Kurt Brindley's Blog, page 71

Birth of Loglines & Beyond | A Guest Post by Author Ann Kimbrough

Our private Facebook writers and readers group recently held its second WRITE EDIT WRITE Challenge (see the results of the first challenge here). Because my focus is on producing a short film based upon an adaptation of my short story LEAVE, I figured we might as well have a challenge focused on screenwriting. Ergo, we asked the group to submit a 25-word, or less, logline describing a WIP or produced work of genre of their choosing.

It’s no surprise that the author who submitted the response is a working screenwriter who has some serious writing chops. Author Ann Kimbrough shares her screenwriting expertise in several places on the web, all of which you can reach via her namesake website annkimbrough.com. My favorite medium of Ann’s is her youtube channel where she and other working screenwriters get together to share their knowledge of the industry. Fantastic stuff. We are very fortunate to have Ann as part of our WRITE EDIT WRITE group, and, if I may say, you are very lucky that she has written for us here an excellent post about the mystery and intrigue of writing a logline. You’re welcome. :)

Ann’s logline submission for WEW #2:

In a secret facility, a rookie female FBI analyst struggles to contain a serial killer, but her only hope is trusting a devious bombing suspect.

Birth of Loglines & Beyond

Ann Kimbrough

annkimbrough.com

Loglines are creeping into your life!

Once only used by screenwriters, all kinds of writers find the little buggers useful. The first one I ever saw was in a TV Guide. Remember those? I barely remember newspapers, even though I’ve heard they still exist. For Millennials who can’t write cursive, read clocks or relate to newspapers: a TV Guide was a paper booklet that came with the Sunday paper. It contained a schedule of all the TV shows for a week.

Psst: we’re talkin’ back in ancient times when there were only three major TV stations. I know… it’s Epically Stone Age.

The guides also contained a little blurb about each show. Those blurbs were the birth of loglines.

I imagine TV Guides still exist today, somewhere without Wi-Fi, but they must be the size of phone books. Remember those? Err… we’ll save that lesson for another time.

TV Guide blurbs looked something like this:

Kidnapped in Tasmania, MacGyver uses a banana, a piece of gum and a washing machine to make a robot and save the world.

I doubt that episode of MacGyver ever aired, but maybe it will in the re-vamped show that’s on CBS this season.

Loglines actually do two things:

1. Get your concept across ASAP.

2. Sell your story.

Screenwriters pitch their scripts all the time. In turn, if a producer likes the idea, they have to turn around and pitch it to the principals in their company before an offer to option can be made. When a script is optioned, the production company pitches it to the moneymen for funding – financiers or studios. The better the logline, the better the pitch is all the way up the line.

For novelists, loglines can be used in several ways:

Start a query letter
On a book’s Amazon page
On a book’s back cover
On any sales material to build an audience

In an age when our watches are digital instead of sundials and shoes have Velcro instead of laces, no one has time to read a whole marketing pitch. When writers can get their message across fast, they have a better chance of success.

Plenty of rules exist about what makes a logline a good logline, but I’ll keep it simple.

1. Keep it to one sentence, like my MacGuyer example. Some pundits say to make it under 25 words, but don’t go crazy if you’re at 30.

2. Tell the whole story. Protagonist fights what odds to win what battle?

3. Don’t use proper names. Use occupations with a descriptive adjective. Ex.: a wily candy creator, could be used in a logline for Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Or a deformed recluse for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

4. Write it in present tense.

5. Don’t include sub-plots. Stick to the main storyline of protagonist vs. antagonist.

6. Match the tone of your story. When Stephen King writes a logline, I’m sure it sounds scary.

7. Test the logline on friends. If they ask a bunch of questions and sound confused, then keep working. If they ooh and aah, appearing to get the story, then you may celebrate.

One caveat: a common logline error is writing a logline that you think fits your story, but makes people see a different story. Such an error will turn any reader sour when your book (or script) takes a turn they didn’t expect.

Ex. 1: A long-haired princess trapped in a tower awaits a dashing prince.

Do you sense a Rapunzel story?

What if the logline should have really been:

Ex. 2: A long-haired princess trapped in a tower awaits a dashing prince to sacrifice for her freedom.

Whoa! That’s a completely different story. An agent, producer or reader might want one version of that story, but not the other. Misleading them, even by accident, will hurt in the long run. Loglines that pitch the whole story lead to more success once the manuscript is read.

Avoid this mistake by testing your logline on your Beta Readers. Or on complete strangers, who know nothing about your writing. (I’ve been told grocery and bank lines are great places to do this.) You pitch them your logline, then ask what kind of story they’d expect to read. If it’s close to the story your wrote, you’re good to go.

Like all kinds of writing, creating loglines gets better with practice. So, get going!

###

Ann Kimbrough’s imagination comes from growing up as an Air Force brat, which entertained her childhood with foreign lands and amazing characters. They tend to pop-up in all her writing, whether screenplay or novel. The magic continued after college, when she worked in Hollywood and became a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Ann hosts YouTube show Screenwriters Beat, and spends the rest of her time writing contained, thrilling screenplays and cozy mystery novels under pen name Ann Audree, as well as romance under pen names Pippa Minx and Ann McGinnis. Ann is an optioned and produced screenwriter.

annkimbrough.com

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Ann Kimbrough, authors, books, fiction, Indie Authors, loglines, reading groups, screenplays, screenwriters, screenwriting, writing, writing challenges, writing groups, writing tips

Don’t judge my book…

Kathy Cecala, an Indie Author and an active and valuable member of our private Facebook group for writers and readers, has some interesting and useful thoughts on the dark art of choosing and creating book covers. I strongly encourage you to check it and all the many other intriguing and compelling writing she has shared for us to read for free on her website.

KATHYCECALA.COM

Kathy Cecala: The Persistent Writer

Yes, I’m on a writing break, but it doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about the cover for my next. As we all know, you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But we all do, it seems.  Supposed experts in publishing tell us the cover is your most important marketing tool, though my own informal survey of readers begs to differ. Some readers will choose a book solely on its cover, but others could care less, using reviews or information on the product page to make their decision.

Truth be told, I’m in the latter group. Half the time I don’t even look at the cover of a book, even when I’ve finished reading it. And this probably explains why I tend to give short shrift to my own covers as an author. But this time I’m trying to take it seriously, mainly because I don’t feel the…

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Filed under: Writing Tagged: authors, book covers, books, fiction, Guest Authors, Guest Posts, independent publishing, Indie Authors, Kathy Cecala, novels, publishing, writing

Ain’t That America…

Reporting live from Philadelphia

#daytrippin

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Ain't That America, Americana, cities, City of Love, culture, day trips, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, photography

Ain’t That America…

Reporting live from New York City

#daytrippin

#ificanmakeithere…

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Ain't That America, America, Americana, day trips, New York City, photography, travel

Ain’t That America…

Reporting live from the Papermoon Diner in Baltimore, Maryland

 

#yesthisreallyisadiner

 

 

Filed under: Culture Tagged: Ain't That America, Americana, Baltimore, collectibles, cult classics, culture, diners, kitschy, photography, surreal, Tim Burton

The book’s always better than the movie…

Right?

That’s the rule, right?

Books rule over movies.

Always.

Before I got involved with this whole short film thing, I always would get indignant after watching yet another failed movie adaptation of a book I liked. And I would always wonder to myself why in the heck could they never get it write/right.

Until on a whim I decided to try my hand at adapting my short story LEAVE into a screenplay.

Right away I realized that this was going to be no easy feat.

Introspection and contemplation that serve a short story or a novel so well is basically useless in a screenplay where just about everything must be represented as action and dialogue so it can be seen and heard by the audience.

Of course LEAVE as a short story is mostly introspection and contemplation by the protagonist so right off the bat the whole structure would have to change in order to be able to show his shift of character from beginning to end.

To do this, new scenes had to be invented and new characters had to be developed and within the first writing of the story of LEAVE as a screenplay, it was already hugely different from the story of LEAVE the short story. And that was only by my own efforts.

After I showed it to an actor friend for his feedback, from his guidance it went from 33 pages down to fifteen. And yes, to whittle it down that much there had to be a significant change in story and tempo.

But really, the biggest changes to the story didn’t occur until once the screenplay was accepted by a studio and a director was found and she got ahold of it… and then several of the lead actors got ahold of it…

Talk about feedback overload. It took much effort and persuasion to maintain it as a story I recognized.

And, while we are scheduled to begin filming in two months, we haven’t yet cast the lead actor so I can only wonder what changes still might occur to it.

But you know what… the story as it is now as a near fully developed screenplay is really not that far from what it is as a short story.

It is just different.

And much, much better in my opinion.

Still, I guarantee it if you read the short story and then see the film, you will be significantly surprised by the differences that there are between the two.

I just hope you are not significantly disappointed.

But I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be because we have an awesome crew and the cast is going to be first rate and impressive.

And I can also guarantee that from now on whenever I watch a movie that has been poorly adapted from a book that I like I will certainly be less critical and more understanding of the differences between the two and the winding and somewhat weary course that had to be traveled to get the story to the screen.

Because now I know.

And now I have only one rule regarding movies and books.

Both of them do.

Rule, that is…

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Have you heard about our private Facebook Writers & Readers Group?

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: adaptations, authors, books, films, Indie Authors, movie adaptations, movies, novels, screenplays, screenwriters, screenwriting, scripts, short stories, writing

WRITE EDIT WRITE: Flash Fiction by Author Pam Schloesser-Canepa

Last week I announced that we were starting a private Facebook group for Writers and Readers called WRITE EDIT WRITE. Well I am happy to say that we have had a great response to the announcement and our group includes a growing host of active and creative members. And while we’re still getting situated and figuring things out, we have held our very first WEW CHALLENGE, a challenge where members were asked to post a 250-word or less flash fiction or flash essay. I am again happy to say we had a fantastic response, with the following selection being representative of the fine writing being exhibited by all.

To read all the submissions, visit here.

To learn more about the private group, visit here.

Please check out the writing and stop by the authors’ websites to show them your support.

Write on!

THE POST OFFICE BOX

by Pam Schloesser-Canepa

pamelascanepa.wordpress.com

Tussling with the dog. That was Jasmine’s story, this time. The scar would dissipate in a week, she knew. It did hurt. This was so unfair, yet, all too familiar.

Driving to work, Jasmine noticed she’d inadvertently put on one navy blue shoe and one black. An understandable mistake; they were almost identical, and those colors were close. I wonder if anyone will notice? She realized the light had turned. I sure don’t need a ticket.

To her left was the post office. Darn, I forgot that electric bill. Rick will lose it. Do I go back? She worried it might make her late, yet she didn’t need one more fight about the mail.

Her thoughts drifted to the invitation that had arrived the week before, for her ten year high school reunion. Of course, with a four month old baby and a full-time job, she hadn’t seriously considered. Still, she had thought of going.

“You just want to see all your old boyfriends! You wench!” Rick had screamed, holding the baby in his arms.

“No, Rick, don’t worry, I don’t need to go.” That’s how it always went. Keeping the peace. When she never received any in return.

Abruptly, she pulled into the post office. “I need a post office box,” she announced to the clerk. JUST for me.

With receipt of the key, she found the assigned box. It was cool inside. She imagined fitting inside of it, this doorway to distant places.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: #amwriting, authors, essays, fiction, flash fiction, Indie Authors, non-fiction, Pam Schloesser-Canepa, reading, reading groups, short stories, WRITE EDIT WRITE, writing, writing groups

The Grotesque

Since at least the 18th century…grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks. In art, performance, and literature, however, grotesque may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity…   WIKIPEDIA

You know, maybe Trump isn’t just some raging political monster out to destroy civilization. Maybe there is really something wrong with the bizarre billionaire beyond his severe condition of narcissism and megalomania that deserves our sympathy and pity.

Maybe, like Hugo’s Hunchback or Shelley’s Monster, underneath the unappealing surface there is really just a tormented soul looking to be loved.

For instance, when he embraces and speaks admirably of such a leader as Vladimir Putin, maybe he isn’t really being an unwitting agent for a dangerous government, but instead he is just being a scared little boy looking for a father figure to love him and comfort him.

 

And when he says, via his typical usage of indirect speak — “If [Hillary Clinton] gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks… Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.” — maybe he isn’t really calling on gun owners to assassinate her, but is instead acting like the shy little boy who pulls the little girl’s pigtail in class, not to be mean but to get her to notice him and to like him.

Maybe?

 

 

Filed under: Politics Tagged: art, authors, Donald Trump, Frankenstein, grotesque literature, Hillary Clinton, Mary Shelley, megalomania, mental health, narcissicsm, politics, psychology, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

USEFUL IDIOTS 2.0

Using spy jargon, the former CIA Director and career CIA employee calls Trump in a New York Times opinion piece an “unwitting agent” of Russia because he is being so easily manipulated by Putin.

I question if, in fact, ‪‎Trump‬’s agency for Russia is an unwitting one.

Regardless, and even though the CIA Director doesn’t explicitly say it in his essay, if you vote for Trump, wouldn’t that, then, make you an agent for Russia, as well?

Now, if you were never in the military or worked for the intelligence community, I would allow that your agency for Russia perhaps would be an unwitting one.

However, for all my bother and sister veterans of both the military and intel community, if you vote for Trump knowing that he is being manipulated like a puppet by Putin, like he is, then you do so knowing the national security risks a Trump presidency entails and I would have to wonder why you would do such a thing…

I guess if you don’t like being labeled by our CIA Director as an “unwitting agent,” then perhaps you would like being labeled with an even more apropos term most historians attribute to Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Communist Revolution:

USEFUL IDIOTS

“In political jargon, useful idiot is a term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause.”

 

Putin the Political Puppeteer

 

 

Filed under: Politics Tagged: communism, Donald Trump, geopolitics, Hillary Clinton, New York Times, oped, opinions, politics, Russia, spies, unwitting agents, Useful Idiots, Vladimir Putin, writing

Write Edit Write: A Private Facebook Group for Writers and Readers

 

So, I’m creating a private Facebook group for writers and readers who are interested in the discussion of all things related to the process and business of writing.

This will be somewhat an extension of what I do with the Newsletter Love subscribers, but on a much more intimate and informal level. The newsletter process is a bit too formal and segmented and involving to really achieve what I would like to achieve, which is: to network, make connections, and improve our abilities and chances for success as writers.

As much as I hate to admit it, Facebook provides a much better environment to achieve this objective.

Like we’ve done with the newsletter, we can do poetry and flash fiction challenges there as well, with the goal of getting the best of the group’s writing onto my blog and out via the newsletter (is there irony to be found there?)

I am willing to moderate this members only group, provided the members are willing to receive free copies of all my published work and are willing to consider writing reviews for them. In addition to my present work, I would provide all future work for free to these members and ask for them to be both beta readers and to post early reviews of the work once published to help with future sales.

As some of you may know, I am producing a short film called LEAVE that is based upon a screenplay adapted from my short story of the same name. I will provide first and sometimes exclusive insight to the movie making process to this group as I learn it. I will also post photos and videos there that I’ll take when on set. We currently are scheduled to shoot the film in LA in mid-October of this year. If you become of member of this group, you will hear any news about the film first.

Who knows how this group will evolve but the early members will be the ones who help me build the foundation for its future.

Some current projects I’m working on that I hope to finish soon with the group’s help are:

– a short story collection, which includes the short story LEAVE.

– part two of Hercules Gone Mad (I’ve been hoping to finish the story collection and part two for a long time now, which is why I will look to this group to help motivate me to bring them to completion)

– a feature film length script for LEAVE (we already have distributors interested in the movie but they need to see a completed full-length script first)

But the group wouldn’t be just about me. My hope is that all within the group could forge relationships where each could seek similar help from others for her or his own writing efforts.

So, there is a lot we can discuss and accomplish there. If you are interested, you can either let me know publicly in the comment section and I will email you the link; or, you can email me through the contact page and I will reply to you with the link.

I used to call this blog WRITE EDIT WRITE a while back so that’s what I will call the group for now. We’ll see how things evolve and change its name if needed. Let me know when you’re a member if you have a better name. :)

But I can’t create the group until I have at least one member so please let me know if you’re in.

Right on?

Oh yeah… let’s do this, my friends.

Write on!

NOTE: When requesting an invite, please include the email address your facebook account is associated with either in a comment request or via a request through the contact page.

 

 
Filed under: Writing Tagged: books, editing, fiction, film, independent films, Indie Artists, Indie Authors, movies, novels, photography, poetry, publishing, short films, writing