Inneresting 24
issue 24
October 9, 2020
This Must Be The Place: Notes On Sluglines
How can you use sluglines to break up a larger location, or suggest movement through a bigger space? How much work does the scene heading need to do on its own? It’s all about location, location, location in this issue's blog post.
Previously on johnaugust.com…
John’s written up several posts about sluglines, including:
Thinking about specifics, and how to tweak a generic location name to give a sharper sense of place.
With 24 hours in a day, what if you don’t want to just use DAY or NIGHT in your scene heading?
How to pace shot headings, and knowing when you’re chopping things up too much.
Working flashbacks and multiple timelines into your script.
Making Time for Sharpening The Saw
Everything is a lot right now.
It might feel like too much to even think about working on a big project. But this could be a good time to sharpen up a smaller, useful skill. Consider:
Working on becoming a better note taker by committing to a routine of spending more time actively reading and making “durable notes.”
Get your digits doing wind sprints and level up your keyboarding by retyping entire classic novels in your web browser.
Set aside time to remind yourself that there are things to feel joy about and spread that feeling, like with this suggestion of tweeting out a 3 o’clock Happiness Update.
Highland How-To: Forced Action Montages
Previously in the blog, John showed how to use Highland’s syntax to format a traditional montage sequence:
…Fountain has ways to override defaults. In this case, the easiest way to get his desired format would be to force those intermediary sluglines (“IN THE GARAGE,” “OUT BACK,” etc.) to be treated as action.
To do that, start each of them with an exclamation point.
!IN THE GARAGEB.A. works on the van.!OUT BACKHannibal and Murdock rig the gatling gun.!IN THE BATHROOMFace works on his old man makeup.
For more tips on how to use Highland’s overrides to tweak your script to look just right, check out our knowledge base!
Other Cool Things
A story about Anne Carroll Moore, the librarian who created the concept of the Children’s Room for libraries, Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon, and the one-sided feud between them.
So you’ve hit a wall and feel like what you’re writing just isn’t working (or worse, your whole idea of you writing isn’t working). Just remember: Even widely heralded works have people who just can’t stand them. Take a look at this collection of One Star Reviews for To Kill a Mockingbird or these One Star Reviews of Wuthering Heights.
Check out “Loose Ends,” a short story built from editing together the last lines of 137 science fiction and fantasy books.
If you know someone who’s fallen down a rabbit hole into the world of conspiracy theories and need help bringing them back, some suggestions from The Guardian on how to help people see they’ve been duped.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
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UPCOMING EVENTS
November 3rd, 2020
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