John and Craig return to Texas for their 11th show at the Austin Film Festival. They welcome writer Pamela Ribon (Nimona, My Year of Dicks) and showrunner Anthony Sparks (Queen Sugar, Bel-Air) to look at what makes character relationships compelling, and how to build a writing career later in life.

We also answer lister questions on getting un-stuck in a script, how podcasting has made us better writers, the limits of exposition, using AI for sizzle reels, and where we get the cajones selling a screenwriting book after slagging-off screenwriting books for fourteen years.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we invite two Scriptnotes super-fans up to the stage to compete for the ultimate prize: an early, signed copy of the Scriptnotes book.

Links:

Pamela Ribon and Anthony Sparks
Austin Film Festival
Preorder the Scriptnotes Book!
Our Moneyball episode
Enter the Relationship Matrix by Chris Csont
Bring It On toothbrush scene
STOMP
Writer Emergency Pack
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Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription (now with fewer emails!)
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John August on Bluesky and Instagram
Outro by Matthew Chilelli (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.

709 - Live at the Austin Film Festival 2025