John and Craig are back together! They discuss the magnetism that draws viewers into a story, pulls characters together and pushes them through the narrative.

We follow up on adulting, gun violence and remote writers rooms. We also look at the new animation writer contract and the CW sale.

For our premium members, check out our bonus episode with the creator of Wordle and the author of 50 Years of Text Games about ways to use words for fun and profit.

Links:

• Animation Guild Members Ratify New Three-Year Contract
• As Nexstar Deal For Control Of The CW Nears Finish, Ownership Structure Comes Into Focus
• John’s Adulting Twitter Thread
• Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD by Jason Kander
• Fire Island by Joel Kim Booster on Hulu
• Heartstopper Series on Netflix and Graphic Novel by Alice Osman
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• John August on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by Adam Pineless (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.