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Search Results for: notes on notes

Writing effective transitions (Encore)

Episode - 89

April 7, 2026 Scriptnotes

John and Craig connect the dots on transitions and how they can be just as important as the scenes themselves. They look at how to get your scenes flowing into one another, the many different types of transitions, when to use “CUT TO,” and how to use your cuts to tell your story.

We also discuss those shots we no longer need to see in movies, and use a lawsuit filed by two GI Joe writers to examine some common issues created by prewriting.

In our bonus segment for premium members, the Olympics are coming to Los Angeles and we have conflicting feelings!

Links:

  • Episode 89 – Transcript
  • The 100th episode
  • The Inebriati from That Mitchell and Webb Look
  • Paramount & MGM Sued By ‘G.I. Joe’ Writers from Deadline
  • Twenty Shots to Be Henceforth Retired from Film Vocabulary on Reverse Shot
  • Good Times | Florida Breaks Down
  • The Los Angeles Times on Studios donating film set materials to Habitat for Humanity
  • Scandal Revealed, Episode 221
  • Mistresses on ABC
  • We’re the Millers on Wikipedia
  • LA28 Design Guide
  • torched.la
  • Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
  • Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
  • Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
  • Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
  • Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
  • Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
  • John August on Bluesky and Instagram
  • Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
  • This episode was originally produced by Stuart Friedel. Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

Endings Compendium, Part II

March 24, 2026 Scriptnotes, Transcribed

In our first sequel compendium, John and Craig revisit four of their best segments dedicated to crafting a satisfying and emotional ending to your story.

They look at rooting your ending in character, the function of the denouement, what makes a memorable farewell, how and why our endings can change, and how to bring everything full-circle.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and producer Drew continue a discussion that Drew Goddard started on character sides and the process of casting minor characters.

Links:

  • Our first endings compendium, Episode 524 – The Home Stretch
  • A video essay of our farewell scenes discussion with Aline Brosh McKenna
  • Episodes 44 – Endings for beginners, 366 – Tying Things Up, 648 – Farewell Scenes, and 392 – The Final Moment
  • Dan Harmon story circle
  • Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
  • Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
  • Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
  • Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
  • Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
  • Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
  • John August on Bluesky and Instagram
  • Outro by Eric Pearson (send us yours!)
  • Segments originally produced by Stuart Friedel, Megan McDonnell, Drew Marquardt and Megana Rao. Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 3-25-26: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

How I use Highland Fling

March 20, 2026 Apps, Highland

Fling is a brand new feature for Highland Pro that addresses a long-simmering frustration: getting feedback on what you’ve written.

Whenever I finish a draft, I want to give it to some trusted people to read — both for comments and general proofreading. In the old days, that generally meant printing and handing it to them, or emailing a PDF. In the case of my assistant, I’ll often Slack him the original Highland file and ask him to mark up typos in Revision Mode.

This works, but it’s not ideal. You end up with multiple copies of every document.

What I really longed for was something like Google Docs links. When my college-aged daughter wants me to read something she wrote, she’ll simply send me the URL. I can make my notes right there in the document.

That makes sense for Google Docs, because it’s already on the web. I wondered: could we do the same thing for a native app like Highland Pro?

Surprisingly, yes!

Highland Fling creates a temporary, online version of your document that you can share with anyone. Your readers can then easily leave their notes and comments, all of which appear immediately back in your original document.

Your readers don’t need Highland Pro. For them, it’s just a web page. The whole experience is kinda magic.

Here’s a video about it:

I use Fling all the time, both for screenwriting and all the other documents I write. It’s the best of both worlds: Highland Pro’s powerful native editing, and the simplicity of sharing a link. We made a step-by-step guide for using Highland Fling, but honestly you’re likely to immediately intuit it.

Fling’s short duration (either one hour, one day, or seven days) is a feature, not a bug. A Fling isn’t meant to last. You’re not publishing something for the ages, just right now when you need someone to read something.

Around the office, we still use Notion for items where multiple people are writing and editing, and for reference material we want to keep around. But for everything that’s “just read this please,” Fling is ideal.

An example: This spring, one of my jobs as WGA Negotiating Committee co-chair was writing a 30-minute speech to members about our priorities in this negotiation. I wrote the speech in Highland Pro, of course. Fling was the perfect way to share it with my collaborators. They could make their notes right in the document, and see each other’s notes.

This blog post you’re reading? I flung it to Drew for proofreading. It’s our default way of putting eyes on anything.

Fling is available for the Mac version of Highland Pro right now. I’m really proud of how it turned out. I suspect many writers will find it just as game-changing as I do.

Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard

March 17, 2026 Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John welcomes back Drew Goddard (Project Hail Mary, High Potential) to ask, how do you turn the beats of your story into full scenes? Using Drew’s script for The Martian, we look at how he translates moments in a book into scenes in a movie, the freedom Drew finds in a beat sheet, how beats are approached in a TV writers room, and his advice to a staff writer struggling with a draft.

We also dig into Drew’s process for adapting Project Hail Mary, choosing what to cut, and his eloquent defense of double-spacing in a screenplay. He’s even kind enough to help answer listener questions on how to recharge your brain and how to indicate you wrote the most on a co-written script.

In our bonus segment for premium members, Drew shares his outlook on the current TV landscape, including the big mistake he sees young writers make in their spec pilots.

Links:

  • Project Hail Mary | Trailer
  • Drew Goddard on IMDb
  • The Martian screenplay
  • Twin Peaks: The Return – Part 8
  • Noah Kalina on YouTube and Substack
  • A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
  • Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
  • Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
  • Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
  • Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
  • Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
  • Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
  • John August on Bluesky and Instagram
  • Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!)
  • Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 3-18-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

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