627 - Unbelievably Agentic

John welcomes back Aline Brosh McKenna to look at how both you and your characters can become more “agentic.” What are the traps and pitfalls of going after what you want? How do you get people to engage with your protagonist, especially when the protagonist is yourself?

Then it’s another round of How Would This be a Movie? We look at stories about a harm-reduction hotline, countertop cancer, loyalty testers and a mathematician who exploited the lottery.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Aline talk about their strange new reality of being empty nesters.

Links:

• How to be More Agentic by Cate Hall
• What’s Stopping You? by Neel Nanda
• Seven ways to become unstoppably agentic by Evie Cottrell
• “Agency” needs nuance by Evie Cottrell
• The Woman on the Line by Aymann Ismail and Mary Harris for Slate
• California workers who cut countertops are dying of an incurable disease by Emily Alpert Reyes and Cindy Carcamo for the LA Times
• Would Your Partner Cheat? These ‘Testers’ Will Give You an Answer by Gina Cherelus for the New York Times
• The man who won the lottery 14 times by Zachary Crockett for The Hustle
• Musely
• So you wanna de-bog yourself by Adam Mastroianni
• Aline Brosh McKenna
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• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter
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• Outro by Larry Douziech (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.