Writers Tricks of the Trade MARCH-APRIL 2015 | Page 19
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QUOTES ABOUT
SCREENWRITING
WRITING A KILLER LOGLINE (CONT’D)
What’s the inciting incident? _________________________________________
What’s her goal? ___________________________________________________
What’s the reversal? ________________________________________________
Who’s the antagonist? ______________________________________________
What’s the hook? __________________________________________________
OKAY. ONE MORE, THEN YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN…
This is the logline from one of my upcoming Lifetime movies ‘The Secret Sex
Life of a Single Mom’:
When stay-at-home-mom-of-two Delaine decides to divorce her controlling
husband Robert, she goes online to find a new mate and winds up meeting a
Dom who, by making her his sexual submissive, teaches her how to become
more empowered in every aspect of her life…
Who is the protagonist? _____________________________________________
What’s the important detail about her? ________________________________
What’s the inciting incident? _________________________________________
What’s her goal? ___________________________________________________
What’s the reversal? ________________________________________________
Who’s the antagonist? ______________________________________________
What’s the hook? __________________________________________________
A good logline contains seven elements:
(1) The inciting incident.
(2) The protagonist.
(3) An important detail about the protagonist.
(4) The protagonist’s plot goal.
(5) The reversal.
(6) The antagonist.
(7) A hook that makes the reader want to know what
happened.
That’s a lot for one little sentence. But if it’s done right, it
will tell your story succinctly without giving anything
away.
WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
PAGE 9
“Collaborating on a film
script involves
two people
sitting in a room
separated by the
silence of two
minds working
together.”
~Darlene
Craviotto
“The
answer to the
question,
'where's the
drama?' is
another
question:
'what's the
problem?”
~ Billy Marshall
Stoneking
MAR-APR 2015