John welcomes legendary screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, A Star is Born, Dune) to discuss his writing practice and how he gets in the head of his characters.
We answer audience questions on how to trust your voice and approach adaptations.
Finally, in our bonus segment for premium members John and Craig discuss election night and the days after. Like we did after the 2016 election, we’re including the bonus segment on the main feed this week. (Note: This was recorded on Friday before the final states were called.)
Links:
* [Eric Roth](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0744839/)
* Thanks to the [Writer’s Guild Foundation](https://www.wgfoundation.org/) for organizing this event!
* [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com) and [How to Escape the Present by Richard Fisher](https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/21/1009443/short-term-vs-long-term-thinking/)
* [Why Joe Biden is Going to Win by Kendall Kaut](https://kendallkaut.substack.com/p/why-joe-biden-is-going-to-win)
* [Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!](https://cottonbureau.com/people/scriptnotes-podcast)
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [Craig Mazin](https://twitter.com/clmazin) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Rajesh Naroth ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
* Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/475premium.mp3).
**UPDATE 11-20-20** The transcript for this episode can now be found [here](https://johnaugust.com/2020/scriptnotes-475-the-one-with-eric-roth-transcript).