicated’s Nancy Meyers on why writing films with older protagonists can be risky business… but a great niche!
• The Center for Story and Symbol, Joseph Campbell and Archetypal Psychology: In addition to information about the Center’s seminars and workshops, you will find here a wealth of mythic resources on Joseph Campbell, fairy tales, mythic themes in film and culture, poetry, recommended reading lists, graduate programs, web resources, and more recommended links.
• YouTube: Using the Net to Advance Your Writing Career: Presented by the WGAW Publicity and Marketing Committee, this March 27, 2010 all-day seminar offered Writers Guild members tools to help them get online, promote their careers, raise their industry profiles, build their brands and distribute and monetize their work.
• World-Building Resources for Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Writers
• Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions