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All Episodes

Act Two Podcast — 297 episodes

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Title
1

Go Forth and Write Your Spec

2

The Agent Series with Mark Hartogsohn: What is a Lit Agent and How to Get One? (REPOST)

3

Rewriting for Yourself vs. Rewriting as a Professional Writer

4

The Art of the Cheer Moment | How to Write Scenes That Excite Audiences

5

Good Writing Isn't Enough | The "Other" Skills Every Screenwriter Needs to Succeed

6

Don't Send That Script Yet: Rewrites, Feedback & Knowing When Your Screenplay is Ready

7

Is the Screenwriting Life Worth It? Yes - Here's Why (Part 2)

8

Is the Screenwriting Life Worth It? The Ugly Truth (Part 1 of 2)

9

We Read Our Old Script Coverage (and It's Brutal) | 2025 Oscar Nominee Reactions

10

What TV Execs Wish You Knew: Pitching, Development & Breaking In With Legendary's Anna Halligan

11

Screenwriting Q&A: Free Work, Producer Conflicts & February: Are You Excited?

12

Inside Studio Coverage: How Story Analysts Evaluate Scripts at Major Studios

13

Selling Out Isn't Wrong -- It's a Strategy

14

Free Work as Screenwriters: How to Decide, Set Boundaries, and Protect Yourself

15

Why You? - The Question Every Screenwriter Needs to Know How to Answer

16

How Post-Production Can Make You a Better Writer: Insights from an Editor

17

Interview with Scott Glassgold: Selling Your Short Story (REPOST)

18

How to Actually Hit Your 2026 Screenwriting Goals

19

Wins, Misses and Takeaways: Our 2025 Goal Wrap-Up

20

How to Plan Your Screenwriting Year for Success: A Month-by-Month Guide

21

The Writing Behind Tomb Raider: the Legend of Lara Croft Season 2

22

5 Tips on Telling a Compelling Story

23

Living Outside LA, Pitching Update, Mighty Nein - Plus: Are You Excited?

24

How to Get Unstuck in Your Writing: Screenwriting Tips that Actually Work

25

Writing THE MIGHTY NEIN: Interview with Showrunner Tasha Huo

26

Holiday Gifts -- What to get Reps and Producers (REPOST)

27

Staying Relevant: How to Have a Long Career as a Screenwriter

28

How to Write Great Villains | Halloween Special for Screenwriters

29

Ready or Not? How You Know Your Script is Ready

30

Networking Dos and Don’ts & Are You Excited: October 2025 Edition

31

Write Better Dialogue: Tasha Huo's Secret Hack

32

How do you write for animation? Interview with Francisco Angones (THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA, DUCK TALES)

33

Which Screenwriter Personality Are You?

34

Are You Excited?: September 2025 Edition + TWIW

35

Writing Action and Staying Relevant with Derek Kolstad (JOHN WICK, NOBODY)

36

How Agents Work for Screenwriters: David Boxerbaum (Partner, Verve)

37

How to Multitask as a Screenwriter: Balancing Multiple Projects

38

Are Pro Screenwriters Just Like Pro Athletes?

39

Writing RED SONJA: From Script to Screen with Tasha Huo

40

Is San Diego Comic-Con good for Screenwriters? + Are You Excited?: August Edition

41

Are You Excited?: July 2025 Edition

42

Social Media in your Screenwriting Career: Interview w/ Nic Curcio and Kristen Tepper

43

Where to Spend Time: IP or Spec?

44

MAILBAG: Ready to Send Your Script? Writer’s Groups, Pitching & More

45

Animated to Live Action Adaptation: LILO & STITCH and HTTYD (Part 2)

46

Animated to Live Action Adaptation: LILO & STITCH and HTTYD (Part 1)

47

When Life Happens, How to Keep Writing

48

RE-RELEASE: How to Stay in Screenwriting Shape

49

Are You Excited? JUNE 2025 EDITION

50

Top Tips for Aspiring Screenwriters

51

A Writer's Tools: The Oversized Sketchpad

52

8 Famous Improv Moments Writers Can Learn From

53

Know Your Story

54

A Screenwriter's Self-Talk Cycle

55

Writing for the Audience (and not sell out)

56

Framing Devices: What They Are and When They Work

57

How to Advocate for Yourself

58

How to Get Repped (REPOST)

59

Starting Your Story Through Location

60

A Physical Therapist on Writers' Pains with Melody Garcia

61

Should You Outline?

62

Why Now? - What It Means, How to Answer It

63

The Oscars 2025 Episode! W/ Dave Levinson

64

MAILBAG: Pilots, Day Jobs, Meetings, and More!

65

The Screenwriter’s Brand: Find Your Lane

66

One Room. Lots of Drama. Writing Contained Movies w/ Dave Levinson

67

Writing To "Cheer Moments"

68

Writing in a Crisis

69

Los Angeles Fire Wellness Check-In

70

2025 Goals (Part 2)

71

2025 Goals (Part 1)

72

Nolan Corn

73

The Holiday Edition: Blacklist Winners, Holiday Gifts, Staying Productive

74

Christmas Genre Mashups: Why They Work

75

Is a Work/Life Balance possible as a Screenwriter?

76

How to Turn Meetings into Opportunities

77

The Training Montage

78

Mailbag: Call to Action vs. Inciting Incident, Adapting IP, and more!

79

Chekhov's Gun in Screenwriting

80

The Best Horror Sequels!

81

Horror Rules & Mystery w/ Joe Russo and Dave Levinson

82

Script Changes, Tomb Raider, and Q&A Galore

83

TOMB RAIDER Q&A with Showrunner Tasha Huo

84

Get Your Tomb Raider Questions & 8 Sequence Story Structure (Repost)

85

No Writing Path Is The Same

86

Being Flexible without Compromising,

87

Hate Writing, or Yourself? How to Stay Motivated at a Low Point

88

The TV Writer's Room: Writing a Script

89

Interview with Joe Russo: From Writing to Release of the ensemble horror movie THE INHERITANCE

90

(Don't) Write What You Know

91

Does your script have a Central Question?

92

San Diego Comic-Con for Writers and the Summer Blockbuster

93

RE-RELEASE: Breaking Down BRAVE with Producer & Manager, Michele Wolkoff

94

Mailbag: How to Write Professional Dialogue, How to Write Different Genres, and more!

95

TWIW - Being an Authentic Writer, Are Managers Staying Away from New Clients?, Beverly Hills Cop, and More!

96

Are you dedicated to Screenwriting? Let's find out.

97

The Keys to a Successful (and long) Screenwriting Career

98

Have you hit your goals? -- 2024 Mid-Year Goals Check-In

99

You Just Got Notes: What Now?

100

Interview with Script Pipeline’s Matt Misetich

101

Career post AIR: Interview with Alex Convery

102

Fan Fiction as a Road to Screenwriting: Interview with Keely MacDonald (AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER)

103

The Act Two Mixer, and How to Have a Successful Writer's Group

104

TWIW & the Act Two Mixer Announcement

105

Screenwriting Lingo

106

Pitching is Terrible: The Series (Part 8 - Things Execs Say)

107

Internal Dialogue in Screenwriting - Do or Don't?

108

What to Write Next?

109

TWIW: When to Take the Note, the Pitching Tiers and More!

110

Where Do Ideas Come From?

111

Networking and Making Connections

112

When To Take The Note

113

Secret to the Spec Sale: Interview with Daniel Kunka (Retake)

114

The 2024 Oscars Episode

115

Journey from Pitch to (Not) Getting the Job

116

Fireside Chat: Manager-Writer Conflict and the Problem of the Stubborn Writer

117

How to Cut Pages

118

Taking an Idea to Outline

119

Getting Comfortable with Feeling Uncomfortable

120

How to Combat (and Defeat) Imposter Syndrome

121

How to Nail a General or Rep Meeting

122

New Year. New Goals. 2024!

123

’Tis the Season: Why Christmas Movies Work

124

Filmmaking Tips from James Mangold (LOGAN)

125

TWIW: Party Recap, When a Short Story Has No Hook, and How to Make Your General Work for You

126

Finding Clarity of Concept in Your Pilot

127

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: LA Event & Patreon Launch

128

Breaking Down Pixar’s BRAVE with Producer & Manager, Michele Wolkoff

129

TWIW: Why Relationships Matter, When to Restructure, How to Think Outside the Box

130

Ways to Tackle a 2nd Draft

131

Building Dread: Top 5 Horror Films w/ Special Guest Dave Levinson

132

How to Get Repped

133

Where to Find Inspiration

134

The Importance of Self-Care

135

The Essential Steps to Writing a Pilot Outline

136

Finding Humanity in Your Villain

137

Rethinking How to Adapt IP

138

5 Stages of Spec Writing

139

Breakdown of Act One: SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

140

How to Be a Writer on Set

141

Interview with Jeff Howard (HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, MIDNIGHT MASS)

142

Screenwriting Tips from INDIANA JONES

143

Interview with Alyssa Alvarado: AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL

144

Summer Blockbusters: Midpoint Check-In

145

Interview with Dan Kunka: ARBITRATION

146

J.J. Abrams’s Mystery Box

147

FLASH and INDIANA JONES

148

Summer 2023 Blockbusters!

149

TWIW: Spiderverse, ”Burn It Down” and AI

150

Tips for Writing a Short Film

151

What is Arbitration?

152

WGA Strike Vibes on the Picket

153

How to Stay in Screenwriting Shape

154

How Screenwriters Get Paid

155

WGA Strike (Week 1)

156

TWIW: Mario, 3 Writer Personalities, and LA Writer Meet-Ups

157

Industry Terms: Part II

158

Industry Terms (Part I)

159

How to Have a Successful Writer’s Group

160

How to Write a Heist

161

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Screenwriting

162

The Hustle

163

TWIW: Selling in Animation, Spec Sales, and Learning Writing from Actors

164

Nicole Ramberg Part II: Her Path To The Black List

165

Interview with Paul Bae: Screenwriter to Podcaster to Screenwriter

166

TWIW: Targeted Note-Giving and What a Screenwriting Career Actually Looks Like

167

Pacing in an Action Sequence

168

10 Signs of a Great Screenplay

169

Screenwriting Skills that ARE NOT Writing

170

Finding & Securing IP: Interview with Steve Desmond (KNOCK AT THE CABIN)

171

TWIW: Keep the Momentum Going

172

New Year. New Goals.

173

Your IP Responsibilities

174

Spirited and Writing the Christmas Movie

175

Wrapping up for the Holidays as a Screenwriter

176

A Dialogue on Dialogue

177

Securing IP, General Meetings, and Pitching! (Mailbag)

178

Crafting a Likable Protagonist

179

TWIW: Stealing from other Movies, and Getting Unstuck in Revisions

180

TWIW: What is Hip-Pocketing and What Makes a Good Showrunner?

181

So You’re Being Rewritten...

182

A conversation with the Writer of King Richard: Zach Baylin

183

The Romance Episode

184

Pitching is Terrible: The Series (Part 7 - Idea to Pitch)

185

Fireside Chat: How to Break into the Industry

186

8 Sequence Story Structure

187

This Week in Writing

188

This Week in Writing

189

Self-Advocating: How and Why?

190

The Art of Adaptation: Interview w/ Christopher Yost (THOR: RAGNAROK, COWBOY BEPOP)

191

Unhealthy Writer Thoughts

192

Meet Cutes: Pride & Prejudice to Mr. & Mrs. Smith

193

TWIW: Imposter Syndrome, Pitching with Intention and Taking Your Shot

194

What is Showrunning?: Interview with BEL-AIR Co-Showrunner, Rasheed Newson

195

Taika Waititi’s 10 Screenwriting Tips

196

First Day in a Writers Room

197

Live Mock Notes Session

198

This Week in Writing

199

Transitioning from Writer to Showrunner & Director: Interview w/ Steven DeKnight

200

What’s the Theme? -- Top Gun: Maverick

201

Writing With A Partner: Ben Lustig & Jake Thornton

202

Taking an Idea to Script

203

5 Must-Haves for Writing Action Sequences

204

Being a Blacklist Writer: Q&A with Alex Convery

205

The Work/Life Balance with David H. Steinberg

206

4 Common Notes and How to Revise Them

207

How to Start an Adaptation

208

Tony Gilroy’s 7 Steps to Writing an Original

209

Best Pixar Movies and TWIW

210

How We Create Characters

211

We Should Talk About Nepotism...

212

When to Move On...

213

Having Etiquette As A Screenwriter...

214

Pitching Is Terrible: The Series (Part 6 -- How to Prep like Steve Jobs)

215

Script Club: ENDING THINGS by Kevin Sullivan

216

The Manager Life: Interview w/ John Zaozirny of Bellevue Prods.

217

How to Set the Tone in Meetings

218

How to Revise Your Script

219

Heroes & Villains: The Pirate, the Crooked Cop, the Wicked Step-Mother, and the Adventurer

220

Pitching Is Terrible: The Series (Part 5 -- The Rewrite Pitch)

221

MacGuffins: To Use Or Not To Use?

222

Breaking Into The Industry: Q&A With Mickey Fisher

223

New Year, New Writing Goals

224

Taking A Break Over The Break?

225

The Setup: Home Alone vs. Home Sweet Home Alone

226

The Breakdown: DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (Better than the OG?)

227

Don‘t Please Your Producer (from a Producer)

228

This Week in Writing

229

Holiday Gifts -- What to get Reps and Producers

230

The Breakdown: Writing Action Setpieces

231

How to Handle Submissions

232

Screenwriting Twitter Topics

233

The Pitch: Film to TV

234

Finding Your Next Idea

235

When to Work for Free?

236

Tasha Interviews Josh: AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL

237

Josh Interviews Tasha: SHOWRUNNING

238

Fireside Chat

239

Writer‘s Tool Chest: The Notecard

240

What A Good Relationship With Your Reps Looks Like

241

This Week in Writing

242

Daily Life of a TV Staff Writer with Monty Bennett

243

Anatomy of an Action Setpiece

244

The Note Giver's 10 Commandments

245

To Study Film, or Not? with Special Guest: James Stoteraux

246

Staying Proactive And Being An Advocate For Yourself.

247

The Open Writing Assignment (OWA): Devil or Deliverer?

248

This Week in Writing

249

How to Stay Organized

250

This Week in Writing

251

The Art of Adaptation with Special Guest: Evan Spiliotopoulos

252

Film Writing vs. TV Writing with Special Guest David Levinson

253

Fireside Chat: This Is Us

254

Pitching Is Terrible: The Series (Part 4 -- The Ten Minutes After You Pitch)

255

The Note Taker's 10 Commandments

256

WHY MOVIES WORK: Nobody, Mortal Kombat and The Mitchells vs. the Machines

257

Development Hell

258

Ghostwriting -- The Best Kept Secret in Screenwriting

259

The Walt Disney Television Writing Program: Interview with 2020 alums, Adrian Viña & Allyson Philobos

260

Secret to the Spec Sale: Interview with Daniel Kunka

261

Fireside Chat

262

How to Have a "Voice"

263

Snyder Cut & Mythology

264

ANNOUNCING: Act Two Mentorship Program with Coverfly (with special guest, Tom Dever, Head of Writer Success at Coverfly)

265

The Breakdown: TED LASSO Pilot -- Character Intros

266

Documents Writers Write (that aren't the script)

267

Process: Getting the Job - Tomb Raider and Red Sonja

268

Fireside Chat

269

The Art of Act One: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

270

Three Act Structure

271

Screenwriting Life: A New Hope

272

WGA 101: Interview with Ben Shiffrin, WGA Captain

273

Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling

274

Pitching is Terrible: The Series (Part 3 -- Visuals in a Pitch)

275

Get Competitive: Interview w/ bRock Newell, 2018 Screencraft Fellowship Winner

276

New Year's Resolutions: How to Make (Writing) Goals

277

The Breakdown: LETHAL WEAPON (Demystifying a Legend)

278

The Breakdown: Back to the Future (Act 3 - Obstacles & Pay-Offs)

279

The Breakdown: BACK TO THE FUTURE (Act Two - The Art of Cause & Effect)

280

First Script is Done. Now what?

281

The Breakdown: BACK TO THE FUTURE (Act One)

282

Get Competitive: Guest Interview w/ Nicole Ramberg, 2020 Screencraft Competition Winner

283

A Million Ways: Guest Interview w/ Screenwriter Corey Deshon

284

How to Have a Good Relationship with Your Reps

285

Pitching is Terrible: The Series (Part 2 -- Formatting Your Pitch)

286

Pitching is Terrible: The Series (Part 1 -- What, How and Why do you Pitch?)

287

The Confident Writer, an Oxymoron

288

Working Hard or Hardly Working? -- A Day in the Life of a Screenwriter

289

A Screenwriter Walks into a Festival...

290

General Meetings: The Couch & Water Tour

291

The Job: TV Staff Writing with Nneka Gerstle

292

HARD KILL: Script to Screen with Joe Russo

293

The Art of the Spec Script

294

Welcome Home: Blank Page to Red Carpet with David Levinson

295

We're Back! Post-Quarantine for Screenwriters

296

Getting Repped -- All the Ways to Get a Manager or Agent

297

Introducing the ACT TWO Podcast