John and Craig finally become writing partners and edit the opening to one chapter of the upcoming Scriptnotes book live on-air. They wrestle with word choices, adapting the phrasing of a spoken conversation and finding a unified voice as they pass the keyboard back and forth.

We also catch up Craig on what he’s missed since he’s been away, follow up on #payuphollywood, and answer a host of listener questions on personal stories, backstories, sharing credit, Lifetime movies, and disliking your protagonist.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig deal out their favorite card games.

Links:

• AlphaBirds
• #PayUpHollywood
• Scriptnotes Episode 427 – The New One with Mike Birbiglia and Scriptnotes Episode 640 – Can You Believe It?
• A.I. Needs Copper. It Just Helped to Find Millions of Tons of It. by Max Bearak for the New York Times
• Love Good Protein
• 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 Threads, Instagram, X and Mastodon
• Outro by Tim Englehard (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.