Living To Write

Her fifth-grade teacher walked her to the principal’s office over a book report she’d drawn up like a newspaper front page. The issue turned out to be the principal wanting to compliment her on just how creative it was. She’s been writing ever since.
Author, teacher, and mentor Debra Landwehr Engle (The Only Little Prayer You Need, Twenty) sits down with Brian and Bailey to discuss The Writer’s Miracle Method (St. Martin’s Essentials), her thirty-day program, one fear per day, and why what stops writers is almost never the writing.
How do two kids trading hand-drawn periodicals across the street both end up writing for a living? Can you write drama without living it? When the words won’t come, what’s the one question to ask yourself before you do anything else? What single note from an editor turned a book of stories into a thirty-day method?
And why is beating yourself up over lack of progress not just unkind, but inefficient?
Deb has plenty to say about fear, joy, when to let a stalled project rest, and the one question Bailey asked that she’s stealing from now on: do you believe you matter?
Produced by Brian Landwehr and Bailey Patterson.

The Runner screenplay was good enough to make the 2023 Black List. It was also, as its director puts it, unmakeable: a car chase at night, in the rain, through Los Angeles, with a mudslide shutting down the 101.
Screenwriters Miles Hubley and Tommy White, along with director Scott Waugh (Need for Speed), sit down with Brian and Bailey to discuss Runner (Angel Studios, starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson), the eleven-year road to their first produced feature, and what happened along the way.
What are the two kinds of screenwriting, and how does the second make everything besides the dialogue irrelevant? How do you write a chase scene through a city you’ve never set foot in? What happens when Owen Wilson pictures his character as a bon vivant in a Panama hat? What do you say when your director pitches an ending you can’t bear, but your star loves it?
And how could the best thing for a screenwriter be finally having a boss?
It’s a first-ever podcast appearance for Miles and Tommy, and Scott is right there to make sure it doesn’t go to their heads. All three have plenty to say about egos, trust, over-writing, and why the only script worth writing is the one that feels true.
Produced by Brian Landwehr and Bailey Patterson.

Two seventeen-year-olds with mutual crushes egged one another into trying out for their college sketch groups. A few years later, their Yale graduation speech went viral, and made them the youngest writers in the history of The Tonight Show.
Writing partners, showrunners, and married couple Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold sit down with Brian and Bailey to discuss the second season of Adults (FX), the leap from writing sketches to running their own series, and why every emerging comedy writer needs to find their people.
How does the pace of late night TV make every writer a baby showrunner? Why would anyone walk away from The Tonight Show with nothing new lined up? How do you keep a Gen Z slang from expiring before new episodes even air? What happens when you pitch “live-action Big Mouth for your twenties” to Nick Kroll’s face?
And why might the skills it takes to produce comedy be diametrically opposed to the ones it takes to write it?
Rebecca and Ben have plenty to say about trust, voice, and staying ready for your lucky break, and how Adults grew from a friend group's inside jokes into a series all its own.
Produced by Brian Landwehr and Bailey Patterson.

A moment of snorkeling panic deep in a Tulum cenote became a joke between friends before it became the inspiration for a shark movie that made the 2019 Black List.
Screenwriters Aja Gabel and MJ Wesner and writer/director Jeff Wadlow sit down with Brian and Bailey to discuss The Devil’s Mouth (Amazon Prime Video), its seven-year journey getting to the screen, and what it takes to build a lasting career in show business.
How do you write a shark movie with a predator already right there within the friend group? What sort of things might a director change when tackling a project they didn’t write? What’s the difference between selling a script and having a career? How do you pitch a project you haven’t written yet?
And how do your particular writing talents make you unique but not special?
Jeff, Aja and MJ have plenty to say about what changed, what stayed the same, and how they made it all fit together as The Devil’s Mouth moved along from idea to screenplay to production to the screen.
Produced by Brian Landwehr and Bailey Patterson.

She was just five years old when she read the Little House on the Prairie books that made her want to tell stories. Today, she’s the screenwriter and showrunner taking us back into that world.
Screenwriter/showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Housemaid, The Housemaid 2, The Boys, Archive 81) sits down with Brian and Bailey to discuss why she writes, how she writes, and how the entertainment business really works.
How did an old-school VHS camcorder teach her plenty about storytelling? How did writing screenplay coverage nudge her into a screenwriting career of her own? How did she turn the things she enjoyed most into commercial successes? How did she adapt the bestselling novel The Housemaid by treating it as “a personal horror story”?
And how is “genre writing” perhaps not quite what people think it is?
Rebecca has plenty to say about crafting the tension of The Housemaid, landing the project of her childhood dreams, and the world-building secrets that make a 150-year-old story feel like it’s about us, right now.
Produced by Brian Landwehr and Bailey Patterson.