Building Tension and Sustaining Suspense

John welcomes writer and actress Nora Garrett to look at how her first screenplay, After the Hunt, took her from being un-repped to working with director Luca Guadagnino.

They discuss her path from acting to writing, how her script went from being rejected by screenplay competitions to landing on Julia Roberts' desk, and how she constructed her complex power dynamics on the the page. They also answer listener questions on building tension and knowing when to tell rather than show.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Nora talk day jobs and how to balance focusing on your craft wi– shhh! The boss is coming, get back to work.

Links:

• Read along with our excerpts from After the Hunt
• Nora Garrett
• After the Hunt
• Episode 667 – The One with Justin Kuritzkes
• The Rehearsal
• Flesh World by Jessica DeFino
• Big Reader Bad Grades
• BenDeLaCreme on Good One
• Preorder the Scriptnotes Book!
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
• Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
• Scriptnotes on Instagram
• John August on Bluesky and Instagram
• Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.