Today we’re going to chat about log-lines. Some of you might be wondering if I was trying to give you a heart attack with my title. Maybe you think this feat is impossible. AN ENTIRE NOVEL IN ONLY ONE SENTENCE?
Maybe something simple, plebeian and commercially formulaic *flips hair* but ART cannot be forced into a box.
Yes. Yes it can.
I know, I know. Your novel is over four-hundred pages with made up technology and wizards and folding space using enchanted Thigh Masters….
I hear you. Calm down.
A log-line is a lifeline that will allow you to pitch a novel (or series) in ONE—YES ONE—sentence. The log-line is going to save you time, energy, and sanity (save the crazy for the fiction).
We’ll get to how a log-line is going to do ALL this AND give you six-pack abs in only five minutes a day in a moment…
***Legal Disclaimer: Consult your psychiatrist before believing any writing tool will give you six-pack abs. The giant pink bunny in the corner lies, too FYI.
Anyway…
I used to try to teach story structure from the perspective of an editor, but I found that my approach was flawed. Why? Because editors are like building inspectors. We have skills best used on a finished product. We’re trained to look for structure problems.
Is that a good skill? Sure. But do building inspectors design buildings?
No.
Architects do. Architects employ creativity and vision to create a final structure. Hopefully, they will have the necessary skills to create and design a structure that will meet code standards.
Creativity and vision are not enough. Architects need to learn mathematics and physics. They need to understand that a picture window might be real pretty, but if they put that sucker in a load-bearing wall, they won’t pass inspection and that they even risk a fatal collapse.
Aestheticism must align with pragmatism.
This made me step back and learn to become an architect. When it comes to plotting, I hope to teach you guys how to have the creative vision of the designer, but with the practical understanding of an inspector.
We’ve discussed how plot works on a micro-scale (scene and sequel). After that, we panned back for an aerial shot, and discussed how great stories–like amazeballs rollercoasters—are addictive by design.
I’ve also covered how the single most important component to plot is the opposition, and l even have a tested method to make sure your core idea is actually solid enough to be the foundation for an entire novel.
So what’s this log-line thingy?
Basically, we should be able to tell someone (an agent) what our story is about in one sentence. That is called the “log-line.” Log-lines are used in Hollywood to pitch movies.
In fact, a book that should be in every writer’s library is Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. It’s a book on screenwriting, but every writer can benefit enormously from Snyder’s teaching.
In the world of screenwriting there is a tenet, “Give me the same, but different.” This axiom still holds true when it comes to novels.
Our story cannot go so far off the deep end that readers cannot relate, but yet our story needs to be different enough that people don’t just think it’s a retread.
We as writers have to negotiate this fine balance of same but different, and that is no easy task.
So let’s look at components of a great log-line:
Great log-lines are short and clear.
I cannot tell you how many writers I ask, “So what’s your book about?” and they take off rambling for the next ten minutes. Often why writers are so terrified of the pitch session is that they cannot clearly state what their book is about in three sentences or less.
Here is a little insider information. When we cannot whittle our entire story into three sentences that is a clear sign to agents and editors that our story is structurally flawed. Not always, but more often than not. Your goal should be ONE sentence. What is your story about?
A good log-line is ironic.
Irony gets attention and hooks interest. Here’s an example:
The Green Mile is about the lives of guards on death row leading up to the execution of a black man accused of rape and child murder who has the power of faith healing.
What can be more ironic than a murderer having the power of healing? Think of the complex emotions that one sentence evokes, the moral complications that we just know are going to blossom out of the “seed idea.”
A good log-line is emotionally intriguing.
A good log-line tells the entire story. Like a movie, you can almost see the entire story play out in your head.
During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.
Didn’t you just see the entire movie play out in your head with that ONE sentence? Apparently Steven Spielberg did, too and that’s why he took Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park and made it into a blockbuster movie.
A good log-line will interest potential readers.
Good log-lines exude inherent conflict. Conflict is interesting. In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder relays stories of how he would take his log-line to Starbucks and ask total strangers what they thought about his idea.
This is a great exercise for your novel.
Pitch to friends, family, and even total strangers and watch their reaction. Did their eyes glaze over? Did the smile seem polite or forced? If you can boil your book down into one sentence that generates excitement for the regular person, then you know you are on a solid path for your novel.
Yet, if your potential audience looks confused or bored or lost, then you know it is time to go back to the drawing board. But the good news is this; you just have to fix ONE sentence.
You don’t have to go rewrite, revise a novel that is confusing, convoluted, boring, arcane, ridiculous, etc.
Think of your one sentence as your scale-model or your prototype. If the prototype doesn’t generate excitement and interest, it is unlikely the real thing will succeed. So revise the prototype until you find something that gets the future audience genuinely excited.
You have your log-line. Now what?
Your log-line is the core idea of your story. This will be the beacon of light in the darkness so you always know where the shore is versus the open sea. This sentence will keep you grounded in the original story you wanted to tell and keep you from prancing down bunny trails.
The Fear Factor
Fear is probably the most common emotion shared by writers. The newer we are the more fear we will feel. A side-effect of fear is to emotionally distance from the source of our discomfort.
This is why so many first-time novels fall apart.
I can tell everything that is wrong in a novel with a single glance at the log-line. Conversely, I can tell a writer what precisely needs to be fixed by looking at the log-line.
Does the story have a core problem? Is it a large enough/interesting enough problem to merit a whole novel? What are the stakes? Is there a ticking clock or have we given the MC forever to get around to accomplishing the goal?
If you’re like me and botched your first (hundred) attempts to write a novel, RELAX. It takes time to develop the level of sadism required to write spectacular stories. Not everyone is a born psychopath like George R.R. Martin.
New writers (in particular) tend to shy from any source of conflict, but conflict is the life blood of fiction. Log-lines can show us our story is flat-lining and WHY.
One of the best ways to learn how to write log-lines is to go peruse the IMDB (Internet Movie Database). Look up your favorite movies and see how they are described.
You can even look up movies that bombed and very often see the log-line was weak and the movie was doomed from the start. Look up movies similar to the story you are writing. Look up movies similar to the story you want to tell.
Solid novel log-lines will have 1) your protagonist 2) active verb 3) active goal 4) antagonist 5) stakes 6) ticking clock.
EXAMPLE: Here is a log-line I wrote for Michael Crichton’s Prey.
An out-of-work computer programmer (protagonist) must uncover (active verb) the secrets his wife is keeping in order to destroy (active goal) the nano-robotic threat (antagonist) to human-kind’s existence (stakes/ticking clock).
Hopefully you can see how this log-line meets all the criteria I set out earlier.
This log-line is ironic. An out-of-work programmer will uncover the robotic threat.
It’s emotionally intriguing. The main gatekeeper to the problem is his wife. This spells logistical and emotional complication to me.
Also, the MC doesn’t have forever to get around to stopping the threat. If he doesn’t ACT, humanity is doomed. Also, the price of failure and success is the same…everything he knows and loves.
It will interest potential readers. Considering it was a NYT best-seller, I think Crichton did okay.
So here is an exercise.
See if you can state your novel in one sentence. It will not only help add clarity to your writing and keep you on track, but when it comes time to pitch an agent or hook readers to BUY, you will be well-prepared and ready to knock it out of the park.
Practice on your favorite movies and books. Work those log-line muscles!
If you’re struggling, I’m giving a class next Thursday, September 20th, Pitch Perfect: How to Write a Query Letter & Synopsis That SELLS.
Part of this class is my special recipe/formula for amazing log-lines to impress your friends and, hopefully an agent. The first ten sign ups will get ME repairing your log-line, shining it up the snazziest it can be for FREE. Grab your slot ASAP. You can register HERE.
I LOVE hearing from you!
What are some problems you might be having? Do you find you wander too far off your original idea? What are your struggles with remaining focused?
What do you WIN? For the month of SEPTEMBER, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
***Chris Parrett is August’s winner. Please send your 5000 word Word doc to kristen at wana intl dot com. One-inch margins and 12 point Times New Roman Font, double-spaced. Congratulations!
***FYI: The Speculative Fiction Saturday has been moved to THIS COMING SATURDAY (9/15/18).
The software that powers our virtual classrooms kept crashing our servers #NotFun. Thus, we spent the entire weekend upgrading/updating all the tech and it looks fantastic!
I HIGHLY recommend The XXX Files Bundle (all three classes—world-building, character, advanced plotting—for the price of two). Speculative fiction includes sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, utopian, horror and basically all the weird stuff. Sign up and we can be weird TOGETHER!
Upcoming Classes for September
Brand Boss: When Your Name Alone Can Sell
Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: General Admission $55.00 USD/ GOLD Level $175
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Thursday, Thursday September 13th, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST
REGISTER HERE
The XXX Files: The Planet X Speculative Fiction 3-Class Bundle
Instructors: Cait Reynolds & Kristen Lamb
Price: $110.00 USD (It’s LITERALLY one class FREE!)
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 10:00 a.m.—6:00 p.m. EST.
REGISTER HERE
Purchase includes FREE recording of all three classes.
Building Planet X: Out-of-This-World-Building for Speculative Fiction
Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. EST
REGISTER HERE
Populating Planet X: Creating Realistic, Relatable Characters in Speculative Fiction
Instructors: Cait Reynolds & Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 1:00—3:00 p.m. EST
REGISTER HERE
Beyond Planet X: Mastering Speculative Fiction
Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 4:00—6:00 p.m. EST
REGISTER HERE
Pitch Perfect—How To Write a Query Letter & Synopsis that SELLS
Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $45 USD Standard
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Thursday, September 7:00 PM E.S.T. to 9:00 P.M. EST
You’ve written a novel and now are faced with the two most terrifying challenges all writers face. The query and the synopsis.
Query letters can be daunting. How do you sell yourself? Your work? How can you stand apart without including glitter in your letter?
***NOTE: DO NOT PUT GLITTER IN YOUR QUERY.
Good question. We will cover that and more!
But sometimes the query is not enough.
Most writers would rather cut their wrists with a spork than be forced to write the dreaded…synopsis. Yet, this is a valuable skills all writers should learn. Synopses are often requested by agents and editors and it is tough not to feel the need to include every last little detail. Synopses are great for not only keeping your writing on track, but also for pitching your next book and your next to that agent of your choice.
This class will help you learn the fundamentals of writing a query letter and a synopsis. What you must include and what doesn’t belong.
So make your writing pitch perfect with these two skills!
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As always wonderful information.
Your blog always shows me more ways to push and challenge myself, and I love it. You’ve been so influential in my journey to being a better writer.
Author
So wonderful to hear! THANK YOU!
Thanks to you, Kristen, yes I can pitch my WIP in one sentence. A very clarifying task!
“1) your protagonist 2) active verb 3) active goal 4) antagonist 5) stakes 6) ticking clock.” Just the sort of practical, meaty advice that’s really useful at times like these!
Here’s the log-line I came up with before I started my WIP: An irresponsible young coachman must hunt a strange curse to its source before its ill effects darken his life and his world forever.
Alternate ending: “before he loses his last chance to grow up and win the girl he loves” but that overlooks the larger, albeit less personal, stakes.
Room for improvement – what’s your diagnosis?
Thanks for the breakdown on Log Lines. Your explanation is much clearer and more helpful than the other sites I visited for this information. Now I have my work cut out for me!
I have written and been published, but I have yet to submit queries for my started novels.I am determined to wrap one up soon; (I am recovering from surgery).
I am friends with many published authors of novels and am actually on a shared blog with several. Most of them go nuts at synopsis time, yet I can’t imagine why. Your “one-line” approach is wonderful and I easily came up with one for my nearly-finished story.
The rest of your advice is spot-on. Thanks.
I really dig your advice and clearly explained process. I often struggle with the seemingly simple things.
Author
Just because something is simple in NO WAY means it’s easy. In fact, simple is often MUCH more difficult.
Good Stuff! You prompt me to go back and look at my log line again. Always room for improvement, right?
Okay — post is stupendous, as always! But — that hat!!! How cool is that?? Mouth open, staring, getting in close to carefully inspect – then squealing with glee…
Hoping all my lovely author clients read this post, as it deftly trumps (oops, sorry) my explanations of log lines (and synopses).
Thanks! :o))
Never knew log line could be done without thinking my life is over.
Author
LOL. Right?
Here is my logline: I teach couples how to stop fighting forever and how to have a sex life beyond their wildest dreams. The title of the book is Sex Education for Adults Secrets to Amazing and Happily Ever After Too
This is a great idea and it gets us to focus on the meat and potatoes of our story. I would assume you could use this same basis and criterion for writing a book blurb.
Thought-provoking indeed.
I am now going to hide in a cellar and emit steam while I try to dream up a log-line for my latest.
Reading your blog make me want to rewrite the log-line for my WIP. I’m still sweating over it, but I believe I am close!
Teenage Jack, damaged from years of emotional abuse, struggles under the weight of his mission to safely transport his abandoned younger brother and sister on a journey across the country with only an address, feigned courage, and the help of hobos.
Author
That is a bad situation not a log line. What is the CORE problem? Who is the antagonist? Why? What happens if they don’t make it? What is the ticking clock? Looking at your log-line I would already know that the manuscript likely didn’t have a core antagonist just a series of bad things happening. Unless you’ve written the log-line inaccurately, I’d diagnose a structure problem. Also we need an intriguing quality about the MC other than emotionally abused because that’s a fairly common trait.
I was giggling at the mention of G. R. R. Martin being a psycopath because the only way I’ve been able to sum up the world (not so much the log line) and get my point across so far is: Game of Thrones in space, with fewer weddings. Not saying I’m up to his quality, but it’s designed to ward off people who expect a gentle world/universe XD
As for my log line though, it kind of grows out of my original premise. “A man in charge of an interstellar fleet finds two women in cryo and has to decide if keeping them alive is worth losing his life and control of the fleet” (Original idea being “jackass finds women in cryo, makes decision to get them out, could now die for it. Are they worth his life to keep alive?)
The problem I am struggling with is that I have two timelines in my novel. In 1920 an old man tells a story that took place in 1885. I can summarise the 1920 part in one sentence, the same with the 1885 part, but unless the logline is a very long and convoluted sentence I don’t know how to do both…
I’m a screenwriter and exponent of Save the Cat!, and I understand how tricky the Art of the Logline is to master. It’s important to keep in mind that a logline — in addition to being a single catchy sentence — should convey the following five elements: the protagonist, the source of antagonism, the conflict/stakes, the setting, and the tone/genre. Consider: With the Second World War looming, a daring archaeologist-adventurer is tasked by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant — a Biblical artifact of invincible power, lost for millennia in the desert sands of Egypt — before it can be acquired by the Nazis. You know exactly which movie that is without either the title or the name of its famous protagonist, because it includes all the necessary elements without an iota of extraneous detail.
Author
Exactly. But this still gives a qualitative feel for the MC. Archaeology already dangerous considering where most of digs are (particularly biblical) then add in a looming WAR and anyone willing to consider the job is a very specific sort of person. Also adds in major intrigue because what could Nazis possibly want with a biblical artifact? So hooks on a question while still telling what the ENTIRE story is about.
I would like to see logline examples for NON-genre books or movies. It’s easy to see how ticking clocks and end-of-world scenarios become compelling loglines, but what about the quieter stories?
Author
Works for literary and general fiction as well. I have a post that should help you understand structure for those quieter stories HERE.
But I will pick a classic to demonstrate. Last I checked no car chases in “The Old Man and the Sea” 😉 :
When an aging fisherman, ostracized and ridiculed by his community, unexpectedly snares an enormous fish, he must risk his life to reel in the beast because, if he returns empty-handed, he will die shamed and alone always knowing he came within inches of being a legend. (“The Old Man and the Sea”, E. Hemingway).
MC (Aging fisherman living in early to mid-20th century Cuban culture where a man is not a REAL man if he cannot do his trade, I.e. Fishermen FISH). PROBLEM (Santiago snares a fish bigger than the BOAT he is in and doesn’t have the gear or manpower necessary to bring in such a large catch). GOAL (CATCH the FISH). STAKES (die alone in shame OR restored and redeemed in glory). TICKING CLOCK (the fish won’t hang around forever and Santiago can only last so long).
It is an old man in a boat battling a fish…but everything is on the line (pun intended).
Hope this helps.
Thanks, it does help… but it’s still a life-or-death story (not that I’ve read it but you wrote “risk his life” – is that literal?).
I think my complaint (not against you specifically!) is a wider one about how-to-write articles in general that cover everything from loglines to plotting: examples given almost always come from genre fiction which by definition is escapist and over-the-top. Antagonists are monsters, stakes are life-or-death, ticking bombs are actual bombs…
I know it’s possible to write good loglines for quiet dramas that don’t involve death but it’s hard to find examples. I’m writing a foster-teen story that has plenty of drama and angst but the stakes are “will she or won’t she be allowed to live where she wants.” The bad guy is a regular person with an opinion she doesn’t like. I have a professional editor telling me, essentially, someone needs to murder someone to make it work. Sorry, off topic.
Author
No you aren’t off-topic. Here’s one.
For instance “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.”
When a young playwright humiliates her mother by casting her as a raging alcoholic villain in her hit play, thus demolishing the mother/daughter relationship, her mother’s friends (the women who helped rear her) part with a book (The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood) that details many painful events from her mother’s point of view, a book that holds the key to the forgiveness necessary to mend a shattered relationship.
In “Divine Secrets” Sidda never stopped to think her perspective might have been skewed because she was a child. She didn’t stop to wonder if her mother’s side of the story might be different. When she writes this play and slanders her mother (because she so thinly veiled her villain it was obvious to the world it was Vivi) she NEVER stops to think of the blowback her mother might endure. The shame, hurt, guilt and grief she would inflict on another human being. Even IF her mother had been a monster, Sidda never considered the punishment didn’t fit the crime and her mom didn’t deserve to be dragged though the mud. The book is a parallel timeline to give Siddah the WHOLE story and we see her evolve from immature victim to a more fully evolved and compassionate human being stripped of her holier-than-thou self-righteousness.
But I will point out that your story’s stakes aren’t interesting. The bigger the stakes the better and your concept had a lot of problems that stand out. First, there needs to be a clear MC (ONE). Even in “The Joy Luck Club” Amy Tan chose June to bookend the story and act as vanguard even though the Joy Luck Club (her mother’s friends who played mah jong together) are supporting cast members. June never got a chance to mend fences with her mother who’s died of cancer.
She hit below the belt when she threw the babies (twins) her mother left on the side of the road during war in her face during an argument. In Chinese culture they are very superstitious and her mother was fleeing the Japanese attacks and had dysentery and believed she was going to die. She left the babies with all her valuables hoping someone would get them to their father or at least save them. She knew no one would help the babies with a “ghost mother” attached and crawled away to die only to wake up in a Red Cross hospital. She’d been saved, but the babies were never located.
NOW, the friends have found the twins. The questions is whether June will end up on that boat to China to reunite with the half-sisters she’s never known, thus completing her mother’s dream and healing Junes deep shame, regret and guilt that she never got a chance to tell her mother she was sorry.
And most books don’t have the villains you are describing. The antagonist is contingent on what genre you’re reading so I recommend reading more books in your genre. Lianne Morairty “What Alice Forgot,” Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club”, Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help,” “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet, etc.
But back to your concept, it isn’t robust enough to be a story. If someone has an opinion I don’t like…who cares? People are allowed to have an opinion and no one promised us a life where we only heard stuff we agreed with. And she won’t be allowed to live where she wants? Um, ok. How does this play out if we put it on a movie screen. Authentic drama is external as well as internal. Otherwise it’s navel-gazing.
Your stakes are low and there is no time crunch to make the reader worry. Even in Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” the salesman has to land a sale by X time or he’s fired and he isn’t exactly a young guy. He will have no job and be humiliated. Sales is all he’s ever known and a man approaching his sixties is not going to be able to find another job easily and he won’t be able to provide for his family. EVERYTHING is on the line. His job, his future, his ability to live (pay rent, groceries, etc.).
Not getting to live where I want to? Okay. Tell me why we need to care, especially since if this is a teen then this MC is close to being of age and will have free agency to hang out/do/be where she wants. But if you have a foster kid who is in the system because her mother had a bad meth habit and was in and out of jail who NOW wants custody but lives on the opposite side of the country? Now we have a story problem. There are stakes. If Mom gets her she loses her friends (family) and a ticking clock (papers being filed and a court date) and a tough choice (is Mom actually clean or is this another time I will be abandoned?).
Hope this helps.
Thanks for all the info. I underplayed my stakes a little because what you describe at the end there is pretty much what does happen (not a meth-head mom but similar choices going on) and there’s physical danger in the last act. The protag’s success or failure hangs on actions resulting from the “different opinion” so it’s not a passive thing.
Through the lens of a young teen, even one month of foster care seems like an eternity (given her age it’s going to be several years) so it’s not something she can wait out especially as she knows exactly where she wants to be, and where we can see she needs to be.
There’s more stuff going on than I’ve described but for a logline I need to discard the subplots (which give the main plot context). So, I guess the story is “about” her efforts to control what happens to her given her limited resources, and there’s a trust/betrayal theme running through it regarding various family members. There’s a ticking clock of sorts at the end – maybe I need to introduce it earlier.
I like the way you narrow the idea of a log line down. I didn’t have a clear idea of what it was. So this was an interesting way of defining it. Anyone can kind of come close to what their story is about, but I liked the elements defined that one could apply to what their story was. Thanks.
Hi Kristen, Clever lady.I read you often.
Succinct – no messing around – How about “FROM LODZ TO LUDLOW -THE
DOMBROWSKI’S RIVETING STORY” (?) Only a quarter written.
Cheers! x
Hello Kristen! Could you please tell me if a book series needs just one log line, or does each book in the series need its own log line? Thanks in advance for your help. 🙂
Author
I recommend both if it is a connected series. One for the overall goal, then one for each individual story (sub-storyline).
Thanks for giving me the clarity I was looking for. Have a wonderful day!
This is an excellent article. I have been wallowing in the sea over my fanfiction for months and months now (years, if I am honest). Even though the plot and characters are directed by the series, I still kept meandering. Now I have the tools to cut the fat.
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