Seeing as Script Frenzy starts in a couple of days, I thought I'd repost this entry from my retired writing blog.

It seems that one sentence summaries of screenplays are a well know thing, and in the jargon they are called loglines. The logline, holds prevailing opinion, can be used as a litmus test to determine the structural integrity of the narrative. This seems reasonable to me, and further research indicates that I need to revise my logline substantially.

There seem to be various, but substantially similar, formulas for loglines. The most simple logline formulation includes only protagonist, protagonist's goal, and antagonistic force.

I also like this articulation of the logline formula from Joe Calabrese on the Absolute Write forums:

(A) must do (B) before (C) does (D) or (E) will happen.

ie. Luke Skywalker must destroy the Deathstar before it's completed or Darth Vader will destroy the Rebellion.

or

A sheriff must kill the shark before it kills again and ruins the town's summer business.

• How the largest dinosaurs got so big
• Zoot suit riots
• The Phantom of Heilbronn
• The Victorian Era
• A Study In Scarlet
• The Greek Interpreter "It was after tea on a summer evening, and the conversation, which had roamed in a desultory, spasmodic fashion from golf clubs to the causes of the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, came round at last to the question of atavism and hereditary aptitudes. The point under discussion was, how far any singular gift in an individual was due to his ancestry and how far to his own early training. [. . .] 'Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.'"
• Atavism
• Medusa

There is also a question about the definition of "cyclopean"—if it means merely gigantic, or if it also means one-eyed. The internet failed to provide a satisfactory answer, so I shall consult the OED this evening.

• Writing, reading, cut-up, and plagiarism
• Ethiopian 10 cent piece
• Robert Scott Correctional Facility
• Script Frenzy
• Celtx
• Tommyboy
• Daria Morgendorffer's in Women Wear Daily
• The Battle of Teutoburg Forest
• The Ruins horror movie trailer
• Lothario
• The Libertine "A confusing, monotonous, unattractive drama, Libertine mires its talented cast in a squalid, self-indulgent mess." Ouch.
• The Second Sex
• Spiegel Online
• London clubs

I was recently asked--by someone who had never watched an episode of Doctor Who--where they should start with the series. If you didn't grow-up watching the show, you may never fully understand how much some people cherish it. On the other hand, it's never too late to get started.

Doctor Who began in 1963 as a British television show to educate children about history while they watched the adventures of a time traveller called "The Doctor" and his companions. The focus of the show quickly shifted to a more mature audience, blending humor, science fiction, adventure, and horror. (Millions of children still watch the show; peering cautiously from behind the sofa to see if the scary bit is over has become one of the universally shared experiences of British childhood.) As of 2009, Doctor Who is still in production.

The Doctor's time machine is called the TARDIS. It looks like a big blue police emergency telephone box, and is far larger on the inside than the outside. Though the Doctor looks human, he is a member of an alien race called the Time Lords. When a Time Lord dies, he is able to regenerate a new body. (This conceit explains why the Doctor has been played by ten different actors.) The Doctor almost always travels with one or more companions, who play Watson to the Doctor's Holmes.

Many episodes of Doctor Who have been produced since 1963. Some are better than others. If you ask ten fans which episodes are the best, you'll get ten different answers. However, in chronological order, here are ten very good episodes, which should give you a feel for the series:

• The Dalek Invasion of Earth (William Hartnell, 1964)
• The Tomb of the Cybermen (Patrick Troughton, 1975)
• Spearhead from Space (Jon Pertwee, 1975)
• Genesis of the Daleks (Tom Baker, 1975)
• The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Tom Baker, 1977)
• City of Death (Tom Baker, 1979)
• The Caves of Androzani (Peter Davison, 1984)
• Remembrance of the Daleks (Sylvester McCoy, 1989)
• The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (Christopher Eccleston, 2005)
• Blink (Davd Tennant, 2007)

UPDATE Since compiling this list, I found quite a good list of the of the top 25 Doctor Who episoces. It's worth a look, particularly because of the brief commentary attached to each recommended episode.

• Cosmetics price fixing
• Micro expression
• Eliminate AIDS
• Obama to reverse Bush's conscience regulation
• The Speaker of the House is elected on the first day of a new session of Congress
• Commute by zip line
• P.G. Wodehouse's Something New (Kindle) and Right Ho, Jeeves (Kindle)
• Convert Project Gutenberg books for the Kindle
• Wizard World Chicago comic-con
• How realistic do fake beards look?
• Boston marriage
• tribadism
• Stanza iPhone application
• What happened to Sea World Ohio?
• Super-scorpion
• Bad wine
• John Thomas

• Hello Kitty
• British regency, the 1795-1837 transition between Georgian and Victorian
• Russion Revolution of 1905
• Russion Revolution of 1917
• A Natural History of the Romance Novel a word about formula
• This American Life explains the collapse of the banking system
• His Majesty's Dragon
• Great Adaptations from the Criterion Collection

• Hello Kitty
• British regency, the 1795-1837 transition between Georgian and Victorian
• Russion Revolution of 1905
• Russion Revolution of 1917
• A Natural History of the Romance Novel a word about formula
• This American Life explains the collapse of the banking system
• His Majesty's Dragon
• Great Adaptations from the Criterion Collection