We looked at hooks last week, both concept hooks that pique our initial interest in a story and in-story hooks that keep us engaged from start to finish. Today we’re looking at how a few New York Times bestsellers hook us. Continue reading
Category Archives: One-Line Synopsis
Hooks Big and Small–How the Masters Do It
Filed under Concept, Hooks, Microtension, One-Line Synopsis, Story Master Wednesday, Voice
Logline Revisited: Are some components more significant than others?
I got a comment the other day, on the post about NYTBS one-line synopses, asking whether the significance of each logline component varies according to the sort of story it’s describing. Also requested was a list of the components ordered by most significance. These are great questions, and my answers ended up being pretty long (almost 8,000 words), so I thought I’d upgrade it from comment to post.
Continue readingFiled under One-Line Synopsis
Writing–and Improving–The One-Line Synopsis
Today we’re expanding a couple of last week’s concepts into synopses and then trying to improve them.
Continue readingFiled under Concept, One-Line Synopsis, Own Work Friday
The One-Line Synopsis: How the Best Sellers Do It (Or At Least the People Who Write the List) (Updated 10/16/18)
I’ve lifted these synopses from the January 18, 2015 New York Times Best Seller Lists. In each one, I’ve identified any synopsis components with: {W}orld, {C}haracter, {I}nciting Incident, {G}oal, {A}ction, {P}roblem, and {S}takes. I’ve also indicated if the component is {i}mplicit…to my ears anyway. And, if I wasn’t sure if a word or phrase indicated a component, I added a question mark.
They’re ordered from most amount of clear (no ‘?’) components to least amount of components, with each component counted only once. Ready? Which grab your attention…
Continue readingFiled under Concept, One-Line Synopsis, Story Master Wednesday
The One-Line Synopsis: What is it and how do you write one?
Time to expand the concept into a one-line synopsis. Continue reading
Filed under Concept, Monday Tool Day, One-Line Synopsis
