Hey, welcome to the screenwriting life. I'm Meg Lafour. And I'm L'Orian McKenna.

We are professional screenwriters. We've worked together as a team and separately. We've worked on

studio and indie films, live action, and animation, from my work on Inside Out and

Captain Marvel. To my work in Pixar Story Department on Up, Brave, and Inside Out.

We are here to share our insights on the craft of screenwriting and also the lights

had to not only survive the ups and downs but thrive.

We want to help you become the best screenwriter you can be

and to reassure you that you are not alone on this journey.

Hey guys, welcome back to the show.

Today we are thrilled to be talking with our culture

seminal voice, one of the seminal voices in writing and life,

I think.

She's a 10-time New York Times best-selling author,

Annie Lamotte, and I'm going to try really hard not to fan girl out.

Same.

Annie is known for her powerfully empathetic and

often hilarious work, which tends to focus on subjects

that begin with capital letters, alcoholism, motherhood, and Jesus.

And her fiction Annie writes with incredible authenticity and honesty, honesty that means she's also an amazing teacher of writing.

Many writers, including last week's guest, Ed Solomon, say that her book, Bird by Bird, is the best and most important book on writing ever published.

Annie is here to talk about her new book,

Dusk, Dawn, on Revival and Courage, written to give us hope in a chapter of our history that feels especially dark but we're also going to pick

...