I started researching a new spec script. It's going to be an hour-long drama for a cable, without commercial breaks. I don't want to go into too much detail, but it's going to be a historical drama, set in the Middle Ages.

I responded to a listing in the Inktip Preferred Newsletter and received a reply from the American Feature Film Academy asking me to send my screenplay "Jilted."

It would mean the world to me if someone would actually make a film from my script, even if it's just a student film. It's been a long time since anyone showed any interest at all in my work, and I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but just keep your fingers crossed, okay?

I was sorry to hear of the death of Charles Napier, one of my favorite character actors. He was one of the first mainstream actors to show the "full monty' on screen (in Russ Meyer's "Cherry, Harry & Raquell"). He also did a memorable turn as the space hippie Adam on Star Trek episode"The Way to Eden." I honestly don't know which was more embarrassing.

The truth is very little embarrassed Charles Napier. He was totally fearless, as all great actors are. God, I just wish I was more like him. As someone racked with fears and inhibitions, I couldn't help but admire the man.

R.I.P. Charles Napier. You will be sorely missed.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs.

Happy birthday, Thomas Wolfe, wherever you are!

I've been a SuicideGirls member since 2004, and just wanted to say how much I love this site.

The members and SGs have been super-nice, though, early on, I had a few heated exchanges on the boards. But since then I've learned not to express my political views, there or in any other public forum.

Not that I'm hard to get along with. I genuinely like people. As Will Rogers used to say, I never met a man I didn't like. There have been a few women I didn't like. (There was this one date who excused herself to go to the bathroom and never came back). But that's neither here nor there.

The people on this site have been exceptionally nice to me. There have been none of the weirdos, scammers, or cyber-stalkers I've encountered on Facebook and My Space. Well, maybe a couple of weirdos.

Anyway, thanks for making this site so enjoyable these past seven years.

Top 10 Legendary Screenwriters

Craig Mazin, screenwriter and correspondent for AskMen.com, recently compiled his Top 10 list of "legendary" Hollywood screenwriters. His choices were:

1. Billy Wilder
2. Ernest Lehman
3. Oliver Stone
4. Woody Allen
5. Ben Hecht
6. Francis Ford Coppola
7. David Mamet
8. Paul Schrader
9. William Goldman
10. Robert Benton.

Here are a couple of my favorites who didn't make Mazin's list:

Robert Riskin, writer of "Mister Deeds Goes to Town" and "It Happened One Night," and

Paddy Chayefsky, winner of three best screenplay Oscars for "Marty," "The Hospital" and "Network."

But what about you? Who would be on your list of the top 10 Hollywood screenwriters?

Must a movie protagonist be likable?

The likable protagonist is one of the shibboleths of modern Hollywood. In "Save the Cat" ( a popular screenwriting primer) Blake Snyder actually advocated writing an introductory scene where the main character saves a cat or performs some other good deed.

Of course, Jack Nicholson does throw a dog down a laundry chute at the beginning of "As Good as It Gets," but that's before he goes through a thoroughly unconvincing character arc, another Hollywood shibboleth. And, by the way, if you haven't already guessed, the word of the day is shibboleth.

As for me, none of my favorite characters are "cat-savers," to coin a term. They're not warm, approachable characters. They're cat-kickers, Byronic heroes whose brooding demeanor warns others to stay away. They're Heathciff ("Wuthering Heights"), Edward Rochster("Jane Eyre") Edmond Dantes ("Count of Monte Cristo"). It's their unapproachability that makes them intriguing.

In a previous blog examining "Anatomy of Story:22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller," I noted author John Truby's rejection of Syd Field's widely adopted schematic approach, which prescribes placing plot points and act breaks at or near specific page numbers, as part of a screenplay's three act structure. I further noted that Truby's key concept is the "designing principle," the original way of organizing the script's material so that it all coheres as part of a unified whole. In this blog, I will discuss Truby's "seven steps of story structure," the smallest number of steps that a story must go through as it progresses from begininning to end. Additionally. there is The Problem, not one of the seven steps, but related to step 1, so I'll discuss it there. The steps are:

1. Weakness and need
2.desire
3. the opponent
4. the plan
5. the battle
6. self revelation
7. new equilibrium

1.Weakness and Need.
A hero must have one or more great weakness to overcome in order to live a better life. Example "Tootsie," where Michael's weaknesses of arrogance and manipulativeness are holding him back.
Two key points: (1) protagonists shouldn't be aware of their need at the beginning, but only toward the end, at the self-revelation and (2) protagonists should have a moral, as well as a psychological need. The second point just means that that the hero's failings should hurt other people and not just himself. So, in "The Verdict," sleazy lawyer Frank (Paul Newman) has psychological needs for self-respect and sobriety, but he also has a moral need to stop his unethical practices (misrepresenting himself as a friend or relative at strangers' funerals). The hero's moral lapses, affecting other people, are more likely to affect the audience than purely psycholgical ones.

The Problem
This is the crisis precipitated by the hero's weakness. Example:"Tootsie," where Michael's inability to work with other directors and producers has made him unemployable, even though he's a good actor.

2.Desire.
This is the protagonist's external goal. Not to be confused with need, which is internal. The character needs to overcome a hidden weakness to achieve his desire. The desire is not hidden, but visible. It is a visible goal the audience can see the hero move towards. Example: "The Verdict": Psychological Need: Regaining self-respect, Moral Need: to treat people ethically. Desire: To win the case.

3. Opponent.
The true opponent, not only tries to prevent a hero from achieving his goal, they seek to compete with the hero to achieve the same goal. "Chinatown" is more than the story of Jake trying to find Mulwray's murderer and the murderer trying to get away with it. Rather, it's a contest to see which version of events prevails: the true one or the white-washed version told by Noah Cross.

4. Plan.
Strategies the hero will use to overcome his opponent and achieve his goal. Example: Hamlet puts on a play mirroring the events leading to his father's death to see how Claudius reacts.

5. Battle.
Following the mid-story punch-counter-punch, the battle is the final conflict, verbal or physical, determining the winner. Examples: "The Odyssey": Odysseus slays Penelope's suitors; "The Verdict": Frank out-lawyers defense counsel to win the jury's verdict.

6. Self-Revelation.
The lesson the hero learns to live a better life. Thus, in "Big," Josh learns that he still belongs in the world of a thirteen-year-old kid.

7, New Equilibrium. At the end, the protagonist has arrived at a new position, either higher or lower, than he was at the beginning. In "Silence of the Lambs," Clarice is in a higher place, having proven herself as an FBI agent and having apparently gotten over her nightmares. In "Oedipus The King,"the protagonist, eyeless and unable to face the truth, is in a decidedly lower position.

Once again, Truby has given me a lot to think about. Agree with it or not, there's certainly a lot more to Truby's approach than there is to Syd Field's.