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A Guide to Free Resources for Writers and Scriptwriters
(Updated 23 April 2006 ) This guide aims to collate some of the more useful sites and software available to writers and screenwriters on the internet. Check back for updates. writing
templates / writing advice /
film scripts / television
scripts / radio scripts
Script Smart One of the best collections of writing templates can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/ It has templates for film, tv comedy, tv drama, radio scene style, radio cue style, radio sketches, stageplays, comicbooks, novels, short stories, synopsis, chapter outline, articles, poems. It comes in versions for both UK and US formatting. Screenwriters Toolkit Data Highways provide a
comprehensive Screenwriters
Toolkit. The Tookit is a set of fourteen MS Word templates for writing
Screenplays, Stageplays and Radio Plays. Screenforge A set of three MS Word screenplay templates make up the Screenforge package. Celtx Free screenwriting software with script breakdown feature and online collaboration. www.celtx.com
Radio Drama Resources - A good selection of articles about writing for radio - including adapting Shakespeare for radio drama. Independent Radio Drama Productions - A good article on the principles of writing good radio drama by Tim Crook. BBC Get Writing - The Craft - An excellent set of articles by experienced writers covering virtually every aspect of the writing process. bewrite.com - Good advice on writing convincing dialogue. BBC World Service - How to Write - A useful set of articles on writing everything from a novel to a radio play. Wordplay - From the writers of Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean. Wordplay has an excellent set of articles on writing for the screen. Scriptsecrets - Worth a look at for the essays on screenwriting. BBC Writersroom Script Formats - Has downloadable examples of the correct script layouts for film, television screenplay, BBC taped drama, BBC taped sitcom, US taped-live shows, US three-camera shows, UK radio cue-style, UK Radio scene-style, US radio drama, UK stage plays, US stage plays, comic book, comic book screenplay-style. Writing for Performance - Has some interesting articles including a writers FAQ based on postings to the Shooting People writers list. The WGA Craft of Writing for Film and Television - A superb set of articles and interviews on all aspects of screenwriting from the Writers Guild of America. NBC Jobs - How to be a Television Writer - NBC's page for aspiring television writers. The Nine-Act Story Structure - An essay on story structure by writer David Siegel Wordup - Good set of articles on writing prose fiction. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America - Lots of articles on the craft of writing. Scriptmag E-articles - Good selection of essays and interviews. BBC Four Interviews - Writers - Audio interviews with writers from Roald Dahl and Roddy Doyle to Maya Angelou and Arthur C Clarke BBC Four Interviews - Playwrights - Audio interviews with playwrights from Noel Coward and Joe Orton to Dylan Thomas and Dennis Potter. Writing for Television News - Great article from Vin Ray, the BBC's Deputy Head of Newsgathering, on writing for TV news. Telling Stories to Ten Million People - Superb article by writer Katherine Way on writing TV drama. Outlines and Treatments - Another excellent article by Katherine Way. This looks at the black art of treatment writing. TV Writing Frequently Asked Questions - The questions that American television writer Larry Brody is most frequently asked. TV Writing Infrequently Asked Questions - The questions that Larry Brody isn't asked very often but are probably more important then the frequently asked ones. A174 Writers - A website for people studying the Open University A174 Writers course to swap notes and critique each others work. Radio plays and radio drama - Some good articles on various aspects of writing for radio. Writers Services.com - Over 1200 pages of information and advice for writers.
One of the best ways you can learn to write better is to read the work of other writers. Below you'll find links to everything from movies to television and radio drama, comedy sketches and stage plays to prose and poetry.
Film Scripts Drew's Script O'Rama is probably the most comprehensive collections of film scripts on the internet. The Daily Script has a wide ranging selection of screenplays Screentalk Magazine has a good selection of online film scripts. Simply Scripts has an ever-expanding range of movie scripts. Scifiscripts.com - a large collection of sci-fi and fantasy scripts. Allmoviescripts - Does exactly what it says on the tin. Movie-Page - Another large selection of scripts. Horrorlair - Hosts a comprehensive range of horror scripts. JoBlo's - Film news and reviews. Plus a good selection of film scripts. iScriptDB.com - Good selection of some more recent film scripts. Superman the Movie - Both the 1976 and 1977 drafts of the screenplay. Superman II - The 1976, 1977 and 1979 drafts of the script. Superman III - The complete film script. Superman IV - The Quest for Peace - The complete film script which contains many scenes cut from the finished film. Supergirl - The complete film script.
BBC Writersroom Script Archive has a good range of shows including; Eastenders, Holby City, Doctors and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. The Anthony Horowitz Script Collection housed at Screentalk magazine has scripts for Murder in Mind, Poirot and Crime Traveler. Simply Scripts has a wide range of (mainly American) television scripts and transcripts. The Knight Rider Collection housed at Screentalk Magazine. Has original scripts from the early 80's TV programme. Only Fools and Horses.net have some of John Sullivan's original scripts available for download. Hookyscripts also has a collection of original Only Fools... scripts leegoldberg.com - Lee Goldberg is an American screenwriter. His site has scripts he wrote for Sliders, Seaquest DSV, Diagnosis Murder and others Mo Willems.com - has a script for Sesame Street among others childrens series. Writing for Performance - has an exclusive episode of Holby City. Diagnosis Murder.co.uk - has the writers guidelines and a load of scripts from Diagnosis Murder. Red Dwarf - Transcripts of all eight series of the sci-fi sitcom. Blackadder - Transcripts of the historical sitcom. Bottom - Transcripts of the BBC sitcom. The Young Ones - Transcripts of the early eighties BBC sitcom. Do Not Adjust Your Set - The complete script from show 4 of series 1. I'm Alan Partridge - The BBC 2 comedy series.
BBC Writersroom Script Archive has scripts available from The Afternoon Play and Friday Play strands. Simply Scripts has a huge range of American radio scripts. The Old Time Radio Script Collection - A sizeable collection of American radio shows including Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre adaptation of War of the Worlds Heart of Darkness - An adaptation of the Conrad classic by Tim Crook at Independent Radio Drama Productions. The Goon Show - a few of the scripts from the 1950's radio classic. Goon show.net - More Goon Show scripts More Goon Show Scripts - Over 50 scripts written by Spike Milligan and the occasional co-writer. Steve Walker - The writer and artist has put some of his plays as produced on BBC Radio online. Knowing Me, Knowing You - The Radio 4 series starring Alan Partridge.
www.tomandnev.co.uk has sketches from Dead Ringers and other programmes including the full script of their Spine Chiller episode for BBC Three. 2DTV has an expanding set of sketches used in the programme. Richard-Herring.com has a few sketches from Radio 4's Weekending A Bit of Fry and Laurie Script Archive lots of sketches from A Bit of Fry and Laurie The Curmudgeonly Lee and Herring Pages - A Lee and Herring fan site with a load of sketch transcripts. The Julian and Sandy Tribute Page - Has a few sketches from BBC Radio's Round The Horne. Dave England's Home Page - has a selection of sketches from Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV
Simply Scripts has a wide-ranging set of stage plays. Amadrama has a number of free stage plays online Richard-Herring.com has some of Richard's stage plays in the download section. The Dramatic Exchange - has over 400 stage plays online. A Nation Acts - The complete text of the play Now Let Me Fly in full and youth versions.
The Gutenberg Project puts books that have fallen into the public domain online. Stephen Leather is a scriptwriter and novelist. He has put several unpublished novels on his website in downloadable PDF format. The BBC Doctor Who Site is gradually building a library of rare, out of print science fiction novels complete with extensive writers notes. Short-Stories.co.uk - Read and review other people's work or post your own short fiction. Classic Short Stories - Works by Edgar Allen Poe, Roald Dahl, H.G. Wells, Dylan Thomas, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, George Orwell and many others. Classic-Reader.com - Works by Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle and more. Classic Horror Stories - Works by H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and many more. Stephen Gallagher.com - The horror and fantasy author has made a couple of short stories available on his official site. Bartleby.com - Publishes books that have fallen out of copyright online.
Poem Online is one of the oldest and best online poetry communities. bbc.co.uk's poetry page has a good set of articles and links to other sites. Creative Poems - Lets you read and review other peoples work or post your own. BBC Poetry Outloud - Hear poets read aloud their own work. Includes works by: Seamus Heaney, Sir John Betjeman, Ted Hughes, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Hegley, Roger McGough, W.H. Auden Poetry Online Today has links to poetry competions, forums and more. Poemhunter - Searching for a particular poet or poem? Poemhunter is a dedicated poetry search engine. www.rhymezone.com - Every good poet needs a rhyming dictionary. This is an online version. The Seamus Heaney Page - A collection of articles and essays explaining the background to the great poets work. The Official Roger McGough Site has details of Roger's tours, books and more
PFD - One of Europe's largest literary agents. Casarotto Ramsay and Associates everyonewhosanyone.com - Looking for an agent? This site has an exhaustive list of British, Irish, US and Canadian agents. Writers Services.com agents page - Massive list of links to agents websites.
www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/ - The commissioning guidelines for all of the BBC's output. www.4producers.co.uk - The Channel 4 commissioning guidelines and online pitching site. Writers
Copyright Association-UK - Copyright protect your work on-line.
Also BBC Writers Guidelines - The writers guidelines for all BBC platforms. Hopefulwriter.co.uk - Good list of links for writers and poets. Ideas4writers.co.uk - Members get access to hundreds of ideas to inspire and improve your writing. 100 new ideas every month, plus what ifs, anniversaries, writing engines, discussion forums, writers' bookshop, computer & word processor help and much more. The Writers Guild of Great Britain - has the agreed payment rates for writers with the major UK broadcasters. The Writers Guild of America, West - The American Writers Union for writers west of the Mississippi. The Writers Guild of America, East - The American Writers Union for writers east of the Mississippi. The Writers Guild of Canada - The association for Canadian scriptwriters Australian Writers Guild - The Australian writers association. New Zealand Writers Guild - The New Zealand writers association. Irish Writers Centre - The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild
www.dictionary.com - Every good writer should have a good dictionary and thesarus. The Free Dictionary - English, Medical, Legal, and Computer Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia and a Literature Reference Library. www.rhymezone.com - Online rhyming dictionary. Netlingo - Award-winning dictionary of internet terms. The Alternative English Dictionary - A dictionary of English slang words, insults and profanities. A huge list of other languages are available too. Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang - Learn to speak just like a hardboiled American detective. Online Conversion.com - Convert just about anything into anything else with this online conversion site. Has over 5000 units and 50000 possible conversions. Bartleby.com - Free reference books including Roget's Thesaurus, Gray's Anatomy and The King James Bible. Glossary of Medical Terms - A list of popular and technical medical terms. Forensic Science Resources - Need to know about DNA fingerprinting or arson investigation? This site will tell you. SFWRG - An encyclopedia for science fiction writers. Covers everything from Dyson Spheres and Bussard Ramjets to wormholes and memetics. BBC News - Country Profiles - Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries. They also include audio and video clips from the BBC archives. The CIA World Fact Book - Statistics and information about the countries of the world. The Office of National Statistics The home of UK national statistics on population, economy and society.
Further Reading There are plenty of books on writing as well as many commercially available screenplays. Some of the best are featured in our online shop. We also have a range of software for writers too. Every purchase helps support the site and keep the guide updated.
Any additions/corrections should be sent to: webmaster@penultimateproductions.co.uk
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