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Writer Emergency

Pretty much everything is on sale

September 7, 2020 Apps, Bronson, Highland, Weekend Read, Writer Emergency, Writer Emergency Pack

Every fall, we put many of the products we make on sale. Typically, it lines up with Back to School or Labor Day, but the notions of “time” and “seasons” and “school” don’t seem to match the actual experience of 2020.

Still: bargains!

Through Sunday, September 13th all of the following are half off —

The upgrade to Highland 2 Pro, now just $25 USD.1

The upgrade to Weekend Read is $5.

Bronson Watermarker PDF is just $10.

Writer Emergency Pack is $10 on Amazon and in our store.

We’re also clearing out the remaining stock of our game One Hit Kill from our Pennsylvania warehouse. It’s a great card game for just ONE DOLLAR plus shipping.

  1. Both Highland 2 and Weekend Read are free to download. The upgrade is an in-app purchase, with prices varying a little bit internationally. ↩

Fight the Giant, or Moving Up the Showdown

July 10, 2015 Story and Plot, Writer Emergency, Writer Emergency Pack

In most stories built around a heroic quest, the big confrontation comes at the end. The heroes face off against their well-established nemesis, and likely prevail. After that, there’s a little time left for wrap-up and rebuilding.

This is the common pattern for most feature films, with a battle or competition happening in the third act.

But it’s not just movies. In novels, the showdown generally happens in one of the final chapters. In series television, the quest to defeat the Big Bad might span a whole season, but the main event comes in the finale. In videogames, this stage even has a name: The Boss Level. The player finally has the skills and hit points to kill Diablo.

Whenever you see such a clear narrative pattern, there’s a great opportunity to subvert it.

card

Moving the fight earlier can take both your reader and your hero by surprise.

card

There are three basic structures for getting the fight to happen earlier than expected.

The hero rushes in. Perhaps the hero gets a tip that the villain is momentarily exposed. She is forced to make a decision: go in fast or wait for the next opportunity. She decides to strike now, for better or worse. Without the benefit of time and planning, she is forced to improvise.

The villain surprises the hero. Rather than wait for the hero to show up, smart villains often attack first. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling lets Voldemort trap Harry so he can battle him face-to-face, breaking the expectation that the showdown would only happen at the very end. In the real world, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is an example of the enemy changing the narrative with a surprise attack.

Fate intervenes. Some outside force — the boxing commission, an avalanche, pure coincidence — puts the hero and the villain in the same space when neither was quite ready for it.

However your hero and villain end up battling, the outcome should have a huge impact on the rest of your story.

Letting the giant score an early victory helps in several ways:

  1. You’ve established what a powerful threat the villain is.
  2. You’ve knocked your hero down. Almost anything that’s bad for your hero is good for your story.
  3. You’ve warned the reader not to assume your story will follow conventional patterns.

Maybe you’ve even decided to Kill The Hero:

card

Sometimes, it’s fun to let your hero win this early battle. Maybe the presumed villain wasn’t the ultimate villain after all — or in killing him, the hero has unleashed something much worse. Perhaps That’s Not the Dragon:

card

In most cases, both hero and villain will survive this early brawl, but both will be changed by the encounter.

card

Using Fight the Giant

Like every card in Writer Emergency Pack, Fight the Giant can be used at both macro and micro levels of the story process.

Fight the Giant might be a key plot point on which your entire story hangs. Perhaps an unexpected, early defeat sends your hero’s allies packing, and he must now assemble and train a new army from the remnants.

On a sequence level, Fight the Giant is a great way to ratchet up the tension. Your hero had a plan for how this was supposed to go down, but the villain had a plan of her own. And she moved faster.

Finally, Fight the Giant can be a great focus in a single scene. Your cat-burglar hero was expecting three minutes notice when the villain would be returning to his penthouse, but suddenly he’s here in front of him.

No matter how you use Fight the Giant, make the most of its surprise factor. Catch your hero flat-footed, and keep your heroes on their toes.


Fight the Giant is Card 2 of 26 in Writer Emergency Pack, which you can find in the Store and on Amazon.

The Scriptnotes 200-episode USB drive

July 9, 2015 News, Writer Emergency, Writer Emergency Pack

For a limited time, we’re selling USB flash drives loaded with the first 200 episodes of Scriptnotes — including all the bonus shows, the Dirty Episode, and special interviews. They’re $20 and available in the Store.

usb drive

These custom-printed 8-gigabyte USB flash drives include:

  • Every episode in mp3
  • Full transcripts
  • Three Page Challenge pdfs
  • Boundless love and umbrage
  • Our autographs printed right on the side

usb drive back

As of Thursday at 4pm PDT, we have fewer than 50 left, so we’ll likely run out. If you’re a collector, a completionist, or survivalist planning for the post-internet future, this is your chance.

We’re shipping these from the same warehouse that handles Writer Emergency Pack, so if you want to get both, you can save yourself some shipping charges.

Both are available at store.johnaugust.com.

You can’t train a cobra to do that

Episode - 192

Go to Archive

April 7, 2015 Directors, Follow Up, Formatting, News, QandA, Scriptnotes, Words on the page, Writer Emergency, Writer Emergency Pack

Craig and John discuss backup plans, camera directions, and becoming so good they can’t ignore you. Plus we answer two listener questions about specificity in scene headers and how to indicate that a script is intended for animation.

This episode was actually recorded before 191, but through the magic of editing refers to things that hadn’t yet happened. You won’t be confused because you’re clever. You’ll be fine.

Links:

  • The LA Times on the CAA to UTA exodus, and CAA’s resulting lawsuit
  • Scriptnotes, 191: The Deal with Scripped.com
  • Backblaze and CrashPlan online backup services
  • Fountain is future proof
  • Mad Max: Fury Road trailer
  • Writer Emergency Packs are available now (use the code “scriptnotes” at checkout on the John August Store for 10% off through May 1st)
  • Writer Emergency Kickstarter update on how online retail works
  • Scriptnotes, 190: This Is Working
  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You, by Cal Newport
  • The Robotard 8000
  • Announcing The Black List Table Reads
  • Forbes on Duke’s Polio Virus Trial Against Glioblastoma
  • Play Reimagining ‘Three’s Company’ Wins Case from The New York Times
  • Outro by Scriptnotes listener JT Butler (send us yours!)

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 4-10-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

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