Logline–what’s my book about?

A friend recently asked, “What’s your novel about?”

Good question.  I’ve been putting off the logline post, but no longer.  I shall grace you with it today.

What’s a logline?  It’s supposed to be that catchy sentence that makes you want to read the book/watch the movie/play the game.  For novels, it’s typically a one-sentence-description of your story that says: who is involved, what’s at stake, and what’s in the way.

To avoid wasting away in a ho-hum life, a sci-fi geek enters a board game design contest, but nothing goes according to plan after the unexpected arrival of her estranged mother.

There’s the one-sentence description.  It’s actually an incredibly useful tool because it forces you to boil your story down to the most important part.  Obviously, there is a lot more going on in my novel, but now we know:

  1. Who’s involved: a sci-fi geek who has an estranged mother and must know something about board games
  2. What’s at stake: she’ll waste away from a ho-hum life if she doesn’t act (so her happiness is at stake)
  3. What’s in the way: her estranged mother and all that’s involved with the contest

There you go.  Now go try that with your story.

-S.