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