John August

QandA

We love our pastor’s wives

Words on the page

A helpful [tutorial on apostrophes](http://www.rightpriceediting.com/rightpriceeditingblog/2010/11/8/the-art-of-apostrophes.html):

> They’re just tiny, seemingly insignificant marks. You can hardly even see them! Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but they can be a much bigger deal than you realize.

To me, the edge case is the most interesting: adding the apostrophe-s to a non-plural word that is already s-heavy, such as “more pricks than a seamstress’s thumb.” For display type, I’ll often omit the s. I can’t really defend my choice other than it looks better.

I never thought I’d subscribe to a Christian copy-editing blog, but here we are.

On Dogfooding, and scratching your own itch

Directors, Follow Up, Psych 101

Several readers have written in to ask whether we have plans for Chrome or Firefox versions of [Less IMDb](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/less-imdb). We don’t — not because we have anything against those browsers. We just don’t use them nearly as much as Safari. We built the extension to address our own needs, and shared it with others because they might like it.

When you make something that you yourself use, that’s called [dogfooding](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dogfooding+(to+dogfood)), a contraction of “eating your own dogfood.” That’s developer-speak, but it’s a mindset screenwriters would do well to appropriate.

Aspiring screenwriters will often throw a few loglines at me and ask which one they should write. My answer is always, “The one you would pay money to see.”

That’s dogfooding’s close cousin, scratching your own itch. You’re writing movies you wish existed.

Looking at successful filmmakers — in particular, writer-directors — it’s pretty clear who is doing this. Tarantino makes movies to fill a special shelf at his fantasy video store. Wes Anderson makes movies his own characters would dissect over canapes.

If you have more mainstream taste, great. Embrace that. Scratch your own itch. But forget about “commercial” or “high concept.” If you’re writing a movie you yourself wouldn’t buy a ticket to see, you’re wasting everyone’s time.

Which draft should I read?

QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkI have a subscription to a service that gives me access to multiple drafts for screenplays. I’ll read a draft, then watch the film to see how it’s fleshed out. Having only enough time to read ONE draft, what’s more beneficial to my own writing: reading the draft latest in date, or earliest?

— Brendan
Los Angeles

Mix it up. You’ll notice big changes if you read the earliest drafts. But the later ones give you a better sense of how the words on the page translated to the screen.

There may also be a benefit to reading some drafts from the middle of the process, particularly if the project changed writers. And if you have the opportunity to read a few scripts by the same writers, you’ll get a better sense of how their style stays consistent–or changes–from screenplay to screenplay.

Why Harry Can’t Spell

Follow Up, Genres

While I’m worrying about [higher education as philanthropy](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2010/film-school-business-education), Samuel Arbesman dares to question the [value of a Hogwarts education](http://arbesman.net/blog/2010/11/07/no-wizard-left-behind/):

> As near as I can tell, if you grow up in the magical world (as opposed to be Muggle-born, for example), you do not go to school at all until the age of eleven. In fact, it’s entirely unclear to me how the children of the wizarding world learn to read and write. There is a reason Hermione seems much more intelligent than Ron Weasley. It’s because Ron is very likely completely uneducated.

The books make mention of the Weasley kids going to another school before Hogwarts — and anyway, they’d be good candidates for home-schooling. But the larger issue is that such an insular and specialized education starting at such a young age is almost certainly a bad idea.

> Perhaps some go off to college and graduate school. But that seems unlikely due to the dim view they take of the Muggle world. More likely, they go off to work in such places as a governmental agency, entirely unaware of political theory. Or they write for a daily newspaper, without knowing anything about journalism.

But then again, we live in a Muggle world full of under-educated politicians and journalists. And we don’t get wands.

(via [Kottke](http://kottke.org/10/11/the-value-of-a-hogwarts-education).)