Perfecting your logline
The key components. A good logline has a core set of elements: the protagonist, their goal, and the antagonist or antagonistic forces. It should also note a particularly prominent setting (e.g. the 19th-century American frontier, a post-supernova dystopic Earth, Mars, a remote base in Antarctica) or unique “rules” (e.g. “When one night a year all crime is legal…”). These elements should translate into a clear setup and driving arc with meaningful stakes.
Precision and concision. A good logline, much like a good Tweet, respects every word. For instance, don’t use a character’s name if you can better characterize him or her. Don’t say “Jake” if you can say “a beat cop.” Similarly, choose meaningful modifiers. “A beat cop” is better than “Jake” but an “inexperienced beat cop” tells us more still. Inject style where you can: “a wet-behind-the-ears beat cop.”
Avoid! Don’t give away twists or the ending. Don’t reference other works in your logline. Don’t try and include specific scenes. Don’t use a plethora of commas, colons, semicolons, or em dashes to link together multiple sentences as one.
Nonfiction. For works of nonfiction, you should focus on how the factual story you are telling affects people.
Here are some examples from successful projects on Inkshares:
When the Nazis invade Romania, an aged Van Helsing must team up with his greatest enemy—Dracula—to free Europe from Hitler’s grasp. Dracula v. Hitler
A Chinese-American witch in the Old West hunts down the possessed man who killed her husband. Devil’s Call
A detailed exploration of Star Trek’s post-scarcity economy—and what we can learn from it. Trekonomics