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– Dan Alatorre
Dan Alatorre 
What do you think about loglines? Do you use them? http://www.seanpcarlin.com/storytelling-basics-part-1-logline/
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Yes and no.
I have to write a blurb for each novel, and typically the “log line“ would be the opening salvo in the blurb. It’s first sentence or its first paragraph.
So in effect, yes, I use log lines.
However, I really don’t – because writing blurbs is more than just one paragraph, and I never write just a log line.
So the question comes down to, are they effective and should you do them?
Yes. They’re effective and you should do them. Because whatever you can do to concisely convey the point of your story and hook the reader or potential buyer, you should do it. And while there may be a difference to some between an actual log line and the opening sentences of your blurb, that may be in the eye of the beholder.
Writing blurbs is difficult, as Lucy and I were discussing the other day. It’s hard to take 60,000 or 80,000 or 100,000 words and sum it up in just 50 or 100 words.
By the same token, you are doing a different type of writing. You’re doing advertising copy. You are trying to sell, quickly, the idea of your story and do it in such a way that it baits the hook for people to want more. That’s really all it is for.
That’s quite different from storytelling. (But in some ways it’s the same – if your story doesn’t make your reader want to read more, you’re not going to have a lot of fans!)
It’s a skill worth learning, and to be honest, it’s much easier to do it for someone else’s book then your own!
Lucy is going to be doing a post about blurb writing soon, and I have done several in the past. But it’s a topic that never gets old!
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Sean would agree that it is easier to write a logline or blurb for someone else’s story/novel. However, his main point in the article is that it is best to start with a logline then build the story/novel around it. In other words treat the logline as the skeleton of your story.
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Whatever method works!
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Thanks for the question, Frank. It was interesting to read Sean’s post on loglines. I also clicked over and read about different storylines which was fascinating. Makes me want to switch a few things around on my current work in progress. I also plan on writing a few loglines 🙂
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