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Scriptnotes Podcast

Working It Out: Screenwriting Advice You’ll Actually Use

Scriptnotes Podcast

John August

Screenwriter, Tv & Film, Writing, John, Screenwriting, August, Craig, Screenplay, Mazin

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John joins Mike Birbiglia on his podcast Working It Out to share direct, practical screenwriting advice that you’ll actually use, whether you’re an aspiring screenwriter or you want to pursue creative work of any kind.

They explore John’s screenwriting process, from defining his expression “breaking the back of the script,” through the different forms of conflict and navigating the murky middle of the story. John shares the best writing advice he’s ever received, the screenplays everyone should read, what he appreciates in standup specials and why cool people aren’t funny. They also revisit the gains made on AI as a result of the writers strike.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, this is John. If you listen to script notes over the years, you know that one of our favorite guests is Mike Briglia.

0:06.0

He is a writer, director, actor, and stand-up comic, known for his one-man shows like Sleep Off With Me, and The Old Man in the Pool, which is now a

0:15.1

special you should watch on Netflix. He also has his own podcast, working it out, where he talks

0:20.3

with comedians about their creative process. It is terrific. I listen every week and

0:24.4

this week I got to be a guest on his show. We talked about writing and AI and jokes.

0:29.2

It was great. It was weird being a guest, not a host, but Mike made it fun.

0:33.4

So we are running the episode in the Script Notes feed,

0:36.1

but you should definitely subscribe to Mike's show.

0:38.5

It's called Working It Out and it's available wherever you get podcasts.

0:42.0

So enjoy.

0:44.0

Your podcast script notes, I should tell the listeners, I believe it is one of the greatest

0:52.2

public services for any art form that I've ever

0:57.4

witnessed in the sense that it's so thorough and it's almost like you have a vendetta

1:06.3

You and Craig Mason have a vendetta against

1:10.6

Snake Oil salesman of the screenwriting industry.

1:15.0

Well, I think there's something very unique and weird about screenwriting.

1:18.0

It's because it feels like an approachable way into filmmaking,

1:21.0

because most people can't envision like okay I'm gonna get a crew together

1:24.1

I'm gonna go shoot this thing yeah that's all that's too much it's expensive it's time I have to talk to other people

1:28.6

but being a screenwriter I could just do that myself and I can get this magic program that will format all this stuff and I just have to type the words in and it just seems easy and because it seems easy I think there's this whole industry that's built up around encouraging and soaking money out of people who want to pursue that dream.

1:47.0

And there's just bad books written about it and conferences and all this sort of industry around it.

1:54.4

And so we just wanted to be the free alternative

...

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