{"id":347,"date":"2025-03-01T12:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T12:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?p=347"},"modified":"2025-03-01T20:30:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T20:30:56","slug":"about-these-online-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?p=347","title":{"rendered":"Transform Your Writing Through Active Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-600 text-2xl font-bold\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-375 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/botsford-285x300.jpg\" alt=\"Diana Botsford\" width=\"229\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/botsford-285x300.jpg 285w, https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/botsford.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px\" \/>Learn by doing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-600 text-2xl font-bold\">Stories don&#8217;t just happen on the page \u2013 they come alive through deliberate craft, practical feedback, and guided exploration. As a writer, producer, and educator with <a href=\"https:\/\/dianabotsford.com\/about\/\"><strong>decades of experience<\/strong> <\/a>spanning television, film, novels, and interactive media, I&#8217;ve long since believed that learning through doing provides the most effective opportunity to deepen your skill while moving forward in the development of your work &#8211; be it a short story, a novel, a stageplay, screenplay, or teleplay.\u00a0 When you&#8217;re personally invested, you&#8217;re open to the learning experience. It&#8217;s a win-win for your project and your overall writerly skillset.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-600 text-xl font-bold\">My Workshop Promise<\/h2>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words\">Every class combines three essential elements:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"-mt-1 [li&gt;&amp;]:mt-2 list-disc space-y-2 pl-8\">\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Hands-on writing exercises that put theory into immediate practice<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Live feedback sessions that sharpen your creative instincts<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Industry-tested techniques that work across all storytelling mediums<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words\">Whether you&#8217;re crafting your first screenplay, developing a novel, or honing your genre expertise, you&#8217;ll leave each session with concrete progress on your project and practical tools for your writer&#8217;s toolkit.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-600 text-xl font-bold\">Workshop Structure<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"-mt-1 [li&gt;&amp;]:mt-2 list-disc space-y-2 pl-8\">\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Small group sizes ensure personalized attention<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Weekly writing assignments build momentum<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Live critique sessions provide immediate, actionable feedback<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">On-demand video lectures complement live discussions<\/li>\n<li class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">Cross-medium insights strengthen core storytelling skills<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words\">Join our community of active learners and transform your writing through practical application, expert guidance, and collaborative growth.<\/p>\n<h2>2025 Workshop Schedule<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>February: <a href=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/genre\">The Idea Factory: A Genre-Hopping Writing Workshop<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>April\/May<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?page_id=387\">First Draft Forward Screenwriting Workshop<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?page_id=358\"><strong>2025 Annual PennWriters Conference<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; Multiple Workshops<\/li>\n<li><strong>July:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?page_id=361\">From Page to Screen &#8211; Crafting Visual Stories<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>September:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?page_id=364\">Script Surgery &#8211; The Art of Precision Rewriting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>November:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/?page_id=367\">The Things They Carry<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn by doing. Stories don&#8217;t just happen on the page \u2013 they come alive through deliberate craft, practical feedback, and guided exploration. As a writer, producer, and educator with decades of experience spanning television, film, novels, and interactive media, I&#8217;ve long since believed that learning through doing provides the most effective opportunity to deepen your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workshops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classes.dianabotsford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}