Scriptnotes Podcast
1) 733 - Learning Comedy
John welcomes five-time Emmy-winning writer Ali Barthwell (Last Week Tonight) to ask, can writers learn to be funny? Drawing from her time as a teacher at The Second City, they look at what writers ca...Show More
2) 732 - Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
John welcomes writer/showrunner Haley Z. Boston for a post-mortem on her terrifying new series, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. They look at how the series evolved from initial idea through pro...Show More
3) 731 - Avoidance and Other Anti-Quests
John and Craig flip the idea of motivation on its head and ask, what are your characters running from? Using examples across film and TV, they look at the psychological underpinnings of discomfort, an...Show More
4) SC39 - Sidecast: The 2026 MBA
There's a brand new agreement between the WGA and the AMPTP! And since John was the co-chair of the negotiating committee, he's excited to share all the details of the 2026 MBA. Links: The 2026 MBA a...Show More
5) 89 - Writing effective transitions (Encore)
John and Craig connect the dots on transitions and how they can be just as important as the scenes themselves. They look at how to get your scenes flowing into one another, the many different types of...Show More
6) 730 - A Frank Conversation About Screenwriting
John sits down with the Northwest Screenwriters Guild at an event to promote the Scriptnotes book, and ends up having a poignant conversation about how the career of screenwriting has changed, misstep...Show More
7) 729 - Endings Compendium, Part II
In our first sequel compendium, John and Craig revisit four of their best segments dedicated to crafting a satisfying and emotional ending to your story. They look at rooting your ending in character,...Show More
8) 728 - Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard
John welcomes back Drew Goddard (Project Hail Mary, High Potential) to ask, how do you turn the beats of your story into full scenes? Using Drew's script for The Martian, we look at how he translates ...Show More
9) 197 - How do bad movies get made? (Encore)
John and Craig revisit a favorite episode focused on a single topic: bad movies and how they happen. Using first-hand experience, they look at how bad ideas make it to the screen, how good ideas go wr...Show More
10) 727 - Free Work
John and Craig tackle the scourge of free work and offer strategies to avoid it. They look at established norms, potential remedies, the things that should work but often don't, and how writers should...Show More