Weekend Assignment: Loglines

Hooray for Friday! This has been one of those never-ending weeks! I hope yours has been productive.

I’m pleased at the response to my call for your favorite blog posts for writers. I’m still collecting nominations and will be throughout the rest of the year. If you haven’t already, please read the guidelines and nominate your favorite posts from 2012 (so far!).  Then watch for The Top 100 Blog Posts for Writers to debut in January 2013.

Now, down to business. This weekend’s assignment is a perfect example of why I love to find great posts about writing.  Over at The Write Practice, Jordan Smith shared a great idea for using loglines (a screenwriting tool) to organize and focus your writing.

Smith breaks down a logline as a single sentence that sums up an entire story. A logline contains:

1. The protagonist
2. The antagonist
3. A situation
4. A goal

Not only can this tip focus your writing, it can help clarify your story when it’s time to write a synopsis. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll direct you go to read the post. It’s short and painless, and well worth the five minutes you’ll spend reading. I promise.

Back? Okay.

Your assignment this weekend is to think in loglines. Practice writing several. Write one for your favorite TV series episode, write one for the best book you ever read, and most importantly, write one for your current project or a story rattling around in the back rooms of your brain.

Happy writing!