Feb 27, 2024
John has the flu (or does he?) and Craig is missing, so we’re
going back through the vaults to look at the mechanics of mystery
and suspense. How do writers exploit the audience’s curiosity? What
builds and breaks their trust? How do you use suspense across
genres? And what do these techniques look like on the...
Feb 20, 2024
John welcomes writer and showrunner Francesca Sloane (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Atlanta) to talk about her process of bringing a big-screen property to television. She shares how she and Donald Glover found their way into the story, how it evolved in development, building a room that was all women of color, re-writing on set,...
Feb 13, 2024
John welcomes Celine Song (Past Lives) to chart her journey from playwright to Oscar-nominated screenwriter. We discuss the intricacies of writing bilingually, the similarities between theater and a writers room, finding the right collaborators and how writing prepared Celine for for the rigors of directing.
We also...
Feb 6, 2024
John and Craig host another round of the Three Page Challenge, where they give their honest feedback on three listener-submitted scripts. They offer insights into using sound realistically, writing action that can be easily directed, finding subtext in dialogue, and navigating complex points of view.
But first, we dig...