Scriptnotes has been a great podcast whenever I listen to it, but I've missed a lot of episodes and there's about 700 of them. So where to begin if you want to get every bit of wisdom August and Mazin have to offer? Well, they've condensed the best tips into this book.

Most screenwriting how-tos are written by people who haven't actually done it. They claim to have an authority they haven't actually earned. And the books are usually filled with highly specific structural rules that you HAVE TO FOLLOW! There's a lot of nonsense like your inciting incident has to happen on page 21 or your film will never be made. It's crazy. For instance, Lawrence of Arabia and Toy Story are completely different movies with completely difference scripts, yet they both got made.

August and Mazin are both very successful and they use this book to really teach you what the life of a screenwriter is like, so you can see if it's even a life you're interested in. They spend a chapter on all the important elements of a screenplay or career and really explain what you're trying to achieve with each one of these steps. Very helpful. Throughout the book they have tips from other brilliant writers who've been on their show.

A great resource for anyone interested in pursuing a career in film. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-galley of the book in return for this honest review.

For anyone remotely interested in screenwriting or storytelling, this book provides a lot of insights--from John August, Craig Mazin, and their guests on the podcasts. Each chapter is broken down by topic. It's a quick read and a good summary for someone who hasn't listened to the podcast or is just getting started in a career or curious about the entertainment industry.

I began listening to Scriptnotes about 10 episodes in and have listened to ever episode since, now totally 702. There has not been a single episode which I didn't get something useful from. Whether it is about the nuts and bolts of writing, organizing, formatting or structure, idea generation, or the business of writing. John and Craig have been my companions endlessly in a pursuit to simply get better at this craft.
Everything the podcast offers comes through in this book. I've disliked almost all scriptwriting 'manuals'. Ones like Story are too constrictive (by page 14 you must have! a screenplay has to be 120 pages, &c.) Others like Save the Cat feel more like a collection of ideas about screenwriting with, again, very set in stone ways you must write. What I've always loved about Scriptnotes is that John and Craig stand by the idea of 'find what works for you and do that.'

The Scriptnotes book follows this same outline. Here is a book of information on ways that one might think about screenplays. Multiple ways. There is no paint by numbers outline to simply follow. Because, in reality, there is never a simple paint by numbers way to write anything.

I have been suggesting listening to the podcast for years to all of my screenwriting students. Now I will be using this book in my Scriptwriting classes. I hope Craig is proud. :)