The Curious Engineer

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John August

johnaugust.com

The official site of screenwriter and author John August

TV / filmEssays / personal

’05’10’15’20’25
Posts
3,701 from 5 Jun 2003 to 30 Oct 2026
Posting
weekly (100 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://johnaugust.com/feed

Latest

October 2026

  1. Austin 2026 – Three Page Challenge
  2. Revisiting The Dropout
  3. Nerding Out on Story with Andrew Stanton
  4. Character Creator Kit
  5. Archetypes
  6. Directing Your Writing

September 2026

  1. East of Eden with Zoe Kazan
  2. The One with Aaron Sorkin
  3. General Meetings
  4. Assembling a Career with Erin Gibson
  5. Quinceañera

August 2026

  1. Famous People with Taffy Brodesser-Akner
  2. One Room Movies
  3. Wrapping It Up with Hacks
  4. How Would This Be a Crime?

July 2026

  1. Road Trip
  2. The Invite with Rashida Jones and Will McCormack
  3. Scriptnotes, Ep 742: Obsession with Curry Barker — Transcript
  4. Scriptnotes, Ep 741: Craig Takes Questions — Transcript
  5. Bronson Watermarker goes Pro
  6. Writing while the World is on Fire (Encore)
  7. Frontier models are surprisingly bad at jigsaw puzzles
  8. Thinking on Your Feet with Ryan Condal

June 2026

  1. Obsession with Curry Barker
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 740: On Competence, Transcript
  3. Craig Takes Questions
  4. On Competence
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 739: The One with David E. Kelly, Transcript
  6. The One with David E. Kelley
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 738: Building Your Audience with Courtney Kemp, Transcript
  8. Scriptnotes, Episode 737: Studio-Adjacent, Transcript
  9. Building Your Audience with Courtney Kemp

May 2026

  1. Scriptnotes, Episode 736: The Devil You Know, Transcript
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 732: Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, Transcript
  3. Studio-Adjacent
  4. The Devil You Know
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 735: The Flashforward Fallback, Transcript
  6. The Flashforward Fallback
  7. Never Gonna Not Dance Again could have been bigger
  8. Scriptnotes, Episode 734: A Box Full of Teeth, Transcript
  9. A Box Full of Teeth
  10. Scriptnotes, Episode 733: Learning Comedy, Transcript

April 2026

  1. Learning Comedy
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 731: Avoidance and Other Anti-Quests, Transcript
  3. Scriptnotes, Episode 730: A Frank Conversation About Screenwriting, Transcript
  4. What I learned from a year of Highland Pro
  5. Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
  6. Avoidance and Other Anti-Quests
  7. Sidecast: The 2026 MBA
  8. Writing effective transitions (Encore)

March 2026

  1. A Frank Conversation About Screenwriting
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 729: Endings Compendium, Part II, Transcript
  3. Endings Compendium, Part II
  4. How I use Highland Fling
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 728: Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard, Transcript
  6. Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 727: Free Work, Transcript
  8. How do bad movies get made? (Encore)
  9. Scriptnotes, Episode 726: So you’ve been nominated for an Oscar, Transcript
  10. Scriptnotes, Episode 725: Torn from the pages of Squash Magazine, Transcript
  11. Free Work

February 2026

  1. So you’ve been nominated for an Oscar
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 724: Introductions with Joachim Trier, Transcript
  3. Scriptnotes, Episode 723: Blank Meets Blank, Transcript
  4. Scriptnotes, Episode 722: Orality, or Writing to be Spoken, Transcript
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 721: Preparing to Direct (with Eva Victor), Transcript
  6. Torn from the pages of Squash Magazine
  7. Introductions with Joachim Trier
  8. Scriptnotes, Episode 720: Watch Your Tone, Transcript
  9. Blank Meets Blank

January 2026

  1. Orality, or Writing to be Spoken
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 719: When Good Enough Isn’t Enough, Transcript
  3. Scriptnotes, Episode 718: No Worries if Not, Transcript
  4. Preparing to Direct (with Eva Victor)
  5. Watch Your Tone
  6. When Good Enough Isn’t Enough
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 717: The Screenwriting Life: The Craft Lessons That Matter Most, Transcript
  8. Scriptnotes, Episode 716: Personality Typologies, Transcript

December 2025

  1. No Worries if Not
  2. What I did in 2025
  3. The Screenwriting Life: The Craft Lessons That Matter Most
  4. Personality Typologies
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 715: The Book Launch, Live!, Transcript
  6. Scriptnotes, Episode 714: Three Page Challenge Live in Austin 2025, Transcript
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 713: Your First Produced Film, Transcript
  8. The Book Launch, Live!
  9. The Scriptnotes Book is out today!
  10. Three Page Challenge Live in Austin 2025

November 2025

  1. Your First Produced Film
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 712: Something Wicked This Way Comes, Transcript
  3. Something Wicked This Way Comes
  4. Scriptnotes, Episode 711: The State of Pitching, Transcript
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 710: What Happened To Weird?, Transcript
  6. Scriptnotes, Episode 709: Live at the Austin Film Festival 2025, Transcript
  7. Getting Stuff Written
  8. The State of Pitching
  9. Scriptnotes, Episode 708: Ambition Meets Fabrication, Transcript
  10. Scriptnotes, Episode 702: Last Looks, Transcript
  11. What Happened To Weird?
  12. Scriptnotes, Episode 707: After the Hunt, Transcript

October 2025

  1. Read the first 30 pages of the Scriptnotes book
  2. Live at the Austin Film Festival 2025
  3. AFF 2025 – Three Page Challenge
  4. Ambition Meets Fabrication
  5. Scriptnotes, Episode 706: Is TV Better Now?, Transcript
  6. Scriptnotes, Episode 705: Short Films and Existential Threats, Transcript
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 704: Places, Everyone, Transcript
  8. After the Hunt
  9. A Cheap Cut of Meat Soaked in Butter (Encore)

September 2025

  1. Is TV Better Now?
  2. Episode 703: Getting Period Right, Transcript
  3. Writing for microdramas, aka verticals
  4. Short Films and Existential Threats
  5. Robert Redford, RIP
  6. Places, Everyone
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 701: Connections, Transcript
  8. Scriptnotes, Episode 700: The Live Call-In Show, Transcript
  9. Getting Period Right
  10. Last Looks

August 2025

  1. Connections
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 699: How to Talk About Yourself, Transcript
  3. Scriptnotes, Episode 698: Movies that Never Were, Transcript
  4. The Live Call-In Show
  5. How much can a screenwriter expect to earn from a hit film?
  6. How to Talk About Yourself
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 697: We Wrote a Book!, Transcript
  8. Scriptnotes, Episode 696: A Screenwriter’s Guide to Directors, Transcript
  9. Movies that Never Were

July 2025

  1. Scriptnotes, Episode 695: Advice to a Young Film Student (with Scott Frank), Transcript
  2. Scriptnotes, Episode 694: Reviving the Spoof Movie, Transcript
  3. We Wrote a Book!
  4. Scriptnotes, Episode 693: Setups That Don’t Feel Like Setups, Transcript
  5. A Screenwriter’s Guide to Directors
  6. Scriptnotes, Episode 692: Crafting the Perfect Villain, Transcript
  7. Advice to a Young Film Student (with Scott Frank)
  8. Design Dilemma: Any vs. All
  9. Birdigo comes out July 30th!
  10. Reviving the Spoof Movie
  11. Scriptnotes, Episode 691: Collaborative Storytelling and RPGs, Transcript
  12. Setups That Don’t Feel Like Setups

June 2025

  1. Constructing a great action sequence
  2. Crafting the Perfect Villain
  3. Scriptnotes, Episode 690: Living and Writing in Sci-Fi Times, Transcript
  4. Collaborative Storytelling and RPGs
  5. Sciptnotes, Episode 689: The Old New Video Problem, Transcript
  6. Living and Writing in Sci-Fi Times
  7. Scriptnotes, Episode 687: How to Not Ruin Your First Film, Transcript
  8. The Old New Video Problem
  9. Scriptnotes on YouTube

May 2025

  1. Scriptnotes, Episode 688: Writing Jokes with Mike Birbiglia, Transcript

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