The Logline
I remember reading somewhere that Steven Spielberg would never touch a script that he couldn’t summarize in one sentence:
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home world.
That single sentence is called a logline. The logline is a Hollywood invention intended as an elevator pitch for a story. I try to do the same with my stories too. In fact, it’s not only my first official step toward writing a story, it’s also a great way to create new ideas for stories. Here’s my logline for Day of the Devourer:
When a cryptic plot to deploy a mysterious alien weapon is uncovered, a disgraced galactic agent must fill in the blanks and stop a merciless alien race before they eradicate a colony of innocent people.
Here’s my logline for Flight of the Absolution:
When an aging outlaw learns he is dying, he must try to recover a stolen alien treasure and set things right.
Here’s how it works. It’s just like a Mad Lib. You just need the following format to start with:
When ______, a _____ _____ must _________ before _______ .
In the first blank, I write an inciting incident. In the second and third I write the role of the protagonist and a single adjective to describe that character. So, disgraced galactic agent or aging outlaw. If I was writing Die Hard, I’d say off-duty cop. If it was Harry Potter I might say neglected orphan boy.
In the fourth blank, I write the protagonist’s objective or external conflict. In the fifth blank, I write the stakes or the disaster that could happen if the protagonist doesn’t take action. Die Hard is “before they are killed by a group of terrorists.” In the Wizard of Oz it would be: “before she’s captured by a wicked witch.”
In that final blank, you could also include a big clock. The big clock in a story is the ticking time bomb or the approaching storm that adds suspense and makes gives the protagonist only a short window of time to complete the mission. So, like this:
When _(inciting incident happens)_, a _(adjective)_ __(character)_ must __(objective)__ before __(disaster/stakes/big clock)__.
Of course, you have to be careful. You can also get your logline completely wrong…
Logline as Inspiration
As I said, I often use this logline framework to create new story ideas too. Here’s how that’s done.
Sometimes I might have only a single part of a story rattling around in my head. I might have a character I want to write about or I might have an objective in mind. Sometimes I might start with an inciting incident. It doesn’t really matter which one I start with. The logline framework can help round out the rest of the story.
For example, what if we had a character who’s a gambling-addicted detective? Okay, what’s the ironic situation you can throw that character into that would be really tough for him? What if that detective had to solve a murder in a casino? The temptation would be immense and it would be a great way to explore that character. So, that’s our objective or external conflict.
When ______, a gambling-addicted detective must endure the temptations of the casino crime scene and solve the murder before _______ .
What would be an inciting incident that would put the detective in that casino? Well, the murder would have to happen, right? So, we might have:
When a local mob boss is murdered, a gambling-addicted detective must endure the temptations of the casino crime scene and solve the murder before _______ .
We just need to fill in that last blank. Before what? What’s something that could potentially happen that would put pressure on this detective to solve the crime quickly? What if we knew the killer was going to strike again? Then our detective would have to race against time. Those are compelling stakes. So, now we have our completed logline:
When a local mob boss is murdered, a gambling-addicted detective must endure the temptations of the casino crime scene and solve the murder before the killer strikes again.
After you fill in one or two of the blanks, it’s fairly easy and logical to complete the rest of the Mad Lib.
What’s Next?
So, of course, that’s not the complete story. Where’s the ending? That’s for next Friday’s post. Rest assured, there is a way to get from this point to a completed story outline. I’ll show you how I’ve done that with a quick exercise that’s almost as simple as this Mad Lib.
In the meantime, here’s the logline for my next book:
When he’s hunted by a gang of assassins, a former galactic agent must risk his life to find an old friend before the villains find him first.
Yes, there will be a sequel to Day of the Devourer.
