Hey everyone welcome back to the screenwriting life. I'm Meg Laphog.

And I'm Lorian McKenna. Today we are thrilled to be welcoming writer and story consultant Billy Murnit.

Billy is a story analyst for Universal Pictures and he is also the author of two books

writing the romantic comedy with Harper Collins, now reissued in an expanded 20th anniversary edition and

Imagine Me and You, Shay Earhart Random House, and he's also the recipient of the UCLA

Extension Distinguished Instruction Award and the Outstanding

and Structure Award in Screenwriting.

Billy is something of a romantic comedy guru.

His book is an essential if you want to understand the art of the

romcom on top of that Billy is also a songwriter whose songs have been

recorded by Carly Simon, Judy Collins, and Morrissey and today we'll be talking

all things romantic comedy and screenwriting so hello

Billy. Hi great to be here. We are thrilled to have you I I know that Lauren and

I are huge rom com fans and inspirational want to be writing them.

So we can't wait to dive in, but first we're going to do our first section, which we like to call dentures in screenwriting or kind of what

how is your week so we'll let Lorian start Lorian how was your week?

So far I feel like I'm always still in my week when you ask, how is my week?

So where I am right now is I got notes on a project a couple of days ago, so I'm working on that.

And of course, you know, the notes feel way bigger than I think they are so I put them off for a day

and then I get into them and I realize they're not as easy as I thought they were and then I

find a big story knot somewhere and then I step away from it and so now I'm back in trying to untie that knot.

And then it really isn't about,

...