912. "The Product is Never the Story"

Career coach Lee Jessup returns to discuss the industry changes and writing trends of 2024 and shares what’s ahead for the new year.

Writer/Director Coley Sohn talks about the fun and frustration of writing and directing her independent movie “Mudkey,” which satirizes the right/left divide during one miserable day on a Florida island.

Writer/Publicists Alexandra Grizinski and Jenny Beres talk about ways that screenwriters can mine their personal story to get interest in their scripts as well as the ways they can expand to different media to help them get work and get noticed.

It’s time for the annual On the Page logline competition!  Pilar explains the rules and gives the deadline.

Filmmaker Pooja Parvati Gupta’s experience in reality shows turned out to be excellent narrative training for creating compelling scripted stories. Hear how she made the choice to move from one to the other and how personal experience impacts her storytelling.

Writer Alan Jenkins created 1/6, a comic book based on the “what-ifs” of a successful insurrection. Now, he’s seeing many of those imagined scenarios play out in real time. Here he talks about the ways that comic books have taken political stands over the years and gives guidelines for writers to help them be more empathetic in their writing and creative workplace. 

Writer Aaron Kozak was a winner at the Austin Screenwriting Festival this year and a finalist in two other categories! Here he talks about the many ideas he’s put on the page, his ability to write a lot of material very fast and how moving away from Los Angeles has made him a better writer.

Virgil Williams, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Mudbound, talks about his latest feature film, an adaptation of the August Wilson playThe Piano Lesson, produced by Denzel Washington and directed by Malcolm Washington.

When actor/writer Mia Serafino was given the opportunity to audition for the Netflix show Beef, she knew this was a script worthy of changing her Christmas plans. Here she talks about what speaks to her in scripts and how this has informed her own journey as a writer.

Lynn Renee Maxcy, writer for The Handmaid’s Tale and The Complex talks about her love of sci-fi and speculative fiction where, no matter how dark it seems, a story can always provide hope.