Once you understand the basics of the story you want to tell then it is time to create a LOGLINE. Think of the description on a movie poster or on a DVD sleeve.

Think of these elements in your LOGLINE:
Setting - Hero - Problem - Villian - Conflict - Goal

Here are several examples from movies you may recognize:

A spirited farm boy joins a rebellion to save a princess from a sinister imperial enforcer – and the galaxy from a planet-destroying weapon.

In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler's Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.

The alumni cast of a space opera television series have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help. However, they also have to defend both Earth and the alien race from a reptilian warlord.

Here are the LOGLINES from a few of my books:

Seventeen-year-old Adam has grown up in an ultra-tech society hidden deep underground. When a mysterious girl helps him discover that he is part of a deadly genetics experiment and that the topside world is not what he had been told, he must escape his malevolent handlers and search for answers above.

Twenty-year-old Eli is conflicted over serving the founding fathers who conspire against the same British Empire his parents died fighting for in the French and Indian War, until a mysterious girl helps him travel to another time and place where he must save the future and the past from an ancient evil that grows in the shadows of liberty.

Captain Alyx "Flash" Gordon is a washed-out Mars Defense Command veteran assigned to a remote asteroid mining facility where he must face the man that ended his career. With the help of a mysterious gift and new allies, his search for a missing investigator uncovers a civilization-ending conspiracy if Flash and his team should fail.

Jack "Coach" Taylor returns from an unsuccessful mission on Mars to help investigate a string of suspicious accidents and suspected sabotage. When the feisty daughter of a missing psychologist helps reveal a secret mind-control program that strikes too close to home, Coach is forced to choose between family and duty.

Once again, there are many suggestions and guides to writing a LOGLINE. The idea that most "pros" agree upon is the necessity to establish the LOGLINE FIRST. It takes discipline but it pays off.

Another way to think of a LOGLINE is to imagine you just stepped into an elevator with your favorite movie director and only have enough time to offer two sentences to communicate the essence of your story.

Next time we will discuss Act Structure.