What a logline is for
A logline is the whole story squeezed into one sentence, two at most, usually between 25 and 50 words. It names the main character by what makes them who they are, says what happens to them, what they now have to do, and what stands in the way.
It is the sentence everyone asks for. Agents and managers want it in a query letter. Competitions put a box for it on the entry form. A reader's coverage opens with one. A producer will ask for it before anything else, out loud, and expect it to take about fifteen seconds. It helps you too. When a draft starts to wander, reread the logline and check that the scenes you are writing still serve it.
People often mix it up with two other documents:
- A tagline. A tagline is a poster line that sells the mood. It can be four words and say nothing about the plot. A logline has to tell the story.
- A synopsis. A synopsis tells the whole story, ending included. A logline sets the story up and stops, so the reader wants to know how it ends.
The four things a logline needs
- A protagonist, described rather than named. "Mara" means nothing to a stranger. "A night nurse who can't stop lying" already suggests a story. One or two well-chosen words do the work: a guarded sound recordist, a miserly moneylender.
- The event that starts the story. The moment after which the character's life can't go on as before: the cottage is sold, the ghost appears, the map turns up.
- What they have to do. A goal we can picture: get home, win her back, find the killer, save the house. "Learn to love again" is a theme. "Win back the wife he left" is a goal.
- What stands in the way, and what it costs. The opposing force and the stakes. What happens if they fail is what makes us care whether they succeed.
The best loglines add a fifth thing, which can't be put in a box: a twist of irony, where the character is the worst possible person for this particular problem. Blake Snyder put irony at the top of his logline checklist in Save the Cat!, and the difference is easy to hear. A shy man forced to give a speech is a story. A shy man forced to give the best man's speech at his rival's wedding is a better one.
A formula to start from
A formula is a quick way to get a first version down. Keep rewriting until the formula no longer shows. This one holds all four parts:
The logline for Low Tide, the sample project in Scriptopus, took three passes. It is a 12-page short drama about a daughter, her father and a house that is about to be sold.
A woman goes back to her late mother's house and finds her father there.
On the day her late mother's seaside cottage is sold, a guarded sound recordist goes back to record the empty house one last time, and finds her estranged father already inside.
On the day her late mother's cottage is sold, a sound recordist who listens to empty rooms for a living goes back to record it one last time, and finds the father she has refused to hear for thirteen years already inside.
The first pass is accurate and dull. The second gives her a job and a deadline: she records the sound of places before they change, and the house is sold today. The third finds the irony. She listens to rooms for a living, and the one person she won't listen to is waiting inside.
In ScriptopusProject Info has a Logline field, beside Title, Genre and Tagline. Writing it there keeps it in front of you, on the same project as the beat board and the script it describes.
Logline examples
These are stories most readers know, all old enough to be in the public domain, with loglines written for this page. None of them gives the ending away.
Drama and tragedy
- Hamlet William ShakespeareA grieving prince learns from his father's ghost that his uncle murdered the king to take the throne and the queen, and must find proof before his hunger for revenge destroys everyone he loves.The event (the ghost), the goal (proof, then revenge) and the cost (everyone he loves) in one sentence.
- Macbeth William ShakespeareA loyal general told by three witches that he will be king murders his way to the crown, and has to keep killing to hold on to it while his wife comes apart."Loyal" is the irony: the worst possible person to become a murderer.
- The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre DumasFramed for treason on his wedding day, a young sailor spends fourteen years in an island prison, then escapes with a buried fortune and returns as a stranger to destroy the three men who put him there.It runs long for a logline, but the setup is most of the story, and every clause pulls its weight.
Horror and the uncanny
- Frankenstein Mary ShelleyA young scientist who builds a living man from the dead abandons his creation in horror, and is hunted across Europe by the creature he refused to love.The last four words turn a monster story into a tragedy.
- Dracula Bram StokerSent to Transylvania to sell a London house to a reclusive count, a young solicitor discovers his client is a centuries-old vampire, who follows him to England to feed on the woman he loves.An ordinary job as the way in; the stakes arrive at the end of the sentence.
- Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis StevensonA respected London doctor drinks a potion that sets free his darkest self, and finds he can no longer choose when he changes, or who he becomes.The goal is implied (control), and its loss is the hook.
Adventure and fantasy
- The Odyssey HomerAfter ten years at war, a cunning king spends ten more trying to sail home, while strangers overrun his house and try to marry his wife.A plain goal (get home), with a second clock ticking at home.
- Treasure Island Robert Louis StevensonA boy who finds a pirate's treasure map sails with a crew of adventurers, only to learn that the ship's friendly one-legged cook is planning a mutiny to take the gold."Friendly" sets up the betrayal without giving away its end.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank BaumBlown by a cyclone from a Kansas farm into a magical land, a girl must reach the wizard who can send her home, with three companions who each want something he may not be able to give.The companions' wants give the logline a second layer.
- A Christmas Carol Charles DickensOn Christmas Eve, a miserly moneylender is visited by three spirits who show him his past, his present and the lonely death ahead of him, and has one night to change before it comes true.One night, three visits, and then it is too late. The deadline is part of the premise.
Romance and comedy
- Romeo and Juliet William ShakespeareTwo teenagers from feuding families fall in love and marry in secret, and must keep it hidden as the feud turns murderous around them.The obstacle is built into who they are.
- Pride and Prejudice Jane AustenA sharp-witted young woman in a family that needs at least one good marriage takes an instant dislike to the proud, wealthy man who may be her best chance at happiness.The man she dislikes on sight is the one the story is heading towards, and that tension carries the whole book.
- The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar WildeTwo young gentlemen who have each invented a fictional brother to escape their duties fall for women who will only marry a man called Ernest, and their lies start to collide.It is funny before anything has happened. A comedy logline that doesn't raise a smile is a warning sign.
Mystery and science fiction
- The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan DoyleA detective sends his loyal friend to a lonely moor to protect the last heir of a family that, the locals swear, a ghostly hound has been killing for generations.A mystery logline poses the question and stops.
- The Invisible Man H. G. WellsA brilliant scientist who has made himself invisible can't find a way back, and his desperation turns into a reign of terror in a quiet English village.The goal (a way back) fails, and that failure is the plot.
Short films
- Midnight, Pacific Time the example script from our formatting guideHours before a Los Angeles contest deadline, a London screenwriter discovers her finished script is a formatting disaster, and has until breakfast to fix it with her brother, her grandmother and her old teacher's voice in her head.A short film's logline can be small and specific. It still needs a clock.
Loglines for television
A series logline has a different job. It has to show the situation that can keep producing episodes for years, which television writers call the engine.
The night editor of a failing London newspaper keeps it alive by chasing the stories the day staff won't touch, while secretly feeding its rival the ones the owner won't let her print.
Every night brings a new story (the episodes), and every night the secret gets harder to keep (the series). A pilot can also have a logline of its own, for the first episode alone, but the one people ask for is the series.
Mistakes that weaken a logline
- Names. "Mara must face Des" could be any story at all. Swap each name for a description.
- Vague stakes. "Must confront her past" or "learns what really matters" could describe a thousand stories. What exactly does she have to do, and what is lost if she doesn't?
- Theme in place of story. "A film about grief" is a subject. A logline is what happens.
- The ending. Leave it out. The logline's job is to make someone want to read the script that tells them.
- Too much plot. Subplots, second characters and a twist in the third act belong in the synopsis.
- A passive hero. Things happen to them, but they don't do anything. Give them a verb.
- Comparisons instead of story. "It's this film meets that one" is handy shorthand in a pitch meeting, but it doesn't tell the story.
Five tests before you use it
- Say it out loud. Can you say it in one breath, without reading?
- Tell it to someone who has never heard of the project, then ask them to tell it back. What they leave out wasn't landing.
- Does it make them ask a question, ideally "and then what?"
- Could they guess the genre and the tone without being told?
- Could anyone be dropped into this story, or is your protagonist the person it will test hardest? If anyone would do, look for the irony.
Download the logline worksheet
Two pages: the four parts as boxes to fill in, the formula, three passes to write into, and the five tests as a checklist. Print it, or fill it in on screen.
Fill it in on screen
The same worksheet as a Word file, which Pages and Google Docs also open.
Questions
How long should a logline be?
One sentence, two at the very most, and usually 25 to 50 words. If you need a third sentence, you are writing a synopsis.
Should I use the character's name?
Usually not. A description does more work than a name a stranger has never heard. The exception is a real, famous person, whose name is the description.
Should the title be in the logline?
No. The title sits beside it, on the form or in the email. The logline is the story.
Present tense or past?
Present tense, like the script and the treatment.
Is a logline the same as a premise?
Close. The premise is the situation the story grows from; the logline is the premise told as a story, with a character, a goal and something in the way.
When should I write it?
Before the script, as a test of the idea, and again after the draft, when you know what the story turned out to be. The second one is the one you send.
Sources and further reading
- Screen Australia, Story Documents: Drama (PDF), on the logline synopsis and the difference from a tagline.
- Blake Snyder, Save the Cat! (2005), chapter one, on irony and the logline.
Write it formatted from the first line
Scriptopus sets every line as you type, keeps the beat board and the treatment beside the script, and exports the PDF and Final Draft file you will need. The editor is free on Mac and Windows.
- Every element in its place, with Tab, Enter and Ctrl+1 to 6.
- Beat Board, Treatment and Synopsis in the same project as the script.
- Six title page layouts, Industry Standard first.
- PDF, Final Draft, Fountain and Celtx exports.