John is joined by The Americans’ executive producer Stephen Schiff at a live Scriptnotes taping in New York! They discuss grounding an outrageous premise in character, suspension of disbelief, premium act breaks, and writing for a foreign language.
We also answer audience questions about New York writers rooms, expert consultants, expecting comparisons, first drafts, and how to write a period piece when history is full of spoilers.
Links:
- Stephen Schiff currently works on The Americans. Its final season premieres on March 28th.
- Thank you, McNally Jackson Independent Booksellers for hosting our live show!
- Google Ngram Viewer
- Bookstore staff recommendations, which led John to The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
- The Scriptnotes Listeners’ Guide!
- The USB drives!
- John August on Twitter
- Craig Mazin on Twitter
- John on Instagram
- Find past episodes
- Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 2-20-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.