4 Essential Elements of a Successful Logline

Blake Snyder is well-known for his screenwriting advice. Turns out what works for film also works for novels! This guide offers advice on using index cards to write your scenes, finding that one saving trait in an unlikable character, marketing your manuscript and much more. My favourite advice is on writing the logline. Not only do you need a killer log line, but Snyder says write it before you write your novel. This will check if your story idea is strong enough.

What do you need for a killer logline? There are four essential elements every logline must have:

Irony - Character sets out to do/avoid one thing, until circumstances flip that plan on it's head! Look for key words like 'until', 'but', 'however'. Shows your characters original motivation/intention and the conflict that changes everything.

Promise - A good logline suggests a whole story. It promises big things to come. It should set up more than just the start of the story. For example, don't write: Sarah moves to France to open a flower shop. Put in the twist: Sarah moves to France to open a flower shop but finds reality does not match the dream when she is swindled out of her life savings for a run down store, can't speak the local language and discovers she's allergic to roses.

Audience - Suggests the market, who will want to read this book, who does it appeal to? Snyder suggest including an idea of the cost in production - if it's an epic film that will promises amazing special effects and big stars. That's helpful for scripts, but books have the equalising affect of all requiring the same medium to deliver (digital or paper), unless you have a specialised app with personalised games, or other expensive elements.

Killer Title - Your title should say what the story's about. Don't be vague. The title should 'nail the concept' without being overly obvious. When a reader spots your title they should start imagining the plot. This one line will show if your character and conflict are strong enough for an appealing story.

Snyder suggests holding off writing your story until you've written the killer log line. If you have to keep fudging your logline to include all the elements above, you may spot something your story is missing.

This review is part of the Progressive Book Club hosted by M L Swift. Want to challenge yourself to reading more writing manuals? Join up!

Want to learn more about writing loglines? Check out these links:
Gaston Broadcast: Logline examples
Creating Bomb-proof Loglines by Lenore Wright

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Reviewing Writing Guides - Bird by Bird

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a writing guide for budding novelists.

Just as readers can be diverse in their choice of fiction genre, I find text guides also have different styles and readers preferences are individual.

I rarely read memoirs. I have zero curiosity about the dramas and problems of real people's lives, unless it's a friend, in which case I'd rather not read about it in a book. I like fiction. Stories. Fun. With guides, I like clear instructions, examples, and exercises. Bird by Bird is not a clear instruction manual.

For me it read less 'to-do' and more depressing memoir with vague suggestions of advice hidden amongst passages weighted heavily with flashes of parties, alcohol, and personal disdain. Not that the advice wasn't spot on. You can use index cards to capture ideas (just as easily as a notebook, iPhone, or the back of your hand), and yes, your first drafts can be crap. Research does help strengthen a character. My problem was the ambiguous nature of the advice. Exercise is good for your health, so is eating fresh fruit and vegetables, but I'd expect more explicit instructions in a diet manual. Sadly, I also found the author's attitude to life a little narcissistic and felt uncomfortable about her priority of recording events in order to write about them later, especially when it referred to a dying friend.

Now, I said I rarely read memoir and don't usually enjoy these narrative-style writing guides. However, I did quite enjoy The Happy Hooker, so there's always exceptions. I also appreciate Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (I have the audible version and listen to it often). Goldberg does a better job of combining memoir narrative with hard writing advice in a way that is entertaining and informative.

There you go, my review. A negative this time, but hey, it might be your favourite book? And I know my next review will be positive, because the chosen book is Save the Cat! This review is written as part of the Progressive Book Club blog hop, all the members have reviewed Bird by Bird, so pop about and see what they thought. I dare say most would have enjoyed it more than me.

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Read Books on Writing

ML Swift is hosting the Progressive Book Club

I don't join book clubs. Inevitably if I find a book boring, everyone else in the club finds it literary genius. Reading is solo for me, personal. But (well of course there had to be a 'but', otherwise this would be a short gripe post), I've joined an online book club and you should too.

Why? The Progressive Book Club will be reading and discussing books on the craft of writing. If you're anything like me, you love buying books on writing. I've over 50 of them on my shelf. The only thing is reading those books is a whole different matter. I usually start and something shiny distracts me. Then they sit, getting dusty on my shelf, little bookmarks crying softly half-way through chapter three.

Because you'll be discussing the book, you'll want to finish it. You don't have to read every book suggested, just the ones that interest you. Hey, if you don't get around to reading one, you can still find out what everyone else thought of the book. It's just once a month, you can join at any time, you'll learn more about writing and connect with writerly friends.

So sign up at ML Swift's page today! Or use the linky thingy at the bottom of this post:

Our first book is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

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