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My sister wanted to be a ballerina, but her dreams were smashed when she fell down a flight of cement stairs. Her last rites were given in the hospital, but miraculously she came out of the coma.
At age five, she had to learn to live with an injured brain, where she no longer fit in with other children. She no longer could comprehend anything about this world.
All she ever wanted was to fit in, but people always ran from her because of her unpredictable, silly, odd behaviors that she could no longer control. She tried everything to fit in, including wearing dark make-up in hopes that other races might accept her.
As she reached her teenage years, she discovered that men who found her sexy didn't run from her. She finally found a way to fit in somewhere, like a jigsaw puzzle piece. She followed that path, and it led to her living a wild and crazy street life as a 20-year-old fugitive surviving alone on the streets of New York City.
She called me every week to tell me she was okay and taught me everything she learned about street life survival. I was a kid at home just taking it all in. Her final phone call to me was about how a New York Post reporter baited her with food money to say she witnessed a murder. He printed her full name, age, and address in the New York Post and had it anchored on TV news too, even though she told him she really didn't witness the murder and that she only wanted food money so she copied and recited what she heard the other witnesses say.
Her outrageous story went to her grave, until years later; I reluctantly went to a psychic medium show just for fun, and shockingly John Edward described her accurately while pointing to me. He was so descriptive about her spirit coming through, that it made me believe that she was trying to tell me that her story was not complete.
"If" it was her coming through, I did find out that her story was actually not complete while telling her story! I made a YouTube vlog about her crazy life story, and as I was making it, I asked someone if they wanted to add anything to her story, and a man who knew her said
"Yes, I know who gave her the bad pills to kill her right before her body was found on the L train." It was to hush her witnessing the murder across the street from the park she stayed in.
I was shocked to learn from him that she was murdered. We knew her body was found on a New York subway train, but for years we assumed she died of natural causes.
She was not a beauty queen or scholar, and she was found wearing tattered clothes, so the officials in New York City just shoved her body in a freezer and forgot about her. They never even tried to contact her family or mention her body being found on the news because she was not considered an important person.
I am a believer that everyone matters equally, regardless of their status. That is the reason I felt compelled to tell her story in my amateur vlog.
I came to Stage 32 to find out if any screenwriters or producers who also believe in equality might want to partner with me on this true story to enlighten the world on true happenings. None of this is fiction.
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Jane, I'm forgetting that this is a logline and will see it as a mini synopsis.
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I'm new at this, so I didn't even know what a logline is when I started writing this LOL Just wanted to get her story out there. This is one true story that everyone says should be a Netflix movie. I even have newspaper clippings to prove it is real even though it sounds like fiction.
Hi, Jane Shebroe. Here’s a logline template that might help:
“After/when ______ (the inciting incident/the event that sets the plot in motion), a _______ (the main flaw that the main character has to overcome in the script or an adjective that describes the main character’s personality) _______ (the main character’s position/job/career) tries to/attempts to/fights to/struggles to/strives to/sets out to/fights/battles/engages in/competes/etc. _______ (goal of story and try to add the obstacles here) to/so/in order to ________ (stakes).”
The inciting incident can also be at the end of the logline: “A _______ (the main flaw that the main character has to overcome in the script or an adjective that describes the main character’s personality) _______ (the main character’s position/job/career) tries to/attempts to/fights to/struggles to/strives to/sets out to/fights/battles/engages in/competes/etc. _______ (goal of story and try to add the obstacles here) to/so/in order to ________ (stakes) after/when ______ (the inciting incident/the event that sets the plot in motion).”
And Christopher Lockhart has a great webinar on loglines. It’s called “How To Make Your Logline Attractive to A-List Actors, Producers, Directors, Managers, Agents, Financiers and Development Execs” (www.stage32.com/webinars/How-To-Make-Your-Logline-Attractive-to-A-List-A...).