• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

John August

  • Arlo Finch
  • Scriptnotes
  • Library
  • Store
  • About

Words on the page

Bear spray is not stronger than pepper spray

January 24, 2019 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. ↩

Plot Holes

Episode - 384

Go to Archive

January 22, 2019 Film Industry, Follow Up, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed, Words on the page, Writing Process

John and Craig dive into plot holes: why they happen, how to fix them, why not to fix them, and how to turn them into opportunities.

We also respond to listener questions on outlining, servicing many storylines, and what screenwriting challenges go under-appreciated.

Links:

  • Join us for the WGA’s Princess Bride screening on January 27th.
  • The Seattle Live Show is on February 6th!
  • You can now preorder Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon or come to the launch event on February 9th.
  • Scriptnotes, Ep 383: Splitting the Party
  • Scriptnotes, Ep 3: Kids, cards, whiteboards and outlines
  • Plot Holes on Wikipedia and TV Tropes. You can find examples at Movie Plot Holes
  • The perils of coincidence
  • Measure App on iPhone
  • Install These Apps on your New Mac by Nick Douglas for Lifehacker
  • T-shirts are available here! We’ve got new designs, including Colored Revisions, Karateka, and Highland2.
  • John August on Twitter
  • Craig Mazin on Twitter
  • John on Instagram
  • Find past episodes
  • Scriptnotes Digital Seasons are also now available!
  • Outro by James Llonch and Jim Bond (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-30-19: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

How Can This Possibly End Well?

January 15, 2019 Directors, Story and Plot, Words on the page

Interviewed with other screenwriters for the New York Times, Christopher McQuarrie makes a great point about action sequences:

The best action sequences are free of exposition, with stakes that are established in advance or, better still, self-evident. They don’t ask an audience to think, to process, to remember. Instead, they keep the audience’s collective subconscious focused entirely on one simple question.

The question is not how will it end? If this mattered, there would be no Ethan Hunt, James Bond, Jason Bourne, John McClane, Indiana Jones, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd or Charlie Chaplin. We know they’ll come out on top in the end. We count on it. It is a contract, a sacred pact between filmmaker and audience.

The only question that matters is, how can this possibly end well?

McQuarrie just signed on to make two more Mission: Impossible movies. You can hear my interview with him about his transition from writer to writer-director in Scriptnotes episode 300.

Professional Realism

January 8, 2019 Arlo Finch, Books, Directors, Film Industry, Genres, How-To, Pitches, Producers, QandA, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Television, Transcribed, WGA, Words on the page, Writing Process

John welcomes Derek Haas (Chicago Fire, 3:10 to Yuma, 2 Fast 2 Furious) to talk about writing accurate portrayals of different jobs, and when to sacrifice reality for storytelling. They also share their time-management strategies in honor of those New Year resolutions to get writing done.

We also answer listener questions about the necessity of entertainment lawyers, how to keep your energy high pitch after pitch, Story By credits, and how to stay alive after that first staff writing job ends.

Links:

  • Thank you, Derek Haas!
  • Join us for the WGA’s Princess Bride screening on January 27th. Seating opens up to non-WGA members 15 minutes before showtime.
  • How Hollywood Gets the Publishing Industry Wrong by Sloane Crosley, author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake, for The New York Times
  • Is Grover swearing in this video? This is Christian DiCanio’s blog post about it.
  • David Kwong’s The Enigmatist
  • Holding down the spacebar on a text so you can move the cursor more accurately on an iPhone.
  • T-shirts are available here! We’ve got new designs, including Colored Revisions, Karateka, and Highland2.
  • John August on Twitter
  • Craig Mazin on Twitter
  • Derek Haas on Twitter
  • John on Instagram
  • Find past episodes
  • Scriptnotes Digital Seasons are also now available!
  • Outro by James Llonch and Jim Bond (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 2-12-19: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Newsletter

Inneresting Logo A Quote-Unquote Newsletter about Writing
Read Now

Explore

Projects

  • Aladdin (1)
  • Arlo Finch (27)
  • Big Fish (87)
  • Charlie (39)
  • Charlie's Angels (16)
  • Chosen (2)
  • Corpse Bride (9)
  • Dead Projects (18)
  • Frankenweenie (10)
  • Go (30)
  • Karateka (4)
  • Monsterpocalypse (3)
  • One Hit Kill (6)
  • Ops (6)
  • Preacher (2)
  • Prince of Persia (13)
  • Shazam (6)
  • Snake People (6)
  • Tarzan (5)
  • The Nines (118)
  • The Remnants (12)
  • The Variant (22)

Apps

  • Bronson (14)
  • FDX Reader (11)
  • Fountain (32)
  • Highland (72)
  • Less IMDb (4)
  • Weekend Read (34)

Recommended Reading

  • First Person (87)
  • Geek Alert (147)
  • WGA (123)
  • Workspace (19)

Screenwriting Q&A

  • Adaptation (66)
  • Directors (90)
  • Education (49)
  • Film Industry (487)
  • Formatting (129)
  • Genres (90)
  • Glossary (6)
  • Pitches (29)
  • Producers (59)
  • Psych 101 (117)
  • Rights and Copyright (96)
  • So-Called Experts (47)
  • Story and Plot (170)
  • Television (164)
  • Treatments (21)
  • Words on the page (238)
  • Writing Process (178)

More screenwriting Q&A at screenwriting.io

© 2023 John August — All Rights Reserved.