John August

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Seattle Live Show 2019

Episode - 387

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Arlo Finch, News, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig head north to host Scriptnotes Live in Seattle. They welcome Emily Zulauf to discuss the process of pitching projects at Pixar, creating stories with heart out of pure misery, and when to admit you “don’t have it” and start over.

We also hold our own Open Writing Assignment and play a game with the audience to create two new movie pitches. Then we answer questions about theme and why you should move to LA.

Thank you to the Northwest Screenwriters Guild and TheFilmSchool for hosting us!

Links:

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 2-21-19: The transcript of this episode can be found here

Come to the Arlo Finch launch

Arlo Finch, Los Angeles, Projects

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, please come to the launch event for Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon. I’ll be signing books and answering questions about the series. I may even be allowed to share some cool news.

Invite for LA book signing

The LA event is at:

Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont
Saturday, February 9th at 12:30
website

You can also order the book online or purchase it at many US bookstores.

First week sales are a wonderful thing, because they help more readers discover the book. So does sharing it on social media (#arlofinch) and leaving a review on GoodReads. (The review page for book two is pretty light because it just came out today.)

As I post this, I’m in St. Louis, where I just finished two days of school visits. Tonight, I fly to Seattle, for two more days of school visits and a live Scriptnotes. Then it’s a day in San Francisco before heading home.

The second half of the tour comes in April, when I’ll be headed up and down the East Coast for events at schools and bookstores. For more details, you can check out my Arlo Finch page.

Rules and Plans

Arlo Finch, Follow Up, Formatting, Pitches, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, Writing Process

John and Craig discuss when and how to break screenplay orthodoxy, from experimental formatting to narrative misdirects. They also examine why it’s important that your characters create, communicate, and break plans.

We also address follow up from our Raiders of the Lost Ark deep dive, and respond to questions about shared and international writing credits.

Links:

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 2-6-19: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Bear spray is not stronger than pepper spray

Arlo Finch, Books, Words on the page

For the third Arlo Finch book, I was considering having one character use bear spray on a non-bear adversary. Since the books take place in the mountains of Colorado, it was very believable that the character would have it handy.

I also assumed that bear spray is stronger than conventional self-defense pepper sprays because, well, bears.

But it turns out, I was wrong:

Although pepper spray and bear spray contain the same active chemical, they are not the same thing. Bear spray has a much lower concentration of oleoresin capsicum, and should only be used as a bear deterrent.

Pepper spray is a self defense weapon intended to incapacitate human threats, and it is very effective at doing this due to its higher concentration of oleoresin capsicum. If you are serious about self defense, go purchase some pepper spray. If you are a hiker or camper in bear country, buy some bear spray.

What’s more, bear spray is designed to put out a wide cloud, filling the air with droplets, discouraging the bear from attacking. On the other hand, pepper spray is a targeted stream designed to incapacitate a person close to you.1

Bear spray isn’t designed to fend off humans, but one reason you might see people carrying it for self defense (in real life and in fiction) is that it’s legal in places where pepper spray isn’t. It just isn’t as effective.

You’ll have to wait until book three to see if and when oleoresin capsicum gets used.

  1. I really want “incapacitate” and “capiscum” (pepper) to have the same word origin, but it appears they’re not especially close. ↩