Screenwriting gurus are often quoted saying, "Your Hero need to have a flaw to make him(her) interesting. Nobody wants to watch somebody who's perfect." My usual snide answer to that is, "A lot of people are fans of the Christ story."
          Well yesterday I went to see "The Intern," was charmed by it - actually captivated by it - and realized after I got out of the theatre that Ben, the Robert De Niro character, has no flaw. He's old but at my age I don't consider that a flaw. In my opinion, Nancy Meyers has been turning her comedic eye on - I don't want to say serious topics and concepts, but at least meaningful issues.
          A whole lot of stories look at the threshold where a young man or woman has to give up childish ways and accept the mantle and responsibilities of adulthood. What about when you're allowed to lay down that mantle and you're asked to be carefree again? Ben chooses to go back to work (as a "senior intern") and he brings his world of experience to the challenge and hits a home run every time. Ben has a problem - he doesn't have a flaw.
           OK, blog posts are supposed to be short. Go see this movie. Throw out those constraining rules and don't be afraid to introduce a character who's got his shit completely together.
          Oh, and if you had Nancy Meyers' skill set, that would be helpful, too.

            Our glorious summer in northern Illinois is coming to a close and a glorious autumn is easing itself upon us. With my wife retired, we travelled both stateside and in France while the weather was favorable. That was great but we’re home now and this site deserves the attention that’s been sidelined while we were away.

            And there’s lots to update. I have contracted two different freelance editors to help me get episodes one and two of “Andy” the TV series polished and ready for publication. One of those will happen in November and the other in March of 2016. Pretty excited about that. I am almost done mounting episode four “The Sixth Day” onto Wattpad. The readership has been a little slow in coming but the comments they have left have been most encouraging. I don’t know if it will come to pass or not, but I am considering filming the focus group scene from the “Andy” pilot. It’s a funny scene and it really nails what the whole Andy story is about. You can read the text for it here. I need a cover for “The Sixth Day” and I expect to contact Robin Ludwig and tap into her expertise to make an engaging visual to draw prospective readers in.

            Sorry to be so wordy – now to work on those projects and some new text for this site. Thanks for your attention.