Craft Chat Logline resource

[Sarit]

Hello everyone and happy new year! I just wanted to share with you this doc that was posted in my screenwriting group. I know it is more tailored for screenwriting but I found it very useful for my book as well, it builds drama and covers the who, what, why and opposing forces thereby enticing readers to crack open your ms. Enjoy!

 

[E G Logan]

Thank you for that.

A sentence that alas resonated with me was:
Sadly, an aspiring pro is better off having written a mediocre script with a strong premise rather than a strong script with a mediocre premise, because a strong premise (by means of the logline) could capture the attention of an executive.

 

[RK Wallis]

Hello everyone and happy new year! I just wanted to share with you this doc that was posted in my screenwriting group. I know it is more tailored for screenwriting but I found it very useful for my book as well, it builds drama and covers the who, what, why and opposing forces thereby enticing readers to crack open your ms. Enjoy!

I've just started reading and the reality of those numbers is staggering. I'm sure it's a similar scenario with books, just lower numbers. Still, it'd be the same in that every year, the market is flooding with more manuscripts that just add to the previous year, and the year before that, etc. Writers are masochists, lol! As long as we love writing, yeah? At least we have joy.

 

[RK Wallis]

I love this definition:

“Pitching” is the art of presenting the story in a COMPACT and intriguing manner that
creates a desire within the listener, resulting in the solicitation of the screenplay. Whether
one pitches the story verbally or in writing, the scribe must successfully present his
sprawling screenplay in a way that imparts the dramatic heart and soul of the piece without
confusing or boring his audience. A common tool utilized by both writers and executives
is the LOGLINE

A LOGLINE IS….

A logline conveys the dramatic story of a screenplay in the most abbreviated manner
possible. It presents the major throughline of the dramatic narrative without character
intricacies and sub-plots. It is the story boiled down to its base. It’s a window into the
story. A good logline is one sentence. More complicated screenplays may need a two
sentence logline. There are available templates to assist writers, but theses aids often leave
the logline sounding pedagogical rather than dramatic and slick. A writer must learn the
elements of how to construct a logline.

@Sedayne it might help you?

 

[Sarit]

I've just started reading and the reality of those numbers is staggering. I'm sure it's a similar scenario with books, just lower numbers. Still, it'd be the same in that every year, the market is flooding with more manuscripts that just add to the previous year, and the year before that, etc. Writers are masochists, lol! As long as we love writing, yeah? At least we have joy.

This is true, but don't let the numbers get to you. Everyone has a book inside of them, some actually write it, which I think is a great thing for the person as a human being to tell his/her story. But between that and commercial success is a mystery to me: a combination of talent, skill, timing, perseverance and luck...

 

[Mel L]

Hello everyone and happy new year! I just wanted to share with you this doc that was posted in my screenwriting group. I know it is more tailored for screenwriting but I found it very useful for my book as well, it builds drama and covers the who, what, why and opposing forces thereby enticing readers to crack open your ms. Enjoy!

This is a fantastic resource. Thanks so much for sharing!