John August

John and Craig curate a collection of craft topics: character wants and needs, point of view, and letting your heroes drive scenes. From internal struggles to the external obstacles, they share how to design a story that best serves a character’s journey.

We wrap up our clip show with a discussion on what we are still learning about craft. Defensive writing, the demons of perfectionism–John and Craig also face these obstacles and share advice on overcoming them.

Finally in our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig discuss how they deal with ‘want versus need’ in real life.

Links:

• Episode 279, What Do They Want?
• Episode 358, Point of View
• Episode 307, Teaching Your Heroes to Drive
• For more on character wants check out John’s blogposts: Rethinking Motivation and What Does He Want.
• Creatures before Dinosaurs: Dunkleosteus and the Carolina Butcher
• Fort Macleod
• Get our new 10th Anniversary T-Shirts
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• John August on Twitter
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by William Brink (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao (with segments by Godwin Jabangwe and Megan McDonnell!) and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

John welcomes writer/producer/creator Jen Statsky to discuss getting started writing comedy, from late night to The Onion to The Good Place. Then it’s a deep dive on the Hacks pilot, looking at how jokes change from the page to the edit.

We follow up on the best way to get fired, the WGA pilot guide, and answer listener questions on working in comedy.

Finally in our bonus segment for premium members, John and Jen take a look at artistry and ownership through the latest development in the Cat Person saga.

Links:

• WGA Pilot Guide
• Hacks on HBO check out the pilot script here.
• Jen Statsky on Twitter
• You Are Bi Enough by Zachary Zane for NYT
• Caffeine Free Diet Cola syrup by SodaStream
• I Hate Suzie on HBO Max
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• John August on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by Peter Hoopes (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 7-20-21 The transcript for this episode can now be found here.

John welcomes back Liz Hannah (The Post, The Long Shot, All the Bright Places) to explore the bad side of good news. They discuss the challenges of celebrating accomplishments in a mercurial industry, and follow up with a discussion on how to handle being fired.

We also answer listener questions on becoming successful before your friends, multiple timelines, spoilers, and weigh in on the IATSE negotiations.

Finally, in our bonus segment for premium members we talk about our pets. We cover pocket pets and why ultimately dogs are a screenwriter’s best friend.

Links:

• Join John at 5pm, Tuesday the June 29th, for the Ad Council summit about vaccine storylines in scripted entertainment
• IATSE Negotiations
• Zola Movie
• Sleep with Me Film
• Army of the Dead Pitch Meeting
• Battle for the Soul by Edward-Isaac Dovere
• Yearbook by Seth Rogan
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• John August on Twitter
• Liz Hannah on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by Zach Lo (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 7-7-21 The transcript for this episode can now be found here.