Craig and John look at why the books and seminars purporting to teach screenwriting are generally terrible, trying to reduce the hard work of the craft to a series of formulas and templates.
It’s a rare podcast in which I sway Craig’s opinion whatsoever, but if you listen really carefully, I think he leaves the show just slightly less negative about screenwriting books than he started. It’s all about degrees with Craig.
Plus, we get a visit from the LAPD, follow-up on residuals, and a bit more about unionizing videogame writers.
LINKS:
* [Crime rates in Los Angeles](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=crime+rates+in+los+angeles) (Wolfram-Alpha)
* Syd Field’s classic book [Screenplay](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385339038/?tag=johnaugustcom-20).
* Christopher Volger’s [The Writer’s Journey](http://www.amazon.com/dp/193290736X/?tag=johnaugustcom-20)
* Stuart’s [review](http://johnaugust.com/2011/the-writers-journey-mythic-structure-for-writers) of Vogler’s book
* Linda Seger’s [Making a Good Script Great](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935247018/?tag=johnaugustcom-20)
(Note that none of the books listed above are actually recommended. But we talk about them, so it feels fair to provide links.)
* Intro: [Jem and the Holograms](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4QRB25DSI)
* Outro: [Exquisite Corpse](http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/exquisite-corpse/id405127549?i=405127554) by Casey Spooner
You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_15.m4a).
UPDATE 12-13-11: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2011/scriptnotes-ep-15-on-screenwriting-gurus-transcript).