With the RWA National conference coming up almost everyone has pitching on the brain. Writers are frantic trying to boil their story down to a twenty-five word log line that entices. Log lines seem to be the new buzz word in publishing. I don’t remember hearing about them years ago. The only place I heard them used was in the screenwriting industry. But a log line for your book is a great idea. It gets your concept out there in a short sentence that will hopefully garner interested questions.

I just finished giving my log lines workshop in June. The consensus was it was much harder to come up with the twenty-word word log line if you’ve already written the book. The frustration a lot of the students felt in another log line class I sat in on was because they didn’t know their premise. They knew their story but story and premise aren’t the same thing. That’s why I always preach in my log lines class that you should come up with the log line first. It’s so much easier than coming up with it after the fact. You want to put in all the story and you just can’t do that in twenty-five words or less.

So what is a log line? It’s a sentence, preferably twenty-five words or less, that conveys the essence of your story. The idea, the concept. Not the story itself. Of course you can go over by a few words but less is more. And the less you have the easier it is to memorize. The easier for the agent to pitch to an editor. The easier for an editor to pitch to the senior editor. You get the idea. It should have no names. Protagonists would be described using an adjective and a noun. Also, don’t try to keep the best parts out thinking you’ll intrigue an agent or editor. The best parts are what they’re looking for, what they need to know so they can decide if they want to know more. So no secrets.

Since I started writing screenplays as well as books I come up with my log lines first and go from there. I run the log lines by people before I start writing. The log line that gets the most positive feedback is the project I work on.

I’m giving my log lines workshop over at Celtic Hearts Romance Writers in August. Too late for National but there are other conferences coming up. No matter how you get your pitch ready, be ready for when you get asked that question every writer gets asked. So what’s your story about?

Off to work. They never ask what my stories are about. I bombard them with log lines anyway.

Until next time…

Cindy