A logline, or log line, is a simple description of a story that is only a sentence long. It boils the story down to its essence. Unlike the tagline, which is created as a marketing hook, the logline gives the basic premise of the story.
Here are three loglines for three famous movies:
Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire’s world-destroying battle-station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader. (Star Wars)
In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline rich, community escape a band of bandits. (The Road Warrior)
A frontiersman named Hugh Glass on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s is on a quest for survival after being brutally mauled by a bear. (The Revenant)
So what’s the value of a logline? It condenses a story to its basic components: Who is your protagonist? Where is the story set? What is the main conflict?
When you’re pitching a novel or a screenplay, you will need to get to those basic elements. Your written pitch for a screenplay will often contain a tagline followed by a logline, followed by a synopsis of one to three pages.
But here is the point: often I find authors who haven’t really considered how to pitch their novels or films. They can’t tell me in one sentence what the story is about. Getting a logline down early might be helpful as you focus on the very basics of your story, and gives you something to build upon as you write your synopsis.
Previously Published
