Killer logline challenge

[NoJo]

As anyone here who's tried to sell a book to a publisher knows, being able to create a good logline (US: tagline) is an important skill.

Here are some killer loglines from famous movies:

1. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...
2. Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven.
3. His story will touch you, even though he can't.
4. Escape or die frying....
5. Love is wonderful. Until it happens to your only daughter.

(scroll down for answers in white...)

They're punchy, they show the genre, and they indicate something of the uniqueness of the story.

Now the challenge: Come up with the killerest logline for one of your own stories.

























1. Jaws II
2. A Clockwork Orange
3. Edward Scissorhands
4. Chicken Run
5. Father of the Bride (remake)

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I never had to create a tagline or logline or whatever to send a book to a publisher. They usually want a punchy synopsis.

Closest I've come is having to write a description for Lit when I submit, which is pretty tough in itself. Most of mine aren't good, but sometimes I get one that I like.

Star Girl was, "Heaven and earth in a sexual encounter."

Lady of Thorns was, "There's more to a flower than the pretty parts."

Hotel Pavane Part 1 was, "Between the sensual and the surreal," which is probably better than the story itself was.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

• To learn how to be a good actris, she'll have to BE one...
• Catching a giant, wild, fire-breathing dragon was the EASY part of their adventure...

 

[Boota]

I had to come up with a tag line for a query letter and I ended up using it on bookmarks for Mr. Undesirable: "What would you do with $158 million?"

I had another line I was going to use for marketing it: "More fun than picking on retards". Everyone gave me shit about that and said I couldn't do something so tacky and distasteful, so I listened and pulled the idea. Of course, my next novel is titled Picking On Retards. (It's actually a very positive story, though.)

For my lit story "The Man In The Woods"... hmmm...

"Strangers have the best candy."
"When thunder and lust collide."

This is kind of tough.

 

[NoJo]

Strangers have the best candy.

Between the sensual and the surreal

I like those.

Here's mine from my latest murder whodunit "If books could kill" (yes, it's about a rare book dealer):

 

[Stella_Omega]

I am lousy at this- witness my descriptions of my lit submissions!
But "A romance with a Rock And Roll beat" isn't too shabby, I think...

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I am lousy at this- witness my descriptions of my lit submissions!
But "A romance with a Rock And Roll beat" isn't too shabby, I think...

As long as you don't spell it "rock 'n' roll".

 

[impressive]

I guess my favorite was for "Boiling Point" (which has been pulled down): Time to turn up the heat

Still nothing all that ... um ... impressive.

"Legally Binding" isn't too bad: There are ways to make an attorney perform

*shrug*

 

[Stella_Omega]

As long as you don't spell it "rock 'n' roll".

I should have! it would have more mass audience appeal.

 

[NoJo]

I should have! it would have more mass audience appeal.

If you wanted to be really with-it, you should have used quotes, and an exclamation point:

A romance with a "Rock And Roll" beat!

 

[Stella_Omega]

If you wanted to be really with-it, you should have used quotes, and an exclamation point:

A romance with a "Rock And Roll" beat!

How about
Romance 'till you puke!

 

[Guest]

Romance 'till you puke!

Been there, done that, moved on.

Perdita

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Been there, done that, moved on.

Perdita

You should try out MY logline thread, Dee-tah!

 

[BlackShanglan]

I'm awful at writing the damned things. I'm going to have to get a lot better, too. *wince* At least I will get plenty of practice.

Personally, I think right now I prefer a shortened version of the description for "Will":

"Love breaks the last boundary."

Eh. 'Twill do, 'twill do.

 

[Guest]

"Love breaks the last boundary."

Eh. 'Twill do, 'twill do.

Yeah, but I doubt it's the "last" boundary. In what part of the country do you live?

Perdita

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I prefer back-of-the-book-texts. They're funny to think of. I sometimes plan the backs of my books ahead of writing them.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Yeah, but I doubt it's the "last" boundary. In what part of the country do you live?

Perdita

*grin* Good thought.

 

[Guest]

I prefer back-of-the-book-texts. They're funny to think of. I sometimes plan the backs of my books ahead of writing them.

Svenskamaya, I would like you and want to get to know you if this were the first post I ever read from you.

As it isn't... Ah ha ha!!!!!!!!!! so what the hell is a back-of-the-book-text? Is it a Swedish thingie?

P.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Svenskamaya, I would like you and want to get to know you if this were the first post I ever read from you.

As it isn't... Ah ha ha!!!!!!!!!! so what the hell is a back-of-the-book-text? Is it a Swedish thingie?

P.

Don't they have those in US?

You turn the book around, and on the back is a little text, reading something like

She was to marry a glorious summer day in June. She did all the preparations a young bride does; washed her hair, shivered with excitement, giggled with her childhood best friend, imagined what it would be like in church...
Then she went into the flower shop of Fanny Falkman to look at her bridal bouquet. She went in - and then she disappeared. No-one saw her until...
The lilies of the valley were gone for the year. Only in one place did they still exist. And it was a bunch of lilies of the valley that Anneli held in her hands, when she was found murdered.
To whom had it been so important that she never wed, who had picked the flowers...
Who, where, why?
Christer Wijk had to smoke a lot of pipes under painful pondering before he could solve the mystery.​

"King Lily of the Valley", Maria Lang.

 

[Guest]

Don't they have those in US?

You turn the book around, and on the back is a little text

Ah, I get it. Yes, we have them. Sometimes they help me decide not to get that book . P.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Ah, I get it. Yes, we have them. Sometimes they help me decide not to get that book . P.

Same here.

 

[shereads]

If the title of my first and only story, "I Can't Watch Benny Hill While You're Sucking My Dick," hadn't been too long for the title field and spilled over, ending what might otherwise have been a brilliant writing career limited only by my early death at the hands of an obsessed fan, I would have eventually written a sequel, also based on a real-life moment of marital sex:

"Don't You Want To See If Skip Stevenson Catches the Grape?"

Those two stories could have shared this logline: "A young wife learns what her husband means by 'a three-way.'"