John August - Inneresting @ Qapps

Image from the film poster of Geostorm, with tornadoes and a wave destroying skyscrapers while Gerard Butler holds a kid?

Inneresting

🏃 Short Answer Sprint

For this week's rebroadcast, we highlight some evergreen questions from readers in 2007.

Barton Fink: Hotel room. Wallpaper peeling. Charlie Meadows holds Barton Fink by the arms, a look of desperation on his face.

Inneresting

Rebroadcast: Dick Jokes for Classy Producers

Back in 2010, John answered a question about second guessing yourself and deciding what sample to send to a producer if you think your work doesn't match their taste.

From Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker hangs upside down over a stage for a Spider-Man rally and lets Gwen Stacy kiss him after the crowd eggs them on.

Inneresting

The Perils of Coincidence

In 2007, John came back from a screening of Spider-Man 3 and used his reactions to point to the hurdles a writer can throw in their story's path when relying too heavily on coincidence.

screenshot of Settings window showing the themes panel

Highland

Creating Custom Themes in Highland Pro

In Highland Pro, you can change the colors of just about anything. Use one of our built-in themes, or create one exactly to your taste. In this short video, I explain how themes work, how to create a custom theme, and how to share your creation with others. Here'

screenshot of "rhyme design" showing rhymes generated by lookup

Highland

The Design Philosophy Behind Highland Pro’s /Lookup Feature

Highland Pro’s /lookup provides short, inline answers. Building it required early design decisions.

Inneresting

Which Screenplay Should I Write?

In 2009, John answered a question about how to choose between the different stories competing for your attention, and gave an example of one time he didn’t need to choose just one. I know you have addressed this type of question to a certain extent, but I was left

Inneresting

3 Tips for Introducing Characters

This week’s rebroadcast comes from 2007 with 3 tips on how to quickly define a character’s personality in your screenplay. Just how early can you tell a script isn’t going to work? To me, it’s as the first few characters are introduced. If character introductions are

Inneresting

Why Most Scripts Never Become Movies

This week’s rebroadcast collects posts from 2006 and 2012 to consider how selling a script isn’t a guarantee, and why writing a film that never gets made is still work worthy of compensation. You’ve said that “most scripts don’t become movies, and a hundred things could

Inneresting

How to Write a Scene: A Step-by-Step Guide

This week’s rebroadcast includes a post from 2007 and a downloadable PDF version of the key points (suitable for hanging up where you write). Spend a few years as a screenwriter, and writing a scene becomes an almost unconscious process. It’s like driving a car. Most of us

Inneresting

Thinking About Story Structure

This week’s rebroadcast brings together a few posts about structure, and reasons to consider that there’s not only one way to plan out a story. How do you know when the story has good bones? I’m a 28-year old writer with a very old problem. I do

Inneresting

Story is Free: How to Write for Low and Micro Budget Film

This week’s rebroadcast comes from 2010, with thoughts on how to make sure a story with a low-budget doesn’t also wind up with low energy. One of my frustrations with independent film — and in particular, micro-indies of the past few years — is a lack of narrative ambition. Flip

Highland

Why is Highland called Highland, anyway?

Unlike most screenwriting apps, Highland isn't named after a term from a screenwriting glossary.