The Smarter Artist Show

Writing a great television pilot is one of the most powerful ways to break into the industry and launch a sustainable, multi-season storytelling career. In this episode of The Smarter Artist Show , we sat down with veteran manager Spencer Robinson of Artwork Entertainment to discuss the nuts and bolts of crafting a sellable TV pilot. Robinson, who has represented writers, actors, and producers for...

This week David W. Wright, Sean Platt, and Johnny B. Truant talk about what makes a GREAT TV pilot. They talk LOST, Breaking Bad, Friends, and many more of the best pilots and shows. They also announce an upcoming cohort to learn how to turn your book into a TV pilot. For more details, sign up for thhe weekly Dispatch https://smarterartist.net/dispatch

This week, another unreleased episode of Alternate Endings , the podcast where the guys make each other watch movies and TV shows and then they discuss what they liked, didn't like, and… if they'd change anything. This episode was Dave's movie pick and he chose 2017's The Endless by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Dave's new favorites. 

This week the guys talk about Pixar's Ratatouille, a movie Dave had actually not seen before.  Pixar's love letter to creativity is a must-watch for anyone who tells stories or creates art. Sign up for our Dispatch, a weekly column to inspire your creativity at https://smarterartist.net/dispatch  

This week's Smarter Artist didn't go to plan. It was supposed to be (fittingly enough) a brainstorming episode. But Dave realized partly into it that his concept sucked.  So, back to the drawing board. Instead, the guys talked about the subject of last week's Dispatch, which was what you can get out of bad movies.  And they talked about Netflix's The Last House. But the highlight of the episode wa...

In this episode Johnny talks about an incident when he was about to get his Kickstarter book, Terminal, printed. Just one problem … the printer had an issue with the content. And you'll never guess why. Then the story gets even weirder. 0:00 — Dave cold open 3:07 — Johnny's censorship story 10:50 — Sean talks about using Obsidian as a second brain 17:00 — Dave rants about Adobe's Creative Cloud sl...

This week's podcast is another Alternate Endings, a show we recorded in 2021 and never released… until now, where we each make the others watch a movie we loved. Think of it like Oprah's Book Club, if she chose books to piss off the others in the club. This week's pick was from Sean. And it was his hero, Quentin Tarantino, and his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  Sean LOVES Tarantino. Dave doe...

This week we responded to a recent conversation I had with a struggling writer. Which led me to ask Sean and Johnny what made them start writing, why they chose the books they wrote as their first books, and how do they decide what to write next.  Despite knowing one another for 15 years, this is the first time we actually talked about our early inspiration. And, oddly enough, we all share one com...

This week we bring you the third episode of Alternate Endings, the show between the Smarter Artist episodes, where we force each other to watch a show or movie and then talk about it.  These episodes were recorded in 2021, then promptly hidden in a vault for reasons unknown, never before aired.  This week we talk about my pick, the zombie thriller Train to Busan. Additionally, we argue about Steph...

Sean's out of town this week, so time to dig into the archives of unreleased episodes of Alternate Endings. This week we talk Gone Girl, what we liked, what we didn't like, and then compare it to another author who attempted to write their own screenplay with wildly different results.  Want more Smarter Artist delivered every week to your inbox? Sign up free at https://smarterartist.net/dispatch a...

There's never been a better (or more difficult) time to be a creator it seems. With existential threats of AI, a population that isn't reading as much, and cost cutting at the studios, what does the future of story look like?  In today's episode we look at the landscape of books, film, and video games, and give our guesses as to what's next, what we're worried about, and what we look forward to. ...

  Remember when Brandon Sanderson revealed a bunch of books he'd written? Well, this is our version of that. We're revealing a podcast we recorded in 2021 or 2022 called Alternate Endings . A show that we recorded a year's worth of episodes!  It's a show where Sean, Johnny, and I (Dave) force each other to watch a different show or movie each week and then get together and talk, argue, and discuss...

In this episode Sean, Johnny, and Dave go back through four of their own series (Available Darkness, Karma Police, Cursed, and Robot Proletariat) and ask what they'd do differently now. Not with the stories themselves, but the surrounding architecture, to ensure that each series had a better shot at success.  SOMETHING COOL 9:00 — Johnny finally created an Instagram account (@johnnybtruant) 14:40...

In this week's episode of The Smarter Artist Show, Sean, Dave, and Johnny take turns answering Dave's latest batch of hypothetical questions.  Dave also talks about how one of the questions inspired a script idea.  Join the guys for an assortment of amusing, weird, and intriguing hypothetical questions which you can play along at home!  Note: In efforts to get to the nonsense sooner, we shortened...

In this episode, Sean, Dave, Johnny, and guest Matt Stone of 100 Covers talk about the number one thing successful books have in common. Spoiler: it has to do with the cover! Stay tuned to the end, or just go to the show notes, for a limited time offer from 100 Covers. **Special Promotion:** Special 50% offer at https://100covers.com using the coupon code ASS from Friday June 19, 2026 to 11:59 PM...

This week Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into the indie horror moment happening right now in Hollywood, two breakout films, Obsession and Backrooms, both made by filmmakers who came up on YouTube with almost no budget. They trace the path from Curry Barker's $800 film to a theatrical release that's earned around $250 million (at press time), and talk about why horror rewards resourcefulness in a way m...

Dave opens by holding up five completely filled journals to the camera, all devoted to a fantasy novel he's been building in his head for at least five years. That kicks off an hour-long conversation about the creative project you haven't written yet: the idea that's too big, too personal, or too risky to touch until you're ready. Sean's version is the very first book he ever wrote in 2007, a 600-...

Saul Goodman was supposed to appear in four episodes of Breaking Bad. He was comic relief. Vince Gilligan read the room, changed his mind, and eventually built a six-season prequel around him.  Sean, Dave, and Johnny use that as the on-ramp for a longer conversation about what separates a character that can carry IP from one that can't, and whether a creator can engineer that kind of popularity or...

SUMMARY Sean, Dave, and Johnny open with Something Cool, including Sean's announcement that he's finished his first album and wants early listeners before it drops publicly next month. Then they get into the real subject: collaboration. How it starts, how it breaks, how it makes you better when it works, and what happens when you write with someone who can see your blind spots before you can. By t...

Dave spent twelve years writing bits and pieces of stories at a gas station. He never finished one. Sean spent three years nagging him to publish his first book. Now they've written more than 60 novels together. In this episode, Dave and Sean dig into the real reasons writers stall, why AI won't save you if your process is broken, and the one habit Sean says matters more than any tool or technique...

Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into one of the most neglected pieces of real estate in any author's catalog: back matter. The highest-leverage moment you have with a reader is the thirty seconds after they finish your book, and most creators waste it with a generic thank-you and a mailing list link that goes nowhere.  This episode is a post-mortem on real mistakes from the Sterling & Stone catalog, in...

Sean Platt built a publishing company that shipped hundreds of titles over 14 years. And somewhere in the middle of all that output, he realized the model was broken. In this episode, Sean, Dave, and Johnny introduce The Smarter Artist Method : the idea that most working creators are stacking inventory when they should be building IP. One produces diminishing returns. The other compounds. They're...

This week we talk about writing science fiction in an age where sci-fi feels more like science fact. How do you write sci-fi while the world feels like it's falling apart? How do advances in AI and robots change our stories? We also talk about classic sci-fi, like Twilight Zone, and how it dealt with issues and questions of the day. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction to the Sci-Fi Discussion 11:47 Expl...

In this episode Sean and I decided to experiment and let the AI Claude ask us questions.  It was a surprisingly fun conversation, touching on writer's block, and the story we hated most that the other presented or worked on, how we collaborate on writing books, and (fittingly) whether AI will ever be at a point where it writes better than us? So, join us for another fun, expletive-filled episode. ...

Note: This isn't the show we'd planned. Our "useful" episodes will be here in two weeks as we take care of some behind-the-scenes website stuff, and put the finishing touches on something we'll show you in 2 weeks. For this week, we talk about how growing older has changed our writing, and what we want to write. And the things we won't write anymore. We also discuss content from our youth vs. toda...