When you’re asked what your novel is about, you need a catchy summary. Whether you’re telling a friend, posting on Twitter for #PitMad, or pitching to an agent at a writing conference, your statement must be attention-grabbing. How do you take on the daunting task of how to reduce your many months of work into a single sentence?
The logline should reveal your plot, genre, hero, villain and stakes. It should be in an active voice and only twenty-five to thirty words. Try to sum up the main conflict of your story with an emphasis on how it impacts your main character emotionally. Try to reflect voice in your statement. There’s a lot to think about. Here are some examples of loglines from notable best sellers:
She’s a daughter he didn’t know he had. Until she calls him… from death row. – 30 Days of Justice by John Ellsworth.
Is a pretty lie better than the ugliest truth? – Live Wire by Harlan Coban.
It begins with a phone call. It ends with a missing child. – Guilty by Laura Elliot.
An unwilling wife who despises her roguish husband eventually comes to adore him. – Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.
As you’re composing your logline, think about what your reader might like to experience. You can look at creating what some call your Thesis Statement like this:
Nouns + Verbs + Irony = Logline
A young F.B.I. cadet (noun) must confide (verb) in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help (irony) on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. – Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.
With the irony, try to show how your book is different from what’s out there in the genre.
Another way to approach a logline can be:
Inciting incident + hero + action + villain.
Think of your logline as the who, what, when, where and when of your story. Graeme Shimmin has a formula for his Killogater logline. Shimmin sums it up like this:
SETTING: When and where your story takes place .
PROTAGONIST: Who your main character (hero or heroine) is.
PROBLEM: The issue or event that causes your Protagonist to take action.
ANTAGONIST: Who or what tries to stop your Protagonist.
CONFLICT: The major obstacle, difficulty or dilemma your protagonist faces.
GOAL: What your Protagonist hopes to win, achieve, find or defeat.
In a (SETTING) a (PROTAGONIST) has a (PROBLEM) (caused by an ANTAGONIST) and (faces CONFLICT) as they try to (achieve a GOAL).
Here’s the logline I’ve created for my supernatural thriller, RAGER: A college freshman becomes possessed while mad-partying. He begs the girl next door to be his exorcist before the entity makes him kill.
In your logline, you’ll want to label the characters rather than use their names. I used the descriptives, ‘a college freshman’, and ‘the girl next door’, rather than using Ben Guthrie and Ariel Savin. I mentioned the protagonist is the entity. The stakes are preventing my main character from committing murder.
It’s not easy to formulate an arresting logline, but you only get thirty seconds. It’s well worth the time you invest to grab someone’s attention so that they’re longing to read your book.
