Scriptnotes · John August and Craig Mazin

730 - A Frank Conversation About Screenwriting

March 30, 2026·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

John August reveals why the 20 most common screenwriting rules are all bullshit.

John starts with housekeeping. Craig and John are still off on their adventures, John has been in Writers Guild negotiations and on vacation, and Drew is back on mic. The premise is modest in a good way. They are rummaging through the big folder for useful leftovers, which gives the episode a patched-together shape without making it feel careless. The show does not pretend this is a normal episode. It lets the assembly show, then gets on with the good part. The saved piece has weight. John's interview with the Northwest Screenwriters Guild turns into a plainspoken craft conversation about picking projects, adapting material, and being honest about what you actually want to watch. Adaptation gets the clearest example. He talks about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a movie that keeps much of the book but changes how the story moves. Charlie stays good, which leaves him without much of an arc, so John describes Willy Wonka as the protagonist who changes across the movie. It is not framed as a clever trick. It is just the kind of adjustment a screenwriter makes when the material needs motion. Original writing has a different pressure. John calls it liberating and a little scary because there is no source material standing behind you. Then comes the advice that sticks: write the movie you would actually pay to see, not the one you think some imaginary market wants. The football example works because it is so plain. If you do not like football movies, spending a year on one means arguing with your own taste. Near the end, John connects the negotiating room to working writers who came before, including Tom Fontana, and the episode lands on how much writers have built.

As heard by us

A loose Q&A that keeps turning adaptation talk into practical scene-level judgment.

Scriptnotes folds a Northwest Screenwriters Guild Q&A into a lean craft session, with John August and producer Drew Marquardt talking through adaptation, character, and the old question of when fidelity matters less than what the story needs.

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Why you'd press play

A live Northwest Screenwriters Guild Q&A that turns a Script Notes book event into a loose, useful screenwriting listen.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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