1d (edited) • General discussion
Let's talk loglines... drop yours below
I’ve been thinking a lot about my mission with this community.
At its core, I want to help you write visceral, primal characters — people with real human needs, real internal fractures, and stories that hit the audience in the gut.
But before we dive into wounds, meaning, and transformation, every writer needs one simple tool to ground the work:
The logline.
This is where the path from good scripts to holy shit scripts start.
Most people think of a logline as something you need at the END of the process, for a pitch.
But a precise logline can be invaluable during the writing. And while I’ll critique the formulaic nature of Save The Cat now and then, STC has a pretty clean definition of a logline.
We’ll go deeper in future posts, but let’s steelman this one first.
According to Save the Cat, a strong logline needs four things:
- A clear protagonist
- A clear goal
- A clear obstacle or antagonist
- The irony — the hook
That last piece is the part most writers skip — and it’s the reason many loglines fall flat.
Example: Groundhog Day
Protagonist: Phil Connors (cynical weatherman)
Goal: Escape the time loop
Obstacle: Himself — his selfishness keeps him in prison
Irony: A man who never appreciates the moment is forced to relive the same one forever
Logline:
“A man who can’t appreciate the moment is forced to live the same day over and over until he learns that meaning isn’t found in the next thing, but in showing up fully for what’s right in front of him.”
Three More Famous Examples
1. Toy Story 2
Protagonist: Woody
Goal: Get back to Andy
Obstacle: A collector who offers eternal preservation in a museum
Irony: To return home, he must choose a love that will eventually break his heart
Logline:
“A cowboy doll must escape a toy collector and return to his owner, even though it means choosing a love he knows will one day leave him behind.”
2. Signs
Protagonist: A grieving former priest
Goal: Protect his children
Obstacle: A global alien invasion
Irony: A man who abandoned his faith must rediscover it to save his family
Logline:
“A grieving former priest must protect his children when an alien invasion forces him to confront whether his suffering has any meaning — or if we’re truly alone in the universe.”
3. Good Will Hunting
Protagonist: A genius janitor
Goal: Solve his life (not just equations)
Obstacle: His own trauma and fear of vulnerability
Irony: The smartest guy in the room can fix any problem except the one that actually matters
Logline:
“A self-destructive genius must choose between the safety of isolation and the terrifying risk of letting someone actually love him.”
Why This Matters for What We’re Building Here
My mission is to help you write stories that hit on a human level — stories built on wounds, truth, and transformation.
But none of that works without a simple, solid spine.
A great logline helps by forcing you to answer:
Who is this about?
What do they want?
What’s in the way?
Why is this setup irresistible?
When you nail those four elements, every choice that follows gets easier.
Now, write your own logline by answering these four questions:
Who is my protagonist, specifically? (Job, role, identity, worldview.)
What do they want more than anything in this story? (The goal driving the plot.)
What force is standing in their way? (Antagonist, obstacle, pressure.)
What’s the irony of the setup? (The contradiction that makes the idea a movie.)
Once you have those, plug them into this structure:
“A [specific protagonist] must [goal] when [obstacle] — an ironic situation where [hook].”
Keep it simple.
Keep it clean.
Clarity first. Depth second.
And in the next post, we’ll go deeper — into the wound, the emotional pressure, and the meaning that turn a clear logline into a compelling one.
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Let's talk loglines... drop yours below
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