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Structure is the fundamental skeleton of every story ever told, so why does it flummox so many writers? John and Craig outline what structure really is, ways to find it in your story, and how to keep it from tying your brain in knots.

We also look at ways to find nuance in our appreciation of movies, follow up on erotic fiction, and answer listener questions on how to work with a director and point of view shots.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig measure the helpfulness of their wearable body monitors.

Links:

Weekend Read on the App Store
Oscar nominations 2025
IVF Mixup movies: Parallel Mothers, Maybe Baby, Good Newwz, Daughter from Another Mother
Manhunt
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
How to like everything more by Sasha Chapin
Growing a Human: The First 30 Weeks by Maggie Appleton
2024 Player’s Handbook
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Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
John August on BlueSky, Threads, Instagram, and Mastodon
Outro by Guy Fee (send us yours!)
Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

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You can download the episode here.

0:00.0	Hello and welcome. My name is John August. My name is Craig Mason. And you listen to episode
0:06.5	673 of Script Notes, a podcast about screening things that are interesting to screenwriters.
0:12.1	Today on the show, let's get back to basics. Structure, Craig. What is it? Why did writers keep
0:16.2	freaking out about it when it's a fundamental part of storytelling going all the way back to Caveman
0:20.0	days? I think why do writers keep freaking out about it is a perfectly good place where we should start
0:24.6	once we get there. Then how do you enjoy a movie? We'll teach you how not to be so meh.
0:29.6	The things you're watching. Be born before 2000.
0:34.5	And plus we'll answer some listener questions because it's been a minute. And in our bonus segment for premium members, let's talk about the wearables, the devices we wear to track what's happening in our bodies.
0:43.5	Fantastic.
0:44.1	Let's do it.
0:44.8	First, some news.
0:45.7	We had Oscar nominations this morning as we're recording.
0:47.5	We're recording this on Thursday.
0:48.6	Yes, yes.
0:49.0	And so, as always, I'm so happy for the people who got nominated.
0:52.0	I am bummed for the people who got nominated. I am bummed for the people who didn't, and it's all going to be okay.
0:55.2	Everything will be absolutely okay, even being considered for something like that is extraordinary.
1:03.0	I assume everybody going to that was grown up enough to know that sometimes weird stuff happens.
1:09.7	So somehow Conclave got nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor, but not Best Director?
1:15.5	Yeah, there's a couple of those, yeah.
1:17.5	So I wasn't quite sure about that one.
1:19.9	Wicked also, yeah.
	...

673 - Structure, and How to Enjoy a Movie

Scriptnotes Podcast

John August

Summary

Transcript