John August—screenwriter known for Go, Big Fish, and more, and host of the Scriptnotes podcast—on his debut middle grade adventure novel, ARLO FINCH IN THE VALLEY OF FIRE (out Feb. 6!). John talks about the tricks authors have that screenwriters don’t, what made him think of recording his entire process of writing, selling, and debuting ARLO, the shadow of Harry Potter over all MG, and podcasting as an American art form.

John August Show Notes

Go (movie)

Big Fish (movie)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (movie)

Aladdin (movie)

Scriptnotes (podcast)

Launch (podcast)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Three Investigators (book)

Premiere Magazine

Nora Ephron

Steven Soderbergh

Sex Lies and Videotape (movie)

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Charlie’s Angels (movie)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

Craig Mazin (screenwriter)

Serial (podcast)

John Gruber’s podcast, The Talk Show

John’s blog post about writing Arlo Finch

The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

The Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Call Me By Your Name (movie)

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman (book)

“Story of a T-Shirt” by Planet Money

Startup (podcast)

Robert Ludlum

Ira Glass

Freedom app

NaNoWriMo

Jasmine Guillory, debut author of The Wedding Date (out Jan. 30!), on being an extroverted writer, using the notes app to take the pressure off starting a new book, the importance of stillness, and how romance novels can instruct us about affirmative consent.

Jasmine Guillory Show Notes

Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber

The Toast

The “Shoe” books, starting with Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

Amy Spalding (listen to her First Draft interview here)

Jennifer Laughran, agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency

NaNoWriMo’s Camp NaNoWriMo

Holly Root (literary agent)

Bridesmaids (movie)

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

The Ripped Bodice romance bookstore

The Ripped Bodice's diversity survey in EW and in The New York Times

Kate Hart’s breakdown of YA covers in 2011 (click around her archives for many other posts Kate put together on YA covers and deals)

Jasmine’s NaNoWriMo pep talk

Roxane Gay

Mallory Ortberg

The Proposal, Jasmine's next book

The 2018 First Draft calendar

Kirsten Hubbard

Sarah Tarkoff, debut author of SINLESS (out now!), talks about writing for TV and movies, made-up religions, the Dunning Kruger graph, and being inspired to start writing a novel by a nine-year-old.

Sarah Tarkoff Show Notes

2018 First Draft calendar - order yours now!

Kirsten Hubbard

Arrow (TV show)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (movie)

Jane the Virgin (TV show)

Eastwick (TV show)

Maggie Friedman (show runner of Eastiwck)

Wendy Mericle (EP on Arrow)

Mistresses (TV show)

Josh Reims (Mistresses)

Gossip Girl (TV show)

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Chris Evans on Twitter

Jenny Slate

Willem Dafoe

Dunning-Kruger effect

The announcement that SINLESS has been optioned for TV!

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones (movie))

The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry

Feb. 4 book launch of John August’s ARLO FINCH IN THE VALLEY OF FIRE

The Feb. 6 book panel with Dhonielle Clayton, Marie Lu, Aaron Hartzler, Gretchen McNeill, Brandy Colbert, and Britta Lundin

A very special episode where I give podcasting tips and answer some questions, Kayla Olson and Courtney Summers join to give book recommendations, and authors Michelle Schusterman, Alison Cherry, and Lindsay Ribar discuss co-writing, selling, and editing their YA novel, The Pros of Cons.

Special Episode (feat. Kayla Olson, Courtney Summers, Michelle Schusterman, Alison Cherry, and Lindsay Ribar)

Zoom H2N

Zoom H4N

I said Audible and I meant Audacity!

GarageBand

Libsyn

Art19

SquareSpace

Subscribe to the First Draft newsletter

Maurene Goo

Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff (listen to her First Draft interview here)

The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson (listen to her First Draft interview here)

This Splintered Silence by Kayla Olson

Gray Wolf Island by Tracey Neithercott

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

Follow Me Back by A. V. Geiger

The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers (listen to her First Draft interview here)

All the Rage by Courtney Summers

Malagash by Joey Comeau

When I Am Through With You by Stephanie Kuehn

Robert Cormier

The Pros of Cons by Michelle Schusterman (hear her First Draft interview here), Lindsay Ribar, Alison Cherry (hear her First Draft interview here)

LeakyCon

Matt Ringler (editor at Scholastic)

Amanda Maciel (editor at Scholastic, author of Tease and Lucky Girl)

The starred Publisher’s Weekly review for Pros of Cons

Best. Night. Ever. by Alison Cherry, Jen Malone, Rachel Alpine, Ronni Arno, Stephanie Faris, Gail Nall, and Dee Romito.

Secrets of Topsea: A Friendly Town That’s Almost Always by the Ocean by Michelle Schusterman (as M. Shelley Coates) and Kirsten Hubbard (as Kir Fox)

Spell and Spindle by Michelle Schusterman

Ella Unleashed by Alison Cherry

Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender and author of Rebel Genius and its sequel, Warrior Genius, on being obsessed with 50s art, how Avatar was pitched perfectly wrong, writing art as magic, and starting to write by hand.

Michael Dante DiMartino Show Notes

The 2018 First Draft calendar

Kirsten Hubbard

William S. Burroughs

Beat poetry

Garfield (comic)

Bloom County (comic)

Abstract expressionism

Jackson Pollock

Mark Rothko

Willem de Kooning

Brian Konietzko, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender

King of the Hill (TV show)

Beavis and Butthead (TV show)

Atomic Love

Family Guy (TV show)

Mission Hill (TV show)

Invader Zim (TV show)

Spongebob Squarepants (TV show)

Hayao Miyazaki

The Hero with 10,000 Faces by Joseph Campbell

Bill Moyer's video series, discussing The Hero’s Journey with Joseph Campbell

G.I. Joe (animated TV show)

Leigh Bardugo (hear her First Draft episodes here and here)

Nickelodeon Animation podcast featuring Michael and Brian

Story by Robert McKee

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

"An Oral History of the Funniest Podcast Ever," Daily Beast article featuring the quote from Scott Aukerman

Bottle Episode (what we called "box episodes")

The Fly episode of Breaking Bad

William James Royce

The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne

The Story Grid Podcast