StoryCraft Novel Challenge: Your first assignment, the Developmental Logline

Welcome to the first major assignment for the StoryCraft Novel Challenge, your Developmental Logline!

You’ve probably heard of a logline before. They’re often used in film and TV to succinctly summarize a story in one to two sentences. A Developmental Logline is similar, but the purpose of it is to distill our story into its core parts so we can figure out the rest faster.

It’s a great exercise at the beginning of the writing process because it forces you to move past character and setting and start thinking about stakes and conflict. The good stuff. The StoryCraft Process [Course | Workbook] is all about applying strategy to our writing so we can draft faster and have more fun doing it.

Our Developmental Logline formula looks like this:

Protagonist + Inciting Incident + Action/Goal + Stakes

Here’s some basic examples:

After Hobbit Frodo Baggins is burdened by the One Ring of Power, he must carry it to Mordor to destroy it before the darkness tears him and the rest of Middle Earth apart.

When Katniss Everdeen’s younger sister Prim is selected for the Reaping, she volunteers as tribute and must win the Hunger Games in order to survive.

Elizabeth Bennet despises the difficult Mr. Darcy, but in order to marry and maintain her free spirit, she must overcome her pride and prejudice to see the truth about the man she believes she hates.

Remember, the idea for this exercise is not to be perfect. This logline will change as you develop the story. But start thinking now about elements like your protagonist and their goals, as well as the stakes if they should fail. The more we can build out conflict from the outset, the easier (and more fun) it will be to develop the rest.

This will also serve as a great tool when it comes time for querying, so it’s a very valuable skill for any writer.

Share your Developmental Logline with #StoryCraftNovelChallenge. What kind of stakes are you serving?

Happy Writing,

Jess and Theo