John August

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The Chinese Box Office is Huge

International

Writing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson notes that the biggest movie in China is bigger than even the [biggest US movies](https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/02/11/box-office-china-wandering-earth-avengers-star-wars-wu-jing-vin-diesel-wolf-warrior-imax/#6b9b442a4861):

> The Wandering Earth wrapped up its first week of release in China with a record-breaking $349 million. That’s the biggest one-week total ever in China, besting the $338m debut of Detective Chinatown 2 last year and the $307m launch of Wolf Warrior 2 in the summer of 2017. It was the second-biggest seven day total for any release in any territory save for the $390m seven-day cume of Walt Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.

> Yes, Wandering Earth earned more in its first week in China than Disney’s Avengers: Infinity War earned in North America ($338m) last April.

Yes: it’s complicated because China controls which movies can be released, and how wide they can expand, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. But it’s clear that the Chinese box office is simply massive.

Hollywood movies have long been one of the America’s most reliable exports, because you simply couldn’t make a certain kind of movie anywhere else. That’s not true anymore.

Come to the Arlo Finch launch

Arlo Finch, Los Angeles, Projects

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, please come to the launch event for Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon. I’ll be signing books and answering questions about the series. I may even be allowed to share some cool news.

Invite for LA book signing

The LA event is at:

Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont
Saturday, February 9th at 12:30
[website](https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/john-august-2019)

You can also [order the book online](https://read.macmillan.com/mcpg/arlo-finch/) or purchase it at many US bookstores.

First week sales are a wonderful thing, because they help more readers discover the book. So does sharing it on social media (#arlofinch) and leaving a [review on GoodReads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31180257-arlo-finch-in-the-valley-of-fire). (The review page for book two is [pretty light](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39073390-arlo-finch-in-the-lake-of-the-moon?ac=1&from_search=true) because it just came out today.)

As I post this, I’m in St. Louis, where I just finished two days of school visits. Tonight, I fly to Seattle, for two more days of school visits and a live Scriptnotes. Then it’s a day in San Francisco before heading home.

The second half of the tour comes in April, when I’ll be headed up and down the East Coast for events at schools and bookstores. For more details, you can check out my [Arlo Finch](https://johnaugust.com/arlo-finch) page.

The Princess Bride

Episode - 386

Go to Archive

Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed, WGA

John and Craig host a live show at the WGA Theatre with a deep dive look at The Princess Bride. They discuss how the “abridged” structure brings us only the best parts of the story and what this means for the characters and world: less exposition and more time for the fire swamp, R.O.U.S., and the pit of despair. From the frame story to the myth of the Dread Pirate Roberts, The Princess Bride shaped decades of screenwriters but would be inconceivable to produce today.

William Goldman’s 1973 cult classic delighted audiences with a fresh take on fairy tale tropes, and also managed to convince viewers that storytelling is ultimately an act of love.

Links:

* [The Seattle Live Show](https://nwsg.org/event/scriptnotes-live/?instance_id=523) is on February 6th!
* You can now [preorder Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/162672816X/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) or come to the [launch event](https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/john-august-2019) on February 9th.
* Submit entries for The Scriptnotes Pitch Session [here](https://johnaugust.com/pitch).
* The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure [novel](https://www.amazon.com/Princess-Bride-Morgensterns-Classic-Adventure/dp/0156035219)
* The Princess Bride [Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnkfVvZ9q_0)
* [The Dread Pirate Roberts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_Pirate_Roberts)
* [The Bechdel Test](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest)
* T-shirts are available [here](https://cottonbureau.com/people/john-august-1)! We’ve got new designs, including [Colored Revisions](https://cottonbureau.com/products/colored-revisions), [Karateka](https://cottonbureau.com/products/karateka), and [Highland2](https://cottonbureau.com/products/highland2).
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [Craig Mazin](https://twitter.com/clmazin) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [Find past episodes](http://scriptnotes.net/)
* [Scriptnotes Digital Seasons](https://store.johnaugust.com/) are also now available!
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Cole Parzenn ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_386.mp3).

**UPDATE 2-13-19:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](https://johnaugust.com/2019/scriptnotes-386-the-princess-bride-transcript).

My writing setup, 2019

Apps, Follow Up, Geek Alert, Highland, Writing Process

On Twitter, @londonsquared [asked for an update](https://twitter.com/londonsquared/status/1090921403015139328) on my writing setup, which I’d last [written about in 2016](https://johnaugust.com/2016/my-writing-setup-2016).

Honestly, very little has changed in the past three years. I still have the same computer, desk, mouse, keyboards and headphones. I print so little that today was the first time in years that we needed to buy a new toner cartridge.

My only real piece of new hardware is the [iPad Pro](https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/). While I don’t love the squared edges — it feels thicker than the old ones — I find myself using the redesigned pencil all the time. On the whole, I like it a lot.

I’m hand-writing much less than I used to. Most of that is because I’ve been writing the [Arlo Finch books](https://johnaugust.com/arlo-finch), and it’s so many words that I just can’t keep up with paper and pen. But I also do [#writesprints](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23writesprint) a lot, using Highland 2’s built-in Sprint feature.

write sprint list

I write absolutely everything in [Highland 2](https://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland-2/). I’m the main beta tester. ((Version 2.5, coming soon, has some pretty amazing new features in it.))

For other software, I’ve started using Apple Notes in place of Evernote, and switched back to OmniFocus and Mail.

Back in 2016, I wrote:

> My mail setup is a mess. The right combination of rules would probably allow me to sort out the wheat from the chaff, but I haven’t invested the energy. Plus, getting it to work properly in iOS would be a big challenge. Increasingly, the iPhone is where I’m doing email triage.

If anything, it’s worse now. I set up a rule to shunt anything with the keyword “unsubscribe” to a special folder, but that’s just hiding the problem rather than addressing it.

On the whole, I’m honestly surprised I haven’t changed more things over the past three years. I’m generally an early adopter and experimenter. But until we start using goggles instead of screens, I suspect this is going to remain my basic setup.