Podcasts about Seaver

Composer, songwriter, and producer Alex Seaver (aka Mako) has created a unique niche for himself in the entertainment industry. He has released two best-selling albums; performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and EDC; and collaborated with the likes of Linkin Park, Marcus King, Sting, Pusha-T, Avicii, Madison Beer, and Alan Walker. A classically-trained musician, Seaver earned a full scholarship to Juilliard. Upon graduation, he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film music. Alex has established himself as a songwriter and composer for Riot Games' League of Legends, beginning in 2017. His first track, “Legends Never Die” (performed by Against the Current), has earned over 400 million streams on Spotify alone, while his role expanded with both seasons of Netflix's League of Legends-based animated series, Arcane (2021, 2024). In addition to scoring the hit show with Alexander Temple, Alex co-wrote songs for the soundtrack, alongside Linkin Park, Marcus King, Pusha-T, Sting, Woodkid, Bea Miller, PVRIS, and others. Please welcome Alex Seaver.

Ted's winning run in game 3. I contend if Ted didn't score that run in the 11th inning, the Mets would have won the World Series 4 games to 1. The Andrews affair and how that affected the A's in the 3 games in NY The Mets lock down pitching in NY Seaver 12ks and 2 earned runs Matlack NO earned runs Koosman NO earned runs How the A's felt when they were down 3 games to 2 heading home to Oakland The decision by Yogi Berra to start Seaver on 3 days rest in game 6 The decision by Berra to not give a start to the #4 starter George Stone. Gene Tenace told me last year that the A's were sitting in the dugout in games 6 and 7 saying why aren't they pitching Stone. We can't hit him. Stone had appeared in just a couple of innings in the series. The decision by Berra to bench Mays after game 2. In the book I have a chapter about game 2 titled, “The last heroics and hiccup of Willie Mays.” Mays made some great plays, including the hit that won the game in the 12th inning for the Mets, but also had some poor plays in the field and stumbled 3 times Mays also dropped to his knees and pleaded when the umpire ruled Bud Harrelson out in the 10th inning with what would've been the go ahead run. That photo of Willie on his knees is in my opinion one of the greatest photos in baseball history The decision by Berra to not have Willie Mays pinch hit for Wayne Garrett on what turned out to be the final out of the series. In a similar situation on July 17, Berra had brought Mays in to pinch hit for Garrett and Mays slammed the winning hit. Bud Harrelson's legacy – Bud passed away last year and he doesn't get enough credit. In 1973, Harrelson was injured in the middle of the year. In games he started the Mets were 59 – 43. In games he didn't start they were 23 – 36. I would love to hear Ted's insights after watching him in the field during the 1973 World Series.

Exposing the Dark Side1 Timothy 6:6-106 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

Characters of Christmas: The Wisemen; Something Bigger Is Going On…Matthew 2:1-121 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;for out of you will come a ruler    who will shepherd my people Israel.'”7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

It's a Champions round table when former winners Ray & Seaver are joined by current champion, DAVE. Plus Dakota & Bruce join the game in hopes to pick up their first win! Listen to us sound dumb and get drunk now!

The Gift of Gratitude1 Thessalonians 5:16-1816 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

 The Gift of Gratitude1 Thessalonians 5:16-1816 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

Christlike: GoodnessMark 1:40-4540 A man with leprosycame to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

To get live links to the music we play and resources we offer, visit www.WOSPodcast.comThis show includes the following songs:Joka Beatz - Real Talk ft Lisa Drip FOLLOW ON BROADJAMBecky Boyland - It's Your Story Now FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYAlicia Mathewson - 888 (Everything is Magic) FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYJenny Van Alstyne - Meant for More FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYHope Kemp - Keep On Going FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYJo Grange-Seaver - Take Your Journey FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYShifter X - Break The Chains FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYKerry Barnes - Sunburst FOLLOW ON BANDCAMPChristian Schormann - River Of Life FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYChorus Of Courage - Shine feat. Alysha Brilla FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYSista Jean & CB + Pepper MaShay - You Gotta Believe Prt.2 Feat. Sidney Barnes FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYFor Music Biz Resources Visit www.FEMusician.com and www.ProfitableMusician.comVisit our Sponsor Becky Boyland at beckyboyland.comVisit our Sponsor Mochi Health at joinmochi.com (Use coupon code WOS for $40 off)Visit our Sponsor Tanisha Menefee at tanishamenefee.comVisit our Sponsor Cheryl PDF at https://profitablemusician.com/emailVisit www.wosradio.com for more details and to submit music to our review board for consideration.Visit our resources for Indie Artists: https://www.wosradio.com/resources

Unwanted with Greg and Cindy Seaver RTTPPastor Jon JacksonTurning Point Church Scottsburg, IN

This week, Jessica talks with Don Seaver, psychiatrist & composer/songwriter. Don worked as a Medical Director for the San Francisco County Jail for 30 years, and he currently practices psychiatry with Kaiser Oakland. As a composer, he has collaborated with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, New Conservatory Theatre, and various companies and artists in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Find Don at donseaver.com and listen to Lady of the ‘Loin on Spotify. ~ Are you a high achiever, a leader, or an Ampersand who's recently taken on more responsibility at work? For high-achieving professionals, Jessica Wan's executive coaching services stand out as a rare gem. She provides strategic guidance and practical solutions, a unique offering that not only propels her clients' careers forward but also builds their capacity for significant leadership roles in their respective sectors. Her innovative coaching techniques and personalized approach set her apart from the rest. BOOK AN INTRO CALL: ⁠https://calendly.com/jessicawancoaching/intro-call-coaching⁠⁠ Follow Jessica on LinkedIn Credits Produced and Hosted by ⁠⁠Jessica Wan⁠⁠ Co-produced, edited, and sound design by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Carlos Schmitt⁠ Theme music by ⁠⁠Denys Kyshchuk⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Stockaudios⁠⁠ from ⁠⁠Pixaba⁠y⁠

Christlike: JoyLuke 15:1-715 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

In this episode of Best Websites, Lisa Louise Cooke chats with Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, a long-running genealogy blog packed with genealogy tips, stories and even a little bit of humor.

Christlike : LoveLuke 7:36-5036 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”“Tell me, teacher,” he said.41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

TJ Contributing factors Intro - Jason Kimball is a distinguished former high school and collegiate pitching coach with an extensive career as an evolving strength and sports conditioning specialist. Renowned for his expertise in the biomechanics of sport and exercise arenas, Jason is also an elite Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiologist (CHEK) and posturologist. As well as an advanced flexibility specialist and post-secondary rehabilitation specialist. His profound understanding of the biomechanics of pitching, kinesiology, and the human body has made him a sought-after expert in sports and exercise. Throughout his career, Jason has developed and worked closely with athletes at all levels, including big leaguers, Indy ballers, and collegiate athletes. His commitment to excellence and passion for his work is evident in his dedication to enhancing athletic performance, holistic restoration, and preserving athletes' health. Beyond his professional pursuits, Jason is also deeply committed to animal welfare, demonstrating his compassion and drive to make a positive impact both on and off the field. Topics Baseball has been thought of as a physical, mental, and emotional development game. Where have you seen the most changes in the areas of pitching development both positive and negative? TJ epidemic (tip of the iceberg). your thoughts and where do you see the most damage being done in your day-to-day operations? Contributing factors: Improper throwing mechanics. Improper rest (weekly, monthly, annually), throwing year-round. Max effort philosophy in throwing and performance Pitch counts are adhered to in MILB and MLB but not in privatized amateur baseball Travel and Showcase baseball. Ex. 6 games on a weekend, where else does this happen? Your thoughts on overall pitching development. Where do you place the importance in how you teach and coach? Arm drag or lag or layback…… Back leg drag (anchor) Larry Monroe's research (Split finger FB into short stride recoil) Any thoughts on how we reverse this injury trend? What can we learn from successful pitchers in the past (ex. Palmer, Seaver, Ryan, Gibson, Jenkins…..etc…) Limits in development due to fear of workload and injury It is a small world but sometimes it is difficult to get the message to the players, parents, and coaches due to all the noise…… Many of the leading experts in the field of baseball and athletic performance such as Dr. James Andrews states, “Baseball is a development game”. One thing that we continually hear is, if we get this guy stronger, he's going to be way better. They skip essential steps along the way such as proper movement patterns, creating force with the prime movers, and the ability to move force through the kinetic chain with proper stability in the joints. What are the problems that this way of doing things has created in young ball players and athletes? Examples: max effort long toss / light dumbell vs tubing What are the areas of most need in the young athletes that you work with? Many times in the Little League Age ball players work so hard on creating rotational force, but they haven't done any work on their ability to stabilize and provide a foundation for that rotational force. Do you believe that resistance training in the rotational planes should be for 14 years or older (physical maturation) We often discuss the importance of the ability to hinge, is there any particular exercise progression that you use with your clients to help them improve this ability We live in the world of Max effort throwing and often is very difficult to get young players to understand the importance of rhythm and timing. Is there anything in particular that you do to help athletes improve in this area? Can you explain the problems created by bad posture, such as winged scapula improper, scapular stability or improper, scapular rhythm and timing in overhand throwers? Along these lines in the young athlete, we often come across upper-trapezius dominant individuals. What are some of the ways you have helped to improve mid to lower trapezius function? and please discuss the importance of this. Why do you think modern training goals have become so focused on strength and power? Can you explain some pitfalls of this mindset?

September 1, 2007 — Clay Buchholz throws a no-hitter in his second major league start just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz threw 115 pitches, striking out nine, walking three, with one hit batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over Baltimore. He became the 21st rookie to throw a no-hitter and the third MLB pitcher since 1900 to throw a no-hitter in his first or second major league start. He is the first Red Sox rookie and 17th Red Sox pitcher to pitch a no-hitter. In post game interviews,Manager Terry Francona and GM Theo Epstein independently confirmed a conversation in the 7th or 8th inning where they agreed that Buchholz would not be allowed to exceed 120 pitches. Buchholz' battery mate, Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek also sets a Major League mark catching his 4th no hitter.September1, 1919 in the first of two Labor Day games‚ Babe Ruth allows 10 Washington hits but wins 2–1. Helping his own cause, Ruth drives home one run with a triple. The win is his last as a pitcher in a Red Sox uniform.September 1, 1975, Tom Seaver strikes out Manny Sanguillen in the seventh inning to become the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in eight consecutive seasons. Seaver recorded ten strikeouts in the Mets' 3-0 triumph over Pittsburgh.September 1, 2008, Stephen Drew and Adrian Beltre became the first players to hit for the cycle on thesame day since Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the NewYork Giants did it on Sept. 17, 1920.

The Way of Wisdom : Guided by WisdomProverbs 3:5-65 Trust in the Lord with all your heart    and lean not on your own understanding;6 in all your ways submit to him,    and he will make your paths straight.John 14:25-2625 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.Colossians 1:9-149 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[a] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

September 1, 2007 — Clay Buchholz throws a no-hitter in his second major league start just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz threw 115 pitches, striking out nine, walking three, with one hit batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over Baltimore. He became the 21st rookie to throw a no-hitter and the third MLB pitcher since 1900 to throw a no-hitter in his first or second major league start. He is the first Red Sox rookie and 17th Red Sox pitcher to pitch a no-hitter. In post game interviews,Manager Terry Francona and GM Theo Epstein independently confirmed a conversation in the 7th or 8th inning where they agreed that Buchholz would not be allowed to exceed 120 pitches. Buchholz' battery mate, Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek also sets a Major League mark catching his 4th no hitter.September1, 1919 in the first of two Labor Day games‚ Babe Ruth allows 10 Washington hits but wins 2–1. Helping his own cause, Ruth drives home one run with a triple. The win is his last as a pitcher in a Red Sox uniform.September 1, 1975, Tom Seaver strikes out Manny Sanguillen in the seventh inning to become the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in eight consecutive seasons. Seaver recorded ten strikeouts in the Mets' 3-0 triumph over Pittsburgh.September 1, 2008, Stephen Drew and Adrian Beltre became the first players to hit for the cycle on thesame day since Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the NewYork Giants did it on Sept. 17, 1920.

Intro - Dr. Kevin McGovern PT 29 years experience, Dr. McGovern holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Simmons University and a Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University. Additionally, he is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach for the N.S.C.A., allowing him to approach care with a scientific and compassionate touch. Dr. McGovern has received notable recognition throughout his esteemed career, including being named PT PRACTICE of the Year and earning a place on the INC 5000 List for Growing Companies. Since 1994, Dr. McGovern has been a dedicated practitioner. He founded PERFECT MOTION Sports Therapy Topics Discuss G.A.M.E. and Velocity R.X. Baseball has been thought of as a physical, mental, and emotional development game. Where have you seen the most changes in the areas of pitching development both positive and negative? TJ epidemic (tip of the iceberg). your thoughts and where do you see the most damage being done in your day-to-day operations? Contributing factors: Improper throwing mechanics. Improper rest (weekly, monthly, annually), throwing year-round. Max effort philosophy in throwing and performance Pitch counts are adhered to in MILB and MLB but not in privatized amateur baseball Travel and Showcase baseball. Ex. 6 games on a weekend, where else does this happen? Your thoughts on overall pitching development. Where do you place the importance in how you teach and coach? Arm drag or lag or layback…… Back leg drag (anchor) Larry Monroe's research (Split finger FB into short stride recoil) Any thoughts on how we reverse this injury trend? What can we learn from successful pitchers in the past (ex. Palmer, Seaver, Ryan, Gibson, Jenkins…..etc…) Limits in development due to fear of workload and injury

The Way of Wisdom : GenerosityProverbs 11:24-2624 One person gives freely, yet gains even more;    another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.25 A generous person will prosper;    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.26 People curse the one who hoards grain,    but they pray God's blessing on the one who is willing to sell. 2 Corinthians 8:1-71 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you[a]—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

The Way of Wisdom : EnvyProverbs 14:3030 A heart at peace gives life to the body,    but envy rots the bones.John 10:1010 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

The Way of Wisdom : GenerosityProverbs 22:9  The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.Deuteronomy 15:7-8,10-11 7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.Matthew 25:40  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'2 Corinthians 9:6-15 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;     their righteousness endures forever.”[a]10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!CONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

The Way of Wisdom : EnvyProverbs 14:30 A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  -JesusCONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

The Way of Wisdom : FamilyCONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

The Way of Wisdom: FamilyCONNECT WITH USIf you have any questions or would like to get to know us further, head over to https://www.triumphlbc.org/connect and fill out our online connection card.ABOUT TRIUMPHTriumph wants to see the life and message of Jesus transform your heart, home, and city. To learn more visit https://www.triumphlbc.org/

What is Max Velocity? Anecdotal or Emperical ? Strider averaged 97.2 mph last season reached 99-100 mph. Megill 93-94 topping out 95 Luis Gill Avg. 96.9. maxed out 99.7 Skubal 96-97. topping out at 100 Carlton, Gibson, Seaver, Ryan ? Skenes • Skenes' strikeout of Miles Mastrobuoni in the second inning registered at 101.2 mph, matching his own record for the fastest strikeout by a Pirate pitcher in the pitchtracking era (since 2008). Pitch Fx • He became just the third pitcher in the pitch-tracking era to strike out the side on pitches registering at least 100 mph, joining Hunter Greene (Sept. 17, 2022 and Oct. 3, 2022) and Bobby Miller (July 5, 2023). There might not be a solution to the pitching injury problem in baseball. If you sort the research and data on the subject to answer the questions most asked about the subject, you don't end up in a place where there's an easy way forward. What is the main source of pitcher injury?....Velocity Are pitchers getting hurt because they are throwers, not pitchers now? Are analytics to blame? Are the injuries because of all the breaking balls? What role does the pitch clock have in injury? Does sticky stuff (and its ban) have any role in the injury increase? Could year-round throwing be the problem? Are there better mechanics out there that could solve the problem? There have been findings that have come out of the emergent study of biomechanics. Certain relationships between your landing foot, your trunk rotation and your shoulder movement have been deemed better than others. Some think they've got the perfect mechanics that will ensure a way out of this problem. But Casey Mulholland, who runs Kinetic Pro, a private player development lab, outlined a problem with blaming it all on mechanics. “Let's say you've got a pitcher with a three-quarter arm slot — that means more stress, more valgus torque,” Mulholland said. “He comes to Tampa and I magically change his arm action to produce the same velo more over the top, and now he throws with less torque. Well, with the cleaned-up arm action, he can now throw harder. And the one thing we know that increases stress is velo, sooooo. “Our brain passes messages s to our muscles, forearm flexors in this case, via the central nervous system to contract at just the right moment to offload the stress applied to the UCL. When we become fatigued our brain doesn't pass this message as well, the muscles don't contract at the ‘optimal time' or the ‘optimal amount' and we end up not being able to offload this stress. The UCL then wears more of a direct stress. Over time, under fatigue, the load of throwing eventually overcomes the tissue tolerance and boom, UCL tear. “This is why workload management is the only logical answer to slow the injury rate,” thinks Mulholland. “Workload management predicts the possible time at which an athlete might experience too much lo • “It's a big boy throwing a heavy baseball,” said Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. “He does a really good job with mixing and everything. But it's tough to hit anybody that throws 100-plus with two to three really good secondary pitches and a sinker that moves like a changeup at 95.” . • The velocity held, too. Skenes' 100th pitch clocked in at 100 mph, blowing past Mike Tauchman for his 11th strikeout. It was an exclamation point on his day and inevitable first win, something that impressed everyone, with maybe the exception of his catcher.

Samuel Johnson interviews Mike Seaver on the his recent sabbatical time.

"Expecting Christ's Return"

We are back this week with a very special episode of DRUNK TRIVA! After winning the first Drunk Trivia, Seaver returns to host and ask the questions! Ray, Dakota, Kendra, & Bruce answer, and if the are wrong they must take a shot! this one is crazy! The catigories are Wrestling, Movies, Music, and Criptids! 

This week I have a conversation with journalist Randy Seaver discussing his career evolution in the Biddeford Saco area, touching upon journalism's transformation, social media's impact, and the current local news landscape. The script also highlights influential community figures in Biddeford/Saco, shedding light on their roles, accomplishments, city efforts on homelessness, policy changes, and the overall progress, challenges, and complexities of addressing homelessness in the area. 00:00 Welcome to the Podcast with Randy Seaver 01:01 Randy Seaver: A Local Journalism Icon 02:01 The Evolution of Journalism with Randy Seaver 03:24 Randy's Journey from Public Access to Social Media 05:49 The Impact of Social Media on News Consumption 07:14 The Local News Vacuum and Saco Bay News 11:47 Randy Seaver's Approach to Social Media and Politics 16:03 Top 20 Local Political Movers and Shakers List 24:07 Reflecting on Alan Kassaman's Legacy and Influence 24:35 Campaign Management and Political Partnerships 25:38 Alan Kassaman: A Pillar of Biddeford's Renaissance 26:34 Personal Anecdotes and Professional Insights 26:55 Navigating Post-Political Life and Community Engagement 29:16 Tim Harrington's Impact on Biddeford 31:52 Delilah's Contributions to the Heart of Biddeford 33:17 Family Ties in Politics: A Personal Perspective 34:41 Marty's Mayoral Tenure: Efforts and Challenges 36:17 Liam LaFontaine: A Rising Star in City Council 37:21 Jeremy's Unique Position and Achievements 39:21 Ryan Fecto: From Young Politician to Influential Leader 42:04 Biddeford's Current State: Challenges and Progress EPISODE LINKS Randy Seaver's Facebook: www.facebook.com/randy.seaver.3 Saco Bay News: www.sacobaynews.com PODCAST LINKS

Episode 25: Folk Horror Part Two This episode was recorded on March 24, 2024 and posted on May 4, 2024.  Content Warning: Light vulgarity. Introduction Welcome to No Bodies Episode 25 Introductions to your Ghosts Hosts with the Most - Lonely of Lonely Horror Club and Projectile Varmint aka Suzie Introductions to our guests Emily & Niamh of Rowan & Pine Today's Topic: Folk Horror Film Discussion European Folklore Hagazussa (2017) Moloch (2022) Dark Song (2017) East Asian Folklore Impetigore (2019) Teke Teke (2009) North American Folklore Eyes of Fire (1983) Antlers (2021) Worst & Best Representations of Folk Horror Worst Blood Born (2021) - Suzie A Dark Song (2016) & Hagazussa (2017) - Lonely Teke Teke (2009) - Niamh Best The Ritual (2017) - Niamh Apostle (2018), The Witch (2015), Men (2022), Midsommar (2019), Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) - Lonely  It Follows (2014), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Pet Sematary (1989), Darkness Falls (2003), The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Boogeyman (2005), Kill List (2011), The Wind (2018), The Dark & The Wicked (2020), A Field in England (2013) - Suzie Suzie's Deep Cuts Includes movies with under 5k ratings on IMDB.  November (2017) Butterfly Kisses (2018) Little Otik (2000) The Feast (2021) The Droving (2020) The Twin (2022) A Wounded Fawn (2022) The Maus (2017) (Editor's Note: Lonely mentions that The Maus is based on the fall of the Soviet Union, but this film actually focuses on the aftermath of the fall of Yugoslavia in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thank to our listener Kannan for correcting this!) Closing Thoughts Is there a piece of folklore from your own culture you'd like to see in a folk horror film? Thank you to our guest! Follow Emily & Niamh's show Rowan and Pine, whenever you get your podcasts. Emily & Niamh on Instagram at @rowanandpine.  Keep Up with Your Hosts Check out our instagram antics and drop a follow @nobodieshorrorpodcast.  Take part in our new audience engagement challenge - The Coroner's Report! Comment, share, or interact with any Coroner's Report post on our socials to be featured in an upcoming episode.  Projectile Varmint - keep up with Suzie's film musings on Instagram @projectile__varmint Lonely - read more from Lonely and keep up with her filmstagram chaos @lonelyhorrorclub on Instagram and www.lonelyhorrorclub.com. Original No Bodies Theme music by Jacob Pini. Need music? Find Jacob on Instagram at @jacob.pini for rates and tell him No Bodies sent you!  Leave us a message at (617) 431-4322‬ and we just might answer you on the show! Sources Berndt, R. M., & Tonkinson, R. (2024, April 9). Australian Aboriginal peoples | History, Facts, &  Culture. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal Bernott, K. (2023, February 2). The Elder Futhark runes and their meanings —  SHIELDMAIDEN'S SANCTUM. SHIELDMAIDEN'S SANCTUM.  https://www.shieldmaidenssanctum.com/blog/2019/3/12/the-elder-futhark-runes-and-their-meanings Celtic religion | Druidism, Mythology & Rituals. (1998, September 19). Encyclopedia Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Celtic-religion/Beliefs-practices-and-institutions Folk Horror: An Introduction. (2021, September 16). Folk Horror Revival & Urban Wyrd Project.  https://folkhorrorrevival.com/from-the-forests-fields-furrows-and-further-an-introduction-by-andy-paciorek/ Groeneveld, E., & Doepler, E. (2024). Norse Mythology. World History Encyclopedia.  https://www.worldhistory.org/Norse_Mythology/ Hirai, N. (2024, April 2). Shinto | Beliefs, Gods, Origins, Symbols, Rituals, & Facts. Encyclopedia  Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto Javanese Religion | Encyclopedia.com. (n.d.). https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/java nese-religion Johnson, R. (2024, March 17). ENCYCLOBLEEDIA of folk horror. FANGORIA.  https://www.fangoria.com/original/encyclobleedia-of-folk-horror/ Maison, J. (2022, October 29). Everything there is to know about the folk horror genre.  Videomaker. https://www.videomaker.com/how-to/directing/film-history/everything-there-is-to-know-about-the-folk-horror-genre/ Mohsin, M. (2022, December 22). The legend of Teke Teke. The Business Standard.  https://www.tbsnews.net/splash/legend-teke-teke-111208 Ostberg, R. (2024, March 28). Wendigo | Description, Legend, Creature, Until Dawn, & Facts.  Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/wendigo Scott, J. (2021, October 17). Who are the Jötnar in Norse Mythology? Life in Norway.  https://www.lifeinnorway.net/jotnar-norse-mythology-giants/ Seaver, C., & Seaver, C. (2022, November 7). Biblically accurate angels would actually be pretty  scary. History Defined -.  https://www.historydefined.net/biblically-accurate-angels-would-actually-be-pretty-scary/ Staff, W. (2021, August 23). Erasing Native American culture. Theweek.  https://theweek.com/us/1003904/erasing-native-american-culture The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998a, July 20). Algonquin | Native American, Great  Lakes, Woodland. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Algonquin The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998b, July 20). Canaanite religion | Polytheism,  Rituals, Sacrifices. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canaanite-religion The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024a, March 26). Kabbala | Definition, Beliefs, &  Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kabbala The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024b, March 26). Moloch | Definition & Facts.  Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moloch-ancient-god Turville-Petre, E., & Polomé, E. C. (2024, March 19). Germanic religion and mythology | Gods,  Norse, Map, Polytheism, & Christianity. Encyclopedia Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Germanic-religion-and-mythology Wikipedia contributors. (2024a, February 1). The Book of Abramelin. Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Abramelin Wikipedia contributors. (2024b, March 22). Enochian magic. Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian_magic Winick, S. (2021, February 17). What was the Green Man? | FolkLife Today. The Library of  Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/02/what-was-the-green-man/

Episode 24: Folk Horror Part One This episode was recorded on March 24, 2024 and posted on April 20, 2024.  Content Warning: Light vulgarity. Introduction Welcome to No Bodies Episode 24 Introductions to your Ghosts Hosts with the Most - Lonely of Lonely Horror Club and Projectile Varmint aka Suzie Introductions to our guests Emily & Niamh of Rowan & Pine Today's Topic: Folk Horror Defining Folk Horror What is folk horror? The Unholy Trinity of Folk Horror Experiences with Folklore & Urban Legends This Week's Coroner's Report How do you define folk horror? What is the scariest piece of folklore you've ever been told? Film Discussion Folk Horror Greats The Wickerman (1973) Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) European Folklore The Ritual (2017) Apostle (2018) Thank you to our guests! Follow Emily & Niamh's show Rowan and Pine, whenever you get your podcasts. Emily & Niamh on Instagram at @rowanandpine.  Keep Up with Your Hosts Check out our instagram antics and drop a follow @nobodieshorrorpodcast.  Take part in our new audience engagement challenge - The Coroner's Report! Comment, share, or interact with any Coroner's Report post on our socials to be featured in an upcoming episode.  Projectile Varmint - keep up with Suzie's film musings on Instagram @projectile__varmint Lonely - read more from Lonely and keep up with her filmstagram chaos @lonelyhorrorclub on Instagram and www.lonelyhorrorclub.com. Original No Bodies Theme music by Jacob Pini. Need music? Find Jacob on Instagram at @jacob.pini for rates and tell him No Bodies sent you!  Leave us a message at (617) 431-4322‬ and we just might answer you on the show.  Sources Berndt, R. M., & Tonkinson, R. (2024, April 9). Australian Aboriginal peoples | History, Facts, &  Culture. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal Bernott, K. (2023, February 2). The Elder Futhark runes and their meanings —  SHIELDMAIDEN'S SANCTUM. SHIELDMAIDEN'S SANCTUM.  https://www.shieldmaidenssanctum.com/blog/2019/3/12/the-elder-futhark-runes-and-their-meanings Celtic religion | Druidism, Mythology & Rituals. (1998, September 19). Encyclopedia Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Celtic-religion/Beliefs-practices-and-institutions Folk Horror: An Introduction. (2021, September 16). Folk Horror Revival & Urban Wyrd Project.  https://folkhorrorrevival.com/from-the-forests-fields-furrows-and-further-an-introduction-by-andy-paciorek/ Groeneveld, E., & Doepler, E. (2024). Norse Mythology. World History Encyclopedia.  https://www.worldhistory.org/Norse_Mythology/ Hirai, N. (2024, April 2). Shinto | Beliefs, Gods, Origins, Symbols, Rituals, & Facts. Encyclopedia  Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto Javanese Religion | Encyclopedia.com. (n.d.). https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/java nese-religion Johnson, R. (2024, March 17). ENCYCLOBLEEDIA of folk horror. FANGORIA.  https://www.fangoria.com/original/encyclobleedia-of-folk-horror/ Maison, J. (2022, October 29). Everything there is to know about the folk horror genre.  Videomaker. https://www.videomaker.com/how-to/directing/film-history/everything-there-is-to-know-about-the-folk-horror-genre/ Mohsin, M. (2022, December 22). The legend of Teke Teke. The Business Standard.  https://www.tbsnews.net/splash/legend-teke-teke-111208 Ostberg, R. (2024, March 28). Wendigo | Description, Legend, Creature, Until Dawn, & Facts.  Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/wendigo Scott, J. (2021, October 17). Who are the Jötnar in Norse Mythology? Life in Norway.  https://www.lifeinnorway.net/jotnar-norse-mythology-giants/ Seaver, C., & Seaver, C. (2022, November 7). Biblically accurate angels would actually be pretty  scary. History Defined -.  https://www.historydefined.net/biblically-accurate-angels-would-actually-be-pretty-scary/ Staff, W. (2021, August 23). Erasing Native American culture. Theweek.  https://theweek.com/us/1003904/erasing-native-american-culture The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998a, July 20). Algonquin | Native American, Great  Lakes, Woodland. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Algonquin The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998b, July 20). Canaanite religion | Polytheism,  Rituals, Sacrifices. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canaanite-religion The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024a, March 26). Kabbala | Definition, Beliefs, &  Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kabbala The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024b, March 26). Moloch | Definition & Facts.  Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moloch-ancient-god Turville-Petre, E., & Polomé, E. C. (2024, March 19). Germanic religion and mythology | Gods,  Norse, Map, Polytheism, & Christianity. Encyclopedia Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Germanic-religion-and-mythology Wikipedia contributors. (2024a, February 1). The Book of Abramelin. Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Abramelin Wikipedia contributors. (2024b, March 22). Enochian magic. Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian_magic Winick, S. (2021, February 17). What was the Green Man? | FolkLife Today. The Library of  Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/02/what-was-the-green-man/  

"Crazy Kindness"

Tom Seaver was one of the greatest right-handed power pitchers, the game has ever known. He won 311 games, for four major league clubs, most notably for the Mets, whom he led from last place laughingstocks to an "Amazin" and improbable world championship in 1969. Seaver at work, was a mechanical picture of kinetic grace. He had a smooth, tight windup, and a stride so long and explosive off the rubber, that his right knee often grazed the dirt. He was a fearless leader, always chomping at the bit, to sully his right knee in the next contest. What can you say about Tom Seaver? In one word, he was "Terrific." This week, BKP does a deep dive into the life and career, of this iconic baseball immortal. #TomTerrific #TheFranchise #TomSeaver #NewYorkMets #CincinnatiReds #ChicagoWhiteSox #BostonRedSox #GilHodges #SparkyAnderson #JerryGrote #CleonJones #DickYoung #RodDedeaux #USCTrojans #AtlantaBraves #SolleyHemus #EarlWeaver #HankAaron #NolanRyan #NancySeaver #SeaverVineyards #BigRedMachine

Tom Seaver was one of the greatest right-handed power pitchers, the game has ever known. He won 311 games, for four major league clubs, most notably for the Mets, whom he led from last place laughingstocks to an "Amazin" and improbable world championship in 1969. Seaver at work, was a mechanical picture of kinetic grace. He had a smooth, tight windup, and a stride so long and explosive off the rubber, that his right knee often grazed the dirt. He was a fearless leader, always chomping at the bit, to sully his right knee in the next contest. What can you say about Tom Seaver? In one word, he was "Terrific." This week, BKP does a deep dive into the life and career, of this iconic baseball immortal. #TomTerrific #TheFranchise #TomSeaver #NewYorkMets #CincinnatiReds #ChicagoWhiteSox #BostonRedSox #GilHodges #SparkyAnderson #JerryGrote #CleonJones #DickYoung #RodDedeaux #USCTrojans #AtlantaBraves #SolleyHemus #EarlWeaver #HankAaron #NolanRyan #NancySeaver #SeaverVineyards #BigRedMachine

On April 3, 1966, the New York Mets sign University of Southern California star Tom Seaver to his first contract, including a $50,000 bonus. Seaver had been selected by the Atlanta Braves in the January draft, but Commissioner Spike Eckert voided the deal when he signed a contract after USC's season had already begun. The Mets beat out the Indians and the Phillies in a lottery for Seaver's services.To celebrate listen to Seaver pitch the 10th inning of the 1969 World Series. Read more about Seaver on his page - https://thisdayinbaseball.com/tom-seaver-biography/More about events on April 3 - https://thisdayinbaseball.com/april-3-this-day-in-baseball/Listen to the full game here - https://www.youtube.com/user/ThisDayInBaseball/featured

This week we are joined by out buddy Seaver to play DRUNK TRIVIA for the first time! If you answer correctly you get a point. If you get it wrong you must take a shot! the trivia categories are Wrestling, Movies, TV, & Music! We also discuss some current events, pros and cons of going to the Gathering of the Juggalos, Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson, TNA stealing out gimmicks again, Wrestlemania season, The Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Football and more!Make sure you subscribe so you get every episode automatically! 

"Who is This?"

On December 30th, I hosted a webinar called “How Professional Screenwriters Overcome Writer's Block” and I talked about why story structure is so important in getting past this block. This episode addresses questions you asked in our Q&A session that we didn't have time to answer. There's lots of great info here, make sure you watch.Show NotesA Paper Orchestra on Website: - https://michaeljamin.com/bookA Paper Orchestra on Audible: - https://www.audible.com/ep/creator?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R&irclickid=wsY0cWRTYxyPWQ32v63t0WpwUkHzByXJyROHz00&irgwc=1A Paper Orchestra on Amazon: - https://www.amazon.com/Audible-A-Paper-Orchestra/dp/B0CS5129X1/ref=sr_1_4?crid=19R6SSAJRS6TU&keywords=a+paper+orchestra&qid=1707342963&sprefix=a+paper+orchestra%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-4A Paper Orchestra on Goodreads: - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203928260-a-paper-orchestraFree Writing Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/op/webinar-registration/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Newsletter - https://michaeljamin.com/newsletterAutogenerated TranscriptMichael Jamin:Everyone wants to be a showrunner, which is again, why it's so freakingMichael Jamin:Hard. I want to make all the decisions, but you don't know based on what youMichael Jamin:Don't know what you're doing. Why would you want that? Is it an ego thing you want to tell people you're a showrunner or don't you want to learn? Do you assume? When I was starting off, I didn't want to be a showrunner for 10 years. I didn't want to be a show runner. Like, this is a hard job. I don't know how to do it.Michael Jamin:You are listening to What the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about conversations in writing, art, and creativity. Today's episode is brought to you by my debut collection of True Stories, a paper orchestra available in print, ebook and audiobook to purchase and to support me in this podcast, please visit michael jamin.com/book and now on with the show.Michael Jamin:Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of What the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about? Well, we're doing another q and a from one of our webinars and my special guest host is Kevin Lewandowski, script coordinator extraordinaire. He helps out with a lot of my projects, social media projects here and he's subbing in for Phil and he's doing a great job. So welcome Kevin.Kevin Lewandowski:Thank you again for having me.Michael Jamin:You screwed it up. You already screwed. No, I'm only messing with you. You're doing great. Thanks.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, I'm not going to apologize for not being Phil anymore, so fair Phil. But no, I'm happy to be here and this how professional screenwriters overcome Writer's Block is one of my favorite topics to talk about. Oh good. So I think it's super, super interesting and there's been, when we dive into it, I'll say my favorite line that you always say that just unlocked the excuse sometimes we use for when we have writer's block.Michael Jamin:I'm curious to know what your favorite line is.Kevin Lewandowski:Alright, I have so many Michael Jainism that I think my all time favorite is Shit Happening is not a story.Michael Jamin:By the way, we have that on merch now, guys. Yeah, we do. We got merch and you can go get it@michaeljamin.com/merch where all the crazy things that I say, you can get it on a on mug or a notebook or whatever. We got merge. Go get it. I should have plugged it before, but I forgot. But anyway, these questions came from our last webinar that we did and if you're not on my webinar list, sign up for it's free. Go to michael jamin.com/webinar and you can sign up. You can be invited when we do our next one. And so yeah, Kevin, we had a lot of questions people asked. We didn't have time to get all the questions answered and so here they are nKevin Lewandowski:Here we go. These first couple of questions are going to be about kind of course related stuff. So this first one is from David Zilo. I feel like we see his name a lot. I feel like he comes to these webinars a lot and ask a lot of questions. The question is, how does the story structure change when say a character does not, cannot achieve a goal in the tragic story, for example,Michael Jamin:Doesn't change at all. It's the same old story structure that we use. Whether the character achieves their goal at the end or not, it's the same damn thing.Kevin Lewandowski:Yep.Michael Jamin:The guys you're just asking, he's just asking at the end, what if the last two minutes are different, so what? Nothing.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, I think it's always more interesting for me when that character doesn't achieve their goal. I think the breakup with, but yeah, Vince v and Jennifer Ston, they don't stay together in the end. No. It's one of the few rom-coms that I think they decide to go off the beaten path and not haveMichael Jamin:Them end often. We call this the joyful defeat in a movie or the character doesn't get what they want, but they get what they need. Yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:Next question, Rob. Robert, when is the latest the stakes should be made clear?Michael Jamin:The sooner the better because the story does not start until the audience knows what's at stake. And so until then you're boring them and you're daring them to change the channel or read another script or do something else with their time. So the sooner the better, and that's a note you'll get from a network executive. They'll always say, can we start the story sooner? And so wherever you have it, they'll give you that note. If it's on page four, they'll say page two.Kevin Lewandowski:In your experience, is there a realistic, for instance, if they were like, oh, it's on page three, we need it on page two, have you ever run into We just can't. We need a little bit of room to be able toMichael Jamin:SetKevin Lewandowski:SomethingMichael Jamin:Up. Absolutely. And so you'll move it up a little bit, but sometimes there's only so much you can do.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. But yeah, like you said, they'll always say, oh, can we start this sooner? Yeah, we'll take a look at it. We'll take a look at that. Coley Marie, can the goal change or appear to change?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yes. And often it sometimes will. It's like because something happens and what the character thought they wanted is not what they want anymore. So yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:So how do you feel about, because sometimes it's, is there a fear of if you start writing it too much of a change, can it almost feel like, oh, okay, now we're following a different story to,Michael Jamin:It usually happens kind of like an act top of act three with the character discoveries. This thing that I wanted turns out I don't really want any. I got what I thought I wanted and it's not what I want. So that's usually late in the script.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. So you're saying in top of act two, if they wanted to,Michael Jamin:It wouldn't be top ofKevin Lewandowski:Act ride a pony at the end of act one. Top of Act two should be like, well, I want to win this prize at the CarnivalMichael Jamin:Now. Yeah, top of act two is one. Well, this is what we teach in the course. What tab of Act two would be, so yeah,Kevin Lewandowski:Arius Kennedy. So should we avoid high stakes conflicts?Michael Jamin:No. The higher stakes are good. High stakes are good. Higher the stakes are better. You want to avoid low stakes conflicts.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, low stakes conflicts are not that interesting. Heather Marie, vital, how do we find conflicts for TV shows with main characters without getting stale? That's kind of the job of a writer.Michael Jamin:Yeah, that's right. That's exactly, that's the job without getting stale, it's like, and again, this is not her concern. Concern. Your concern is to do it once and then let's a showrunner worried about it getting stale. Right now your job is to write one great scriptKevin Lewandowski:Are Barry, when it comes to an episodic show, there's the overall show conflict and then the mini conflicts of the episodes. So I'm assuming they're talking about, there's the A story, the B story, the C story,Michael Jamin:Or maybe they're talking about the overall arch of the show. I'm watching Show Gun right now and I'm only on episode one, so it seems like the overarching stories, how is this one? I dunno if he called the futile Lord going to maintain his position in the kingdom, but within each episode he has a challenge that he has to overcome, so to make that larger prop goal happen.Kevin Lewandowski:Meg Parker Wilson, when you are writing a TV show, do you plot out the entire story pilot to finale and then create all those moments episode by episode in terms of the arc and the structure?Michael Jamin:No, it's too much work. It's too difficult. What you really, and again, this is not something that she needs to worry about, but maybe she's just asking me out of curiosity, we'll come up with a pilot and we'll have that pilot broken. We know what that story is going to be and then we have a vague idea of what season one might be. But I'm talking vague, just enough to bullshit our way through this because it'll change when we're breaking the story. As we discover writing and digging into the character, we'll discover something that might be better. So what are we going to do? Not do it just because we said we were talking out of our ass that this other thing was going to be better,Kevin Lewandowski:Right? Yeah. I think Vince Gilian, creator of Breaking Bad, I think he says something very similar. Yeah, we kind of have an idea, but part of going through different story ideas is you discover stuff along the way. Jesse Pinkman was only supposed to be four or five episodes, and then now they realize how much chemistry those two characters had. And could you imagine, would that show have worked if they would've killed off Jesse Pinkman? Because they said, well, we said our pitch, we have to kill em off after five episodes. We have to stick with that.Michael Jamin:I'm always surprised that people don't know that and they're worried about breaking the entire series. It's like, but breaking one episode of television when I'm talking breaking, figuring out what the story is and writing the outline in the script is so much work. How could you possibly do all that in advance and you have a team of writers doing all that work.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Sometimes you'll see people that'll talk about, yeah, I have this TV series I wrote and I have the first eight episodes done, and I'm like, oh, that's a lot to do withMichael Jamin:No theyKevin Lewandowski:Don't. One person,Michael Jamin:They really don't. They might have enough for one episode and they broke it up into eight episodes. They don't know any better. That's very common. I thinkKevin Lewandowski:I remember there's another example on friends that one of the writers was talking about. It's probably one of the more iconic moments of the whole series is when Ross is getting married to Emily and Rachel shows up and he ends up, he accidentally says Rachel's name, I Ross take the Rachel. And the writer was saying that wasn't anything we would've ever thought of. It was one day we were rehearsing or something like that. And he accidentally said the wrong name. And as writers, we all laughed and we thought that's super funny. He was like, we had the aha moment of like, oh, we need to include this. And that little moment had so much of a change for the rest of the series. Now it turned into, well, Emily will make them now. Okay. It's clear that Ross is still in love with Rachel and Emily. She's only going to come to New York if Ross stops talking to Rachel. So it was just that little moment of discovery and what would that scene or storyline have been if Ross married EmilyMichael Jamin:And they discovered that by accident and rehearsal and what are you going to do not do with this and that, that moment everyone gasped in the audience and people at home gasped. So what you not going to do it?Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, and I don't think in their pitch they're like, okay, season five we're going to have Ross marry this British girl, but when he is actually up there, we're going to have him say Rachel's thing. It was just discovery.Michael Jamin:You don't think that far in advanced. You can't. It's too much work.Kevin Lewandowski:Let's see. So this next question from Sarah, there's a bit of terminology from your course, so I'm going to not use that terminology, but does the end of act two have to be in direct relation to the conflict with the introduced in the first act? Can it be attributed to a different relationship conflict?Michael Jamin:No, no, no. Pretty much no. If you're telling one story that's your A story or your act two break to be on the A story. If it's coming out of nowhere and it's like, what's this? It's not going to feel earned. It's going to be like, what's going on?Kevin Lewandowski:Rob, Robert again, how do we make funny? Because it can be so subjective.Michael Jamin:Yeah. One thing I say is in my course, I can't teach you how to be funny. I can maybe teach you how to be a little funnier. I could give you tips that will help you be a little funnier, but if you're not funny, I can't help you be funny. It's okay. You can write drama. There's plenty of work for drama writers and just write what you're really good at. But it is a little heartbreaking. I see sometimes when people, I want to be accommodator, but you're not funny, so you don't have that in you. That's okay. Write some other stuff. Drama's great too.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. One of my other favorite things you say, and this wasn't the one I was talking about earlier, is you have to find new ways to say old things in a funny way. Yeah. Every version of a joke has been told to a degree. So how do you make it relevant to today and your story and your characters and make it so it hasn't been heard that way before.Michael Jamin:You know what though? I just got an email from, I don't know how I'm on this list, whatever. I got an email from a writer and she's doing a public appearance and she said, come see me the headline, come see me. I don't bite. And I'm like, oh God, you're supposed to be a writer. Don't tell me you don't bite. That's so unoriginal. That's so clammy. That's not something a writer should ever say. Find a new way to say, I don't bite. I was so unimpressed. I was like, oh God, you just embarrass yourself. Don't do that. You're a writer. You have to find a new way to say old things.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. Okay, so these are kind of more craft related questions, Nathan Shapiro, what are the rookie mistakes you see new writers making both in writing as well as from the business side. What is something you wish you had known when you were starting out? And then part two, which I think this is actually part three, do all supporting lead characters need an obstacle and goal? Or is it sufficient that they're simply there to facilitate the main hero's journey?Michael Jamin:This guy's gotKevin Lewandowski:Questions. We'll split this up. So the first part was what are the rookie mistakes you see new writers making both in writing as well as from the business side.Michael Jamin:I mean, a rookie mistake in the writer's room is what we call when they bitch instead of pitch. The expression is pitch, don't bitch. So it's very easy for a new writer to shoot down an idea in the room without having a better one because it's hard to come up with a better one. So that's a rookie thing. I don't care if the idea on the table is bad, if you don't have a better one, shut up because it's what are you there for? You're not a critic. Your job is to make it better, not to say this is bad. AndKevin Lewandowski:Also don't defend your joke if the showrunner doesn't think it's good. If you put something, they're like, ah, I don't really know. Okay, that's it.Michael Jamin:Don'tKevin Lewandowski:Fight for it. Don't just let it go. Think of a better one.Michael Jamin:What was the other question?Kevin Lewandowski:So the next one is, what is something you wish you had known when you were starting up?Michael Jamin:Well, to be honest, everything that I teach in the course, I didn't know any of it.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, I think it's just, yeah, I mean, again, Michael's course has unlocked a lot for me and someone that's not a very intelligent person, he really simplifies it.Michael Jamin:Yeah, make it easy.Kevin Lewandowski:It's easy to understand. I don't understand the terminology of progressive complications and sight incidents, all that stuff. IMichael Jamin:Don't understand it either.Kevin Lewandowski:Any sense to me? I won't tell you what the terms are that Michael uses. You'll have to take this course, but they're much easier toMichael Jamin:Understand. Yeah, I think writing should be simple. It's not easy, but it's simple.Kevin Lewandowski:And then the last part of this question, do all supporting lead characters need an obstacle and goal, or is it sufficient that they're simply there to facilitate the main hero's journey?Michael Jamin:Well, often they are an obstacle in the main hero's journey. Sometimes if you don't give 'em too much to play, they can be the Greek chorus, but generally every character in a scene has to have an attitude on something, and if they don't wire in the scene, if they don't have, they're not just there to stand around. Yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:So do you also think when in the context of the story structure that you teach in your class, those B stories that aren't necessarily as emotionally empowering as what the A story is, do you think it should still follow all those structure points or just enough or doesn't really matter?Michael Jamin:No, a b story doesn't carry the same emotional weight as the A story. So it doesn't actually have to carry, it doesn't have to be structured the way an A story is, but stuff does have to happen and it can't be random. It has to be on that story that we're following.Kevin Lewandowski:Okay. Next question. If it's an ensemble cast, like Orange is a new black or stranger things, does each character have to have a stake or only a main character? So very similar to thisMichael Jamin:Question. Yeah, usually you're following. I mean, I haven't watched Stranger Things in a long time. Maybe they have two or three running storylines in each episode. I don't know. They probably do.Kevin Lewandowski:Who is the hero in horror movies like Friday the 13th? Is it Jason or the person who survives at the end?Michael Jamin:Well, you're not rooting for Jason. You're not rooting for him to murder everybody. And again, I haven't seen those Friday the 13th movies, but you're rooting for the person in the summer camp.Kevin Lewandowski:Michael. Is there such thing as an anti-hero?Michael Jamin:Yeah, of course there is, and I talk about that, but the problem is I think it's unnecessarily complicated. What's interesting, an anti-hero and a hero. Why don't you just call it a hero and make it easier on yourself? Oh, because your anti-hero is a little bit unlikeable or a little bit dirty or villainous. Well, that's okay. There's still a hero.Kevin Lewandowski:I think there was an example you used of if you're writing something about the devil, him being what we all think the devil is, that's not interesting. You make him where he has compassion with some things and you give him layers like Sopranos. You talk about the example as well, and I think it's those villains are, they're the hero in their own story. We may not agree with it. They're the hero in their own story though. Yeah,Michael Jamin:I think Tony Swan, I don't think he's an anti-hero. I think he's a hero.Kevin Lewandowski:Okay, next question. Do you have to know the end when you start the story? Can it change?Michael Jamin:And often it does. You'll get often it does. Often it does, but usually when we're breaking a story on the board in the writer's room, no one sent off to outline or script until we know what the ending is. But it's not uncommon to get a draft back and you go, you know what? This ending isn't working. Let's figure out a new Act three.Kevin Lewandowski:And in your experience, do you think for something like the ending doesn't feel right, do you think that was potentially because it wasn't broken in the best way? Or do you think the writer didn't maybe necessarily deliver the dialogue the right way?Michael Jamin:Well, often problems in act three requires solutions in Act one. So in other words, it wasn't set up right. The ending wasn't set up early, and so it's unusual to say, okay, all we have to do is fix Act three. No, you got to fix all of it.Kevin Lewandowski:And that's when you have the really late nights and you do dinner in the writer's room, which everyone hates when that PA comes around is All right. What does everyone want for dinner?Michael Jamin:Yep.Michael Jamin:You are listening to What the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about? Today's episode is brought to you by my new book, A Paper Orchestra, A collection of True Stories. John Mayer says, it's fantastic. It's multi timal. It runs all levels of the pyramid at the same time. His knockout punches are stinging, sincerity, and carcass Review says Those who appreciate the power of simple stories to tell us about human nature or who are bewitched by a storyteller who has mastered his craft will find a delightful collection of vignettes, a lovely anthology that strikes a perfect balance between humor and poignancy. So my podcast is not advertiser supported. I'm not running ads here. So if you'd like to support me or the podcast, come check out my book, go get an ebook or a paperback, or if you really want to treat yourself, check out the audio book. Go to michael jamin.com/book, and now back to our showKevin Lewandowski:From Rachel. It helps to do homework before even writing. Yes. If you're new to fantasy, read some fantasy scripts or books first.Michael Jamin:Sure, a lot as much as you can, but I'd also ask you why you want to write fantasy then, if you've never read any or what's attracting to you, to you if you don't even know anything about it.Kevin Lewandowski:Next question. What's with the job titles that writers end up with? What do the different kinds of jobs actually cover?Michael Jamin:So there's different levels to writers. They're just ranks and in terms of how much it's big pay grades basically. So the lowest level writer is called a staff writer. Even though everyone, it's confusing because every writer on staff is a staff writer, but the lowest level writer has the title of staff writer. Then the next higher up is called story editor, then executive story editor, then co-producer, producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer, executive producer, the executive producer's the showrunner, and so they're the boss and everyone else. They're just different levels that determines how much you're going to get paid. Often it determines how much responsibility you have. If the showrunner leaves the room, often it's the co-executive producer who will run the room in their proxy or they'll do the set, they'll work on the set, they'll do whatever that's based on their experience. But in terms of job responsibilities, other than that, it's really up to the S to determine how much they want. Maybe they'll say if someone's a producer, they may let them go to the set on their own. I mean, it just depends on the showrunner, what they want them to do.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. One of the shows I worked on, I think we talked about this in the last podcast, Steve Rudnick, who wrote Space Jam and Santa Claus movies. He was a supervising producer on The Muppets, and he spent a lot of time on set and he really liked it. It's just fascinating to watch how those puppeteers canMichael Jamin:DoKevin Lewandowski:Their stuff. Next question from Steven. Can stream of consciousness work for screenwriting?Michael Jamin:Sounds terrible to me. I'm not a fan of stream of consciousness. I'm not really interested in reading your thoughts. If you're going to take me someplace, take me by the hand and lead me there. To be honest, just going to say it right now, I feel stream of consciousness is masturbatory. I feel like it's for yourself and no one else, but I could be. Someone else may enjoy it.Kevin Lewandowski:So when you say hold my hand, because I think there's also this, people sometimes assume, well, well, I don't want to put that on the page. It's just going to take a page. The audience will get, the audience will understand what I'm going for, and I think is there that fine line of figuring out, okay, what do I need to hold the hand of the audience through versus what do I think they're going to be able to pick up?Michael Jamin:Yeah. I like to write. When I'm writing, I like to check in with the audience, let 'em know. Yeah. When I say hold their hand, let them know. Remind them what's at stake here. This character wants, I'd like to just check. So it's not a mystery. Now, often that's the difference between sometimes you'll see a really smart writing, they won't kind of do that. They expect a little more of the audience. It just depends on what kind of show you're doing. If you're doing a broad silly show, you check in with the audience knowing that that's not what they're there for. They're there for something silly and fun. You got to keep checking in with them. But I just saw a zone of interest, which is really smart, and they didn't check in with the audience, and that might win. The Oscars a wonderful movie also. That's not a movie for the masses. I don't think it's going to be a movie that's a blockbuster. It was a great movie though.Kevin Lewandowski:What are the stakes of 2001 a Space Odyssey?Michael Jamin:God, I haven't seen it in forever. What were the stakes was the guy I am trying to remember. They went on a spaceship. They had a mission, but then the computer was sabotaging the mission and there was going to basically, I think the computer was going to kill them, basically take 'em on a mission that would kill them. Is that that I remember. So the stakes were life or death.Kevin Lewandowski:Those are pretty mistakes.Michael Jamin:And how do we defeat the computer? Who's the boss of the whole thing? How do we fool the computer? I believe that's what it was, right? It was a long time ago.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen that, and I guess if they don't, they die.Michael Jamin:I think so, yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:Next question. How would you recommend doing a man versus a system conflict, like perhaps is seen in Cool Hand Luke?Michael Jamin:Well, I mean, yeah, that was the whole thing. He wanted to get out of prison. They were trying to, and again, I haven't seen that in 10, 12 years. I don't remember. He was in prison and the system was trying to break him down. Right? That's like anything you escape from Alcatraz to the same thing. How do we get out of this prison? So yeah, but I'm trying to remember in Cool Luke, there was probably a face to the system. It wasn't like a system. I'm guessing it there was a warden or something, or there were other inmates who was the face of the system trying to remember. They called me off guard.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. So I was thinking about when you said I was Shawshank Redemption, and I think it's, yeah, there's the system, but then kind of the warden represents the system. In that context,Michael Jamin:There was the warden and then the warden's proxy, the guard, and there were definitely, it wasn't so much the system. They were faces of the system. Yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:Okay. Can the conflict be hidden from the hero? The hero thinks they want control money, but they really don't want to be alone because they were abandoned as a kid.Michael Jamin:Well, I mean, all of that is fine, but your hero is not going to want a hero. Wanting money is not a reputable goal. Who cares? So what your hero wants it sounds like, is companionship. If they're abandoned or or whatever. That's what they're really wanting. So yeah, I mean, all of that is fine, but I'm not sure why it's not hidden for the, yeah,Kevin Lewandowski:I think thinking about breaking bad, I think a lot of people would think, well, Walter White wanted money. No, that'sMichael Jamin:Not what he wanted. Walter White wanted to provide for his family. He was going to be dead soon, so it wasn't the money he wanted. What he wanted was very reputable. He wants to give his family something so they could live when he's dead to, because he can't provide for them. So it wasn't like he wanted a new Ferrari,Kevin Lewandowski:And I think that slightly eventually morphed into he just wants to maintain being powerful.Michael Jamin:Well, then it turned into something else. Then he went down this path of it was about power and control, and he went down that, but that was only seasons into it.Kevin Lewandowski:AI and equalizer for skill and creativity in this competitive era of artists?Michael Jamin:I don't think so. I think ai, I guess it's a cheat code if you want to be a writer, if you wanted to be a race car driver, you'd learn how to race, car drive, and you'd go to courses and classes and you'd be really good at shifting and all that stuff and understand the apex of a curve and how to attack a curve. Or I suppose you could get behind the wheel of a Tesla and put it on autopilot and you could just fall asleep. But why do you want to be a race car driver then if that's what you aspire to do? Do you just want to be a dummy in the wheel of the car?Kevin Lewandowski:I think one of the other things you always say too is AI may never be able to write true human emotion and never be able to really write what my personal stories have been my life. And I think until it can do that, I think we're fine.Michael Jamin:Yeah, we'll see. They're doing some, I guess, crazy amazing things, and I don't know. We'll see. But I'm not sure. I don't know why you or any other aspiring writer would want that. I would think you would want to root against that.Kevin Lewandowski:Oh yeah.Michael Jamin:I think, don't you want to write stories? Don't you want to be the author of the stories, don't you? Isn't that why you want to be a writer, to take what's inside of you and express it in a way that entertains people? Or do you want to be just the person who plugs the computer in the morning and say You're a writer?Kevin Lewandowski:And I think about the writer strike we all went through, and that was a huge topic of conversation, and writers took a sacrifice to stop this from happening to help protect writers that are going to be coming up. And I think it's probably going to be an ongoing battle for a while.Michael Jamin:Yeah, the world's changing fast. Yeah. Scary.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. Too fast.Michael Jamin:Yeah, too fast.Kevin Lewandowski:Is it possible to have two showrunners attached to one project, the creator of the show, and one more experienced showrunner?Michael Jamin:No. I mean, they're not going to be equal. I mean, I suppose anything's possible, but it's very unlikely. I've been on shows where someone, a younger writer created it and then they assigned a showrunner. And the showrunner on that one show, the showrunner was very gracious, and he included this young writer and a lot of the decisions, and it wasn't like he made it a partnership as best as he could, but at the end of the day, he was still the boss. Someone has to be the boss, but he was very gracious about how he treated this young writer and he really wanted to mentor him. But again, when you're a mentor, that means more than the other person.Kevin Lewandowski:And you and Seaver have run shows together, right?Michael Jamin:Yeah. But we're a partnership, so that's a little different. But this person is talking about one person created another one. Everyone wants to be a showrunner, which is again, why it's so freaking hard. I want to make all the decisions, but you don't know based on what you don't know what you're doing. Why would you want that? Is it an ego thing you want to tell people you're a showrunner or don't you want to learn? Do you assume? When I was starting off, I didn't want to be a showrunner for 10 years. I didn't want to be a showrunner. This is a hard job. I don't know how to do it. And then you get to the point in your career where it's like, it's either that or unemployment. So I'm like, all right, sign me up for showrunner.Kevin Lewandowski:What, even with that, the rooms I've been in, you just see how many meetings that the showrunners have to be in that aren't necessarily directly related to the writing and the story. It's costume stuff, it's hair and makeup stuff. It's set pieces. It's all these different things that they have the final, final approval on andMichael Jamin:And that's the easy part, all that stuffKevin Lewandowski:Breaking in. Any advice for being hired in a writer's room without coming up with an original show idea? Or do you have to bring an original idea to an interview?Michael Jamin:No, you don't have to. You can write a script on an existing show. You can write a great Game of Thrones spec script, and as long as the showrunner wants to read it and thinks it's great, you're hired.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. Do you think in today's world, from what I've heard, spec scripts sort of aren't really a thing anymore. Do you think a lot of that has to do with just because there's so much out there that if I'm like, here, Michael, here's a specs on whatever show, there's a real chance that I've never heard of the show.Michael Jamin:Yes, that's exactly, and that's why, that's why I think it's unfair. I mean, life is unfair, but that's why I think it's harder today than it was back when I was breaking in. Because you could write a spec sip on an existing show on er, and everyone knew what ER was. Yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:It's interesting too, because then I've heard you say this too before, if you're running whatever show and it's in season two or season three, and you're interviewing me and you read my original pilot, you're more like, well, this is great, but I want to know, can you write my show? That's what I want you for. Your original pilot is cool, has nothing to do with my show. I want to know. Can you write my show? Do you have the character's personalities down?Michael Jamin:And it's harder to create an original show, a pilot. It's much harder, I feel, than creating a spec script of an existing show. That's the days we live in. What are we going to do?Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, I think that might've been all of our questions for right now, but I did want to say, so the one thing I always take away when we talk about this is when writers overcome writer's block, something you always say is Writer's block isn't really a thing for professional writers. You don't get to say, I'm going to go to the beach for three days and clear my head. And if you're really struggling with the writer's block, chances are you don't necessarily have the structure down to a point. And that'll help unlock a lot of problems for you. And that's what Michael scor teaches is those structure points and what you need to know. And I think there's little instances of writer's block where if I'm just kind of like I'm a little frustrated, go for a walk for 15, 20 minutes, and I live by a mall here in Glendale, and it wasn't too long ago, I remember I was walking and I was just thinking about something.I saw these two people, and it looked like it was a boyfriend and a girlfriend, and she had her Starbucks, and she was taking a picture of it, and someone bumped into her and she dropped it everywhere. And I just happened to see this interaction. And the guy, his reaction was kind of like, well, and I thought that was so fascinating because I was like, okay, what's the relationship between these two people? Because this is definitely not a first date. Because if it was a first date, he'd be like, oh my gosh, let me go get you a new one. And so then I was like, okay, so have they been dating for a while? Okay, then it's like, okay, well, if that was his reaction, has this happened so many times? He's just sick of her shit, always posting it to Instagram. He's like, I told you this was going to happen.And then I start kind of building this story in my head of what if this is her moment where she's like, I'm going to break up with you. This is bullshit. You're laughing at something bad. That happened to me. And I remember coming back to my apartment that day, and I felt like more just relaxed and calm. I saw this live event unfold that I don't think anyone else was watching, but I just happened to see this unfold. And I don't think that was anything I could have really written. I think I would've wrote like, oh, she drops it. He picks it up. He wants to impress her because he wants to get laid later. But his reaction was like, yeah, I told him this shit happens all the time. Stop taking pictures. Just drink the damn coffee.Michael Jamin:Yeah, it's good. You're observing. That's what you should be doing.Kevin Lewandowski:It's good. When I worked at a theme park,Get a lot of material there from people, a lot of different personalities, I used to jot down a lot of stuff I used to see and just how people would interact. And it's nice to, when you kind of feel those moments of writing and you're kind of stuck, go back to those notes you took in that can help unlock something. I know you always show on your webinars, you have your black notebook that you've been carrying around your entire career and things people have taught you along the way, and you write 'em down in there. And that's just, that's gold right there.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Write it down. Keep a list of your, like what you're saying. Those specific things are just interesting.Kevin Lewandowski:And because you always say too, when you're driving, you don't really listen to the radio or anything. You just kind of talk with notes on your phone just to get it out there and start thinking about it. AndMichael Jamin:Yeah, if I'm working on a story, I won't listen to the radio. I'll just obsess over this one moment I'm trying to fix in the story. And if I get it, great. Now, that was my writing for that morning was fixing that one problem. Yeah.Kevin Lewandowski:Well, I think that is all we have question wise, Michael. WeMichael Jamin:DidKevin Lewandowski:It. We did it.Michael Jamin:We did it. Thank you everyone. What else do we got to talk about? If you want to come to our free screenwriting webinars, you could sign up at michael jamin.com/webinar if you'd like to. I got a newsletter. Get on that Michael jamin.com/newsletter. And of course, we're unplugging my book, which I worked on for four and a half years. It's called the Paper Orchestra, and it asks the question, what if it's the smallest, almost forgotten moments that are the ones that shape us most? And someone asked me on the live, if I could explain it a little better what it is. And I think what the book, one way to explain it is imagine they're very personal and intimate stories, and I'm sharing them as if, imagine me reading my diary, but performing it out loud knowing that you are going to be watching it. And so I'm going to say it in a way that's going to be entertain you, but it's still my diary. But it's structured in a way, so it's like, I know I have an audience here. And so that's kind of what it is. They're stories, they're true stories, but hopefully they're told in a way that is engaging and makes you laugh and hopefully makes you feel something. It's more importantly.Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah. Yeah. So go to michael jamin.com, check out his book. There's a bunch of, just go to his website, michael jamin.com, click around. There's webinars, there's the podcast. Get uploaded there. There's a couple of free lessons you can download, scripts he's written. There's so much there. And like he said, that you can get his book there and you can get a signed copy from him on his website. And it's Amazon. It was when you originally launched it, it was number one in five different categories on Amazon, so it was pretty wild. So yeah, check out the book, join the class, join our webinars, follow Michael on social media. He's still giving out free tips and trying to help people. And yeah, that's all I got.Michael Jamin:Excellent. Alright. Thank you Kevin. Great job. And if they want to follow you, Kevin, where do they follow you on social media?Kevin Lewandowski:Yeah, so it's Kevin Lewandowski. It's a long last name, I'm sure after you just type the first five letters, it'll pop up.Michael Jamin:Excellent. Alright everyone, until next week, keep writing.Michael Jamin:Wow. I did it again. Another fantastic episode of What the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about? How do I do it week after week? Well, I don't do it with advertiser supported money. I tell you how I do it. I do it with my book. If you'd like to support the show, if you'd like to support me, go check out my new book, A Paper Orchestra. It asked the question, what if it's the smallest, almost forgotten moments that are the ones that shape us most? Laura Sanoma says, good storytelling also leads us to ourselves, our memories, our beliefs, personal and powerful. I loved the Journey, and Max Munic, who was on my show says, as the father of daughters, I found Michael's understanding of parenting and the human condition to be spot on. This book is a fantastic read. Go check it out for yourself. Go to michael jamin.com/book. Thank you all and stay tuned. More. Great stuff coming next week.

You can watch the VIDEO version of this episode here: Retro Movie Geek: Ep. 330 - The Running Man (1987) Movie Review (youtube.com) On this episode, the Retro Movie Geek crew is joined by Chris "The Seavage" Seaver (check out more from Chris here, here, and here), and they're geeking out over The Running Man (1987) and Arnold and the cast Arnold and his one-liners a short PSA about queefing over-the-top fun-filled action and much, much more! Synopsis: Arnold Schwarzenegger is running for his life in the high-tech futuristic action-adventure The Running Man. Co-starring Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Dweezil Zappa, Mick Fleetwood, Jim Brown, Jesse “The Body” Ventura and, in a critically acclaimed performance, Family Feud host Richard Dawson. The year is 2019. Television is now ruling people's lives. In the 21st Century, the most popular “audience participation” game show is “The Running Man” - where convicts can win pardons instead of “parting gifts”, by defeating murderous henchmen known as “stalkers”. The stalkers haven't had much of a challenge lately... until Ben Richards came along. Wrongly convicted of slaughtering 1500 innocent people, Richards is the next contestant to fight for his life... and his freedom. When Running Man host Damon Killian says “Come on down!”, be prepared to pay with your life! But Ben Richards isn't going down without a fight. Off Schwarzenegger goes into the burned-out sections of Los Angeles to face four of Killian's ace stalkers: Subzero, wielding his razor-sharp hockey sticks; Buzzsaw, the maniacal motorcycle-riding slasher; Dynamo, practicing his deadly electric shock treatment; and Fireball with his mighty flame-throwing arsenal. Now, the entire country is glued to the tube in a heart-pounding “sudden death” battle! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: If you'd like to support Chris' WELLSVILLE NIGHTS project (of course you do) click HERE! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: LISTENER FEEDBACK: Leave us your voicemail feedback at (484) 577-3876. Check out Darrell's other cool podcasts here. Check out Peter's Retro Reviews over at ForgottenFlix.com here. Check out The Forgotten Flix Podcast here. Special thanks to Kevin Spencer for the fantastic show logo! Special thanks to Hayden for the use of his fantastic music for our opening theme this episode! You can check out more from this amazing artist here! Special thanks to Retro Promenade for the use of music from the album Carpenter. Music use permitted under a Creative Commons license. CLICK HERE and get a copy of the album and support these fantastic artists!

"Eureka!"

On October 28th, I hosted a webinar called "How To Write A Great Story," where I talked about how to come up with interesting and unique story ideas, as well as how tapping into your everyday life interactions with people can help with this. This episode addresses questions you asked in our Q&A session that we didn't have time to answer. There's lots of great info here, make sure you watch.Show NotesFree Writing Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/op/webinar-registration/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Newsletter - https://michaeljamin.com/newsletterAutogenerated TranscriptMichael Jamin:Yeah, you better figure that out because your story needs to be about one thing everyone wants to throw in the kitchen sink. And it's about this, but it's also about this, but it also has elements of this. It's like, no, no, you don't know what your story is. You got a hot mess. You can't kitchen sink it. Your story's about one thing. And if you think it's about two things, congratulations. Now you have a sequel or you have another episode, but your story's about one thing. And if you think I'm making it up, read stories that you've enjoyed and ask yourself the same question. What is this about you're listening to? What the hell is Michael Jamin talking about? I'll tell you what I'm talking about. I'm talking about creativity, I'm talking about writing, and I'm talking about reinventing yourself through the arts. Hey everyone, welcome back to What the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about? And today I am answering your questions and I'm back here with Phil. Welcome back, Phil,Phil Hudson:Good to be here. Thank you forMichael Jamin:Having me. We had a delay because I borrowed some of Phil's mic equipment for a few weeks and then I gave it back to him with the wrong card. And then Phil, you learned a lesson. The lesson is no good deed goes unpunished.Phil Hudson:Oh man, I feel like's. I'mMichael Jamin:Happy to have taught you that lesson. ThankPhil Hudson:You for teaching me that lesson. I feel like the theme of every story I've ever written is that you get screwed either way. Just so everyone knows. Sometimes high tech is low tech and we have these awesome zoom recorders and they only allow you to have a 32 megabyte SD card. And then the American way of gluttony. We bought massive SD cards for the podcast, missed an SD card somewhere. SoMichael Jamin:Here we're won't run, but we're back and we made it work. We had a little delay. And so today I have these webinars every three weeks or so where I talk to people about writing. And anyone's welcome to join. It's free, go to michaeljamn.com/webinar for the next one. And we have a rotating list of topics that I cover and they're all writing related. And so these are some of the questions I didn't have time to answer during these webinars.Phil Hudson:And you are often testing new subjects too, so if you've attended them in the past, make sure you come sign up so you can get into those.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Alright, well, we've got several topics and as we do, I tend to group these together based on subject matter, and these are raw questions just ask during the podcast. So I apologize in advance for ruining people's names and mispronouncing everything, but let's start with craft. I think that's the thing people care a lot about is how do they get better at writing? And s sl junk indie author asks, how does the story structure fluctuate depending on genre, I should say too, this is from your podcast, how to Write a Great Story, which is one of your MyMichael Jamin:Webinar. My webinar. YourPhil Hudson:Webinar, yeah, yeah. Excuse me. Your webinar, how to Write a Great Story, which is one of your most popular webinars that we have. So if you haven't signed up for that, go do that the next time it's up. So how does the story structure fluctuate? Depending on genre, if I'm writing a horror, but I'm used to fantasy, what are some things I need to consider when structuring my story?Michael Jamin:I really don't think there's that much of a difference, to be honest. I think if you're writing a mystery that's different, and I think writing mysteries, people do it wrong all the time. Rich are a little harder to do, but you're just telling the story structure is very similar. You're telling a scary story. A horror story is just a scary story. A fantasy is just, it is a fantastical story, but they're just stories. I mean, everyone gets hung up on these genres. You get to decide the tone and the tone of your story is scary or fantastical, but it's still a story.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Something that you told me privately that I think is interesting for everybody listening, you were approached by a publisher who said, we want to make you the next Save the Cat. We want you to publish this book series, and you've never read any of those things. But for those of us who have, this is commonly taught, what are the tropes of your genre? What are the things in your genre? What is the story structure of your genre? And it's like you read between the lines and it's like what you've said many times. You're taking something apart and reassembling that and it's not the right way. You need to start with structure and then move forward. It's the same reason you do a foundation and then a frame, and then you do the rest of the house.Michael Jamin:You can paint the house any color you want, and that's whether it's scary or funny or dramatic or whatever. That's just color of paint. But the house still looks the same for the framing, still looks the same regardless of what paint you want to put on it.Phil Hudson:Awesome. Just Mason May. How does someone overcome the concern that our work won't live up to its potential?Michael Jamin:Oh, it never does. To get over it, you'll never be happy. You'll never be, oh, I should have done it. This. When you're done, you're always going to look at it and go, I wonder if this could have been better. I think any artist is going to feel that way, but if the question is how do I make sure it's good enough to even share, well, then you can just give it to your friend or your mother or whoever and have them look at it and read it. Take your name off the cover and ask them, did you enjoy reading this? When you got to the bottom of the page, did you want to turn the page or not? And if you wanted to turn the page, you did a good job. And if you didn't, something's wrong.Phil Hudson:Right. Aside from that, what would you recommend people do to overcome the fear of rejection or the fear of someone hating their work?Michael Jamin:I get over it. I mean, that's the job you're signing up for this. Hopefully no one's going to be too mean to you, but just know that when I was starting off, I was no good. No one's good when they start off. I mean, no one starts every single artist you admire, musician, actor, writer, whatever, performer, they were not good when they started. Listen to them in interviews. They'll say as much, so you get better. The more you do, the better you get.Phil Hudson:Yeah. We watch these kids shows now that I've got small children, and one of our favorite shows is Bluey, which I've talked about before. And they just dropped a bunch of new episodes yesterday, and one of the episodes is about drawing. And the daughter bluey is not good at drawing, but the dad's not good at drawing, but the mom's really good at drawing, and then the little sister doesn't care at all. She's just a kid and she's just drawing whatever she wants. And so the dad's super conscientious, self-conscious of what he's drawing. And so bluey the protagonist becomes a little self-conscious of her drawing, and they tell the story that the dad made fun of when he was a kid. So he stopped and the mom, just, her mom incentivized her, encouraged her, you're doing great for a 7-year-old. And she was like, oh, and that was enough. And then she became a wonderful artist. So at the end, bluey and the dad are both freed up to draw the things that they got made fun of or were worried about. And it's this beautiful allegory of just, Hey, just let it go. Who cares? That person's just being a jerk and it's because they envy what you do. That'sMichael Jamin:A good lesson. That's a good lesson from that show.Phil Hudson:Yeah, it's a great show. I bet we should watch it with your kids, Michael.Michael Jamin:My kids are too old to watch TV with me now.Phil Hudson:Yeah, that's scary. It's so sad to hear that. Rachel Zoo, I would like to get my motivation for riding back and for everybody. You have this other webinar you just put out, which is about how professional writers overcome writer's block. And I think that kind of addresses this, but this was before that. But what general thoughts do you have about getting motivation back to write?Michael Jamin:Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, I can't motivate anyone. I mean, if you don't have the motivation in you, then it's not going to get done. So you have to be self-driven. But probably what you're experiencing is the fact that you just don't know how to do it. And so when you don't know how to do something or you think you're bad at it, it's not fun. Why would you want to do anything when you feel like you're horrible at it? But once you learn how to do it and story structure can be taught and it doesn't make writing easier, it makes it easier. It doesn't make it easy, but it makes it easier. So I think the problem that you're facing is you just dunno how to do it yet. So come to some of my webinars and that'll help you a lot just to learn. You're flailing. I don't blame you. It's no fun. When you're flailingPhil Hudson:For everybody who is unaware, you also give away the first lesson of your online course for free @michaeljamin.com/free. And you teach this beautiful lesson about what is story. That alone is worth its weight in gold because it's just something we all miss or forget. And you've even said you forget sometimes.Michael Jamin:Yeah. I mean, I was watching a movie that I got a screener the other, and I'm getting halfway through, I go, there's no story here. I'm bored. And now my wife was bored by it too, but she didn't know why. I knew why because I'm a writer. I'm like, what's the story you're telling? No one knew. And yet the movie got made. I dunno, I got to tell you.Phil Hudson:Yeah. The other thing that comes to mind is many people have heard this guy, and you've heard me talk about him before, this guy, Jocko Willink, former Navy Seal leadership consultant, multiple New York Times bestsellers, a huge podcast, and he has this motto that says, discipline equals freedom. And he's like, it's a little bit counterintuitive because you think if you're disciplined, then you don't have choice and you can't do things. And his point is, if you are disciplined, you don't have to rely on motivation. And that's what I hear from you and I've heard from other professional writers is being a professional is doing it When you don't feel like it, motivation doesn't matter.Michael Jamin:You know what? I'll tell you as well, I post every day on TikTok or at least five or six days a week. I find, and I've talked to other creators who feel the same way. If I take too many days off, it gets harder to get back on. So two is the max, and you got to, because I know people think it's easy to, it's not easy posting on social media. It's like I got to think about what I'm going to say. I got to rehearse it, I got to shoot it, then I got to tag it, upload it, make all the meta tags. I don't do it in two seconds. And yeah, it's like brushing your teeth. You have to do it,Phil Hudson:And that's like any habit they say you can mess up once, don't mess up twice. It's like dieting, don't make two bad choices. If you made one, that's okay. Now continue to get back on track, but it's discipline, discipline, discipline. You just need to sit down and do the work because that is what is required. And if you're not willing to do that, this is not the career for you. It might be fun for you to do on your own, but even then I imagine that's going to be pretty brutal if you don't have the discipline and the habit of just sitting down and doingMichael Jamin:It. Oh, even if it's a hobby, it'll still be more fun if you know how to do it. I mean, golf is a hobby for most people. The better you get, the more fun it is to play.Phil Hudson:Yeah, I don't like being bad at things. That's very true. Great. Stephanie Anthony, what are daily writing exercise exercises that are invaluable to helping to build stronger storytelling muscles?Michael Jamin:Well, I don't do exercises, but would certainly have. Keeping a journal or a diary and writing it, knowing that no one will read it is very freeing. When I was in high school, I wrote, I had a creative writing class and our assignment was to write daily entries in this journal and we gave it to him at the end of every class and then he would read it and he was always so kind. He always said such nice things about what I wrote. He was looking forward to reading it. I thought that was really nice of him to do. I'm sure it wasn't very good, but I was trying to entertain him and he appreciated it. Yeah, just write and read how those are your exercises. Write and read.Phil Hudson:I've talked before about some of my experiences translating for the Sundance Labs and some of the things I got to do with the scholarship I had through Robert Redford and this woman Joan, who runs these workshops at the labs for whether you're a writer, a director, whether you're doing editing, whatever it is, everyone goes through this basic storytelling lab with her, these workshops almost every day. And it's about taking, basically it's what you talk about in your course, mining your life for stories. And I remember that one time I went and she saw me and she recognized me from doing this Redford scholarship stuff, and she was like, it's so good to see you here. And I told her what I was doing and she was introducing everybody in the room and I introduced myself and she was kind enough to say, and Phil is a very talented writer, and I made the mistake of saying, well, that's why I'm here translating. And I've been thinking about that literally today as doing the work and practicing and getting better and then getting acknowledgement from other people is important. The practice of doing it every single day is the exercise. And then I think the other exercise is accepting people's praise when it's earned and deserved.Michael Jamin:Take the compliment because you know why it's insulting not to. It insults the person, not if you shit on it, then they gave you a giftPhil Hudson:And I did.Michael Jamin:I see people do it all the time. You're not the only one. It's normal. You also feel like, well, I'm not good enough.Phil Hudson:My thought was like, well, I'm not in the labs, so I'm here translating, but I did it in front of people and I did apologize to her after, and she was very kind and we had a good chat about it, but that was ringing in my head today.Michael Jamin:It's hard to take a compliment for a lot, a lot of time I feel the same way. I feel the same way,Phil Hudson:But if you say no or you shoot it down, then it's all going to be harder because you're reinforcing unconsciously that you are not good or it isn't good enoughMichael Jamin:AndPhil Hudson:You got to take the wins. Take the wins.Michael Jamin:Yeah, right.Phil Hudson:Awesome. A couple of questions related to the topic, and you're online screenwriting course, so they're kind of bundled together, Joel Riedel regarding execution of an idea in a script. How do you know when you've taken a script far enough? In other words, how do you know if it's ready?Michael Jamin:Well, kind of the same. I kind of touched on this earlier, but basically give it to someone and take the title sheet off. If so, they don't know you wrote it and then give 'em a week or so to read it. And if they get to page 20 and they ask, they're going to say, what do I know? I'm not a Hollywood director. How do I know if your script is any good? You say, well, no. When you get to 20, do you want to read more? Does it feel like I gave you a gift or a homework assignment? That's it. You don't even, because your reader is your audience, they don't have to be a Hollywood insider to know whether they like something or not. Do they want to turn the page or not? And if they do, it's good. If it's not, if they don't, that's a problem.Phil Hudson:Yeah, there's levels of that too, because I've written things that I've given to friends and they said this was great and then given 'em to you and you've given me good praise, but solid feedback and things that I could improve, and it's the quality of the feedback is also important, but what I'm hearing you say is regardless of that, if you have a show on tv, whoever's going to sit down and invest their time to watch your story, they need to all understand there's a story here and it's worth the hour of my time, the 27 minutes of my time, whatever it is that they're doing.Michael Jamin:Yeah, because no one's obligated to watch your show. They'll turn the channel now. So that's how you judge things.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Are you ever at a point when you write things where you feel you've done enough, I'm happy with that one, that one's good to go, or is it always like, I can make that better. I just got to turn it in?Michael Jamin:Yeah, I always feel that way. Even with my book coming out, I always feel like I could have done that a little differently, but it's like, no, you got to let it go. You got to let, but I saw an interview with Frank Geary and he was looking at, I think it was 60 minutes, and he was staring at the Disney Concert Hall, which he designed, and he's a fantastic architect. I think he was with Leslie Stall, and they're admiring his work and she goes, when you see this building and it is one of the most beautiful buildings in la, yeah, it'sPhil Hudson:Great. It's gorgeous. If you guys have seen Iron Man, I want to say Iron Man one, they go to it,Michael Jamin:They do. It's very sculptural. It looks like a piece of sculpture, and she said, when you look at this building, what do you see? He goes, I see all the things I would do differently now, and he's a master, so you just never get past that stage,Phil Hudson:But that's not the job of a pro, which is what you teach. The job of a professional is you do the work, you turn it in, you move on.Michael Jamin:Yeah, you move on to something else and make the next one better if you can.Phil Hudson:Well, you always do the best you can with the time you have. Is that accurate to say?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's definitely what with tv, we got to turn on an episode of TV and at the end of the week, so we do the best we can.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Awesome. Camika Hartford in creating a story with structure in mind first, is it ever useful to organically write or figure it out, then go back and pick out the pieces you want to create a solid narrative, or is that just wasted time? This is in regards to Greta Gerwig process. That's a little bit different than most people. That'sMichael Jamin:A great question, and if you were writing a movie on your own time, sure, you can write it. You don't have time to schedule. You could take four years to write your movie, and if you want to discover it organically and if you understand how to do that, if you understand what that means, it means you have to write and write and then you figure out what the story is. Then once you finally find the story, you can go back and rewrite all the other stuff that's not the story and then fix it. But you still have to understand what story structure is to know what you're fixing. If you were to on a TV show though, you don't have that luxury. You're on staff with a bunch of other writers in a room, and before one word is written, you break the story on the whiteboard and then you outline it. Just don't discovering the story. Everyone agrees on what the story is in the writer's room, so it's a very different process. One is more organic, the other is definitely more efficient.Phil Hudson:You said everyone agrees, and I've been in the room, or I've seen people not agree with the showrunner.Michael Jamin:When I say everyone agrees, I mean the showrunner agrees. Yeah,Phil Hudson:So just for a point of clarification for people, it is not your job to approve every decision in a writer's room, but like you said, when you're writing something for yourself, you have the luxury of doing that. So yeah, fascinating question and answer. Thank you, cam. Gleb, Lin, how can I bring my vision to life through a screenplay?Michael Jamin:How can I bring my vision to life? I'm not really sure. Are they asking how do I sell it orPhil Hudson:How do I think? What I'm hearing from this question based on the topic is, alright, so I've got this vision for what I want my story to be, and I've chosen screenplay as my medium. How do I get what's in my head on the pageMichael Jamin:And justice?Phil Hudson:You knowMichael Jamin:What? I saw this short by Wes Anderson last night, God, I can't remember what it was called, damnit, I don't remember what it was called. It was with Ray Fines and Ben Kingsley. It was a half hour long and it was typical Wes Anderson only, it wasn't shot like a movie, it was shot like a stage play, and so the character would talk and behind the character, the sets would move and would fly in this different set. Then he'd pretend to walk and then he'd be in a different set, and it was wonderful to watch. It was so creative, but on paper, it's the most boring thing in the world. There's no magic on paper. You have to see it. So if that's what you want to do, you're going to have to just build that yourself. You're going to have to got a phone, you got a camera, you got friends, make it yourself and don't spend a lot of money. Whatever you think it's going to cost, I guarantee you I can shoot it for much less because it's not about the money. It's always about the words and the more creative you are. I did a bunch of commercials that I wrote for,Phil Hudson:It's just about to talk about, wereMichael Jamin:You going to say that?Phil Hudson:I was, yeah.Michael Jamin:For Twirly Girl, my wife had a company called Twirly Girl, and we shot all these commercials and I wrote and produced them and I hired a bunch of high school kids to shoot it as my crew and the sets, I built the sets out of cardboard, literally I got cardboard boxes and I built everything. And the fact that it was made out of a cardboard made it funnier. It made it silly,Phil Hudson:But tonally on point too because it's a children's clothing line, right? Yeah.Michael Jamin:But it was magical, but it had the same, Wes Anderson has that same kind of magical thing about him. It doesn't exist so cool about it.Phil Hudson:For those of you who haven't seen them, are those published anywhere? Are they on Twirly Girl YouTube? I know we have in your Vimeo account. I've seen them.Michael Jamin:I know there, I mean, I think you could see some of them. If you go to twirly girl shop.com,Phil Hudson:Would you ever want those published on your site just as examples?Michael Jamin:We can do that. Do you think someone is interested? We should put some there.Phil Hudson:Why don't you guys, if you guys are listening to this, just go comment on Instagram and just put hashtag twirly girl in the comments, and so we know if you guys want to see 'em, we can load 'em up on your side. Yeah,Michael Jamin:We can make a page for that, but it's probably a good idea, Phil. I think it should be inspiring. Each of those commercials, they're about three to five minutes long, whatever. Maybe they're five minutes, but I cut 'em down to three and each one costs, the first one I think was 1200 bucks. You can do it cheap. You can do it cheap.Phil Hudson:My business partner Rich, he was one of my professors in film school, actually he's teaching at Grand Canyon University in Arizona. He's teaching film right now. And so for the final project last semester, he had them shoot a video, basically that kind of commercial for pickleball brand. And the thing looks incredible. There's amazing camera, there's crane movement, there's drones, it looks good, and $128.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Oh, that's great. That's great.Phil Hudson:Yeah, it looks like it was 10 grand. Now there's, it got to perform as an ad. I dunno, but the quality was definitely there and what I'm getting to is when you talk about getting your vision to life, it is the job of the writer. It is the job of the writer to get the vision on the page so that anyone who reads it can see that vision. But it is the director's job to take that and work with the art department and everyone else to expand it. Or in tv, the writer is typically the showrunner. That showrunner has that same capacity to get the vision made beyond doing it yourself. I think the other piece of advice that I might give would be you need to understand your craft. You need to understand what a screenplay looks like, and your formatting and your own style and tone are going to influence your ability to do that on the page. If you're not going to produce your own stuff, and I don't mean that to counter what or contrast with what you're saying, it's just the person who's not going to go shoot those things. If you're just talking about it from a writer's perspective, you got to have your story there. The structure has to be sound, and then you need to be able to use the words and the style and format of screenwriting to get the job done to convey that vision.Michael Jamin:And as you were talking, I forgot to tell you this morning on TikTok, someone tagged me and they said they're in law school and that they're taking an entertainment law class and their professor assigned them to watch my channel.Phil Hudson:That's awesome. Why?Michael Jamin:I don't know why. What a weird homework assignment.Phil Hudson:Love it. Love it. Maybe he's going to just call out all the things that you could be sued for. Yeah, maybe. That's wild, man. The world's shifted in the Michael Jamin sphere over here. You got Michael's got his own Wikipedia page too. Yeah,Michael Jamin:I'm on Kpia. Yeah,Phil Hudson:A couple of years ago you would've never wanted any of this attention, right?Michael Jamin:No, I still struggle with it a little bit. I still strugglePhil Hudson:Just highlighting that for everybody here who's struggling to put their stuff out there, what a lot of these questions are about, you wanted to do something, just publish this book and you said, what do I need to make that happen? It's been over two years in that process. And your book will be coming out pretty soon.Michael Jamin:Yeah, we'll do a special episode on that. But yeah, when I'm yelling at you guys to build the damn mountain to build it yourself, I just want you to know everything I recommend, either I have done or I'm currently doing, so I'm not talking out of my ass. SoPhil Hudson:Zero hypocrisy here with the recommendations and I will defend you on that because I see it happening. Yeah. Alright. Sucks to suck has a question. Great. Great. Username story build finding, planning the path of the characters. This is a statement, it's not a question, but when you're story building, how do you find or plan the path for your characters? What are their arcs?Michael Jamin:Yeah, I mean, that's something I teach in my course, my screenwriting course. Come sign up michael jammin.com/course, but that's not a 32nd answer. That's a 14 hour course. So yeah, come to my webinars. I did a webinar a couple weeks ago where I literally gave away part of the course. Not a lot of it, just a small part of it.Phil Hudson:I was surprised. It's a lot though. It's a lot of nuggets in there of,Michael Jamin:Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff in that. I was like, I kind of felt like, guys, if you don't hit the whole thing, you're missing out because this is pretty good stuff.Phil Hudson:What was that? How professional writers create great characters? Is thatMichael Jamin:What it meant? No, it was, I don't know. It was not. It might've been getting past writer's block or what was the onePhil Hudson:After that? Both of those are pretty good, and I think you've given a lot of new context and a lot of context in there for that. I think it was a great characters was one specifically on this subject, and you talk about this, I don't want to spoil it for people who are going to miss it, but you talk about the principle of how to put the right character in a story and it is worth watching. I don't want to steal the opportunity for you to learn that lesson by listening to Michael.Michael Jamin:Come to my talk on characters that it'll help you a lot and it's free.Phil Hudson:Awesome. Sammy Cisneros, how strict should we follow conventional story structure?Michael Jamin:I would say don't break the rules until you understand them. So I would say very strict, and just so you know, I don't break the rules and I've been doing it for a long time. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Honestly, once you're in that story structure, there's still so much creative freedom that you can have once you understand, it's not like I don't feel handcuffed when I'm writing a story that way. I feel liberated. I understand how to do it. There's the roadmap that'll help.Phil Hudson:You discussed this principle of Picasso in your free lesson, which I think everyone should go pick up or rewatch if you've signed up for it in the past, but you talk about what it means to become a master and it's visually apparent when you look at the way you display that in that lesson.Michael Jamin:Yeah, go watch. Yeah, that was in the free lesson,Phil Hudson:Michael jamon.com/free.Michael Jamin:Yeah, go watch that. That'll help.Phil Hudson:Great. Leoni Bennett, when breaking a story, do you keep track of both plot and story?Michael Jamin:Yeah, it's all yes, all yes. And if you don't know what that means, there's a difference between plot and story, and I talk about this in I think the free lesson, but yeah, you have to keep both in mind. You don't do one without the other. It's the same time. You can have a plot if you have a good plot, but no story. You got nothing. If you've got a good story but no plot, you also have nothing. So you need both.Phil Hudson:Yeah, I think lesson two in the course is heavily dedicated to this, and you do touch on it on the free one, but second year in the course and you get to lesson two, it's like, oh, okay, this makes a lot more sense. And I've always said this since we started the podcast and doing this stuff together. You're the only writer I know online who talks about story and not plot everyone else's. What are your plot points? What is this plot? What is this beat? How does this beat build to this? What is your inciting incident to this thing? To crossing the threshold to the Boone? And they're mixing all this jargon from all of it's youngian, it's Joseph Campbell. It's like all this stuff. It's very hard to even wrap your head around. And I'm egotistically. I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent person who's capable of learning. And very often when I started studying screenwriting, I was just beating my head against the wall because it's like I don't even understand what subtext is, and you're telling me to use it, but no one's teaching how to use subtext, which you talk about, but it's that. Yeah, it's the story. It's story, story, story. And then the plot is, to me, it is the painting of the story. It's what makes the story matter.Michael Jamin:Well, I watched a movie the other day and there was plenty of plot. Things were moving along, things were clipping, things were happening, but the whole time I'm like, so what? Who cares? Why do I, this is so who cares? And so the story is really the who cares part. Why shouldPhil Hudson:Write that down? WriteMichael Jamin:That down. Yeah, write that down. It's the who cares. It's what to me as the viewer or the listener or the reader, it's all the same. Why do I care what happens to the main character? And if you don't, I won't say it on camera, I won't say which one it was, but it was a big movie, big budget, big director who's done some great stuff. You shouldPhil Hudson:Just text me so I know what itMichael Jamin:Is. I'll tell you later, but I was like, who cares? Why do I care about any of this?Phil Hudson:Yeah. Dave Crossman, who is pretty active in the course we've talked about before. He has said that I have a coined phrase now when I read someone's script. It's a lot of things happen, a lot of people doing things and nothing's happening.Michael Jamin:Okay, yeah,Phil Hudson:That's good. Lots of stuff. JustMichael Jamin:Plot is so boring.Phil Hudson:Cool. Yeah. Alright. David Campbell, how do we determine which contestants, which content to reveal in what order?Michael Jamin:Oh yeah. I have a whole analogy that I go through in one of my free webinars about the order in which you unpack the details of your story is really important, and that's what I teach in the course. But for sure, yeah, a lot of times you'll read new writers and they just do a dump. They just dump everything out. But that's not how you tell a story. The story is like you as the author, you get to decide when your reader learns this, and that's how you keep people turning the page.Phil Hudson:Yeah. I have bought a lot of self-published books from friends and people I went to film school with and some are good and some are like, wow, what you just put in a chapter could have been a whole book and you ended this chapter in a place that makes zero sense. And it's because of the way they're laying out the story. They have so much they want to say they're just rushing through it or they have so little they want to say it's dragging on. And to me, I think that's what we're talking about, story structure. If you understand structure, then the artistic way you unfold that sort of unravel that story is your craft and your voice and that the person who comes to mind for me is Guy Richie. I think Guy Richie does that masterfully in his stories.Michael Jamin:Yeah, I'm working on a story right now, which I'm writing, and there's one of two ways I want to write it. And so I'm not sure which way I'm supposed to do it, but I'll choose one and I'll go down that path and if I find it halfway through, it doesn't work, I'll go back and do the other way.Phil Hudson:So you're saying you're not married to the words you wrote. They're not precious written in stone and can never be changed.Michael Jamin:No. It's all about, yeah, exactly. I've tossed out so many stories that weren't working, but I am always thinking about what's the best way to compel the reader to turn the page.Phil Hudson:High level note there, guys, write that one down too. WriteMichael Jamin:It down.Phil Hudson:Paul Gomez, seven 90 Should a story center around subject or a character, is there a different approach for each? What I'm hearing with this question is should I focus on theme or character when I write my story?Michael Jamin:Honestly, I think you focus on a character and then theme comes a little bit later, but I've seen some movies, the very interesting setting, very interesting subject matter, very interesting. But because I don't care about what the character wants and I'm not invested in the character, I was very unsatisfied with the movie, even though the subject matter was really interesting.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Previous podcast episode we've done, we talked about basically picking a word. There's a word that's going to color my story then to me is theme. What is the theme of this that might help shape the character that I'm telling to convey that theme, but the character has to matter or it doesn't matter what the theme is.Michael Jamin:Yeah. When my partner and I are writing, often we pretend there's a drinking game. That theme will keep on appearing, and often you'll see a word recurring over and over in a script, and we always will drink, drink, and then when we're done, we go back and change those words. So it's not so obvious we disguise it. But if you're doing it right, that theme will reappear many times and throughout your script, but you just have to hide it a little better.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. Guys. I know some of you are advanced enough to know how much gold Michael's just dumping his pockets right now. Just gold nuggets. For those of you who are newer, this is worth re-listening to so that you can pick up that gold. This is stuff that will shape you, and I would come back and listen to this one six months from now because you're going to be a different place as a writer at different things. I've definitely seen that even just listening to our podcast with questions I've asked you. The answer is that I got two years ago apply very differently to me. Now. I'm a father of two kids now I am dealing with all these other different life issues than I was two years ago, and that affects the way I tell my stories and what things I want to talk about.Michael Jamin:And I'm still learning, guys, just, I mean, you're never done learning when you're writing, so I don't know everything. I just pretend toPhil Hudson:More than he gives himself credit for, but he's going to take credit like we talked about, right?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Right. Yeah. Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my content and I know you do because you're listening to me, I will email it to you for free. Just join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos of the week. These are for writers, actors, creative types, people like you can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not going to spam you and the price is free. You got no excuse to join. Go to michael jamon.com/and now back to what the hell is Michael Jamin talking about?Phil Hudson:Alright, is that my voice asks the beats? Is that what we are referencing here when we talk about story structure are the beats?Michael Jamin:The question is what? What'sPhil Hudson:The question? Yeah, so the context of this is from the webinar, how to write a great story. And when you're asking the question, what is a story or what is story structure? They're asking, are you referencing beats? Is that what you mean when you say story structure? They'reMichael Jamin:Beats, so they're about seven or eight beats in every story, and it doesn't matter whether you're writing a half hour, an hour and a half feature, whatever that you must hit, in my opinion, in order for a story to feel fulfilling. And so those are the beats I talk about. And one is at the bottom of act one, bottom of act two, these are all important beats and I teach that. But yeah, and there's still some creativity you can have. Well, a lot of creativity you can have once those beats.Phil Hudson:I want to highlight something because I know you don't read any of the other advice that people are giving. And again, a lot of these people are not riders. In my intro to storytelling class, which is writing 1 0 1 in college, my professor asked this question, how many beats, beats are in this thing? And he'd have us watch a movie and count the number of beats. And then he put up this image on the board and it was 40 beats. And he says that every feature should have about 40 beats. Now, that's the difference between sequences and beats, and you already can tell this is again very confusing, right? But this is the formulaic approach that is very confusing and shackling to people who are starting out and what you're saying, I don't want people to misconstrue what you're saying by saying there should only be eight moments in a script or eight scenes, but he was describing scenes as beats and how you progress through things. And that comes from a book, and I can't remember which book, but it lays that out.Michael Jamin:That's just too many. How are you going to keep all that in your head? I feel like eight is manageable. Eight not eight scenes, but eight moments that you have to hit. And then it just like when you go from A to B2C to D, you can take a little side trip from A to B, but you still got to get to B.Phil Hudson:Yeah. And I think that USC and UCLA, I think they use what they call eight beat story structure, which mirrors pretty close to what you teach, but you'd expect that because they're proper film schools taught by professional writers, directors, producers, editors who are just doing that now because they've moved out of their first career. So yeah, I just want to make sure people are not misconstruing the two or conflating 'em. NRS creates How can a series pilot with more than eight main characters work without story overload?Michael Jamin:You wouldn't want to have that many go back and watch some of these old pilots or any pilot even towards whatever season five or eight. They may introduce a lot of new characters, but in the pilot, how many characters were in the pilot? And if it's a sitcom, you're talking probably five or six. It's if an hour long, you're going to have a few more. You might be eight, but you should be able to service eight characters in an hour long story. So it shouldn't be a problem. It's when you start growing the cast, it gets more complicated.Phil Hudson:Yeah, I think lost is a great example of this. Tons of people, plane crash, there's mayhem happening all around you, and we're looking at four or five people. And then as the series goes along, they introduce more people and the stories become more complex and there's side things happening. But in the pilot, which is two hours, I think JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof did that masterfully.Michael Jamin:Yeah, great pilot.Phil Hudson:Richard Monroy, life, death Rebirth. These themes are found in art. How can this be applied to screenwriting?Michael Jamin:Well, I mean, what else are you going to write about when you're going to write about all events that happen to you in life? Jealousy, anger, love, betrayal, vengeance, whatever. That's what you're going to write about. So you're going to you life mirrors art and art mirrors life.Phil Hudson:Yeah. I think that ties back to our theme as well, right? You pick your theme and then that's the thing you're deciding to talk about, and then your characters and the story and the plot all play to paint that picture. Yeah. David Campbell, another question here. Do you have to write a log line for every episode or story?Michael Jamin:Yes. One of the things, when my partner and I run a TV show, what we make all the writers do, including ourselves, is we write after the story is broken on the whiteboard and one writer is chosen or a team is chosen to write that script, the first thing they got to do is write what we call a book report, which is a one page summary of what we just discussed in the writer's room for past week. And this is not as easy as it looks. We need to make sure everyone's on the, were you paying attention? Did you understand what we finally agreed to? And at the top of that book report, we make them write a log line. What is it about? What is this episode about? And it's amazing how that one simple thing can really, really be beneficial. I never assume anyone understands what it's about.And sometimes I tell a story that a couple of years ago, I think it was on Tacoma, my partner and I were writing an episode, we're writing the outline and we're figuring out these scenes. We start arguing over what the scene should be. And I was like, I'm right. And he's like, he's right. And I'm like, wait a minute, what do you think the story's about? And we didn't agree on what the story was about. We literally didn't agree. So we stopped and went back to the whiteboard to figure out what the story was about. Even though we had spent a week working on it, we couldn't agree.Phil Hudson:Yeah, that's how much it matters. I don't know that there's anything to add to that. That's great. Henry Wind, as an audience member, I'm really trying to catch the details and the dialogue so I can understand what is happening in this scene between two actors. How do you deepen subtext?Michael Jamin:Well, characters often don't say what they're actually thinking. And so that's the difference between writing directly and writing indirectly. And again, I talk about this in the course to greater detail, but writing directly is, I'm really mad at you. You hurt my feelings. The other day when you said this about that's writing directly, writing indirectly might be just me ignoring you or me telling you that your hat is stupid. So you know what I'm saying? Who cares about your hat? I'm really mad about you for what you did. And so that's the difference. And the more indirect you can write your writing, the better the smarter it seems.Phil Hudson:Yeah, it's amazing how this is human nature though. Just last night, my daughter, she just turned three, and so she's throwing a little bit of the terrible three tantrums. I've heard terrible twos, but it's really the threes is what every parent says. And she wanted to do something and we said, no, it's time for bed. And so her lovey, her stuffy Is Cob the Cow? And she's like, I don't want cob in my bed. And my wife who's wonderful, says, just because you're mad at us doesn't mean you should take it out on other people. And she said, okay. And then she cuddled her little stuffed animal, but it's human nature to do this. She didn't say, I'm mad at you. She's like, I don't want COB in here. I don't want to sing songs. I don't want to read a book. She's mad atMichael Jamin:Me. She's writing indirectly. She's a writer.Phil Hudson:Yep. She's human nature. The beautiful things you learn from kids, man. All right. Moving on to breaking in the Broken Breaking Seas. That's an apt name. Can you talk about working with a writing partner a bit? I'm very curious what that process is like.Michael Jamin:Well, it's sort of a marriage and you get to decide who you want to marry. I've been working with my partner Seaver for close to 30 years. And at this point there's a lot of trust and there's a lot of, we try to argue as little as possible. The truth is I don't really care if it's his idea or my idea. I really don't. If it's his idea, great. That's one less idea I have to come up with. It's not about my ego and it's really about what's best for the work. And then great. I mean, it helps to have one, it helps have one bounce idea. We can bounce ideas off each other and often he'll shoot down my idea, say whatever. I don't really care. It's really about getting the work done.Phil Hudson:We did a whole episode about writing with partners on the podcast, so go check that out as well.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Alright, moving on to miscellaneous questions. We got about 10 left, Michael, does that sound good? Sure. We hit those in the next 17 minutes and wrap this up in an hour. Sounds great. Lisa J. Robinson, for a beginning writer, what program do you recommend to write a script that is very user-friendly? Imagine thatMichael Jamin:RightPhil Hudson:In my mouth. Didn't even know, didn't even know Michael. This question in October would serving today. SoMichael Jamin:Every single television show, movie, everything I've sold, every single one of them have been written in a program called Final Draft. And that is considered to be the industry standard now. So it's the best as far as I'm concerned. Now. They offered me a brand deal a couple months ago, and so I've since done some spots for them and I had no problem doing it because it's not like it's a product that I have. I use the product, so Sure.Phil Hudson:And you've turned down so many deals from people with different writing software. Even when we first started doing this, people were reaching out. It's like, Hey, we'd love to pay you to talk about our screenwriting software, and you turn them all down.Michael Jamin:No. So thisPhil Hudson:Is a bigMichael Jamin:Deal, but if you want to use Final Draft, we do have, they gave me a brand deal, so if get on my newsletter, we said, well, there'll be a link on my newsletter and you can click on that link and you can get a discount 25% off on finalPhil Hudson:Draft. Do you want to give them the code? Do you want toMichael Jamin:Give the I think so we could do the code. Yeah.Phil Hudson:It's M jamming 25 I think, right?Michael Jamin:24 I think.Phil Hudson:Correct. For it's 24 M jamming 24, but it gives you 25% off your purchase. And I used it and it worked on my upgrade from vinyl draft 12. So you saved me 25 bucks on something I was going to buy anyway.Michael Jamin:Yeah, you can upgrade. You can upgrade at some point you have to continue, you got to upgrade your, so it doesn't fall out of surface andPhil Hudson:And there's new stuff that come in. There's all kinds of stuff that comesMichael Jamin:That, yeah, there's bells and whistles, but honestly I've been using Final draft since final draft five. They don't update it every day, every couple of years they improve it.Phil Hudson:We used a final draft for the collaboration mode in the writer's room.Michael Jamin:The collaboration is a good feature.Phil Hudson:And while I was doing this yesterday, this is totally unprompted, I was looking for this. You sent me a bunch of stuff and in 2016, just as I was going to move out here, you were asking me for my resume, like, Hey, there's somebody out here who was interested in getting your resume. And I sent it over and you told me in here, and I'm trying to find the exact words, but it was basically study final draft and know it like the back of your hand. And that was 2016, so that you've been preaching this for a long time.Michael Jamin:Yeah, it helps to know that program. Yeah.Phil Hudson:Great. Alright, Mimi, how to find the main idea from a lot of ideas you have in your book. So I'm assuming she's writing a book and she wants to know what the main idea. Yeah,Michael Jamin:You better figure that out because your story needs to be about one thing everyone wants to throw in the kitchen sink. And it's about this, but it's also about this, but it also has elements of this. It's like, no, no, no, you don't know what your story is. You got a hot mess. You can't kitchen sink it. Your story's about one thing. And if you think it's about two things, congratulations. Now you have a sequel or you have another episode, but your story's about one thing. And if you think I'm making it up, read stories that you've enjoyed and ask yourself the same question. What is this about?Phil Hudson:What's the difference between an A plot B plot C plot though, if it's only about one thing,Michael Jamin:Right? So an APL will occupy two or three characters, and that's a story that has the most emotional weight, and that's the one that has the most time on screen. YouPhil Hudson:Have, it's usually the leads too though, right? It's your main character.Michael Jamin:But if you have five leads on your show, then two of them will be in the A story. And then you have to occupy your other characters. So you give them a B story and maybe a C story if you still have to occupy some of them. But they don't carry as much emotional weight often they're just lighter.Phil Hudson:You don't want 'em sitting in their trailers cashing a check, right?Michael Jamin:Yeah, you got to pay these people. The audience wants to see them too. So you want to give the audience what they want.Phil Hudson:Great mental pictures. Love to know an example of a log line on a whiteboard in the writer's room.Michael Jamin:So a log line might be, okay, we wrote an episode called Fire Choir, and I think the log line was Eddie joins a malePhil Hudson:Choir acapella group. It was like firefighters, acapella choirMichael Jamin:To basically recapture the lost fame of his youth. It was something like that. So you knew what the plot was and you also knew what the story was. Oh, he's there to recapture his law. He was famous, whatever. He was in a garage band when he was a kid, and here's the chance to feel like a star again. So that's what it's really about. It's about the fame partPhil Hudson:And a great episode with one of our favorite characters. Wolf BoykinsMichael Jamin:Wolf. Yes. So played by Paul Soder.Phil Hudson:Paul Soder says, hi, by the way. Oh, you should have him on the podcast.Michael Jamin:I should. I'll get him on. That's a good question. Yeah.Phil Hudson:Richard Monroy, can you describe this Greta Gerwig style in more detail? It seems more unstructured and organic.Michael Jamin:It's not unstructured, it's just the fact that it's definitely not unstructured. It's just that how she comes about finding the structure. So I believe she still hits the same eight points that I'm talking about, but whereas in TV or even in movies, for the most part, you'll think about this before you're ever writing a word. You're figuring out what those story points are. And you might spend weeks or months if it's a movie before you're actually writing. But she doesn't do it that way. But she's Greta Gerwig until you become her, you may want to rethink how you do this, but what she does is she starts writing, oh, I think this is what it's about. And she starts typing the script and she'll say the same thing. I've heard her talk about it. Alright, now I have an 800 page script. Well, we can't shoot an 800 page script. Now she has to go back and throw out 700 pages and figure out what the story is. So it's very inefficient, but it's organic. But again, she can do it. She knows what story is. And by the way, that movie made a billion dollars. It's not for me to say that she's doing it wrong, she's doing it right. It's just that it's just inefficient. And unless you really have a good grasp upon what story structure is like she does, you're probably going to screw it up.Phil Hudson:This just popped into my mind, one of the best tiktoks I've ever seen was this story. And you've seen 'em before. And it's like everyone told me that I was a loser and I would never make it as an artist. And over the years I've practiced and honed my craft and it shows all these different art. You see their art evolving year over year, and now here I am and look what I've done. And then they show the worst drawing of a horse you've ever seen. And it brought me to tears because mocking this thing, which is the reality, is you can't be a one year in rider or a four year in rider and think that you can write the way someone's been running for 20 years will, you also can't do it, but think you're going to paint or draw the way in one year or two years. The way that Picasso or Van Gogh or anybody else has done who's devoted their life to that craft. It's effectively, I'm hearing you say, is she's earned the right to do things her way and it shows in the box office, and that is not an excuse for you to do it that way, and that's not to say you won't do it that way, but you have to learn structure and process and all of those things form light balance. You have to learn those things before you can make artMichael Jamin:And it's not easy for her. I saw an interview where she was saying, look, every time I sit down, I'm like, I don't know how to do this it, you're starting from scratch. I feel the same way. It's like, ah, I don't really know how to do this. I do, but I still feel like I don't, it's hard.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Yep. I saw that interview too. And that's going back to what we talked about earlier. That's the discipline. It's hard, but she sits down and does it and then she's able to get billion box officeMichael Jamin:And sometimes I'm writing, I'm like, am I saying too much or am I saying too little? Am I taking my audience? Am I insulting their intelligence by saying too much or am I taking their intelligence for granted? That's a hard question.Phil Hudson:Yeah. EG wants to know what if the notes you receive from the higher ups make the story worse?Michael Jamin:Often it does. Your goal is to try to give them what they want without making the story too much worse. And what can I tell you? Sometimes they're not writers so often that's the give and take. Often you'll argue with them, you're almost never going to win the argument, and so you have to give them what they want. They're the buyer. And so sometimes people say, sometimes it makes it better too, but people often say, why does TV suck? Well, there's a lot of people involved and a lot of people have opinions and they all want to be heard. I've worked with actors who've had notes who make the story worse. What are you going to do? That's the job. It's it's life.Phil Hudson:I've talked about this documentary before, but showrunners, which you can find it in a bunch of places, they talk about an interview, a pretty well known actor. I'm blanking on his name, but he talks about how at a certain point, the first year, the showrunner, it's the showrunner story. The second year, it's the showrunner story, the third year, it's kind of a balance between the actors and the showrunner, and then the fourth, it's kind of the actors because they are the characters. And his whole opinion here was, I think famously he got an argument and a heated battle with the showrunner who created the show, and the showrunner got fired because he was the star of the show. And he said, it's my job to protect my character because that's me and who I'm playing. And I was like, yeah, that's just the reality of this. It's none of it's yours.Michael Jamin:You can't, the funny thing is, yeah, the showrunner hires all the actors. It's their show. They sold it, they created it, but at some point, if there's an argument between the actor, the star and the showrunner, you can always get a new showrunner. The star is on camera, and so the star is going to win that fight nine times out of 10.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Pretty interesting. Go check that out guys. Yeah. Richard Roy asks, if you're an independent writer, do you ever reveal what you're working on in early stages?Michael Jamin:Some people tell you no. I mean, some people will say, don't reveal your dreams to anybody because people will tell you how stupid it is for you to dream. So why keep it to yourself? That's a personal choice whether you want to share it or not.Phil Hudson:Yeah. My opinion is screw the haters.Michael Jamin:Screw the haters. But also, I mean, you can also put it out there and maybe they hold you accountable. Well, now that I went on record saying I'm going to do this, I better do itPhil Hudson:For a lot of people, a lot of people, that's some strong accountability saying, I'm going to do something. Eagle Boy, 7 1 0 9 0. How strict should we expect prospective studios to be about the page length of a historical drama limited series? I've seen some episode ones that are nearly 80 pages for an hour long show.Michael Jamin:Listen, the question is who do you think you are? I mean, when you write your script, your script is a writing sample and that's it. Stop thinking about what I'm going to sell it for, how much money I'm going to make. Some people ask me, how much money can you make as a first? Now you're spending the money. Your job first is to write a great script. That's it. One episode. Don't worry about episode 12, writing that one first. Great script is damn hard enough. And it's a calling card. And it's a writing sample. So some of these questions are for people like me, this is a question I might ask a fellow showrunner. I might ask them that question because we are doing, this is stuff that we have to worry about, but you don't have to worry about this.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Big note there too, that this is the big takeaway I've gotten from doing this work with you over the podcast is everything is a writing sample. If it sells, great. If it's good enough to sell, great. But right now, I need to be good enough to give me a job.Michael Jamin:Yeah, get me a job.Phil Hudson:Yep. Matt Sharpe, with the changes to TV writing rooms during the pandemic, do you see Zoom rooms still being a thing post the WGA strike? More to the point, do you still have to live in LA to write in tv?Michael Jamin:A lot of these rooms are still on Zoom. That's probably going to go the way at some point. I don't know. Maybe it's going to get back in person probably sooner than later, but someone made that point. I was going to do a TikTok on social media. What are you talking about? Everything's on Zoom. Okay. But how do you get the job? How do you get the job so that you can be on a show that's on Zoom. Tell me how you do that. Unless you live in la, there's no answer for that because you have to live in la. Sorry. There's a handful of screenwriters who work mostly in features who get to live other places. Maybe they have to fly to LA or maybe they live in New York. I follow Julia York from New York. She lives in York or Yorks, but she's in New York and she's able to make a living out of it somehow, but it's definitely harder. You made a hard career. You're making a hard career. Harder.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Tacoma FD is now streaming on Netflix, so everybody go watchMichael Jamin:That. Go watch thatPhil Hudson:Talk. Tacoma fd, which is the companion podcast that Kevin and Steve the showrunners do that dropped. And in episode four, I actually was in the cold open and I got put in the cold open. They talk about it on Sarco fna. It was very kind of them to mock me a little bit and poke fun. But what they said is basically what you have said to me all along is if you want to make it in Hollywood, you have to be in LA because they need you Now. It's not two a week from now. And evidence of this is I got cast in the cold open because the actor tested positive for Covid that day. And they said, well, this is a guy protesting pornography, and Phil is a religious dude. Let's get him out here. And then they were like, he came out and he gave this tirade of just Christian anti pornographic stuff. It's like he'd rehearsed it, you could tell. And it was like I'd done acting classes with Jill and with Cynthia. I've done prep work. I've been on set. I've seen how it's done, and I was just able to go and perform in this moment because of all of that prep work. And I only got it because I was on set standing next to the showrunner when he heard that this guy got covid.Michael Jamin:So two things, half of life is about showing up and two, but also being prepared for yourPhil Hudson:Could imagine, because you could have choked shot the bed. Imagine you could choked shot the bed

Composer, songwriter, and producer Alex Seaver (aka Mako) has created a unique niche for himself in the entertainment industry. He has released two best-selling albums; performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and EDC; and collaborated with the likes of Sting, Pusha-T, Avicii, Madison Beer, and Alan Walker. A classically-trained musician, Seaver earned a full scholarship to Juilliard. Upon graduation, he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film music. Alex has established himself as a songwriter and composer for Riot Games' League of Legends, beginning in 2017. His first track, “Legends Never Die” (performed by Against the Current), has earned over 400 million streams on Spotify alone, while his role expanded with Netflix's League of Legends-based animated series, Arcane (2021). In addition to scoring the hit show with Alexander Temple, Alex co-wrote songs for the soundtrack, alongside Pusha-T, Sting, Wooded, Bea Miller, PVRIS, and others. Please welcome Alex Seaver.

Summary James Crossland (Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the origins of modern terrorism. James is an expert on terrorism, intelligence, and propaganda. What You'll Learn Intelligence -The origins of modern terrorism  -19th century spymasters  -Covert action and assassinations -Intelligence as a weapon Reflections -Philosophy and ideology's effect on history -The power of fear And much, much more … Quotes of the Week “These waves of repression that feed into discontent and create more radical strains of discontent, that is a process that's really observable during this period. The reason why I think this is the first real age of terrorism is because you have all this stuff coming together: Communications that you need to promote terrorist activities to gain the attention you need, societal discontent, dangerous ideas … and it's all moving around together as part of the same process.” – James Crossland.  Resources  SURFACE SKIM *Spotlight Resource*  -The Rise of Devils: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism, J. Crossland (Manchester University Press, 2023)  *SpyCasts* -Venice's Secret Service with Ioanna Iordanou (2023) -St. Ermin's Hotel, London – The History of a Legendary Spy Site, with Stephen Duffy (2023) -Espionage and the Two Queens with Kent Tiernan (2023) -The Lion and the Fox – Civil War Spy vs. Spy with Alexander Rose (2023) *Beginner Resources* -Terrorism, J. P. Jenkins, Encyclopaedia Brittanica (2023) [Short article / definition] -What Were The Most Important Events of the 19th Century?, C. Seaver, History Defined (2022) [Short article] -Marxism in Under 5 Minutes, Theory in 5, YouTube (2020) [3 min. video]  DEEPER DIVE Books -Sofia Perovskaya, Terrorist Princess: The Plot to Kill Tsar Alexander II and the Woman Who Led It, R. R. Riggs (Global Harmony Press Inc., 2018) -The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, R. J. Evans (Penguin Books, 2017)  -Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism, M. Burleigh (Harper, 2009) Primary Sources  -The assassination, who is responsible? (1901)  -New York Times “Empress of Austria Slain” Article (1898)  -New York Times “War On Terrorism” Article (1881) -La vérité sur Orsini (1872) [The Truth about Orsini] -Manifesto of the Paris Commune (1871)  -The Revolutionary Catechism (1869)  -On the Fenian Prisoners in Manchester (1867) -Procès de Orsini (1858) [The Trial of Orsini] *Wildcard Resource* -You may have already read his classic play Crime and Punishment, but have you read Dostoevsky's The Idiot (1869)?  This novel is known as Dostoevsky's most personal work, a story that clearly shows the threads of his own life experiences during 19th century Russia. The novel explores many of the same questions of philosophy and politics explored in this episode of SpyCast. 

On October 7th, I hosted a webinar called "How Professional Screenwriters Create Great Characters", where I talked about how to come up with interesting and unique characters, as well as how tapping into your everyday life interactions with people can help with this. This episode addresses questions you asked in our Q&A session that we didn't have time to answer. There's lots of great info here, make sure you watch.Show NotesFree Writing Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/op/webinar-registration/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Newsletter - https://michaeljamin.com/newsletterAutogenerated TranscriptMichael Jamin:I feel like we're overthinking this a little bit. I feel like maybe we're giving labels that don't need to be labeled. We have a hero. We're going to put this hero on a journey. And who are the people? Or if it's a like a buddy comedy or whatever we're talking about, or if it's a husband and wife or whatever, what's the story? What's the journey we're putting them on and who are the characters we're going to get in their way? You're listening to What the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about? I'll tell you what I'm talking about. I'm talking about creativity, I'm talking about writing, and I'm talking about reinventing yourself through the arts.Hey everyone, it's Michael Jamin, and today we're going to answer the question, what the hell is Michael Jamin talking about? Well, today I'm talking about questions from my previous webinar. As many of you know, I do a webinar every three weeks or so where I talk about screenwriting and it's about an hour long and you're all invited and it's free. And I don't always have time to answer all these questions, but Phil is here with us visiting again. Hello, Phil. Hello and happy to be here. He's going to hit me with some of these questions we're going to answer.Phil Hudson:Lemme hit you baby one more time. Let's do it. All right. So again, kind of group questions, context for everyone. This was from a webinar talking about how professional screenwriters create great characters. You've got another really good webinar that a lot of people really like, which is how to write a great story. And so contextually, these are really more character based. There's some miscellaneous stuff, there's some break in questions. We've kind of grouped them together. So as I go through these, we'll just try to keep 'em on theme and let's get into it. Let's talk craft. Think Craft is always a good place to start. Anna Renee Chavez wants to know what big differences are there between writing for animation versus live action?Michael Jamin:Great question. Oh, and I just want to clarify everybody by webinars, you are free. Go to michaeljamin.com/webinar to sign up. I changed the topics, but whatever. So this woman wants to know what's the difference between writing for animation and live action? Not that much in terms of, and I teach 'em both in my course. The differences really are not that different. The only thing you want to think about is well ask yourself why is this show animated? What's the advantages to making this show animated? So in BoJack Horseman, it's a very real and grounded show, but you have horses talking and fish talking, or Whitney, you couldn't do that in live action. So you're taking advantage of the medium. If you have it animated, take advantage of it. When my partner and I did Glen Martin DDS, which is the show there a stop motion animation, we would ask ourselves, what's Clay tastic about this? We'd call it, because it wasn't claymation, but we pretended it was claymation. So what's Clay tastic about this scene? Is someone's head going to come off? So for example, we did an episode where the character, the boy got his head stuck in an elephant's ass. You can't do that in live action. So you can do that in animation, but the story itself, it's very similar. The stories are very similar. It's just that you just take advantage of the medium.Phil Hudson:Yeah, awesome. And I think another good example of this, where a choice was made to do live action RET link's buddy system, you had mentioned to me that one point that it's basically just a cartoon. It's like a live action cartoon with silly It is, but they can't be as silly as they could if it was animated and they could do whatever they wanted. So it still kind of grounds it in this reality, but it's still a bit silly.Michael Jamin:Yeah, it could have been a cartoon, but we would've gone even we did one episode where we turned Lincoln into a robot because the character was like, my life would be easier if I was a robot. So that probably would've been even better if it was animated. But in real life we just started putting 'em in crappy robot costumes.Phil Hudson:Yeah,Michael Jamin:But it was funny. We turned him into a robot, so it was kind of broad.Phil Hudson:Love it. Julia Wells considering extraordinary and ordinary pairing. What would you say about friends, how I Met Your Mother, or shows that are more grounded? I think this is in reference in your webinar when you're talking about your characters and putting your characters together or how you write your characters for a specific story, and there's a difference between extraordinary and ordinary if you want something extraordinary when you're pairing your characters together.Michael Jamin:Well, yeah, most shows are like that. Most sitcoms, the characters are just normal people. And yeah, it was kind of like ordinary characters, kind of an extraordinary situations where it would've been unusual. I'm trying to think of an example from friends, but alright, so they did an episode where Joey and Joey and what's his name, not Kramer Chandler, the guy Chandler are going to sit in their chairs all episode, all ordinary guys doing something extraordinary. They're not going to move from their chairs and they're going to see if they get everything delivered and they're going to eat and drink and they're not going to get up, stuff like that. So I don't think it's any different from any other sitcom I've worked on other than the characters.Phil Hudson:I just started re-watching How I Met Your Mother, which I've seen who knows how many times. But it's a good background show while I'm working on stuff that's not necessarily logical, analytical stuff. And there's an episode where it's the Halloween party and he's the hanging Chad because he met the sexy pumpkin in 2001 during the election or 1999 or whatever. And so Barney's got tickets to the Victoria's Secret model, Christmas Halloween costume party, and he's trying to get his friend to this extraordinary thing and his friend won't leave. He wants to be at this party to potentially meet this girl on this rooftop again. And it's the push and pull of Come be amazing, stop looking for love, you're losing. So it plays really well in that situation. Alright, cool. AIA Saunders or AIA Sanders, I apologize for ruining that. How do you feel about basing a character on them knowing themselves or basing a character on yourself and your own doubts?Michael Jamin:Yeah, do it all. I mean, you should do it. You should totally mind your own life For stories, and I have a whole module on this in the course, and you can disguise it too, so people don't have to know it's you, but you're just stealing parts of yourself or parts of people as other characters, but you change it enough and change the name, but also change professions and change. You're just stealing attributes from people so they wouldn't know it. But that's what your life is for your life is to steal things fromPhil Hudson:Perfect. Charles Shin, do you have any tips or advice with coming up with great names for your characters?Michael Jamin:I spoke a little bit about this in the old days. We used to have a baby naming book, my partner and I, and then now it's kind of easy to go on the internet or just in life. You'll come across a street name and you go, oh, that's a good last name for a character. I just kind of keep a list. What was one? I had one the other day I added to my list, I can't remember, but it was like a street sign I go that I passed. I go, that's a good character's name.Phil Hudson:Yeah. I've also seen our showrunners on Tacoma fd. There's a random character as Chief Phil Dylan. Well, I'm Phil. It was the writer's pa and I replaced Dylan, the writer's pa.Michael Jamin:Yeah, it's funny. I know they took that for you. I mean, they tend to do that a lot where at least Steve Lemi does. He'll just name characters after people he knows.Phil Hudson:Yeah. There's one line from Ike in an episode that I think you guys wrote. It's like Benjamin Duff or Benjamin CrumpMichael Jamin:AndPhil Hudson:Ben Crump was our DIT set. Right. So just throw people's names and give 'em fun stuff. Awesome. You also talked, I think you talked about funny names that go together too. At one point that was something you do.Michael Jamin:I talked about, I had a character named, what was his name? SomethingPhil Hudson:The third? It was something the fourth. The fourth, yeah. What was hisMichael Jamin:Name? God, I can't remember.Phil Hudson:It was like, but it was a bunch of things together that rhymed almost or had similar names.Michael Jamin:I'd have to look it up. I can't. Oh, Dan Danforth iv. That's what it was. Dan Dan. I had a character named Dan Danforth iv, and I just thought that was a good name because Dan Danforth is weird enough. But why did his parents have to saddle in with the fourth? Because, well, they felt like they had to because the father's the third is a generational thing. They can't, so they stuck this guy with his shitty name and what's that going to, having a name like that, you're going to be teased as a child. And I thought the character is kind of a feckless type and he became a sheriff of a small town as a way of demanding respect because he'd been teased all his life to be named Dan Danforth iv. And so now he has a badge, but people still think he's a dipshit. And so I just thought it was kind of a good name for a character like that, who's kind of feckless.Phil Hudson:Alright, jumping into the course and character related topics, these are a bit intermingled because a lot of what you talked about, and we even brought this up with Mike Repp and Kevin Lewandowski about how valuable that course, that character worksheet is. But because this webinar is about character, there are a lot of questions about character. So number one, pat Nava. How do you make characters that the audience wants to know more about?Michael Jamin:Well, it's not so much the characters, it's just the story you give them. So that's not so much the character. That's the story.Phil Hudson:There we go. Cookies and sugar. How do we make characters diverse and not self projectMichael Jamin:Diverse and not self project? They seem very different questions toPhil Hudson:Me. So this is, I think a really good question and from context for this, this person is a minor and they want to be a writer and they've been told by their well meaning adults in their life and mentors not to do that because it's a waste of time because you'll never make it as a writer. And that was a question she'd asked another point. So this question really speaks to me of something I heard really early on when I was studying, which is you are not your characters. Don't write yourself into your characters, which is kind of contradictory to the advice you give, which is writing your life for stories.Michael Jamin:Why not? I dunno why they would give you that advice. Why not? Yeah, it might've been because people were just writing self-indulgent material that could have been,Phil Hudson:I know on writing by Stephen King, he says that you are not your characters and it is a mistake to think that your characters will behave the way you would. So if you find your character doing something you wouldn't do, it is your job to allow them to do that. And I find that a lot with my writing. There are many things I write where I would never do as someone from a more conservative background who is religiously inclined, like my characters say and do things all the time. I'm like, oh, where did that come from? Not who I am, but that's what it felt like needed to happen as that character was coming through me. And I feel it's my responsibility to just let that happen. But the difference is to me is don't make your characters do and make the actions you would do. And if you're a more passive person, that's not a good thing for your character to be because your character needs to make choices. And that's the conflict of it all.Michael Jamin:But Larry David on Kirby Enthusiasm, he's playing himself, but Larry David is not that person in real life. These are just, it's a heightened version of himself. Larry David knows when to hold his tongue. His character doesn't, his character can't let it go. Larry David just playing. It's a heightened version of himself. It's the worst version of himself, which is why it's so funny he wouldn't do that in real life. I mean, Larry, he wouldn't do that,Phil Hudson:Right? But if you look at yourself, or even friends you have or people that you know and you say, I've got this buddy who is super quiet, but then when he talks it is just cuts with a thousand lashes because he is so sharp, it'll just take the wind out of your sails in a second. So if you have someone and you take that element and you say, I wonder how I can make that funnier. How could I take this tick that I have or that my wife has and just make it, turn it up to 11. That's where the comedy comes from and that's where the conflict comes from. So that's what you're saying by mind your life for stories and put your characters in situations you've been in, but don't do what you did necessarily.Michael Jamin:You could turn it up. Yeah, turn it up a notch. That's it. It makes it fun and interesting.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Cool. Matthew? I think he likes lasagna. Many people begin with an idea for a character. I've always been led by the concept and the plot, then I tailored the characters to fit within it. What are your thoughts on that method?Michael Jamin:Sure. I mean that works fine. I mean, if you can create someone who still feels real, like I said, even though Larry David is a heightened version of himself, it still feels real. It feels like he almost, it's not crazy. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that he would do that. So as your characters don't, as long as it doesn't feel like you're contorting the character to do something that your story requires, which would not be human behavior, at the end of the day, these characters have to be humanPhil Hudson:Like jumping the sharkMichael Jamin:Or jumping the shark. But also often my partner and I will write a scene and Seaver will say something like a character that's not human behavior. We're just making the character do this because two writers in Hollywood need him to say that, which is, I mean, sometimes we'll laugh, we'll say, why would a character say that? And then I'll say that we have four cameras on him and we have to shoot something tonight. But that's not the right answer. The right answer is it has to be human behavior.Phil Hudson:So tangentially related would be DSX, Mina, right? Which is circumstance or coincidence, getting your character out of trouble or solving your problem. So it's not the same, but very similar as it's aMichael Jamin:Lazy writing dem and I believe is Latin for God,Phil Hudson:God in the machine,Michael Jamin:A God or God can get you into trouble or a coincidence can get you into trouble but can't get you out of trouble. So if God comes to the rescue and saves the day, that's considered bad writing. So an example for this that people like to harp on is somehow Palpatine returned. Isn't that his name? Palpatine?Phil Hudson:Yeah, Palpatine.Michael Jamin:Palpatine. I didn't even watch it. I didn't watch it, so I'm not going to badmouth that movie, but that's what people say somehow God came in and everyone seems to roll their eyes at it. And again, I haven't seen it so I really shouldn't say, but that's what I've heard. That would be an example of maybe something that people don't, they went too far.Phil Hudson:Yeah, yeah. How do you introduce characters? I normally have their name, age in a short sentence, which sums up their personality. I then allow them to show their character through their actions.Michael Jamin:Yeah, those are stage direction and no one wants reading stage direct wants to read stage direction. So I usually say what the character's name is exactly a few, maybe a physical attribute or two their age and something about their personality that gets it real fast. Here's a bad description. You see this a lot, Lucy, cute, but doesn't know a girl next door. Cute, but doesn't realize it or sexy, but doesn't know it. How many times have I got to see that and you just roll your eyes. So it's got to be better than that.Phil Hudson:Yeah,Michael Jamin:That's cliche.Phil Hudson:Do you ever put anything related? I've heard other writers recommend putting in cues for clothing to help wardrobe understand how this person dresses or informed character. Is that something you ever consider?Michael Jamin:Only if it's absolutely necessary. If the character wears loose fitting clothing to hide their body, that makes sense. But unless it's absolutely necessary, we can have these discussions at the production meeting. We don't need to know it now in the script unless it absolutely necessary.Phil Hudson:Great. Tom Merrim, when you write characters, do you focus more on the personalities you want added to the mix or focus more on the role each plays or what they need to do in the story?Michael Jamin:And that's what I teach in the course. Every character has to be there for a reason and they have to help elucidate the story or else it's just, you don't want to just mash these. Even if you have 10 great characters, like oh, they're all interesting, but maybe they don't fit together. They have to fit together to tell a story. The story is the look. We all work for the story, the writers, the directors, the actors, we all serve the story and that includes the characters. The story comes first. That's why it's so important to learn what story is.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Great. Justin Kaiser, to develop your characters, do you focus on relationships more than the characters themselves?Michael Jamin:Well, more, I mean, I always think what's the relationship between this character and the other character? I mean, you may need to know that if you have a father and a son and you want to know how they interact and maybe the kid's under the father's thumb and at the end of the show or movie, he's going to stand on his own two feet and defy his father. That's important that you might need to know that. But I don't need, if that's what the story is about, then yeah, I need to know the relationship, but I don't need to have all the answers, just the ones that are pertinent for the story.Phil Hudson:And when you get into the course, you'll learn that there's this awesome sheet that you have that you were provided that was given to you. Was it Steve Levitan gave it to you. And it's basically defining all of these nuances of your character so that you can build them out to be someone unique. And you clearly see a pattern. And this kind of relates back, I think to cookies and sugars question. I'm assuming this is universal, not just to me thing, but definitely a Phil Hudson thing. When I create my characters and I start using that spreadsheet, I start noticing like, oh, they're all very similar. We got to mix that up, so let's fix this, let's fix this. And so those are like, I have specific things I go to or lean towards and it's like I need to fix that. And that allows me to create conflict creates differences in the way people see things. It also empowers me when I'm writing these characters to know how they would talk about this specific thing or react in this situation in a way that empowers the story to be better and serve their role that they've been given.Michael Jamin:Here's an extreme example of that. Let's say you're writing Oceans 11 and you have, I dunno, I guess, or have loving characters or whatever. You got the brainiac, you got the suave guy, you got the bomb cutter, who's a loose cannon, you got the thug, you got the nerd or whatever. Every character in that group has their own distinct, not only personality, but almost archetype of personality. There shouldn't be overlap. And then that's an extreme example, but even if you're writing something more grounded and real or intimate, rather, you'll ask, you'll have the same conversations with yourself. So why do I have two heart throb characters? I only need one. You want to have different viewpoints. In the episode, we talked a little bit about love. Actually in the last podcast we talked about, we did a q and a and I mentioned love actually is about looking at love on Christmas time from whatever, 15, how many storylines, whatever, eight storylines. And each character has a very specific kind of role. And there's no, and there shouldn't be. If there is, we don't need two characters for that same point of view. This is a work of art. You don't need two, just one.Phil Hudson:Yeah. And going back to how I met your mother, there's really three kind of four different characters there in this group. There's a couple, Marshall and Lily, there's Ted, our protagonist, and there's Barney, and then there's Robin. And they all reflect this different opinion about relationships and dating in New York City. You've got the couple that have been together since college and they're together and they just love each other all the time. The ones seeking true love, the player who just wants to hook up with as many women as he can. Ironically played by Neil Patrick Harris, who's gay, and he does a great job of playing that person. And then you have Robin who is afraid of love and kind of withdraws from love and that creates that ecosystem where they're all playing off of eachMichael Jamin:Other. They all have different viewpoints. Yeah.Phil Hudson:I'll also say I'm working on this feature that I haven't written a feature in a long time and I got the story that I really like and it centers around a family situation. And I'm thinking about my family and my brothers and my relationship with my siblings. And it's like we were all raised the same. We are all very different people. We have fights because there are things we absolutely disagree on, but then there's always this layer of relationship. And we had understanding that even when we get really mad at each other to a certain degree, we know we're always going to come back together. Except there's always that thing dangling out there that maybe we won't. And I have one sibling who's like that. I don't know that I could have a same conversation with her that I could with my older brother the same way I would. She may never want to talk to me again because he's just a bit more sensitive. So it's like, okay, how do I look at all of these relationships here? And just because we all come from the same place and we had almost the same experiences. We are all very different.So Cameron Barnes, he said, Michael said, a cast of characters should be in constant conflict, but does that actually just mean constant conflict throughout the story?Michael Jamin:What else would it mean? I mean,Phil Hudson:Yeah, I dunno.Michael Jamin:I don't know. I mean, yeah, conflictPhil Hudson:Doesn't, lemme talk about the constant conflict. Maybe just address that.Michael Jamin:Well, conflict doesn't have to be people fighting. It could be passive aggressive. It could be people caring very much for each other, the mother, and you've seen this trope before, the mother, the overbearing mother, trying to get the daughter to be happy and settle down and find a man, whatever. She's just in her life that's conflict. A mother who's constantly meddling and she means well and the daughter knows she means well, but she keeps stepping on her toes. You've seen that story a million times. We've seen it because it works. So that's conflict. But if it was, what about a show where everyone was always getting along? Well, that's boring, unfortunately that's just boring. That's the scene right? Before everything goes south, that's what that is. You have one scene like that and then it goesPhil Hudson:South. And it's not that it's all okay that people are just kind of egg shelling, walking on eggshells around each other to maintain the peace in this moment, right? Yeah, because it's going to go nuts at any moment. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Drama is conflict, guys. So that's it. Drama is conflict,Phil Hudson:But that's also just life. And I think that's why we watch it. Life is not perfect harmony at all times with everybody. There's things,Michael Jamin:But even if you had a scene where young couple's in love and everything's great. Okay, great. What's one scene they met boy meets girl, they fall in love. Great. How many,Phil Hudson:Why do you leave the towels on the floor? He leaves theMichael Jamin:Towel. Yeah, something's going to have to happen wherePhil Hudson:When you take your toothbrush out of your mouth, it flicks toothpaste on the mirror and you never clean it. Right? That's the stuff that eats at couples.Michael Jamin:Yeah. So you need stuff like that. Everyone loves Raymond. They were a happy couple, they had a happy marriage, but you still have to fight Rose, what are we watching?Phil Hudson:But that's also fighting in a relationship is what makes your relationship better. If you can get through those things. And fighting doesn't mean screaming and yelling and throwing stuff at each other. It could just be disagreements or heated conversations is like you got to get through the conflict, come to a resolution,Michael Jamin:Right?Phil Hudson:This thing bothers me. This thing bothers you. How are we going to fix this? We live together and we're going to be together forever. So let's figure this out. It's going to bother me every day forever.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Matthew Lavania back. What's the difference between a villain and an antagonist?Michael Jamin:I don't know. I mean a villain I guess is an arch formative, a villain sounds like it's something that's a heightened antagonist. That's what it sounds like. An antagonist doesn't have to be a villain. It could just, if you have, like I said, a daughter and a mother and the mother's overbearing, then the mother's an antagonist. Doesn't mean she's a villain. The stepmother's the villain in Cinderella. So it's just a heightened antagonist I suppose. But we're splitting hair. I don't think we have to worry about that really. I mean it's like an academic question. I could thinkPhil Hudson:You might say Thanos in the Marvel universe is the villain because he's got this big existential threat. But I think one of the things you highlight definitely in my writing is your antagonist still needs to be likable. Not likable in the sense, but we need to understand that they think they're the hero. And in this case, Thanos wants to prevent genocide because his world went through this. And so his way of doing, it's by killing half the people in existence to prevent this thing from happening.Michael Jamin:Think about land from Quentin Tarantino's,Phil Hudson:GloriousMichael Jamin:Bastards and glorious bastards. What a great villain. I mean, he was a great villain. He was the Jew hunter, the Nazi man that was a badass guy. But he was complex and there was something so about him, even though what he was doing was so incredibly vile and offensive. And so that's when you humanize your villain, you make it. It makes your writing so much richer. I mean the fact that he spoke so many languages and he was educated. He'sPhil Hudson:Charismatic. Yeah,Michael Jamin:He was charismatic and yet stillPhil Hudson:And very polite. Thank you so much for inviting. Yeah,Michael Jamin:VeryPhil Hudson:Inviting, inviting. May I ask you for some milk?Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:The Jews are underneath me right now, aren't they? Yeah.Michael Jamin:And you just didn't know where you stood with the guy. So he was just a very nice guy doing awful, awful things. So that's great writingPhil Hudson:That scene when he's sitting down with Ana, I'd like to go over the theater and he's vetting her and he's putting cream down for her and he's like, he knows who she is. It is unspoken subtext. He is aware that this is the girl that got away. You see it in her reaction when she leaves and she's hyperventilating and she just kept it togetherMichael Jamin:And he was like a mercenary.Phil Hudson:Then you find out later that that's all part of his plan. This is how he's going to get out.Michael Jamin:Great writing. That's all that is. That's all that movie is great writing,Phil Hudson:Which is followed up byMichael Jamin:Great actingPhil Hudson:And great production and great editing and great everything. That'sMichael Jamin:All that was though.Phil Hudson:Alright. Luke felt. How do you ensure that the story around the character matches the lesson that they need to learn?Michael Jamin:Can you say that again? How do I ensure?Phil Hudson:So this is a presupposition that your character needs to learn something by the end of your script. So how do you ensure that the story around that character gets them to the point that they learn something?Michael Jamin:Well, okay, I don't believe characters have to learn anything. I do think they have to grow or else why did you put 'em on a journey? If not to them it has to be you're changed in some way. If you take a character and you take 'em to the top of Mount Everest, they have to be changed in some way or else why did you take 'em there? So it doesn't mean they have to learn a lesson, they could be worse off. But if your why stories is a journey and why go on the journey if we're not going to get a view and the view better be something interesting, why did you take me on this long trip? And if the character didn't in some way change or grow, it doesn't mean learn a lesson, just change in some small way. Why didn't we take 'em on that trip? Why did we go there? Why did you waste our time? And by the way, there are bad movies where this doesn't happen and I always feel like, well, why did you just waste my time? And so just because there's bad writing out there doesn't mean we have to participate in it. It doesn't mean we have to add to it.Phil Hudson:I think there's an inclination, and I've seen this in myself and many other writers in film school and definitely here in Los Angeles, that you want to buck the trend and buck the system and you don't want to follow story structure and you want to do your own thing. It's almost like you want to reinvent the world of writing and you also want to play into tragedy and disappoint, defeat audience expectations and all these things. And that's artful writing. And I think what I've learned from you in the course and being in the writer's room is that those things serve a purpose and you can still do those things, but you do it in a surprising way and it works because there's a structure to it.Michael Jamin:Yeah. I mean, everyone wants to reinvent writing, reinvent the story. Look, the story works. It's been working for thousands of years. You can make a good living writing compelling story. And when I watch a story that's compelling and that works, I don't think, wow, they just reinvented the story. I don't think that, I just think they told a really good story. I feel like they're doing what I'm doing, but maybe better or on a higher level. I don't think they just completely change with some small exceptions sometimes. I'll watch, for example, inception, Christopher Nolan, I, I've watched it four times. I still don't know what it's about. I still can't follow it. It's obviously a great movie, but I don't think we have to all write like that in order to tell a great story.Phil Hudson:And I think he just announced what is happening. He just revealed that during the Oppenheimer interviews. You can go look that up on the Google if anybody's in. But yeah, I mean that's his style and it's very much his cscope, I think is what it is. Or Cscope, his logo is a maze. It's elaborate. He's kind of telling you this is his way of tellingMichael Jamin:Stories. That's how he does it and that's how he thinks.Phil Hudson:It started with Memento and it started with even other stuff he directed but didn't write, which I'm blanking on it, but it's like one in Alaska and it's psychological thriller. But yeah, all of his stuff is that, and that's his motif and his style.Michael Jamin:I'd go so far as to say that the guy's kind of a genius. And so unless you think you're a genius too, maybe don't try to reinvent. I don't think I'm a genius. But that said, I couldn't write anything like Memento. It hurts my head to think about it. And I enjoyed a memento and Inception really loved it. I couldn't come close to it. I write, what I do is I write comedy and I'm very good at that. My one little thing, and that's okay. We all have our one little thing that we're good at and you have to just lean into it. Christopher Nolan doesn't write comedy, which is good. He has a sing that he does and we love what he does. We don't all have to be experts at everything.Phil Hudson:Right? Yeah. Justin Kaiser, how do you decide that another character is needed to advance the story or if that attribute moral personality can be added to another existing character?Michael Jamin:IPhil Hudson:Guess kind of the question is how do you know when you have enough characters in your story?Michael Jamin:Well, it's a little different. If you're writing a TV show, if a TV show you need to write, you have to have a cast and it has to be conflict. You want to have, let's say five or six characters that always are going to always be in conflict with each other week in and week out as you tell different stories. If you're writing a movie, you really want to think about who's the star of this movie, or if it's a two hander, who are the stars, if it's a buddy cop movie or whatever, you have two cops or it's a buddy movie or a road trip movie. You have these two characters and you only have the other characters as needed to help tell the story, the journey you're putting those two characters on. So if you take a good example, because we're mentioning Buddy comedies, midnight Run, so Charles Groden and Robert De Niro. It's a buddy comedy you're putting and a road trip, comedy, whatever, not so much a comedy but drama and you're putting them on an adventure, so you just need obstacles to throw in their ways. So you have Dennis Farinas character who's the mobster, but we're not following Dennis Farinas story. We're following Robert De Niro's relationship with Charles. That's it. Everyone else is there to help. Tell Robert De Niro's story and Charles Groton's story.Phil Hudson:Yeah, easy Rider, very similar, right? You've got these two bikers and you've got their lawyer Jack, Jack nickles, and then it, it's about them. And that's experience of going across America right in the seventies. It's not about the hippies they meet at the Waterhole in Santa Fe. It's about those and what happens to them as they go through America, Julia Wells, and how do you prevent the worst characters from being so far outside their wheelhouse that they can't possibly succeed or it becomes unbelievable. And this is in reference to this kind of golden nugget you've been talking about recently in your Yeah,Michael Jamin:Everyone please come to my webinars about this one's about character. She's talking about character, but I do another one on story and they're free. You go to michael tamer.comPhil Hudson:And you're going to get a lot of these questions for people. A lot of this is coming out of, it's in context in the webinar. So you're hearing this lesson and these very important principles for writers, and these are questions coming out of that. And this is one of those questions referring to a tip you give in the webinar about how to write characters that a professional writer would use.Michael Jamin:So she wants to know how do you make sure that your character is not so off the map that people don't like it or something?Phil Hudson:Yeah, because the point you're making here is you don't want a perfect character. You want the worst character for a situation. Yeah. So how do you not make the situation so bad that per character can't navigate it?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Well, I think what you do is you have your character and get better, so improve on it. So like I talked about, one of the examples I gave in the webinar was Aria Stark from Game of Thrones, and we gave her one of the hardest storylines, which was she was a little girl, her family was murdered, and now she decides she's going to avenge the death of her family. And I talk more about this in the webinar, so I'm not going to go too much detail, but Aria Stark is the worst character to give this journey to avenge the death. She's like an 8-year-old and she's tiny. And so we give her skills. So we slowly take her down this path where she learns skills and becomes a great fighter. Little by little, she learns from this, the dance.Phil Hudson:You learn those attributes, but it's there, the seeds are there. She's interested in sword play. She's a bit of a tomboy. She wants to know these things that her sisters the opposite, wants to be the queen, wants to marry the king, that wholeMichael Jamin:Thing. So we put her, she's the worst person to put on this journey, but we slowly give her the skills on these little storylines that we give her to become the one who kills the night King. No one can kill this guy. He's made of ice and somehow she, but had we not put her on this journey, she would've been the first one to die. Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my content and I know you do because you're listening to me, I will email it to you for free. Just join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos of the week. These are for writers, actors, creative types, people like you can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not going to spam you, and the price is free. You got no excuse to join. Go to michaeljamin.com. And now back to what the hell is Michael Jamin talking about?Phil Hudson:Yeah, it's all great. It's such a good show.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Darlene Smith, can you ever overc create a character?Michael Jamin:I dunno what that means. OvercPhil Hudson:Create overriding is a thing. I don't think this is, can you think too much about your character? And I know a lot of people spend times writing full biographies about theirMichael Jamin:CharactersPhil Hudson:And all that kind of stuff.Michael Jamin:Yeah. As you write, you learn more about the character. It's so weird when people say, I wrote, they say, I have the pilot, the Bible, and the first three seasons of my show mapped out really? In other words, you're saying you're not willing to discover any of this as you go because they just haven't mapped out on a piece of paper. It's like in a real writer's room. We got a team of writers working on this, and over the course of eight seasons, we were learning more and more about the characters as we go. It's not Breaking Bad wasn't fleshed out in the pitch. Jesse Pinkman wasn't even going to be a main character in it. You learn about your characters as you're writing. You see what works and what doesn't work. I think there's a temptation to spend all this time overthinking your characters without even putting a word on the page.Phil Hudson:Look, it looks like writing and I think that might be, this is procrastination.Michael Jamin:Yes,Phil Hudson:It's world creating. I think I told you maybe eight months ago, nine months ago, there was a kid who was in film school, he messaged me and he's like, Hey, I'm really interested in this and writing, and I just love creating worlds. I love world building. I love doing all this stuff. And that's my favorite part of this. And it's like, cool. None of that matters if you don't have a character we want to watch because that is all that matters is what is this character? What is the journey they're going on? It's procrastination. It feels like it. And look, this might be a bit of a gross word to use to describe this, but it is masturbation. It is just you are doing this for self-indulgent reasons to make you feel like you're writing and it's literally not moving the chain, which is pages, words on the page, words on the page, words on theMichael Jamin:Page. My partner and I, we've gotten called out on this more than once, where the executives will look at an outline or a beat sheet and they go, I don't understand this character. And we're like, well, we don't really understand the character yet either. We plan on finding it as we write, but they get mad. We need to know now. All right, well, we are just kind of pulling the wool of your eyes. We'll figure it out. We're going to find it when we write it. I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you. We thought about it. We're not there yet. We have to discover it as we write. Sorry, but this is how it goes.Phil Hudson:I want to highlight here, Michael, too, that this is for a lot of people who might hear what you say about story structure matters and there's a structure that you need to stick to and you talk very in your free lesson, michaeljamin.com/free. There's a whole bunch of free resources on that page. One of those is this free lesson about story, and you talk in there about Picasso. And Picasso was a master at 14, and then he learned and created his own version of art that's worth millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, by the time he was 80, so he had like 65 years if I'm asked of figuring out how to make his own thing and reinventing this. But it's grounded in the rules of art and painting, and you talk about structure and how it matters, but in the same breath you're saying like find it as you go. Find it as you go. And there's a balance there. And I think very often, definitely myself, very black and white, and there's a lot of this, you need to understand the principles so that you can break the rules, but you also need to understand when to focus your time and when to shift. And that I would venture to say just comes with time. You got to get in and do itMichael Jamin:A lot and over and over and over again and you'll learn. And then that's how a lot of times we will have the perfect character, all the perfect characters, and we'll start writing and we go, none of this is working. So what we thought was perfect is not working. How do I know it's not working? Because the words are not coming out on the page. It's just not working.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Don't be so damn precious about your story and your characters and your idea. Just get it out and move on. It's reps. You got to get your reps in. All right, cookies and sugar. How do you keep a romance novel? Interesting. How do you create conflict between the two characters while still having them come together in the end to date? How do you write villains in? And part of me is, I think we just answered this with the toothpaste and all that stuff we're talking about. You can get there, but Hitch comes to mind for me, right? It's the right characters. Remember? Yeah. Will Smith is the dating expert, and he helps guys who kind of suck at dating, get girls that they like. And Eon Goya's character is like a gossip writer, and she finds out about this guy and she's going to go find him and hunt him down. But at the same time, she falls in love with Hitch the Guy. And then it kind of comes out later that she feels like he played her and it's because her friend got some douche bag who he wouldn't help made some reference. And so it all kind of boils over at the end. And it's about helping a guy fall in love who's in love with this airs getting her to fall in love with him. He's a klutz and he can't do it himself. And all the things she fell in love with were him. His mistakes, not the stuff Hitch taught him how to do, right? It's all the sincere him stuff. But that is a great example of this is a romcom, this is a romance story. This isMichael Jamin:Go watch when Harry Met Sally, which is the best romcom ever. And so when you keep your, it is boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl. That's the middle, right? Then boy gets girl in the end again. Or not. Or not, but getting together at the end, you need to get your characters, they usually get together earlier and then something goes south. And that would be probably be your second act break when they break up for whatever reason. So go watch Harry. I met Sally. That's a brilliant, brilliant romcom.Phil Hudson:Awesome. EG wants to know how do you overcome difficulties with writing dialogue? Acts broken down, but having a hard time with dialogue?Michael Jamin:Well, yeah. I mean, there's a couple of things going on. One, you can record your dialogue into a tape recorder or whatever, digital recorder and play it back. And it should sound natural. It should sound the way people talk. You can go to a coffee shop and listen to people how they talk to me. That's the fun part. If you're having problem writing it, it could easily be because you don't know what your characters should say. And if you don't know what your characters are saying, you don't have a dialogue problem. You have a story structure problem if you don't know what your characters should say. So I suspect that's what's going on. I suspect this person doesn't have a dialogue problem. They have a story structured problem.Phil Hudson:That was my thought too, because it's pretty easy to know what you need to get. You shouldn't have a scene where people are just showing up to talk that does nothing for us. Yeah,Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:It's that critique I have. And I've noticed even in my own writing early on, which is there's a lot of people doing things and nothing's happening.Michael Jamin:Yeah,Phil Hudson:That's a bad note to get by the way, guys, you don't want that. Doc B, is there a method by which to place arc points, the character will learn something or experience that helps them grow? Or do you let the story find the right moment for a character evolution?Michael Jamin:Can you repeat it?Phil Hudson:It kind of was tough to get through. So is there a process or method that you use to put in plot points or story points that require your character to grow or evolve?Michael Jamin:Well, again, we're talking story structure. That's what they need to, that's what I teach in the course. There is a process. Yeah. Yeah.Phil Hudson:I recently, go ahead.Michael Jamin:Characters don't have to grow. They have to change, but they don't have to learn a lesson, but go on.Phil Hudson:Yeah. And again, that's that advice. It just hangs out. There is your character needs to learn something, your character needs to learn something. And just kind of hanging myself out here. Again, the first question you asked me when you're giving me screenwriting advice is you asked me the question, what is the definition of a story? Hint. Hint. That's go get the free lesson on michaeljamin.com/free because it's the same question and you teach this principle, and I said, it's a hero who goes through trials and ends up better in the end. And your response was, what about King Lear?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Here's another example that go watch a movie called Manchester by the Sea with Casey Affleck. And in it he plays a guy who's responsible for the death. There's an accident. He's responsible for the death of his wife and his child, and he's living with his horrible guilt. HePhil Hudson:Won an Oscar for that, right? That's the one got the Oscar for,Michael Jamin:I don't know. But it was a great performance. And so he feels responsible for the death of his family, and I think he may have been an alcoholic or not, I don't remember. And then he forges a relationship with his nephew, and you think maybe this relationship's going to save him. And you get to the end and you think we've taken Casey Affleck's character on this journey where maybe he's not going to be depressed anymore. Maybe he's going to allow himself to change and grow and he can't. And so that character goes on a whole journey, but really doesn't change and is a beautiful, beautiful movie. But again, the emotional journey is there. But he decides at the end, I can't grow. I can't ChangePhil Hudson:Without A Trace is another great film with Ben Foster and he's living in, he's a vet with PTSD and he's living kind in the wilderness outside of Portland with his daughter. And then Child Protective Services kind of gets involved and he kind goes on the run with her and they escape. And then at the end they end up in this town and there are these kind people who want to take her in and they're offering to give them a place to stay and take care of him. And then one night he is packing his stuff and he has to kind of leave his daughter behind because he can't deal and she can't deal with living in the woods. And she shouldn't because a teenage girl and should have a life. And they have this beautiful, I don't want to spoil it for anyone else, watch, but there's this beautiful moment where at the end you just know they're both okay and they've both got what they need, but it's not what you want for them. You want these two to figure it out. You want him to get better and he just can't cope with civilization Society. Yeah, good stuff. Matthew Lavania, what are your thoughts on withholding information from the audience to allow them to work things out for themselves rather than spoonfeed them everything?Michael Jamin:Good question, Matthew. That is something I struggle with, that it's not an easy task. That's kind of the difference between writing, in my opinion, writing smart writing, and maybe not so smart writing. So if I were to tell a children's a show, like a family show, middle of the Road, family Show, kind of a hokey, I would break that story the same exact way I would break an episode, let's say, of Marin, which was a very sophisticated dark comedy for adults. I would break it the same exact way. The differences for the family show, which kids are supposed to watch with their parents, I would spell it out a little more. I'd do a little more spoonfeeding. And for the adult show for Marin, I would make the, I just wouldn't say it as much, and the audience would have to figure it out on their own. And people would think, oh, Marin is smart because I'm making them do the work. Whereas it's literally the same steps, the same beat board, it's all the same except I'm making, I'm spoonfeeding the family show, but I'm making on Marin. I'm letting the audience do little work. And when you make the audience do more work, they feel it's a smarter show because they have to be smarter. They have to pay attention more. And so that in my opinion, is the difference between a smart show and let's say a not smart show.Phil Hudson:For the newer writers, there are two terms that come to mind. One is subtext, which I could not wrap my head around when I was first figuring learning writing, but it's absolutely critical to writing professionally. You need to understand it's like what's not being said, it's being said, but not said that subtext. And then the other is this principle of audience inferior and audience superior, meaning your audience doesn't know what's going on versus your audience knows more than your characters know what's going on. And there are tools you use. So in a horror film, you might use Audience Superior to say, oh no, don't go in there. Don't go in there that the killer's in there. But then you might use audience inferior and a horror film for the jump scare where leather face pops out in the woods and gets your kids. So they're just tools of the craft and you use 'em. Applicably.On this note, I've talked about the show when Bluey is very popular right now on Disney Plus. It's a kid's show about their dogs and even at shows from Australia. And they're fascinating. And I love watching them probably more than my kids love watching them because they are very smart, very, this was something I just saw on TikTok yesterday. It's a new term I learned called a Rainbow Baby. Have you ever heard that term Rainbow Baby? Is the baby born immediately after a miscarriage or a stillbirth or something like that? And it's a very emotional thing for parents. And there's an episode where Blue's kind of acting out how her mom and her dad fell in love and kind of how Bluey got there and her sister Bingo's helping her act it out. And Bingo's got this balloon underneath her belly to pretend like she's pregnant and she's playing the mom.And they don't tell you this. And I've watched this episode probably five times, and until someone pointed this out, there's this moment where the balloon pops and you see Blue's Dad grab his wife's hand and they hold hands. And I get emotional as a husband with kids. It's like, oh, they went through a miscarriage. And they don't tell you. Kids will never know. But as an adult it's like, wow, there's a level to this that is just beautiful. So that's subtext and it's audience inferior. It's all those things that we're talking about. So I'm going to wipe my tears now into my microphone. A couple of questions left, and I know we're going to be a little bit long here guys. So apologize. You're getting a bunch of questions answered. The Lovely Bone 0 5 2. How do you make character's voice different than your own? Which I think is kind of the projecting question we talked about earlier, but do you have any about voice?Michael Jamin:That's the fun part. If you're writing for Frazier Crane, you speak like Frazier Crane, you look up words in the thesaurus. So he uses smart language instead of good and bad, it'll say delicious and magnificent. How do you do that? That's the fun. That's the imitation part where we get to imitate people. So you listen, you use your ears and you mock peoplePhil Hudson:And you have experiences you've talked about before.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Joshua and Ashley Earls Bennett want to know, this is about miscellaneous questions, by the way. Is there a character sheet for stories that have taken place in the past? And I think this is a reference to a story Bible and not the one you do for pitching, but the one in the writer's room.Michael Jamin:Yeah. I mean, I don't look at it. I mean, most shows keep a Bible for whatever purposes. I don't even know why. But they keep a record of all these characters and stories that have been told. So if someone needs to know for at some point in the future, it's there, but I don't reference them.Phil Hudson:Here's an Easter egg on why you might have this, because we didn't have this on Tacoma fd. And then there was a point where in this season of Tacoma fd, they're going to rename the street pan easy way. And so we need to know what is the street of the firehouse. And so I had to go dig through every last episode of the script, every script from season one through, and you find out, well, we've had two addresses because someone wrote it down, or I know we ran into a plot point where it's like we need to pick a specific game that was missed as a plot point for this episode, and why Terry's mad at his daughter because that's the night she was born. But in the timeline, we might say she was this age, and then now you're stuck trying to find an important event in this specific year because you have to maintain the continuity of the story.Michael Jamin:And that's a good example. So if we have an episode and we want to like, okay, we want to bring back Eddie'sPhil Hudson:Spatchcock.Michael Jamin:Yeah, whatever. A girlfriend that he had in the first season one, what was her name again? I can't remember. We want to bring this character back. We'd asked the writer's assistant, the writer would check the Bible that they kept a record of because we as the writers might not remember because it's like a trivia. It's trivia from four seasons ago.Phil Hudson:Awesome. Jenny Harper. Are there any character sheets that list how each character changes by beat? Beat byMichael Jamin:Beat? No, we wouldn't keep a record of that. That'd be crazy. That'd be too much work.Phil Hudson:Is there a reason for a character or a writer to keep that?Michael Jamin:I mean, I often would wonder when I watched Lost or even Game of Thrones, I'm like, wait, who knows what here? It's hard to remember. That's the challenge. One of the challenges of shows like that, wait, who knows what's going on here? I'm terrible at that. I don't like that aspect of writing, but certainly What is that?Phil Hudson:So this is a book by Javier gr Marks watch, which we've talked about before. He was a writer on Lost and he's got a blog where he talks about that first season of Lost, which he was on, and this is his book, shoot This one again, which is kind of stories, essays on being a writer and a showrunner. And this book is really good and he talks a lot about Bibles and what it was like to come up with stories and things like that. And they've got a really great podcast too on TV writing that's not very active, but it was really good resource called Children of Tendu. So if you're interested in more of that stuff, I think they're a very good resource for that. And that book's great. Check it out. But shout out to Javi. You know Javi, right? You've met him. Is that right?Michael Jamin:No, I never met him. I know who he isPhil Hudson:Though. You know of him.Michael Jamin:I think maybe we tweeted each other once or twice or something.Phil Hudson:Yeah, they're cool guys. I've reached out to them as well to help them with their podcast back in the day. They did not take me up on it, Michael, but you did.Michael Jamin:Oh well, I did. Yeah.Phil Hudson:They missed out. Yeah. Chris, who wants to know, what are some examples of compelling character development in television characters who really stand out from a professional writer's perspective?Michael Jamin:Well, I mean, Walter White fantastic, but anybody on Breaking Bed? Is it fantastic? YouPhil Hudson:Talked about Aria Stark already. That's another great one. JohnMichael Jamin:Star. There's so many great characters. I mean, when people think there's nothing good on, it's like, well change a channel, man. There's plenty of good TV on. I dunno what you're talking about. Stop watching your terrible shows. It's your fault. I'm loving severance. I'm loving severance,Phil Hudson:Severance.Michael Jamin:It's so interesting to me. Yeah, lovePhil Hudson:It. Alex r how in depth do rooms of writers deconstruct characters?Michael Jamin:Well, we have an idea when we start writing and then the characters, it's not like we deconstruct. They actually become, it's almost like they're real people to us. And so are you deconstructing your mother or do you just know your mother? You know who mother is and so they're real people. It's not like we're not taking 'em apart and laying 'em on a table.Phil Hudson:Do you want to talk about the doctor? No. In the writer's room that came up recently this week in a conversation with somebody. But it's also like this might be that someone, it's almost like you're nitpicking your character a bit.Michael Jamin:Yeah, but I don't watch Dr. No, so I don't really keep,Phil Hudson:No Dr. Noah as in the doctor Noah in the room. Maybe that's not you. That's them. Dr. Noah is the naysayer, the guy who says tears things down and doesn't like.Michael Jamin:Yeah, I mean that's not a helpful, you can find a reason to say no to every pitch in a writer's room. It is just not helpful. So find a reason to build it up to be positive and to say something helpful.Phil Hudson:How do you make sticky or awesome characters that get stuck in people's heads and hearts and how can you have a character that you expand over more than one season? How do you develop a character?Michael Jamin:This is the journey we all put ourselves on, but again, I don't even think it's so much the character as it is the journey we put them on. You could take anyone, make them interesting. I feel you could make anyone interesting as long as you put 'em on the right journey.Phil Hudson:Dave Campbell, how do we get away with using characters based on real life when there's always that stupid boilerplate saying exactly the opposite. The characters and events are not based on real events orMichael Jamin:How do we, I guess what's the question? DoPhil Hudson:Do we get away with using a character that's based on somebody in real life when there's always that stupid boilerplate? The disclaimer about this is not based on real people.Michael Jamin:Well, I mean change 'em a little. You're basing it on them and you're changing their name and their identity. And so if you're going to make a character against model it against your best friend, change it enough so that your best friend doesn't find out, it won't know. So that's how you do it.Phil Hudson:I wrote a script once and gave it to my friend who's an actor that was on the bridge and he was a little on the nose, but I appreciate it. He felt like I wrote him, which I did. I wrote him. He was just such a character and it was not interesting to him as an actor who has been on a major show, he's just like, this is just me.Michael Jamin:Right, right.Phil Hudson:Mishu Pizza. Can character foils also be considered a side character or a supporting character or the main character's best friend? I feel like foils don't always have to be the antagonist. Is that true?Michael Jamin:I feel like we're overthinking this a little bit. I feel like maybe we're giving labels that don't need to be labeled. We have a hero. We're going to put this hero on a journey and who are the people? Or if it's a like a buddy comedy or whatever we're talking about, or if it's a husband and wife or whatever the story, what's the journey we're putting them on and who are the characters who are going to get in their way? And often if it's a husband and wife, they're going to be fighting each other, so Okay, good. And who are the characters that we need to create to help foment this argument that they&#

In September, I hosted a webinar called "How To Write A Great Story" where I talked about what a "story" really is, as well as how to use personal stories to help your writing. This episode addresses questions you asked in our Q&A session that we didn't have time to answer. There's lots of great info here, make sure you watch.Show NotesFree Writing Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/op/webinar-registration/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistAutogenerated TranscriptMichael Jamin:It's not that The stakes of rocky areas are not about will Rocky win the fight? Who caress? Will Rocky win the competition? The contest who caress? No one cares if he wins. The stakes are, will Rocky finally feel like he's not a loser? Will he finally feel like he's not a bum? And that's something something all of us can relate to. You're listening to, what the hell is Michael Jamin talking about? I'll tell you what I'm talking about. I'm talking about creativity, I'm talking about writing, and I'm talking about reinventing yourself through the arts. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of, what the Hell is Michael Jamin talking about? Well, today I'm talking about, I'm answering questions. Phil, I'm back here with Phil Hudson. Hey Phil. What up? So why do these webinars every three weeks? And I try to answer questions during them and we don't have time to get to all of them. So I'm going to be answering them right now and Phil's going to feed 'em to me.Phil Hudson:That's right. He'sMichael Jamin:Going to baby bird them to me. He's going to chew them up and dip 'em into my mouth.Phil Hudson:I'm going to spit 'em into your mouth. Regurgitate 'em. Love it. Yeah. You guys know the thing. We've been doing this for two years now, so we've got plenty of these episodes in the Can questions came up. We're going to dive into 'em Again, some of these things that were asked, we're not going to go over Michael because we've talked about 'em a thousand times,Michael Jamin:ButPhil Hudson:There are always some of those things that are still being asked that worth talking about a bit. So we'll go through 'em. I've broken 'em up into kind of categories just to make sure that it's easy to get through. Just be more, there are a couple of questions about your course in this I thought were worth bringing up because that was a lot of the questions that came up in September.Michael Jamin:Let's do it.Phil Hudson:Alright, let's dive into craftMichael Jamin:Michael.Phil Hudson:Dr. Adam wants to know, and these are YouTube. YouTube usernames forMichael Jamin:Anybody interested? Yes. Doctor IPhil Hudson:Help you with Dr. Adam wants to know how important is it for someone else to edit your writing,Michael Jamin:Edit? Well, when we work in television, it's very collaborative, so your work will be rewritten often heavily by the showrunners or the writing staff. But it's a very collaborative process from the beginning. We all work together to break the story, meaning figuring out what the story is, and I teach this in the course, how to break a story, and then you get notes in the outline, the first draft, the second draft, and the table draft, blah, blah, blah. So it's very collaborative. But if you're talking about, I dunno if the doctor's talking about some other kind of work other than television writingPhil Hudson:The Good Doctor.Michael Jamin:Yeah, I don't know, doctor, I'm not really sure what you mean other than I hope I answered your questionPhil Hudson:To me. Either way.Michael Jamin:You're getting my bill.Phil Hudson:Yeah, if you're billing the doctor, I love it. For me, this is a question more about, it's a common question I've seen with people starting out, which is getting feedback or peer review, if you will on things. I had a couple of friends over Mike Rap who's a writer on Tacoma d and Kevin who will feature the podcast soon and is in the screenwriting course. There were football and we talked a lot about this kind of stuff in writer's room stuff. They both work in writer writer's rooms and getting notes from peers even outside of the writer's room at our level, Kevin and I have probably spent 40 or 50 hours on Zoom now giving each other notes onMichael Jamin:Writing.Phil Hudson:That's incredibly helpful, but it's not so much that they're editing my writing, it's more of them talking about This didn't work for me, or Hey, I got confused here. And that's the feedback that you always talk about, which is the valid feedback is someone gets lost, they don't understand. It's not compelling. It's not really on page three. You have this ticky tack note where you overcapitalize a word or something like that.Michael Jamin:Yeah, editing could be not so much getting answers from someone, but just getting questions. And the questions could be, if someone's reading your work, they could say, I, what were you going for here? I didn't get what you were going for. And then you get to decide whether you want to clarify or keep it muddy. And probably keeping it muddy is probably not the greatest choice. So you just want to make sure that your audience is along for the ride. And I was going to do a post about this soon where I think part of your responsibility as a writer is to make sure you're holding your audience's hand and taking them along for the ride and not letting go because you don't want them to get lost. If they get lost, they're going to find something else to do.Phil Hudson:Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, it's an interesting too, when you work with people who know story structure and they've been in writer rooms and they're giving you these notes. There are times where this thing didn't make sense to me, but I understand what you're going for there. Or I would consider this doing a different way. But then you get a note from the other guy and they're like, I loved this part. And so that conflicting thing is like, okay, I can keep this one. That's a choice. But when they're both like, Hey, I got really bogged down in this piece, that's a clear sign. You've got to fix something.Michael Jamin:Yeah, right. Thank you DoctorPhil Hudson:Alex Kier, any tips on writing a story with multiple characters and stories like love? Actually?Michael Jamin:Oh, well, first of all, stories have multiple characters, but you're talking about multiple storylines. And so love actually is not that uncommon. It's a fun movie, but it's not that uncommon. You're basically just having multiple storylines and all the storylines are united by this one thread, which is love during Christmas. That's it. And there's different types of love. There's Brotherly Love. The way the Rock Star character had for his manager, what was that guy's name? But there's brand new love the way the two characters who met on the porn set. That's like an awkward way of meeting. And there's other romantic love between a couple that's been married for a long time, and that was Emmett Thompson's character with Alan Rickman's character. Then there's Love, new Love Upstairs, downstairs, love, which was, what's his name? Hugh? Hugh Grant, come on. Hugh Grant, thank Hugh Grant's character.I don't remember her name, but he was the prime minister and she was the lowly chambermaid or whatever she was supposed to be. And then you have another Love one character was a love where they can't communicate. So it was Colin Firth's character and I don't remember her name, but she didn't speak. She was the Portuguese maid and she didn't speak English. So you're just examining love over Christmas between different types of love and that's how they're all united. So that was the theme. And every story has to tell a version of that. Oh, then there's one of the love there was brand new love, like puppy love, right? There was a storyline between the kid and what's his name? He was like the young kid and his stepfather, Liam Neeson. And he's trying to coach him into, wasn't that in love actually, or is that somethingPhil Hudson:Else? I have never seen love actually.Michael Jamin:Oh, you got to watch it. So yeah. So those are my tips. So that's it. And you're just kind of integrating these very stories so each one can stand on its own. Each story can stand on its own. And you're probably, if I had to time it, I would imagine that most stories, so there was one other, there was unrequited love where the guy had a crush on his best friend's, new wife, Kira Knightly, and so all different kinds of love. And I imagine if you took a stopwatch and you timed out each storyline you'd get to, they, they're all approximately the same amount of weight in terms of screen time and that's it. And if they weren't, I imagine it's because some of the stories got cut down because we weren't quite as compelling on camera as they were in the script. But I talk about this a lot. Maybe I should do a breakdown in the course of love. Actually, I talk aboutPhil Hudson:This. People love that. And you brought love actually up in stuff in the courseMichael Jamin:I did. Okay. We already talked about it.Phil Hudson:Well, I don't think you've done a case study. And for those who are unfamiliar, Michael has these awesome case studies in where you'll talk about movies you love Amle, and you'll talk about, I think, did you do Rocky Ferris Bueller's Day Off Castaway, just looking at films and TV shows and kind of breaking 'em down for story structure and talking about what works, what doesn't. And then you also hypothesized this, I imagine got cut in editing becauseMichael Jamin:AsPhil Hudson:A writer, there's a thing here that could be here or was missing, that kindMichael Jamin:Of thing. Yeah, there was a scene that I think that was missing from love actually, that I imagine they shot, but they just cut it for the sake of time.Phil Hudson:But I think it would be worth doing that. I think the members in the course would be pumped to get another case study,Michael Jamin:But there you go. Take the course if you want to learn more. But that, it's a good question.Phil Hudson:You hit on something that you talk about in one of your webinars that we're going to be putting back into the cycle because people really liked it, which is how do professional writers create great characters? And there's this nuance you talked about in the September webinar thatMichael Jamin:BecamePhil Hudson:A full webinar, and it's about how you pick your characters. So I'll leave that a bit nebulous. So anybody's interested in that, come attend the nextMichael Jamin:Webinar. Yeah, please do. Because free in the next one, I'm talking about either character or story structure.Phil Hudson:So when this podcast drops, it'll be like tomorrow, literally tomorrow, that's going to be the podcast that we're talking, the webinar we're talking about. And you can sign up at michaeljamin.com/webinar to get notified.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Cool. Leanne Allen, how important is it for the goal to be broadly relatable?Michael Jamin:Well, it's very important. I mean, the goals should be hugely important to the character, and it should be something that we could all hopefully relate to. I mean, if the goal is redeeming yourself in your mother's eyes, that's very relatable. If the goal is, I know if the goal is winning first prize, first place in a contest, who caress, it has to be more than that. It has to be more relatable than that. To be honest, I don't really care about winning contests, so I don't really care if your character wins a contest, but if winning the contest is a way for this person to finally feel good about themselves and their lives because it's validation, because they're a loner and because no one's ever looked at them twice and win this contest as a way of them being able to hang their head up high publicly, that's a relatable goal. Understand. But winning a contest in itself, who cares?Phil Hudson:And that's the value of what you teach in these webinars and in the course is the difference between plot and story. Plot point would be they have to win this contest. The story is like, why does this matter? ToMichael Jamin:Why?Phil Hudson:How is this going to affect them? It's the internal need versus the external need. Winning the contest is the external, but the internal is the reason we watch it. And that's the relatable piece.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah.Phil Hudson:Awesome. Desmond Bailey, how do you not front load the pipe?Michael Jamin:Oh, well, boy, I talked about this a lot. I wonder why they're askingPhil Hudson:This. And just to clarify for people, this will be helpful. These are questions directly coming from the chat in the webinar when people are asking questions and they're questions we didn't get to in the q and a portion of the webinar, so this is something you had related to, or they're setting something you set in the webinar, which was don't front load your pipe or don't be pipe. And so maybe explain pipe and expedition to people.Michael Jamin:So pipe is what we call in the business, we call it exposition. So it's all the stuff that you need to know. It's the background story. It's the story before the story begins. And generally it's boring. Pipe is just like something you need to hear, not you don't want to hear it. You need to know to the characters. And so generally, the faster you can get to the pipe, the better, or you have to be artful about the pipe. So here's a bad version. You'll watch a show and you'll say, Susie, you're my sister. Why would I ever do that with you? My sister? A character would never tell another character, you're my sister. That's pipe. Because that character, she knows her sisters, Frankie, we've been best friends for 18 years, Frankie knows this. And so there are ways to get through the pipe artfully so that your audience doesn't feel like, Ugh, why people don't talk like that. Often a way to do this is by introducing a third character. So when a third character comes on the screen, the person who are you just talking to? Ugh, I was just talking to my sister. Now we know who that person is. Right? Sis, anytime you hear someone, a character calling the character sis, you roll your eyes. I've never met anyone who called her sister Sis.Yeah, and I talk more about that in the course, but I just happened to watch, I was sent a short to potentially work with someone and they shot a miniature TV show. I guess it was sent to my agent or somebody. There was a lot of pipe in it. It was a lot of clunky pipe because they just didn't know how to do it Every time it just stops the story cold.Phil Hudson:So the question is, how do you not front load the pipe? Do you have any tips for how to do that? I mean,Michael Jamin:ObviouslyPhil Hudson:The character, but if I've got to get this stuff out, and maybe you don't need to get it out at the front, because I saw someone do this masterfully where a character was introduced very late in the film, and it added this beautiful plot point that tied back to something at the beginning and explained something. But it was intriguing enough that I got through two thirds of the film before this part mattered. But it's rare to see that. It seems like people are just, act one is laying down the pipe and getting you set in your wall.Michael Jamin:YouPhil Hudson:Understand? And I don'tMichael Jamin:ThinkPhil Hudson:What you teach us is that that's the wrong way to do that.Michael Jamin:Yeah, because pipe is so boring. All that exposition is boring and you think it's important. You think you need it, and I'm telling you, you better figure another way around it. No one wants to hear it. So you could drip it out slowly as the audience needs it, or you could burn through it fast or you could, there's just a number of ways of doing it, but giving me entire scenes of pipe is not the way to do it. That's going to bore the hell out of everybody. No one wants to watch pipe.Phil Hudson:Yeah, makes sense.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Awesome. So those are our craft questions for this episode or for this, but we've got breaking in one question on this, Kelli Art, what's the best way to get paid to learn writer's assistant? How do you get such a competitive job?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Well, so writer's assistant is a fantastic way, but it's not an entry level job because you have to know how to do it. I've talked about this before. I'm not qualified to be a writer's assistant. I don't really know the ins and outs of the job, even though I've been a showrunner several times. So the way you learn how to be a writer's assistant is you start off often as a production assistant and you hang out with the writer's assistant. You ingratiate yourself and you ask, Hey, can I watch you work? And then you learn how they do it. Then hopefully that writer's assistant falls deathly ill, and you take their job away from them, and that's how you do it. Then once you're in the writer's room, that's the best way to get paid to learn. You will learn so much that you'll get lost. And so it's a long process. But yeah, that's a wonderful way to do it.Phil Hudson:And if you're a writer's pa, we've talked about it on the podcast many times, you still get to learn. You're sitting outside of the room within ear, so if they need something, they call you. So you're sitting outside the room listening to them, break the story and tell jokes. And I had this moment where Kevin Heffernan walked in one time and he's just like, and I still really knew it was maybe a month into me being a writer's assistant. This is the showrunner for people who don't know. And he's like, how's it going? You watching a lot of shows? And I was like, Nope. He's like, man, why not? You're sitting here all day. And I was like, I'm just riding. He's good for you. And he just walked away because that's what most people do is they get in that room and they sit there and they just watch Netflix or they do something. But I treated it, and this is probably because of advice you gave me from what you did, is that is craft time. You're sittingMichael Jamin:Down,Phil Hudson:You are riding. So when they're breaking stories, I'm listening to how they're breaking stories. I'm listening to pitch things when they're not in or somebody's out, then I'm working on my stuff. It's just taking advantage of every moment.Michael Jamin:I learned this from my first roommate when I moved out here. I had one of these PA jobs and I was not happy with it. And he's said, just think of it like you're getting paid a lot of downtime. Think of it. You're getting paid to learn how to write. And I was like, okay, you're right. You're right about that. So in that downtime, I just started. And then of course you could read scripts, you could talk to writers, you could ask them, why did you make this change? You get to talk to people and they'll give you little tips hopefully.Phil Hudson:And by the way, Michael, this is advice. You kind of gave me the preamble to this advice really before I even got to la. But then there was a moment where you kind saw, it was two years in three years into doing this stuff, and you gave me that same advice. Just look at it as you're getting paid to learn. I dunno if you could see it in my face or something, but it was like,Michael Jamin:Well, it's hard. I know what it was. It's a souls. It can be so frustrating. You're so close to the job you want. Literally, you are three feet away from the job you want and you're there for years. And it's like, when do I get to move up to that other seat that I want to sit in? So it's very, how is it not frustrating? But it's just how it is.Phil Hudson:But it's not individual either. Like I said, I was just here with Mike Rapp and Kevin, and they're both worst. One has been a script coordinator. The other was a script coordinator who bumped and broken as a staff writer,Michael Jamin:AndPhil Hudson:They were talking, they'd never met each other, so they're just kind of giving each other the resume. And it's like, yeah, I moved here and I was at Disney working in the parks for four years, and then I met someone whose husband was an executive and AB, C, and he brought me in for the pilot season. And then I got hired as a writer's PA on the Muppets. And I was like, this is it. I'm in, because it's the Muppets, it'll never get canceled. And then it got canceled, and then it was hopping between show to show from different job to different job for seven years until he finally got the bump. And Mike rep was not really any different. He moved here and he was in a production company and always dangling the carrot of, we ever get a show, we'll get you into, be in the writer's room. And six years finally got a show and got the job.Michael Jamin:But you know what though? I've been on shows where PA has worked on the show and the PAs have gone to some of the PAs who worked for me. One is big in Chuck Laurie's world, so he's like a exec or, and he's directed several episodes of Sheldon or Big Bang, one or the other. And the other one has done a lot of, it's always Sunny in Philadelphia. And another one is co-executive producer of Bob's Burgers. And these are all people who started off as PAs underneath me. And so that's where they are. So it's like it'sPhil Hudson:Just a process.Michael Jamin:Yeah, it's a process. You got to hang in there.Phil Hudson:I was thinking on my drive today, I went out and had to get some stuff and I drove around and I was like, yeah, I think people just think that this stuff is beneath them, and you can't have that attitude. I came at it thinking, look, this is just the path. This is the apprenticeship model. I want to learn from these people. And you talk about this, people always want to jump further ahead in their careers and become a showrunner and sell their first thing and do that. And we all want that because the dream, but you're kind like, you kind of don't want that. What you want is to learn how to do the jobMichael Jamin:Because you'll get fired so fast if you don't have to do the job. I was going to answer a post like that on social media soon, but someone had a showrunner question. So I'll do a post about that soon.Phil Hudson:Awesome. Cool. Couple of questions about the course here. Tank a Soar. Do you have a lesson on how to write a French farce? And this is a topic that came up in theMichael Jamin:Webinar? Yes, goodPhil Hudson:Question. So maybe define what that is for people. I don't think that's a term many people know.Michael Jamin:A farce is three's company did a lot of Farces, Frazier did a lot of farces. So it's a lot of slamming doors, people overhearing things, misinterpreting things, and only hearing the conversation and assuming that this person wants this thing. And it's a lot of doors slamming and just people crossing and misinformation. It's a lot of fun. And I said in the webinar that I wrote for Joe Keenan, who was one of the Frazier writers, and he created with Chris Lloyd, a show called Out of Practice that I wrote on for a year. And Joe is brilliant, brilliant at writing FARs. I don't know anybody better. I watched a show, a famous episode of Frazier, just to study for this. What could I talk about FARs? I watched an episode, I think it was, I dunno what it's called, the Ski Cabin episode or something. It was very funny. In my opinion, FARs is a really, they're hard to do well and they're hard to sustain. The stakes are always, to me, they're hard to sustain because the stakes are always, it's always about a misunderstanding. And so it's always silly. And so very, very hard in my opinion, to really write a really good farce. And I wouldn't necessarily start there if that was what your goal is, I'd start writing something a little easier. I don't know.It is hard. And they're a little tortured, and that's okay. But yeah, I don't know. You're asking me how do I hit a grand slam? Well, let's talk about how they get on base first.Phil Hudson:Yeah. And the question was, do you have a lesson on how to write a French forest in the course?Michael Jamin:Yeah, there is no, and I thought about after I watched that episode of Frazier, I go, maybe I should do a lesson on that. And then I watched, I go, nah,Phil Hudson:I don't think I should. I think it personally, I just think it would be a mistake. You're going to send all the hundreds of people in your course down a rabbit hole of riding French farces, and they're going to get lost in that, I think.Michael Jamin:And there's no demand for it. Like I said, I think it's just don't start there. Don't start there.Phil Hudson:Shiny object syndrome. We find something new and that's what we want to do. And then the reality is you got to focus on the fundamentals. That'sMichael Jamin:All thatPhil Hudson:Matters.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Keith Shaw wants to know is the beat board, the unpacking of the crate? And for context, everybody, Michael has this story he's talked about on the podcast and brings up in the webinar occasionally about how to unpack a story. And there's this crate of parts, and then it's how you unpack that, and that's what a story is. I don't want to give too much away, but whatever you want to give away, Michael.Michael Jamin:Yeah, I mean, so every writer room I've ever been in has a big whiteboard, and the s showrunner will send the whiteboard and we'll start pitching the idea and then we'll figure out how to break it on the board, figuring out what the act break is. First act break is second, act break middle to two top, you lay it out all the parts, and you look at it as a whole and does it hold together? And then that could take a week, and then you start writing an outline off of the board. So when they say the analogy, I talked about unpacking a crate. Yeah. It's similar to what a board is. The whiteboard is. It's like what's the order in which we're going to unfold all the, unpack the elements of the crate to tell an engaging story.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. James Moore, what's the difference between a log line and an outline?Michael Jamin:Oh, well, a log line is one or two sentences. And outline could be 10 pages if you're talking about a half hour TV show. So that's the difference.Phil Hudson:And line is you've alluded to, everyone needs a log line. If you don't understand it, you don't know what you're writing. And an outline is a step in the writing process. And it typically, it's a couple steps after you break a story.Michael Jamin:And the log line, a lot of people don't know if I ask you, what's your story about? And they go, well, it's about this and also about this, and also about this. It's like, okay, if you can't explain what your story is in one or two clear, succinct sentences, if you can't explain your story, then you don't understand your own story. And if you don't understand it, the audience isn't going to understand it. So it's really important to have a clear log line about what your story is about one or two sentences. That's it. Simple. Einstein said it. If you can't explain something simply, chances are you don't understand it.Phil Hudson:Yep. David Campbell asked a very similar question about the order. I think we answered that. So David, that should answer that question for you. JY Tau, does the course teach you how to get your work produced?Michael Jamin:Oh, no. And a matter of fact, that shouldn't be the goal. The goal, that course teaches you how to write a great script. And that's the only thing you have control over here. Most people want to skip that step. This guy's asking me, will the course teach me how to become a millionaire? No, the course doesn't teach you that. Does the course teach you how to give an acceptance speech at the Oscars? No. It won't teach you that. The course, all that is look, that comes later. Hopefully the course will teach you how to write a good script or hopefully a grade script. And everyone skips that step. They assume they already have it. And I'm here to tell you, you don't. And maybe you're the 1% that does great, but 99% of the people think they're in that 1%. And most people who go through the course say, oh, thank God, I wish I know. Now I have to go back and rewrite that script because I thought it was great. And now I'd realize it's not so.Phil Hudson:Amen. I'm one of those people. And this is a bit of the Dunning Kruger effect, which is this moment where you learn a little bit of something and you think you're an expert in it.Michael Jamin:AndPhil Hudson:Then the more you learn, you realize there's a lot to learn. And then there's a certain point where you know more than you think. And Michael, even at your level, I hear you say this, sometimes I'm not as good as that guy, or I'm not that. And that may be factually true in terms of talent, but it's also, that's the humility of being an expert is knowing how little in this space,Michael Jamin:That's another thing is if you were to ask almost any showrunner I've worked with or worked for, they'll all tell you, oh, writing is so hard. It's the people who are just starting out who will tell you, Hey, I'm good at this. And you don't know what you don't know yet. And the more you do it, and now I'm at the point where I'll look at something, I'm like, oh God, I'm starting to unravel and I have to trust myself because it's like, is this the best way to tell the story? Maybe there's a better way.Phil Hudson:That's no different than my career in digital marketing though. I'm at the point where I can say I'm an expert. I've been doing it for how many years? Over a decade. But there's plenty of time still where I'm like, oh man, I don't know. Is this going to work? And then you have toMichael Jamin:JustPhil Hudson:Go back and say, there is a pattern and a history here of results that back up what I think I need to do. And I just have to go with that because million different caveats and details you got to pay attention to in all of this. And Michael, by the way, this is a big thing you helped me with was just focusing on the detail. Stop being so, I don't want to call it lazy writing, so much time and energy that goes into it, but it's the passing over the detail and the detail is the devil. It's in theMichael Jamin:Detail. Yeah, the little things stand out.Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my content And I know you do because You're listening to me, I will Email it to you for Free. Just join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos of the week. These are for writers, Actors, Creative types, people like you can Unsubscribe Whenever you want. I'm not going to spam you, and the price is free. You got no excuse to join. Go to michaeljamin.com/and now back to, what the hell is Michael Jamin talking about Mishu Pizza.Phil Hudson:So if we take the course, do we get certified?Michael Jamin:Phil has tried to convince me to offer certification.Phil Hudson:I think there's a good certification. I want to be clear.Michael Jamin:Its thePhil Hudson:Type of certification we'll explain after yours. SoMichael Jamin:Here's the thing, if I were, I have said over and over again that if you got a degree in screenwriting and MFA in screenwriting or certificate, whatever, the degree itself is worthless. You're not going to go into a meeting, you flash your degree. When I go into a meeting, I don't even talk about my college education. No one caress. No one caress where I went to college. It doesn't come up. All they care is, can I put words on the page that compel people to turn the pagePhil Hudson:And the fight you got into with your wife the previous day? That's the story.Michael Jamin:Oh, we'll talk about that. Yeah, the degree, if I offered a degree, I think I'd be hypocritical. Hey, I have a degree from Michael Jamin University, or whatever the hell it is. I know some people want that, but I feel like, again, it's that's not going to open doors. Your script's going to open doors. And if I can teach you how to write a great script, that's more important than a gold star for me,Phil Hudson:My pitch for everybody was that Michael put out a certificate. So when you complete the course, you get that says, congrats, here's your fancy certificate, it's worthless. Go write something good. You goMichael Jamin:Write something. Yeah, we could do something like thatPhil Hudson:That I thought would be kind of just chef'sMichael Jamin:OnPhil Hudson:The whole thing. Desmond Bailey question, do you build this story? I wonder if his name's Desmond Bailey question or if this is just Desmond Bailey has aMichael Jamin:Question.Phil Hudson:Do you build the story world first and then inject the characters or focus on characters and let the world procedurally generate as they navigate it?Michael Jamin:So I spoke about this though in the webinar, so I feel like he probably was jumping the gun. IPhil Hudson:Think it's a good question. I think it'sMichael Jamin:Worth, yeah. Well, I answered it and I basically say you do it at the same time. And I think about what the world is first and who are the best characters to put in this world, or as I've said in the webinar, who's the worst character to put in this situation? And if you want to know what I mean by that, you're going to have to come to the next webinar where I talk about character. But that's the way I look at it. Who's the worst person to put in this situation?Phil Hudson:Yeah, there you go. Alec Cuddle back. My stuff is usually story driven and people criticize preferring character driven. Why is that?Michael Jamin:Oh, because plot is boring. Okay, what's this person's name?Phil Hudson:Alec Cuttle.Michael Jamin:Alec, alright, Alec. Okay. So I dunno if you're young or old, but there's a movie called Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone. The first Rocky was fantastic. It won the Oscar put Sylvester Stallone on the map after they did Rocky, they did eight more Rocky, eight more. I don't know how many Rockies they did, including Creed and Creed One and Creed two or whatever. They've made countless sequels to Rocky. Every single rocky has the same exact plot. You put someone in a boxing ring and they get the shit kicked out of them, and then maybe at the end they're alive. So the plot itself for Rocky and most of the Rockies are not considered great. Only one won the Oscar, and that was the first one, even though the plot is virtually identical. So the difference between Rocky won and Rocky a hundred is the story. One had a just amazingly compelling small story, and the other ones lacked that. And so what this guy's Alec is talking about is it sounds like he's just got, I got a lot of plot. Well, who caress the plot is not the good stuff. You got to have a good plot. But it's, the story is what makes people cry. And if you want to know the difference between plot and story, you have to come to my next free webinar because I talk. It's an hour long discussion.Phil Hudson:Excellent. Cameron Billingsley, how do you know you have drawn out the anticipation enough when you're building anticipation in yourMichael Jamin:Storytelling? Yeah. Well, I wonder if the person's talking about any kind of reveal or I guess we don't really know.Phil Hudson:I think this was specifically tying back to the crate, unpacking the crate.Michael Jamin:Oh, okay. Well, how do you know? It's like these moments have to be built to anytime you have a big reveal or a moment in Act three, whatever it is, the big fight scene, the fight scene in Rocky or whatever, you have to build to it. And it's literally putting the steps on a pyramid and then you get to the top. And then if you skip a step or if each step doesn't build, you're not going to get to the top of that pyramid. And the top is the view, the top is everything. And so how do you know? Well, that's the process of writing is taking your, how do you know when you've built the anticipation? That's all of it. So if I were to write Rocky, I'm thinking in my mind, I'm building to the moment when Rocky, at the end, when Rocky's getting the shit kicked out of him, boom, time after time again by Apollo.And he keeps getting up and he keeps getting up. And I want to build that last moment where they're both down on the mat, or I don't even remember which Rocky it was. But when Rocky, the fight's almost over and Rocky's on the mat and he stands up again, just this guy won't go down. And that is even thinking about it, I get chills, but you have to build to that. That's what you're building to, which is a guy who will not quit. And why is it so important? When we talked about earlier in this podcast, it's not that the stakes of Rocky are not about will Rocky win the fight? Who cares? Will Rocky win the competition? The contest? Who cares? No one caress. If he wins, the stakes are, will Rocky finally feel like he's not a loser? Will he finally feel like he's not a bum? And that's something all of us can relate to, is that feeling, that self-worth. And so you have to build to that. How do you know? Well, that's everything. That's what you focus on. And if does help, if you're seen does not add one step on that pyramid, then to build to that final moment, then why are you have it in there? Why is it in the script?Phil Hudson:The next question from Willow is how do you know the difference between true story that should be included versus minutia and unnecessary information? I think you just answered that.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Because if you don't need it, why is it in it? Why is it in there?Phil Hudson:So tying all this together for people who are newer, and good recap for me, because again, you got to remind yourself of the fundamentals every day. You even talk about how you have to remind yourself, oh yeah, this is hero, obstacle, goal, kind of that stuff. So we have a log line, and the log line helps me understand what I'm trying to accomplish with this story. But that's typically based off of a theme and that theme, my opinion generally included inside of that log line, so that I understand this is what I'm trying to accomplish with this. So the log line for Rocky is, can a bum from Philly go the distance with the champ? It's not even, can he beat the champ? It's can he go the distance? And so everyone tells him he can't think he can, and then at the end, there's that moment when he gets up, you're talking about, and Apollo creed's like, soul is taken. Are you kidding me? He'sMichael Jamin:StillPhil Hudson:Getting up. This guyMichael Jamin:Won't get down.Phil Hudson:And that's the moment where it's like, that's him getting up. And then he, Apollo wins and he's like, I did it. And it's like a victory for him because this guy won't stop and everyone's celebrating Rocky. And Rocky goes, Adrian, I did it. Right? Yeah.Michael Jamin:And I think the last line, Apollo says, there ain't going to be no rematch. And Rocky goes, don't want one. He doesn't want, he got what he wanted, and of course they made 10 more. But yeah, a beautifulPhil Hudson:Story. But they all stack and build all of these details build, like you said, you're building them to this and all of them play off the theme and the log line. And that's why all of these details, breaking the story, outlining the story, they all have to be there. Because if you're just, and we talk about how all these writers have different styles, and for some people it's making it up as you go. But professional writers, there's a process. You break the story and you do your thing, and then you do your outline, you do all these things, and then you do your rewrites and many rewrites because you're still figuring out those tiny details. But it's not like I'm going to make it up as I go because you need plant and payoff. You need these things and these symbols almost that allude to the theme and the theme plays throughout the whole thing. And if you're not structuring that like an architect, it's going to feel very hodgepodge Frankenstein. And that's a note you gave me Frankenstein together.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah.Phil Hudson:So there you go. People are going to be pissed. I talked to you not long on your podcast, Michael,Michael Jamin:I'll tell you. No, no, no,Phil Hudson:No, no,Michael Jamin:No.Phil Hudson:Couple more questions here.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Justin had another question for short comedy films on YouTube. Max lengths is one minute. That's shorts.Michael Jamin:That's for shorts. Clarify.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Does short structure still apply to any length film? Curious how you would approach writing a story for a one minute film? This is a format question for people who are not in the know. YouTube stories are the equivalent of Instagram reels or Facebook reels,Michael Jamin:YouTube shorts.Phil Hudson:YouTube shorts,Michael Jamin:Right?Phil Hudson:And they are, excuse me. Yeah, so they're 60 seconds, and then IMichael Jamin:Think there's 90. You're saying there's 60,Phil Hudson:That's Instagram. Instagram is expanded to 90, but YouTube is 60. And that's what this is referring to, which is a medium on YouTube, not necessarily a cap on what you can put on YouTube.Michael Jamin:Yeah. So I would say it's really hard to tell a complete story in 60 seconds, but you could tell one part of a story in 60 seconds and then another part, another 60 seconds. You could stretch it out. You might be able to tell a compelling scene in 60 seconds and a scene should have a shape to it, but don't think, can it be done? Yeah. I don't think it could be done that well. I don't think anyone's going to be that satisfied. I think you need more time to get that plane up in the air and land it. But think a bit of it like this, if a story is a journey, how far can you go in 60 seconds on a journey? Not very far at all. You can go to the end of the block. The view at the end of the block is pretty much the same, the view from my house. So I think you need more time. That's just my opinion now.Phil Hudson:Yeah. To see good shorts that you've recommended to me was go back and watch the Broad City original shorts that were put on YouTube.Michael Jamin:Okay. How long are they?Phil Hudson:They can be 90 seconds to three minutes, but they're not full stories necessarily. They're more kind of skits and you introduce your characters and we learn more about them and more interactions in different episodes of,Michael Jamin:That's just really, I never saw those. I saw the TV show Broad, which I love, but I didn't watch the shorts. Got it.Phil Hudson:Someone had a question. Again, these are miscellaneous. Someone wanted to know when they could see your CNN interview. So the day we did this webinar, you had just gotten off with CNN and joined the thing. But yeah, you've been on CNNA couple times now, right?Michael Jamin:Yeah. I think you can go to my website, Phil, right? Isn't it upPhil Hudson:There? Yep. It'll be live is MichaelJamin.com And then you can just go to the About tab and you'll see it.Michael Jamin:Is it on the bound? I thought it was going to be on the pressPhil Hudson:Or something. It's press tab. Yeah, but we don't have the URL final right now, but by the time this comes out, it'll be out because we're doing some cleanup. We redesign on michaeljamin.com.Michael Jamin:Oh, it's Jill's doing a great job. It's going to be exciting. Appreciate that.Phil Hudson:AppreciateMichael Jamin:That.Phil Hudson:Jill Hargrave, she inMichael Jamin:The, oh, wait, hold on. If anybody wants their website redesigned, go check out Rook Digital, which is Phil's company. This is what he does.Phil Hudson:Yeah, Shannon was plugged. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate that. Jill Hargrave, she's in the course, right? Jill?Michael Jamin:I don't know.Phil Hudson:I believe she is. Yeah. If you're writing a biopic, does the story definition apply as the story is at least one event in the person's life and sometimes many more events than just one?Michael Jamin:So ifPhil Hudson:You're writing a biopic, does the story definition apply? I'm guessing is a biopic, is it the whole person's life, or is it a moment in this person's life?Michael Jamin:I don't know. It's kind of what you decide to write it about, I would assume. Yeah, it is what you want to decide. I've seen it both ways. You might write about JFK the early years, and maybe you're following his life in college in Harvard, I think, and that could be a whole thing. Or you could tell JFK's entire life story up until the moment he died. I mean, you could do that as well. But either way, you have to know how, and I talked about this as well. I spoke about, I really hope people come to this next webinar. I use an example of Amadeus, which is, in my opinion, the best biopic ever made. It's a beautiful movie. It's probably three hours long. There's an intermission. There's an intermission fucking movie. That's how long it is. It's myPhil Hudson:Amazing, my wife's favorite movie, by the way,Michael Jamin:Is it, isPhil Hudson:She wants me to name one of our children, Wolfgang. And I was like, come on, man. Wolfgang Hudson.Michael Jamin:I don't know Wolf. I don't know. I don't know. I'm Amm on her side.Phil Hudson:I'll let her know. She'll be pumped.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah. So I spoke about that, about come listen to, I hope they come to the webinar. Well, she did. She heard it where I spoke about You're still just telling one aspect of his life of Wolfgang Mozart's life. You're not, there's a lot. They left out, the guy lived, I dunno how long he lived, but the movie's three hours and the guy lived longer than three hours. So there's a lot they left out. They only just filed this one thread of his life. And that's how you tell the story. So don't tell. In other words, don't tell. I feel like you don't want to tell the story. Someone's life story. You want to tell one story from their life.Phil Hudson:And Oppenheimer, I think is the very current version of that that did a great job. It is building up to help us understand why this person was uniquely put in this position, why it was taken from him, and then how ultimately he got justice with having to, because of his character.Michael Jamin:And there's a lot they left out, and I'm sure, I think it got some criticism for that, but what are you going to do? You can't tell everything. You have to pick a story.Phil Hudson:Yep. Yeah, adaptation. Right? It's a whole different segment of screenwriting. That is brutal. Absolutely brutal. Because you're just cutting things and combining things, and it's just a different part of the world. Helga G. How do you deal with the other characters in your life that might not be comfortable being in your story?Michael Jamin:You don't put 'em in. You don't put 'em in it. It's not your story to tell. I'm actually reading, I'm just about to finish a wonderful book by this Canadian author, Sheila Hetty, and it's called How Should a Person Be? And in this book, which is an auto fiction, so it's a true story. She uses some of her friends as characters in the story, and she talks about the blowback she got from that, which is so interesting. And I'm going to have her on my podcast soon, but I don't do it for that reason. I don't do it exactly for that reason, but I'll talk to her about it.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Awesome. Last question, Rob Kao, CAO might be C Chao, I don't know. Is that Italian? CAO? It's like CI. AoMichael Jamin:Would C-C-I-A-O.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Sorry, Rob, ruin in your name. Within the last year, I've had an idea of writing a script with two specific actresses in mind. What do you recommend that I do?Michael Jamin:Well, they're not going to do it. Just know that, right? I mean, I write for actors all the time. It's just for them having someone in my mind as a placeholder. But I don't think if they're famous, unless they're the people actors in your apartment complex, then that's fine. And they're going to be in your movie, that's fine. But if you think if it's a star, they're not going to do it. So use them as a placeholder, as a template to give you as a muse. I do that as well, but I don't think I've ever written a role for someone. And they actually wound up taking itPhil Hudson:In the Tacoma FD spec that I wrote. I alluded to a famous actor who plays this type of person. I was like, just think this person. And the comment I got back, I was, oh, that was so helpful. And I know you have to be a bit careful with that because you don't want to, it can derail your script a bit.Michael Jamin:Actually, I want to take that back. We wrote an episode of Marin that we wrote it with Chet Hanks in mind, who's Tom Hanks' son. And we reached out to him and he took it. I got to say the guy killed it. He killed it. He was perfect and a really good actor.Phil Hudson:That's awesome. If you guys haven't seen Marin, go watch Marin. That show's incredible.Michael Jamin:That show's fun. Yeah.Phil Hudson:Is there anywhere to go see The Hidden? Because they were two pilots, right? There was the first pilot and thenMichael Jamin:It was a presentation, so it was only a few scenes. Got it. I don't know if I have it.Phil Hudson:Yeah, I thought it was on Prime. I think I got it on Prime originally.Michael Jamin:Wow. Was part of what theyPhil Hudson:Were doing. I'll go check. I'll see if I still have it. But yeah, it was, it's just a great show. Just massive show. And I was at an influential time when I was just really learning this stuff at a deeper level. So just seeing it play out in really tight scenes with limited characters and justMichael Jamin:Amazing, amazing. That's what was so fun about that. And I tried, we wrote some one episode where there wasn't enough of a stakes, and it was the one on dead possum where he finds a dead possum.Phil Hudson:I love that episode. That's the one I think of every time.Michael Jamin:That was a good one. But the original draft didn't have the storyline of him apologizing to his dying stepfather, not stepfather, his dying. It was missing from that. And we turned that draft into the network, and they thought, she was like, there's nothing here. There's nothing. The story's not about anything. And I'm like, don't you get it? That's the whole thing. I was trying to pull a fast one on her. I was like, but it's like waiting for Gau. She's like, no, I'm not buying it. The studio exec. And she was right. And so we wound up talking, Seaver and I, pardon? We ended up talking about it. We came up with this storyline where when Mark was afraid to go under the house to get a dead possum, that's just enough. There's not enough there. There's not enough debate for a story. And so instead, we had a concurrent storyline where he was afraid to confront his dying Father-in-Law because Mark broke up with his daughter. And in so doing, he kind of destroyed, he, mark was a coward. He didn't want to apologize to his father-in-Law for that. And so it was really a symbol. So when Mark was afraid to go under the house to get the dead possum, but he was really afraid of, was apologizing to his father-in-Law, those stakes are much higher.And so those stories kind of work really nicely together, but that was not in the original draft. Yeah,Phil Hudson:That's a great episode. There's one of the biggest laughs I've ever had. I think it was like your, might've been your end of act two, your act two, bottom of Act two with the kid fromMichael Jamin:When he says,Phil Hudson:Yeah, I was molested himMichael Jamin:Some. I think that was Seavers line.Phil Hudson:It's just like,Michael Jamin:What?Phil Hudson:Not making light of that degree. It's just theMichael Jamin:Context ofPhil Hudson:It, the setting.Michael Jamin:Yeah. It was like, you shouldn't have said that. That'sPhil Hudson:Funny. Alright, Michael, there you go. There's a bonus episode for everybody.Michael Jamin:Yeah, we're not making light of it. It was just that the guy confessed to having been molested as good, but it was like, no, we weren't talking about any of this.Phil Hudson:And then they have to talk and he's having this breakdown where this realization of he's a coward, and then now he has to be a surrogate father and listen to this kid. He's talking about his assistant and it's just like, the timing is just excellent. You guys handled it well. It's not disparaging or mean-spirited at all. It's just great. That was aMichael Jamin:Funny one. Alright, everyone. Yeah. Come to my webinar. Go watch that episode of Marin Dead Possum.Phil Hudson:Awesome.Michael Jamin:If you can find it somewhere,Phil Hudson:Michael, anything you want these guys to do other than come to the webinar,Michael Jamin:There's that. I'll be dropping my book soon. A paper orchestra, if you want to know more about that, that'sPhil Hudson:Michaeljamin.com/book.Michael Jamin:Oh, is that what it is? It'll be book. Book. Okay. TherePhil Hudson:Are a couple pages. You got AP Orchestra touring, you've got an events page, you got this. So I figured that was the easiest way to get people to the page is michaelJamin.com/book.Michael Jamin:And so the book is a collection of personal essays. If you want to learn more about what it's like to actually be a writer in Hollywood, but that's not what it's about. It's really about the premise is what if the smallest, almost forgotten moments were the ones that shaped us most. And so in the end, I have a little bonus section of the book where I talk about, so I perform the book as well. And if you want to come see that seem, be on the road, go to michael jamin.com/upcoming. And at the end of every performance, I do a talk back where I talk to the audience and they ask questions. And so I decided at the end of the book, there should be something like that where I talk about, it's basically a virtual talk back, right? I'm preemptively answering questions that people have asked me that I think people found interesting about the writing process. So that'll be in the book as well. So a little bonus for those of you who are interested in learning about writing, that'll be the last chapter. Yeah,Phil Hudson:Great. And the live performance still great. It almost a year. I can't believe it was almost a year ago. And it still sits with me as a father. It still sits with me.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Thank you. I want to start performing again. That'll hopefully start in February or March or whatever. Once that book is out, we'll start performing again.Phil Hudson:Great. Cool. All right, Michael, anything else? Thank you.Michael Jamin:I think that's it. Get on the newsletter. We're rev revamping the newsletter. We've revamped the podcast so there's more stuff, but better,Phil Hudson:More better, better streamlined, a little bit easy to get around. It kind of outgrew itself. So we talked about that on episode 1 0 4. But yeah,Michael Jamin:We didn't know what this was going to turn into, so we had to evolve it.Phil Hudson:Yeah, it's a good spot. Great to be back on the podcast, Michael. Thanks for having me.Michael Jamin:Yeah, thank you Phil. Alright, until next time, keep writing everyone.So now we all know what The hell Michael Jamin's talking about. If you're interested in learning more about writing, make sure you register for my free monthly webinars@michaeljamin.com/webinar. And if you found this podcast Helpful or entertaining, please share it with a friend and consider leaving Us a five star Review on iTunes that really, really helps. For more of This, whatever the hell this is for Michael Jamin on social media @MichaelJaminwriter. And You can follow Phil Hudson on Social media @PhilAHudson. This podcast was produced by Phil Hudson. It Was Edited by Dallas Crane and music Was composed By Anthony Rizzo. And remember, you can have Excuses or you can have a Creative life, But you Can't have both. See you next Week.

It's more 2024 draft talk with Carlos and Peter, as the two break down five more potential first rounders. The two discuss power hitting college players like Stanford catcher Malcolm Moore and Georgia first baseman and outfielder Charlie Condon, a flame throwing lefthander with a vicious breaking ball in Arkansas southpaw Hagen Smith, a Division II standout to potential top 10 pick in Wake Forest's Seaver King and high-upside two-way high school player Bryce Rainer.Our Sponsors:* Check out Factor 75 and use my code ba2022pod50 for a great deal: https://www.factor75.com/* Check out Indeed and use my code BASEBALLAMERICA for a great deal: https://www.indeed.com/ Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/baseball-america/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

C&R are throwin' back your Thursday with sports & fun, on FSR! They have a school roll-call, before Rich contemplates a big bet. Is it "trap games" for both the Niners & Eagles this week? Callers from around the country weigh-in. The crew talks Lions/Bucs impressive match-up, the Golden Bachelor & Rich's major addiction. Jimmy Butler has coffee in common with Rich.. Yimmy said what about coffee beans? Plus, there may be a draft for Ramos' kids & 'OLD-SCHOOL WHEN 50 HITS' is all about a Seaver! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's our third installment of shows about the origins of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Spoiler alert: Many of the real stories are hard to pin down.  Research: Cheadle, Roberta Eaton. “Dark Origins – Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.” Writing To Be Read. https://writingtoberead.com/2021/06/30/dark-origins-here-we-go-round-the-mulberry-bush/ Historic UK. “More Nursery Rhymes.” 4/15/2015. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/More-Nursery-Rhymes/ Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O. “Popular rhymes and nursery tales : a sequel to the Nursery rhymes of England .” London : John Russell Smith. 1849. Howard, Jennifer. “The Realities Behind the Rhymes.” Washington Post. 6/11/1997. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1997/06/11/the-realities-behind-the-rhymes/9fbd7d36-4bb9-4fc0-af38-58fbe3fb7e43/ Ker, John Bellenden. “An essay on the archaiology [sic] of popular English phrases and nursery rhymes.” London. Whittaker. 1834. https://archive.org/details/b29309670/ Littlechild, Chris. “The Egg-Citing Truth Behind Humpty Dumpty.” Ripley's. 7/4/2019. https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/humpty-dumpty/ Opie, Iona Archibald and Peter Opie. “The Singing Game.” Oxford University Press. 1998. Opie, Iona and Peter. “The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.” Oxford University Press. 1997. Overstreet, Mikkaka. “10 Disturbing Nursery Rhyme Origin Stories to Celebrate Nursery Rhyme Week.” Book Riot. 11/4/2021. https://bookriot.com/nursery-rhyme-origin-stories/ Seaver, Carl. “The Strange Historical Origins of the Humpty Dumpty Nursery Rhyme.” History Defined. 1/24/2023. https://www.historydefined.net/humpty-dumpty-history/ Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of the ‘Hickory Dickory Dock' Nursery Rhyme.” Interesting Literature. 9/2018. https://interestingliterature.com/2018/09/a-short-analysis-of-the-hickory-dickory-dock-nursery-rhyme-history-origins/ Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of the ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence' Nursery Rhyme.” Interesting Literature. https://interestingliterature.com/2018/10/a-short-analysis-of-the-sing-a-song-of-sixpence-nursery-rhyme-origins-history/ Thomas, Katherine Elwes. “The Real Personages Of Mother Goose.” Lothrop, Lee & Shepard. 1930. Wood, Jennifer M. “The Dark and Mysterious Origins of 10 Classic Nursery Rhymes.” Mental Floss. 10/28/2015. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/55035/dark-origins-11-classic-nursery-rhymes See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.