Saturday Night Logline

"If we are able to express the logline properly, we will know where our story begins, where our story can possibly end, and how our character can journey from the beginning to any of the possible endings."

- Joem Antonio, The Writer's Seed: Cultivating Your Story Idea

The Writing Challenge

According to Dr. Joem's storywriting framework, the logline sets the direction of the story and defines its parameters. An exciting logline will motivate the writer to start and finish the story. In case the writer's imagination goes wild, or if writer's block makes an appearance, referring to the logline will help get the story back on track.

This challenge aims to train writers to be able to produce loglines at will.

What you'll need

To undergo this challenge, you'll need your writing weapon of choice, an alarm that can go off weekly (your phone's calendar should do great), and people to share your logline with.

Steps

Set a recurring alarm for Saturday nights (or whatever day and time you prefer).
When that alarm goes off, write at least one logline using Dr. Joem's CAMO framework or its variations. You may follow a prompt or not.

For official prompts, please follow Story Sandbox on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. The Prompt for the Week will be posted every Saturday at 6:00PM UTC+12:00. No matter where you are in the world, the prompt will have been posted by the time it's Saturday night in your time zone.

After finishing your logline, share it with someone. You may share it with one person, with a group, or to the Internet. If you'd like to share it with the Story Sandbox network, please see the guidelines below.

Guidelines for public posting

You may post your output any way you like. But, if you'd like to benefit from the Story Sandbox community, you'd need to help us see your work! Please follow the guidelines for the respective platform you're using.

Tumblr

Follow the Story Sandbox Tumblr blog if you haven't yet.
Post your exercise output.
1. You may post it as a comment to the Prompt for the Week.
2. You may also create a post on your Tumblr blog.
  - Include your output, tag @story-sandbox, and include the hashtag, #SaturdayNightLogline.
  - Optional: Use the official image template. You may add your personal branding. We suggest using Canva to produce the image for your post.

Twitter

Follow the Story Sandbox Twitter account if you haven't yet.
Post your exercise output.
1. You may tweet it as a reply to the Prompt for the Week.
2. You may also post a standalone tweet.
  1. Include your output, tag @Story_Sandbox, and include the hashtag, #SaturdayNightLogline.
  2. Optional: Use the official image template. You may add your personal branding. We suggest using Canva to produce the image for your post.

Facebook

Like the Story Sandbox Facebook page if you haven't yet.
Post your exercise output.
1. You may post it as a comment to the Prompt for the Week.
2. You may also create a post on your Facebook profile or page.
  1. Include your output, tag @storysandbox.org, and include the hashtag, #SaturdayNightLogline.
  2. Optional: Use the official image template. You may add your personal branding. We suggest using Canva to produce the image for your post.

Instagram

Follow the Story Sandbox Instagram account if you haven't yet.
Post your exercise output.
1. You may post it as a comment to the Prompt for the Week.
2. You may also create a post on your Facebook profile or page.
  1. Include your output, tag @StorySandbox, and include the hashtag, #SaturdayNightLogline.
  2. Optional: Use the official image template. You may add your personal branding. We suggest using Canva to produce the image for your post.

A few notes:

By publicly posting your exercise output, tagging the official Story Sandbox account, and the using the challenge's hashtag, you give Story Sandbox permission to repost your output on its website and social media channels, along with proper attribution.
Afraid of posting because your output might be reused without attribution? Use the official image template and add your own branding. It won't stop every idea thief, but it might deter some.