676 - Writing while the World is on Fire
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do you keep doing creative work when the world is falling apart around you? To sift through the despair and doubt, John welcomes back legendary Scriptnotes guest, writer-turned-psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo. They discuss the many feelings that catastrophic events can bring up in artists, the personal narratives that often inform those feelings, and how to keep moving forward when you feel like the band on the Titanic.
We also follow up on AI, and answer listener questions on competing with brain trusts and how to support a friend embroiled in controversy.
In our bonus segment for premium members, Dennis guides us through the best examples and worst mistakes of portraying therapists on screen.
Links:
- “Am I Just Fiddling While Rome Burns?” by Dennis Palumbo for Psychiatric Times
- Scriptnotes 99 – Psychotherapy for Screenwriters
- ShotDeck
- River Runner Global
- At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
- Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
- John August on BlueSky, Threads, and Instagram
- Outro by Spencer Lackey (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at [email protected]
You can download the episode here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome. |
| 0:02.9 | My name is John August, and you're listening to Episode 676 of Script Notes, |
| 0:06.8 | a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. |
| 0:10.2 | Today on the show, how do you keep doing creative work when it feels like the world around you is burning to the ground? |
| 0:15.3 | Sometimes literally. |
| 0:16.8 | To help talk us through that despair, self-doubt, and anxiety, we welcome back a beloved guest from episode 99, |
| 0:22.5 | Dennis Palumbo, a writer-turned psychotherapist who deals with these issues every day. |
| 0:27.0 | And in our bonus segment for premium members, |
| 0:29.0 | Dennis and I will talk about how therapists are portrayed on screen |
| 0:31.9 | with suggestions for getting it right. |
| 0:34.1 | But first, Drew, we have some follow-up. |
| 0:35.9 | We do. So we had a few people write in following |
| 0:38.3 | up on our conversation on AI from back in episode 669. |
| 0:43.0 | Imran writes, recently a production company added my original TV pilot onto their slate |
| 0:48.1 | and paid me to craft its pitch deck. This particular script is a lo-fi sci-fi with a South Asian female lead. |
| 0:55.2 | I want to stop on lo-fi- sci-fi. I just love that as a term. |
| 0:57.6 | Yeah. |
| 0:57.9 | Yeah. |
| 0:58.2 | Good. |
| 0:59.0 | Now, obviously with pitch decks, the visual job is finding comps, stills, actors, etc., to |
| 1:03.6 | show what we're making. |
| 1:05.3 | But finding stills of South Asian female leads in Hollywood roles is a very limited pool. And then, trying to find them in any |
... |
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