More on Loglines
A logline isn’t a short summary of the story; it’s a marketing element to help a busy agent or publisher to quickly sort through all the queries they receive. When writing a logline, you might think in terms of Protagonist, Problem, Action, and Objective, or as The Writing Cooperative explains, the logline “answers "who," "what," and "why should I care?” A good logline will make the potential reader want to know more.
Such as this logline for Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” “A young Hobbit inherits a powerful ring that must be destroyed to save Middle-Earth from the dark powers of its creator, leading him and his companions on an epic quest.” (30 words)
Protagonist: a meek Hobbit
Problem: save Middle-Earth
Action: an epic quest
Objective: destroy the ring
David Barringer on Medium, sums up a logline like this:
“A logline is not the pitch for your story. It’s not the quote on the poster. It’s not the synopsis in your query to agents, and it’s not the promo copy on the book cover. It’s not the blurb on the Netflix screen telling you what the movie’s about. It’s not the cute card on the bookshelf of the indie bookstore inviting you to try a staff pick.”
“A logline is best understood as the behind-the-scenes tool of a writer taking a crazy idea and playing with it to see if it can be made into a story.”
Loglines are also handy for whenever somebody asks the simple but unexpected question: “What’s your book about?”
Mary Cole on her website writes “How to Write a Great Fiction Logline:”
1) Connect your character to your audience
2) Connect your plot to the market
When you pitch your story, she says, “you always want to be thinking about where it fits in the marketplace.”
Perhaps you think a logline sounds too difficult or something best left to summarize a streaming movie (Boomer writers might remember the loglines in TV Guide), especially when you’re told a logline must both tell everything important about the story, but it also must be concise.
Hollywood insider Lane Shefter Bishop (a producer of only books to screen) writes in her book “Sell Your Story in a Single Sentence” that “Every [agent/publisher] wants something that feels fresh, shiny, and new…” They just don’t have the time to read a 120 page script or an 80,000 word novel to see if it is. Lane says, though, everyone has the time to hear one sentence.
A logline isn’t just any 30-word sentence. It’s a carefully crafted collection of what is most unique about your work. Different writers or speakers will tell you different things that should be highlighted in the logline. (See above). Lane Bishop says it’s:
Who is the protagonist?
What do they want?
What is at stake?
Here are loglines from two different books:
“Rescued from the neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending a school of wizardry.”
Protagonist: a young boy
Wants: to prove his worth
Stakes: his great destiny/failing to prove his worth
“A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.”
Protagonist: (of the story within a story): farmboy-turned-pirate
Wants: to be reunited with his true love
Stakes: encounters numerous obstacles and enemies
Notice that the “who” of the protagonist isn’t Harry Potter or Westley but, instead, is described generically as “a young boy” or “farmboy-turned-pirate.”
Also notice that the logline doesn’t describe all the events in the story. For example, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, or Voldemort are neither named nor are their roles explained in regard to the young boy proving his worth.
