728 - Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard

728 - Beats to Scenes with Drew Goddard

From Scriptnotes Podcast by John August and Craig Mazin

March 17, 2026 · 59 min · Season 15 · Episode 728

About this episode

John August interviews Drew Goddard about adapting stories into screenplays and his writing process.

John welcomes back Drew Goddard (Project Hail Mary, High Potential) to ask, how do you turn the beats of your story into full scenes? Using Drew's script for The Martian, we look at how he translates moments in a book into scenes in a movie, the freedom Drew finds in a beat sheet, how beats are approached in a TV writers room, and his advice to a staff writer struggling with a draft. We also dig into Drew's process for adapting Project Hail Mary, choosing what to cut, and his eloquent defense of double-spacing in a screenplay. He's even kind enough to help answer listener questions on how to recharge your brain and how to indicate you wrote the most on a co-written script. In our bonus segment for premium members, Drew shares his outlook on the current TV landscape, including the big mistake he sees young writers make in their spec pilots. Links: Project Hail Mary | Trailer Drew Goddard on IMDb The Martian screenplay Twin Peaks: The Return – Part 8 Noah Kalina on YouTube and Substack A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book! Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member , or gift a…

People in this episode

Host: John August

Guest: Drew Goddard

Topics covered

  • screenwriting
  • story adaptation
  • TV writing
  • script analysis
  • writer advice

Keywords

  • screenplay
  • beat sheet
  • TV writers room
  • Project Hail Mary
  • The Martian

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Scriptnotes

Books & works: Project Hail Mary, The Martian, Twin Peaks: The Return – Part 8

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