John August

QandA

The Unnecessary General

QandA, Screenwriting Software, Software

questionmarkIn Final Draft, what do you use the “General” element for? The manual describes its function negatively, saying only that it’s for whatever doesn’t fit into the other elements. Personally, I haven’t found a use for it yet and was wondering what the pros use it for.

— Richard Budd

As far as I know, nothin’. I bitch about Final Draft a lot, but one good thing it can do is create new styles (er, elements) for unanticipated needs. I created one called “singing” for dialogue that is part of a song (11pt Verdana italic). So why would I need to re-appropriate “General?”

Perhaps if I were writing a treatment, or some sort of other non-screenplay document, and didn’t feel like putting everything in “Action.” It’s conceivable, I guess. I recently had to write an extended outline for Shazam!, but I used [Pages](http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/) for its footnoting ability. The only advantage I could see to using Final Draft for an outline is its frustrating-but-consistent revision marks.

If any readers have a better explanation for the existence of “General,” I’d love to hear it.

Interview up at cecil vortex

Meta, QandA, Resources, Writing Process

I have a very long (and hopefully interesting) interview about creativity up at [cecil vortex](http://cecilvortex.com/). While there’s a lot of material in it I’ve written about previously, this interview is a pretty good primer on my brain and work habits.

CV: How do you use your day-to-day life to feed your writing?

JA: When I was writing for my first TV show I found that I was sorting through life with a filter: what could be “in” the show and what would stay “out.” If I heard a song on the radio that I liked, I was mentally putting it into the bin for the show. If someone said something interesting — or something boring but in a particularly interesting way — I would literally stop to write it down.

That was probably necessary for the show, but I don’t think it’s particularly helpful for real-world sanity. I began living a large part of my life inside the show. That break from reality ultimately became one of the main story points of The Nines — what are a creator’s responsibilities to his creations? At what point was I allowed to walk away from the universe I’d created and get back to my real life?

I think I’m healthier now. I certainly always have my ears open for interesting phrases, but I don’t feel like I’m in constant collection mode.

You can check out the full thing [here](http://cecilvortex.com/swath/2007/06/07/an_interview_with_john_august.html).

Based on your own novel

Adaptation, QandA

questionmarkWhen writing a screenplay (under contract) that is based on a book that you also wrote, do you still include the “Based on the book by…” line on the title page? Or would that be seen as pompous overkill?

In the same vein, if you have a PhD is there any reason to put it at the end of your name on the title page? (My personal opinion is that only a douchebag would do either of those things, but then again I’m not yet qualified to make that call.)

— Daniel
Portland, OR

Yes. “Based on his novel,” might be another way to handle it. It’s not boasting, really. It helps explains the rights situation, and might clear up confusion down the road.

No. A PhD means nothing in screenwriting, and to include it would only invite mockery..

I talk with my hands

Film Industry, Follow Up, Resources, Video

Back in March, I was a panelist on a [Writers Guild Foundation](http://www.wgfoundation.org/) forum about publicity — specifically, how film and television writers should approach promoting themselves and their work through the media. As I [wrote at the time](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/publicity-101), it seemed to go pretty well.

This afternoon, I was ego-Googling and discovered that clips from the seminar are [available on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQsLCqho8_o):

The audio’s not terrific, and so you’ll probably need to turn your speakers up. This is the main section with me; there are two [other](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNu3rAlCUc) [parts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV473Sbo2og) focusing on other panelists, which you can find if you click through to the main YouTube site.

Chris Day, the head of publicity for UTA, references a memo I wrote around the time of [Big Fish](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319061/). You can find a .pdf of that [here](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/pub_goals.pdf).