On Story Season 16 is rolling out now
One of my recurring projects is editing for Austin Film Festival’s public television series On Story which explores the craft of screenwriting by presenting panel discussions filmed during the festival. What I enjoy about working on the show are all the insights on writing, producing and directing I get to absorb while putting an episode together.
Season 16 is rolling out now on local PBS stations (and is also available on YouTube and in podcast form), so I thought I’d highlight some of my favorite pieces of advice from the episodes I edited last season.
CRAIG MAZIN
Mazin hardly needs an introduction, but I’ll do my best to provide one here anyway. Co-host of the screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes, Mazin shares writing wisdom on a regular basis. He is versatile, having gone from studio comedies like Scary Movie 3 & 4 and The Hangover II & III to a major tone shift with the landmark HBO mini series Chernobyl. He proves that when you understand story you can write anything no matter the genre or the subject.
Now he’s the creator and show runner of the video game adaptation The Last of Us on HBO.
On show running
“The great thing about having your first kid is that you have no fucking idea what you’re in for… You’re so excited to get your show, then you get your show and you’re like oh no… Making a show like The Last of Us is a creative effort, it’s art, it’s writing and acting, but it’s also a massive business.”
I was fortunate to meet Mazin in person at AFF 2025. We share a mutual, sometimes comical insistence for black out curtains when we go to sleep. Our wives… do not.
How he writes
“I will routinely write what the actor is thinking, like dialogue, in the action area. You will read their thoughts. The actors can read their own thoughts but It will never be said. It gives everyone context.”
MEG LaFAUVE
Meg LaFauve wrote Inside Out and Inside Out 2. She walks us through her decision to take the leap into writing and her collaboration with director Pete Doctor. Viewers of her episode will find her warm and welcoming, and they’ll connect with the way she talks about writing as an almost metaphysical experience:
“When you say to the universe I am going to go for it… I’m going to quit, I’m just going to be a writer, pretty quickly the universe is going to offer you a big red juicy apple to go back.”
Writing is a practice that opens the writer up to something bigger than themselves:
“It’s a mourning process all the time because things are getting cut all the time. It’s not your story. It’s the universe’s story.”
LeFauve describes writing in terms of loss as much as creation:
“As long as there is a director, even if it’s your baby and you specc’ed it, you’re gonna hand it to a director and they’re going to change it to make it their own and you’re either going to stay on the ride doing that or you’re going to go off and that’s just part of being a writer.”
I was fortunate to also meet her in person at last fall’s festival and she was as affable as she is in her episode.
TANYA SARACHO
Tanya Saracho began her writing career as a playwright and had success on the stage before she found herself on a television writing staff. She took lessons from her collaborative series work that influenced what she would - and would not - emulate on her own show:
“How we made it was as important as what we made.”
She staffed Vida with writers that represented the spectrum of cultural and sexual identities & experience the show explores. The writers injected their own romantic experiences into the show. Her episode explores how her staffing decisions behind the camera were in service of what they were creating in front of the camera.
JUSTIN KURITKES
Another episode about a playwright that turns to screenwriting. This episode explores Challengers, Kuritzkes’ first produced screenplay. He discusses his collaboration with director Luca Guadagnino:
“Luca said this sharp thing that he felt in every movie about a love triangle every corner should touch. And when I heard that I thought, at first, that they did touch… And he made it clear that they should touch literally.”
On endings, Kuritzkes echoes the sentiment of one of my film school professors that I still remember to this day (though maybe don’t always follow) - goal achieved, movie over:
“When it comes to endings I like to reach to a moment… of revelation or intensity and then we’re done because at that point I’ve gotten what I wanted.”
Whether you’re a budding screenwriter or a seasoned veteran, there’s so much rich material to take inspiration from in On Story. Episodes air on PBS and are also available on YouTube and where you listen to podcasts. Visit Austin Film Festival for more information about the film festival and screenwriter’s conference.