We thought you'd enjoy this article by John Truby, the Hollywood 'story guru' who has, by the way, no known credits for any script that he himself has written. Although we find conventional wisdom vaguely depressing, he does make some good points, and this is probably fairly realistic advice given the current contractive state of the market.

10 Story Techniques You Must Use to Sell Your Script - by John Truby

The key question that all screenwriters should ask themselves is: how do I write a script that Hollywood wants to buy? Most writers mistakenly think that success is all about connections and star power. Not so. The real trick to writing a script that will sell is to know and use Hollywood’s central marketing strategy. And that can be summed up in one word: genres.

Larry Charles says he wants to be remembered as much for his failures as for his successes -- which is probably a lot easier to say when your successes include Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Mad About You, Dilbert, The Tick and Religulous.

We're granting Larry's wish, and reassuring you that no one wins all the time, by posting a piece Larry performed at Un-Cabaret's Say the Word. He calls it "Fragments of Failure". We call it "The Road to Success".

When I was first submitting scripts to agents I actually had a file folder titled 'Rejects' and used to dutifully file all my rejection letters. Stephen King used a rusty nail in the wall to tack up his rejections like trophies. So remember this quote from IBM founder Tom Watson: "If you want to succeed, increase your rate of failure". And start failing!

But before you do, you might want to take some more specific advice from Larry in this inspiring and informative hour-long download. Or get Larry's interview along with inside info from other top showrunners including Michael Patrick King, Seth McFarlane and John Riggi in the indispensible Other Network Writers Room series.

My name is Greg and I am a done-aholic.

I love finishing, my own projects or anyone else's. The joy of completion. The fun of being done. Again. Because of course you're going to do another draft. But for now, done.

I think it's really important to take a second and celebrate such a miraculous expression of your will. You've gotten this draft (or year) behind you. Good for you!

Oh wait, you haven't finished yet? Well, there are probably very good reasons why.

1. The beginning just isn't right yet. You keep working and reworking the opening. And it does keep getting better. Or does it? Guess what? The beginning can't be right until you've gotten to the end because the end is what you're writing towards the whole time.

In almost any Hollywood pitch meeting, some executive will inevitably ask you something like 'But what are the stakes'? Or 'Can we raise the stakes'?

Maybe that's why so many plots turn to someone having to save the world - or the whole universe! Those stakes are high enough, right?

In this illuminating clip from The Other Network Writers Room, 30 Rock Co-Exec Producer and Writer John Riggi talks about times when the stakes are too high and plot overshadows character. Many successful current comedies like 30 Rock and The Office, focus on microscopic plots, and great characters, and 30 Rock earned 22 Emmy nominations this year.

With comedy, I think the important thing to remember is that the stakes that are important to the character aren't necessarily global. And in fact, a character's out of proportion caring about their often-miniscule goal, is part of what makes it funny.

As a book coach and writing consultant, I have worked on a number of proposals with authors and agents, and almost every one is different. They vary pretty widely with the particulars of the project. Nonetheless, some guidelines are useful, so here is a good model, courtesy of Judy Brown, journalist (LA Weekly), author (The Comedy Thesaurus) and editor (National Lampoon Books).

Of course the entire publishing industry is in such chaos and contraction right now that pretty much all bets - and rules - are off, so if this outline somehow doesn't serve to convey what's so great about your project... don't use it.

HUMOR BOOK PROPOSALS, IN SHORT

Each of the below sections can be a couple paragraphs, or a page (at most) in length (With the exception of your sample chapter, which might reflect an actual chapter’s length.)

These are guidelines, so don’t get too hung up on the particulars, and you can skip the least important aspects.

The most important sections: