John August

QandA

End today’s writing with a plan for tomorrow’s

Writing Process

Chuck Wendig offers ten little writing tricks, including an old standby he calls [The Tiniest Outline Of Them All](http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/06/05/ten-stupid-writer-tricks-that-might-actually-work/):

> The last 50-100 words you write at the end of your day should be a note to yourself detailing just what the fuck you should write tomorrow. (“HORACE MURDERS LORD THORNJIZZ AND THE LITHUANIAN DETECTIVE CIRCUS IS ASSIGNED TO THE CASE”). In other news, now I want to write a book about a “Lithuanian detective circus,” whatever that is. I call dibs. You can’t have it. I’ll get stabby.

And yes, OF COURSE you should use Google Street View to see the places you’re writing about. But I feel dumb for not doing it more often. Super helpful.

The Little Mermaid

Episode - 92

Go to Archive

Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

Craig and John spend an entire episode discussing and dissecting 1989’s THE LITTLE MERMAID, looking at both its structure and scene work.

The first of Disney’s modern animated musicals, The Little Mermaid established the template for how these films are supposed to work. While it’s not perfect, it’s an ideal film for looking at how heroes and villains articulate their goals, and how screenwriters quickly establish a world and its conflicts.

Join us as we discuss useless sharks, lovable dogs and possibly the best I Want song ever written. (And don’t underestimate the importance of body language.)

LINKS:

* Scriptnotes, Episode 73: [Raiders of the Lost Ark](http://johnaugust.com/2013/raiders-of-the-lost-ark)
* Wikipedia on [Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid) and [Disney’s 1989 version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(1989_film))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_92.m4a).

**UPDATE** 6-10-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-92-the-little-mermaid-transcript).

Sounds teenagers make

Words on the page

James Harbeck analyzes some of the common annoying sounds in [teenage speech](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY2R_K3NFPo&feature=player_embedded).

What’s interesting to me is how difficult many of them are to write in dialogue. I often find myself placing them in scene description or another character’s parenthetical.

MARY

You’ll get another 4S. You don’t need a 5.

(off Caleb’s whiny gasp)

Yeah -- next time, don’t try to Snapchat your junk in a hot tub.

Mason and Finley

Dead Projects, Projects, Television

The 22-year old twins at the center of my 1999 TV show D.C. were named Mason and Finley. I picked those names because they sounded like a brother and sister who came from some money — or at least the kids of English professors. I pictured them solving mysteries as teenagers.

I also picked those names because they were rare. I’d never encountered any actual people with those names.

Now the country is lousy with Masons. For 2012, it’s the [#2 name in America](http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/), steadily climbing from #64 in 2000.

And while Finley isn’t exactly common, it has grown quite a bit. In 2005, it was the #986 name. For 2012, it’s #349. (Still, the only Finley I’ve met in real life is an eight-year old boy in my daughter’s French class.)

D.C. lasted only seven low-rated episodes, so I can’t take any credit for these names rising in popularity. But it’s interesting to realize that names chosen for their relative obscurity may not stay that way.

For the hero of Chosen, I picked Asha. Right now, it’s ranked #978, but in a world full of Emmas and Ellas, it feels like the kind of name that has room to grow.

(The scripts for D.C. are available in the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library).)