John August

Writing Process

What does a writer’s assistant do?

Film Industry, QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkIn your most recent posting you mentioned your assistant Chad. Someone in the comments made a crack along the lines of “oh boy, sure would be nice to have an assistant,” and that got me thinking… What does he do for you? Is he more of a secretary, or does he actually help with the writing, reading drafts, etc.

I know your previous assistant went on to become a director, so I’m sure that Chad doesn’t just sit around all day answering the phone and filing his nails. Do you guys work out of your home, or have a separate office?

–Alon Ozery
Toronto

Back before he wrote and directed [Dodgeball](http://imdb.com/title/tt0364725/combined), [Rawson Thurber](http://imdb.com/name/nm1098493/) worked as my assistant, and was nice enough to write up [this article](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2003/being-a-writers-assistant) for the site. So, first, I’d point you there.

Typically, a Hollywood assistant does a lot of what you’d normally call secretarial work: answering phones, scheduling appointments, arranging travel, and dealing with the clutter of office life. In the case of my assistants, they also proofread everything I write. Sometimes, there’s plenty of work, but more often they’re on their own, which is why I make it a habit to hire screenwriters. If someone is going to be under-employed, sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, they might as well be writing something that can further their career. That’s how Rawson wrote [Terry Tate](http://www.milkandcookies.com/keywords/terrytate/) and Dodgeball.

My other fantastic previous assistants include [Emilie Sennebogen](http://imdb.com/name/nm0784398/maindetails), [Sean Smith](http://imdb.com/name/nm1091301/maindetails) (who is now writing on [“Summerland”](http://imdb.com/title/tt0400037/maindetails)), and [Dana Fox](http://imdb.com/name/nm1401416/maindetails) (who wrote [The Wedding Date](http://imdb.com/title/tt0372532/)).

Chad, who’s been with me for about two years, has a project set up at Warner Bros., and takes a lot of meetings around town. Before too long, he’ll move on and become a full-time screenwriter, and the cycle will begin again.

As to your second question, our house has a free-standing garage, and I work in a space attached to that. It’s ten feet from the kitchen door to my office, but it’s a crucial ten feet — enough that it feels distinct from home life, but close enough that I can still run in and get whatever I need. I could probably get an office at a studio, but I’m sure I wouldn’t like it as much.

Keeping motivation after four drafts

QandA, Writing Process

When starting out did you ever have trouble finding motivation to keep working on rewrites? Doesn’t the same story lose its interest after about four drafts?

— Brannek Gaudet

Good guess. Four drafts is about the right number. The first draft is exciting, bewildering and fresh. For the second draft, you have all sorts of brilliant new ideas and suggestions to try out, so that keeps it interesting. The third draft is generally damage-control from the second draft, where many of those good ideas ended up not working. The fourth draft, well…

The fourth draft sucks. By this point, the intractable problems of your script are readily apparent, and you’re faced with either (a) writing around them, or (b) trying to tackle them head on. In my experience, while you should choose (b), you generally choose (a).

It all boils down to two related questions: What script did you sit down to write, and what script did you end up writing?

At this fourth draft stage, you have to really decide between Great in Theory and what Actually Works. If you approach it this way, you can sometimes gain fresh eyes on your script. Read it as if some other, lamer screenwriter wrote it. What would you do differently?

Then, do that.

Writing about what you don’t know

QandA, Writing Process

I have this idea of a screenplay that has to do with Navy SEALs. However I am not familiar with them. I have also
heard that as a writer one should be more inclined to write what they know about.

Should I follow this advice or can I find ways of developing this idea through research? Is it necessarily that all screenwriters have an absolute clue about what their stories venture into?

— Andrew

If screenwriters only wrote about subjects they knew intimately, most screenplays would be about Tetris, television or getting picked last for team sports.

Write about what interests you. If you don’t know enough about Navy SEALs, research everything you can on them until you’re a pseudo-expert. Here’s the test for whether you’ve done enough research: have you annoyed all your friends and loved ones talking about all the interesting facts you’ve learned about Navy SEALs? Great. Now you’re ready to start writing.

Stressing over structure

QandA, So-Called Experts, Writing Process

When you write, are you consciously aware of
structuring your screenplay, or it is something that
is more instinctive?

— Brian
Galway, Ireland

When I was first starting out, I was paranoid about structure — but that’s because I didn’t know what it really was.

I had of course read [Syd Field’s book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=johnaugustcom-20&path=tg%2Fdetail%2F-%2F0440576474%2Fqid%3D1098308154%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fref%3Dpd_csp_1%3Fv%3Dglance%26s%3Dbooks%26n%3D507846), and I worried that if I wasn’t hitting my act breaks at exactly the right page number, I was a dismal failure. Then at USC I was introduced to a “clothesline” template, which was baffling. People smarter than me would talk about eight sequences, or eleven sequences, and I would nod as if I understood.

And now I do: It’s all bunk.

At the risk of introducing another screenwriting metaphor, I’ll say that structure is like your skeleton. It’s the framework on which you hang the meat of your story. If someone’s bones are in the wrong place, odds are he’ll have a hard time moving, and it won’t be comfortable. It’s the same with a screenplay. If the pieces aren’t put together right, the story won’t work as well as it could.

But here’s the thing: not every skeleton is the same.

Think about it in real-world terms.
Human skeletons are pretty consistent, but you also have gazelles and giraffes, cockroaches and hummingbirds, each with a different structure, but all equally valid designs. The standard dogma about screenplay structure focuses on hitting certain moments at certain page numbers. But in my experience, these measurements hold true for [Chinatown](http://imdb.com/title/tt0071315/) and nothing I’ve actually written.

My advice? Stop thinking about structure as something you impose upon your story. It’s an inherent part of it, like the setup to a joke. As you’re figuring out the story you want to tell, ask yourself a few questions:

1. What’s the next thing this character would realistically do?
2. What’s the most interesting thing this character could do?
3. Where do I want the story to go next?
4. Where do I want the story to end up eventually?
5. Does this scene stand up on its own merit, or is it just setting stuff up for later?
6. What are the later repercussions of this scene? How could I maximize them?

If you answer these questions at every turn, I guarantee you’ll have a terrifically structured screenplay. It might not hit predefined act breaks, but it will be consistently engaging, something that can’t be said for many “properly structured” scripts.