In The Art of War, Sun Tzu emphasizes that picking your battles is the foundation of strategy, with the ultimate goal of winning without fighting. True mastery, according to Sun Tzu, lies in recognizing which conflicts are worth engaging in and which should be avoided, as not every dispute warrants the expenditure of energy and resources. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabnZ9-ex7o It can be overwhelming life/artistry. You can't win all the battles unless you pick which you choose to engage in. Which script etc

This afternoon I have been typing with a best selling author who like me met her husband in a video game. She's sold over 70 books. I asked her what I might say about her AI dilemma at the forge. She said post this: In August 2025, Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit filed by authors (Bartz et al. v. Anthropic), marking one of the largest copyright settlements in US history. The suit alleged that Anthropic used copyrighted books from "shadow libraries" (e.g., LibGen) to train its Claude AI. The settlement covers around 500,000 authors, with estimated payouts potentially reaching over $3,000 per eligible, registered work.

A friend sent me his script. I swear to you I maybe made it half way thru the first page. But I was already realizing it was hopeless in the first paragraph. I changed the names and locations. But you get the idea. As an agent/producer/studio honcho, if you started reading this, what would your reaction be, and why? EXT. SUBURBAN SIDE STREET. MORNING. Trash bins with cracked lids lean at inconsistent angles along the curb, their wheels half-submerged in yesterday’s rainwater. MAILBOXES stand at attention despite having no mail inside, their red flags lowered in silent disappointment. The street slopes gently downward, as if designed to encourage leaving. DAVE LANCER (40s) power-walks with intention. Wireless earbuds firmly seated, baseball cap pulled low but not enough to hide that he once had great hair. His gait suggests discipline, the kind learned from podcasts rather than hardship. He breathes through his nose like someone who read that it’s healthier. Dave is a man who has read the comments and decided not to care. Dave adjusts the strap of his fitness watch and passes ranch- style houses arranged with polite indifference toward one another, their LAWNS trimmed into compliance. A lone INFLATABLE SNOWMAN sags on a porch, still plugged in, radiating quiet defeat like a motivational quote gone stale. Halfway down the street. Two TEENAGERS in OVERSIZED HOODIES stand beside an OPEN TRUNK. One scrolls on his phone. The other stares into nothing. A SODA CAN drops, rolls, and comes to rest against the curb. The trunk closes. They leave without urgency. One gives Dave a thumbs-up for no reason. INT. DAVE’S HOUSE. KITCHEN. Slightly winded from exertion, hoodie half-zipped, Dave pours coffee with unnecessary precision. There’s a corporate-retreat energy to his movements. He taps the counter twice while waiting for the microwave to finish something that didn’t need heating. He knocks on a closed door with authority. DAVE Let’s move it. LUCAS (14) responds from inside, voice cracking with confidence.

I couldn't resist myself. The thread I posted earlier from Reddit is exactly everything wrong with writing instruction today, and why I created this community. Check this out and comment here and on TikTok if this rings a bell with you and why you're here! My entire philosophy of teaching in one rant: Good Scripts vs Holy Shit Scripts In fact, this is exactly why I'm teaching the Emotional Authorship Intensive next week! If you haven't signed up for that yet, there's still room. Check it out and let's take your work to the next level! Here's the thread describing that seminar in detail.

Good people — I’m grateful for how this community has grown. The Hot Seats show every week how committed you are, and I love diving into the work with you. A lot of you have DM’d about private coaching. I love doing it — especially that moment when a writer’s eyes light up because they suddenly see their script in a new way after weeks (or months) of feeling stuck. The spark comes back, the idea feels alive again, and all the hard work they’ve poured in finally has a path forward. Maybe you know these feelings: - You were excited about your idea, but now you’re stuck and can’t see your way forward. - You want consistency, but procrastination keeps winning. - You’ve gotten notes that feel generic or contradictory. - You know something’s off, but you can’t pinpoint what. - You’re rewriting for the third (or fifth) time and wondering if the story even works. That’s where I come in. My time is limited, and to keep showing up here while staying on top of my own projects, I need a clear structure for the deeper story and script work many of you have asked for. So here are two ways to book me directly: 1️⃣ Monthly Upgrade — $297/month One private 1-on-1 session each month — designed to give you absolute clarity on your next steps and weekly accountability for the work you have in progress. If you’ve watched the Hot Seats, you know my process: I dive into the emotional engine, expose the blind spots, and uncover the version of your script that’s hiding just under the surface. It’s the same diagnostic work I’ve done for studios on Shrek 2, Rugrats, Disenchanted, and countless rewrites. We do that together, live. Real collaboration. Real breakthroughs. Real movement. This is for you if you want someone in your corner who won’t let you quit on yourself — someone who sees what you can’t see yet and helps you build the momentum to finish. 2️⃣ One-Time Session — $349 Same intensity and depth as the monthly sessions. We break open the real issues holding your script back — character, relationships, emotional logic, structure — and map out the exact next steps to move your story forward.