How to ACTUALLY Write a Logline

I used to think that writing a log line was impossible but now I have a simple formula I can use to write a great log line every single time and today I will give you this extremely practical log line formula and show you how to fix log lines that aren't working let's begin there are four key elements to a log line only four when you have them your log line will work if you miss any of them it will not number one main character number two inciting incident number three goal number four Stakes put it

all together and it looks like this when the main character suffers inciting incident they must achieve goal before Stakes let's look at some examples falsely accused of killing his wife a doctor desperately searches for the real killer with a Relentless federal agent hot on his Trail The Fugitive after a twister takes a lonely Kansas farm girl to a magical land she sets out on a dangerous journey to find a wizard with a power to send her home the wizard of o when three groomsmen lose their about Tobe wed buddy following a drunken bachelor party in

Vegas they must retrace their steps to find him before the wedding Begins the hangover after a simple jewelry heist goes wrong and the authorities close in the surviving criminals must discover which man is the police informant Reservoir Dogs see a full list of 21 log lines broken down in depth at practical screenwriting tocom log lines now before I break down each of these four elements in detail I want to explain the two sides of conflict and a log line you'll notice that each of these log lines have a conflict of values World Views or philosophies

that I call philosophical Conflict for example in The Fugitive log line we have a conflict between an upstanding citizen versus a false accusal in The Hangover we have Bachelor Freedom versus marriage and in Reservoir Dogs we have a simple criminals versus authorities conflict a log line must show what the two sides of conflict are and how they are in Conflict here's an easy way to think about it your main character and their goal will be on one side of the conflict and the inciting incident and Stakes will be on the other side of the conflict

so it will look like this notice how the doctor and his goal of finding the real killer are in direct opposition to the false accusal and the federal agent after him it's the same in The Hangover the three groomsmen must retrace their steps because of the problem of losing their buddy and they must do this before the wedding starts when we have two sides of conflict battling it out in the logline it becomes much easier to get a clear sense of the story now let's look at each of the four key elements in detail and

examine the nuances between different log lines element one main character this might seem simple it's a short description of the protagonist or main characters but there's more to it than this in The Fugitive log line it's important that the main character character is a doctor because this is the story of a moral character running from the law this sets up a clear philosophical conflict and not just a basic plot it would feel very different if say a mob boss was accused we might think the story is about a mob boss who actually did kill his

wife the story is able to present this important contrast by using one single important word to describe the protagonist The Wizard of Oz is a story about a girl who wants to get away from her boring life but then the second she gets away all she wants to do is return home this contrast is what creates the meaningful story conflict and it starts with the main character and The Hangover log Line This log line describes a group of main characters because this is an ensemble comedy and this Reservoir Dogs log line also shows a group

of characters all working on the same goal but make sure if you're describing a group of characters that they all fit together under one description like groomsmen or criminals if you're trying to describe each of them individually you will waste precious words in your log line element two inciting incident the inciting incident is the first story problem your main character must deal with this problem sets the story in motion and forces your character into action the insiding incident needs to be a problem that directly opposes who your main character is it's not just a random

problem it should clearly contrast with the main character's identity beliefs and values this is how you create deep meaningful story conflict let's return to the fugitive log line notice the contrast here we have a doctor the symbol of an upstanding citizen being falsely accused now the reader not only understands what the plot of the story will be they also understand why this particular conflict is Meaningful and interesting it's the same in The Wizard of Oslo line in the inciting incident the lonely farm girl is Swept Away to a land full of Adventure new friends and

danger dous enemies the sentence structure places the main character in the center of the inciting incident because there are two pieces to it there's nothing wrong with this but if you write your main character in the center of your inciting incident make sure you don't get lost in the different pieces of the log line in The Hangover log line the inciting incident is a problem that directly relates to the fact that our main characters are supposed to be upstanding groomsmen taking their friend out for a tame bachelor party avoid the mistake of writing a boring

basic and sighting incident that is philosophically disconnected from your main character's identity element three goal many log lines limit their goal to the character embarks on an adventure or they face challenges your character must have a clear mission that is pass or fail it must be easy to understand whether or not the main character has achieved the goal and the goal will also be directly related to solving the problem created by the inciting incident in The Fugitive log line the inciting incident is a false accusal so the goal is finding the real killer clearly the

goal is related to solving the problem of the inciting incident and the audience will know whether the character passes or fails if he finds the killer he passes if he does not he fails it is clear and specific in The Wizard of Oz again the goal is specifically about solving the problem the inciting incident created because she's flung into a iCal land she must find the person who can send her home if she finds the wizard she passes if she does not she fails and is stuck in aw forever in The Hangover the goal to

retrace their steps could seem vague however the inciting incident already explained their drunken bachelor party because all four key elements in this log line are clearly related to one another it works beautifully and this log line has a clear pass or fail goal they must find their about to be wed buddy in Reservoir Dogs if they find the police informant they pass if they do not they fail quick tip if you're struggling to define the goal one of the easiest ways to do it is making the goal about finding defeating rescuing or saving a specific

character goals like saving the world understanding magic or finding the truth will sound vague and uninteresting but if your main character must find a specific character to save the world understand magic or find the truth the log line will be much more clear element four Stakes when writing your Stakes ask yourself what will happen to the main character if they fail at their goal that's what's at stake in your story the stakes will be directly pressuring the main character towards their goal if the doctor fails to find the real killer the federal agent will arrest

him take his freedom from him and leave the murder of his wife unsolved the stakes are clear and and obvious if the lonely Kansas farm girl can't find the wizard she will never be able to return home and be forever stuck in a Strange Land clear obvious Stakes if the three groomsmen fail to find their friend they will have ruined his wedding notice in a comedy the stakes are usually lower than other genres but the stakes are always present no matter the genre this isn't a life ore conflict but it is still important for our

characters and forces them into action if the criminals don't find the informant the authorities will arrest them all this log line places the stakes much earlier in the sentence than the others I've analyzed the reason this log line works is because the stakes of the story are created by the inciting incident which is directly attached to the goal the more interwoven and clear your log line is the more you can move the four pieces around and it still makes sense we've now covered the four key elements you need to make your log Line work now

let's cover the the three common mistakes to avoid and rewrite some bad log lines mistake number one vague fuzzy unclear descriptions of your four key elements if you scroll through Netflix you'll see log lines that use phrases like navigates love friendship and hardships has their life turned upside down in a world where things are not like they seem instead of using vague phrases in your log line deliver concrete Promises by being highly specific about who your main character is is what problem starts the story what their goal is and what happens if they fail mistake

two adding too much information to your log line any log line that runs longer than a single sentence is too long the point of a log line is to include the Bare Essentials for your story and nothing else oh but I must mention my protagonist dark backstory oh but my romantic subplot is crucial to the themes of the script think of it like this if your reader is excited by The Bare Essentials of your story they will want to read the whole script mistake three the four elements do not clearly connect together if your log

line doesn't connect the four elements and show the two sides of contrasting conflict you will confuse your reader and make them less likely to read the script let's look at some badly written log lines and see which mistakes they're making and rewrite them and if you want to see a full list of 21 IMDb log lines Rewritten by me go to practical screenwriting tocom loglines an insomniac office workers life Turns Upside Down when he starts an underground fight club with a rebellious soap maker Fight Club there's a lot of problems with this log line and

it's such a unique film that writing a clear log line for it can be challenging Let's Take On The Challenge and apply what we've learned today first a story is based on two sides of contrasting conflict when we we look at the current log line it doesn't clearly show two sides of conflict we don't even have Stakes at all and there's a vague inciting incident here are the two sides of philosophical conflict in Fight Club side one corporate emasculation side two violent Rebellion as we go forward and fix this log line we will use these

two sides of conflict to fill in each key element and create a clear conflict next the main character description is imprecise while he is an insomniac this doesn't give us any indication about his beliefs or his world view I'm changing this to an emasculated office drone setting up the main character in the corporate world of the two sides of conflict next the inciting incident is vague anyone can simply write turns their life upside down but it's another thing to actually deliver a concrete inciting incident that turns the protagonist's life upside down I'm changing this to

the moment the narrator has his cushy apartment destroyed this works much clearer as an inciting incident and gives us a concrete event it also forces him out of his normal corporate life and into the world of Tyler Duran the goal is on its way but needs clarifying it does make sense to mention Tyler Duran in the goal but rebellious soap maker doesn't tell us much about this character or what their world view is Tyler's soap making might be important for the movie but not for the log line instead I will describe Tyler as a charismatic

Anarchist and I will keep the same goal of creating an underground Fight Club you'll also notice the log line is completely missing Stakes why do they start this underground Fight Club what happens if they fail we don't know mentioning the narrator's former corporate world makes the most sense here that world is what is pressuring the fight club and threatening its existence here's the new version of the log line and I think it creates a much clearer two sides of conflict main character inciting incident goal and relevant Stakes to the theme of the story when an

emasculated office drone has his cushy apartment destroyed he must create an underground fight club with a charismatic Anarchist before his former corporate world puts an end to their Revolution Fight Club comparing this log line with the original this one works much better to explain the story while this log line is definitely longer it is still one sentence and explains the four key elements without unnecessary words let's go to another example following the discovery of two unusual droids an adventurous Farm Boy joins a mysterious hermit to rescue a space princess from the evil empire before they

can unleash their Ultimate Weapon Star Wars this log line is making mistakes two and three there is a ton of information in this log line and the four elements don't clearly connect to one another first let's fix the inciting incident discovering two unusual droids isn't a problem that would force the main character into Extreme Action instead I would change this moment to the death of Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle it would look like this this gives us a much clearer problem that is directly tied to the protagonist and forces him into action next this log

line makes a mistake in the goal what does rescuing a space princess have to do with the discovery of two unusual droids the pieces feel disconnected so now that I've Rewritten the inciting incident I can create a new goal that relates directly to this new inciting incident and it looks like this notice how the goal of finding the Rebellion now connects perfectly with the inciting incident of the Empire murdering Luke's family quick note I added Galactic because one thing that's lost by removing unusual droids and Space Princess is the crucial fact that this is a

Sci-Fi story happening in space now that the space princess and two unusual ual droids have been removed the most interesting unexplained piece of this log line is the Ultimate Weapon in the stakes but I think it works and creates an interesting hook even though it isn't fully explained just remember when you're writing a fantasy or sci-fi story with many elements that the audience won't be familiar with such as the Death Star you'll need to introduce these elements using words the reader will understand here is the new version of the log line after his aunt and

uncle are murdered by soldiers of the Galactic Empire fire an adventurous Farm Boy joins a mysterious hermit to find the Rebellion before they can unleash their Ultimate Weapon when we compare this to the original log line remember that a log line isn't about adding lots of interesting nouns to hook a reader Space Princess might seem fun but the log line is less clear because of it a log line must show that you the writer can tell a story don't forget that the log line is the first story you're telling if you don't tell a story

in one sentence why should your reader trust that you can tell a story in a 100 Pages now to the final example when a new Spaceman action figure supplants him as the favorite toy an aging Cowboy doll must overcome his jealousy for the sake of the other toys in the house Toy Story this log line makes the first mistake of being vague particularly in the goal and the stakes so how would I fix the goal simple by making the goal directly related to the inciting incident if the inciting incident removed our aging Cowboy doll from

his position as the favorite toy then he wants to reclaim his title of favorite toy once again to fix the stakes here we'll simply ask the stakes question why should I care if he isn't the favorite toy answer if he isn't a favorite toy he risks being forgotten by his boy when a new Spaceman action figure supplants him as the favorite toy an aging Cowboy doll must reclaim his title of favorite toy before he is forgotten en by his boy now the goal and Stakes feel much clearer and more natural to the events of the

story vagueness is what killed the original log line you can't afford to be vague when you only have one sentence to explain your story you must talk about specific characters specific events and specific problems so now you've gotten the four key elements you need for a long line and seeing the three mistakes to avoid and if you want to see 21 log lines broken down and re written in this format visit practical screenwriting tocom loglines remember there are four key elements to a log line when the main character suffers inciting incident they must achieve goal

before Stakes avoid writing vague descriptions that make your log line feel Bland make sure all four elements clearly connect together and Define the two viewpoints values or philosophies that are in conflict in the story and if you made it this far thank you very much for watching I would love it if you could leave a like on this video and I'll see you next [Music] [Music] time