731 - Avoidance and Other Anti-Quests
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Craig flip the idea of motivation on its head and ask, what are your characters running from? Using examples across film and TV, they look at the psychological underpinnings of discomfort, and how to use avoidance as a driving force of character and story.
We've also been away for a minute, so there's a lot to catch up on! We follow-up on where the heck we've been, locked pages, a Scottish rap duo, and a new scientific answer for whether one page of script really equals one minute of movie. We also answer listener questions on the afterlife of residuals and writing with a significant other.
In our bonus segment for premium members, we go through their feedback on our first ever video podcast and announce our plans for the future of the show.
Links:
- Does one page of a screenplay really equal one minute of screen time? by Stephen Follows
- California Schemin' trailer
- Indistractable by Nir Eyal
- Explanation of Disbursement of Residual Payments After Death from the WGA West
- Parseword
- Frankenstein's Regrets by Ben Tarnoff for The Nation
- The AI Paradox: How to Make Sense of a Complex Future by Virginia Dignum
- Indigo Girls Tour featuring Jessie Mazin!
- Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
- Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
- Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
- John August on Bluesky and Instagram
- Outro by James Ashley McLaren (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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome. My name is John August. |
| 0:04.6 | Oh, my name is Craig Mason. |
| 0:08.1 | And this is episode 731 of Script Notes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. |
| 0:14.8 | Often on this podcast, we talk about characters heading out on a quest. |
| 0:19.4 | We discuss wants and motivations. Today on the show, |
| 0:22.2 | Craig, let's flip that around. What are characters running from? What are they trying to avoid? |
| 0:26.8 | And how can that help drive story? Let's also answer listener questions about writing as a couple, |
| 0:32.0 | and what happens to residuals after we die. And in our bonus segment for premium members, |
| 0:37.6 | I want to talk about the pivot to video |
| 0:39.1 | because if you're a premium subscriber, |
| 0:41.1 | you sometimes see us in addition to hearing us |
| 0:43.5 | because we've been doing videos |
| 0:45.0 | for the last couple months, |
| 0:46.6 | but this is still basically an audio podcast. |
| 0:48.9 | So there are some changes coming to to script notes, |
| 0:51.0 | and I want to give listeners a preview |
| 0:54.0 | of what has to come in the |
| 0:55.6 | road ahead. |
| 0:56.9 | Change, John? |
| 0:58.7 | Change? |
| 0:59.4 | Change? |
| 1:00.3 | Feels like something we should avoid perfectly on theme. |
... |
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