Concepts Premises and Loglines

Nailing down your theme, your main character, and the plot are a super start to writing a story.

But maybe you’re still hesitating.

I get it.

Let’s not call it procrastination.

It’s more like getting your ducks in a row.

Or filling your quiver.

Feathering the nest.

Building a foundation.

Prepping for a long journey.

Anyway, you get the idea.

So here are a few more tips to help you get started.

Figure out your book’s concept.

One sentence. What is the book about?

There are low concepts and high concepts.

A low concept is so, so basic: Boy meets girl.

Ship sinks, one survivor.

Stray dog needs a home.

Yes, all of these are so basic as to be ho-hum.

A high concept adds more tantalization.

• Boy falls in love with a girl from a family that his own family hates.

• A ship, built to be unsinkable and laden with treasure, goes down in icy waters and no one survives except for one person.

• A dog, who has made a life out of running away, wonders if he made a mistake this time.

A premise is very similar to a concept.

The difference is that a premise uses specifics rather than generalizations.

• Stanley falls in love with Mathilda despite the fact that she’s from the hated Smith family of dealers and con artists who are to blame for the death of Stanley’s youngest brother.

• Rosemary’s Quest, laden with treasures from fifteen countries, mysteriously sinks and disappears, and only the ship’s captain is found alive by a passing fishing boat.

• Rover the skittish dog has always relied on his instinct to run away when things look bleak, but this time he might have made a mistake.

Still one sentence—two sentences are acceptable—but a premise has more flesh on the bones.

Finally, write a logline.

A logline is also one or two sentences, but this one introduces stakes—what will happen if the worst thing that can happen does.

• Stanley and Mathilda fall in love and run away from their warring families until Stanley’s father gives him an ultimatum. Will he leave the love of his life or destroy his relationship with his beloved father—all in the name of his derelict and dead brother.

• The ship captain is the sole survivor of a treasure-laden ship and claims to know nothing about its whereabouts or what happened. The captain better get his story straight before the men who save him discover his secret: He knows where the treasure is.

• Rover the dog’s instincts to run away have always served him well, but this time if he keeps running, he risks losing the best home he’s ever had—and the best friend he’s ever had, too. But returning means facing a dangerous beast and putting his life on the line.

Once you’ve figured out your concept, premise, and logline, write them on a card to put near your laptop to refer to whenever you get stuck.

These tools are a lifeline for when you’re sinking in the murky middle—the section of a work-in-progress famous for losing writers.