Loglines and SAVE THE CAT

Last updated: July 2, 2026

Most story (and series) ideas fail at the level of concept. Sad, but true. I’ve learned this the hard way.

Of course, “fail” is a harsh word.  What I mean is not simply that they fail to become hits, or get produced, or get sold. It’s also that they don’t get writers that first step they usually need to turn professional.

Reprentation. By a legitimate manager or agent.

Why is that the case?

Well it’s not easy to achieve that lofty goal. It’s a very competitive field and space is limited for new writers and projects.

Also, you might say, access is the issue. It’s hard to get the attention of potential reps, to get them to read your stuff.

True. But it’s not impossible. And your chance of them doing that starts with the logline. They dismiss most loglines they see and don’t ask to read more. Why?

Somehow they fail to make them think, “Wow, that sounds like a story I’d want to see or read. There’s something unique about it, but also very real, and it seems clearly entertaining and compelling. I don’t have to ask a bunch of questions. I get it, and I’m with you.”

But here’s the point that I think is key about the logline: it’s not about shaping the words of the logline to “sell” your concept.

The point is to shape your CONCEPT until it can be expressed clearly in a logline that just works for people, without you having to do any “selling.” The logline is not the place to tease or hype or generalize — it’s a place to clearly and succinctly tell an idea that sells itself. 

The logline should stand alone. If more explaining is required, and more questions are necessary to truly get the idea, then that’s a sign that it’s not a concept that really works. It might be so well-executed that it makes for a good script, but it’s far, far less likely to get sold or produced or help a writer build a career in a significant way.

Because the BUSINESS of writing is concept-driven. And concept is what grabs the public. Concept makes a project marketable.

I used to always hate when people told me to focus on the logline and the big commercial high-concept idea, because I thought it was so limiting. I thought that most of my favorite movies couldn’t be expressed in a catchy logline.

And I will say that many great stories don’t necessarily have an enormous “wow” factor when you hear the two-sentence pitch. But I do think their loglines would sound like something compelling, unique, real, and entertaining.

It sounds like there’s a story there, that is worthy of being told, that many many people could enjoy. And that doesn’t require a lot more explanation to be able to evaluate it.

And it has that ironic “itch to be scratched” that Save the Cat talks about. It’s pregnant with possibility, memorable, has a clear central conflict and suggests a clear genre.

That said, the real thing I love about Save the Cat (and especially its sequel, Save the Cat Goes to the Movies) is not so much the stuff about loglines. It’s the ten unique “genres” Blake Snyder came up with (and the five sub-genres of each, with numerous movie examples, that are in the second book).

This new way of organizing the basic types of successful stories, that have been repeated over and over again, is truly revolutionary to me.

Rather than focusing on setting or tone (“war movie” or “comedy”), he much more usefully focuses on basic CONTENT – what’s happening in the story. And in doing so, he created a very helpful common language with which to discuss story concepts.

I’ve yet to read a script or manuscript where it wasn’t valuable to try to pin down which of these ten (really fifty) basic types of stories it’s trying to be – each of which has a few basic elements that are worth paying attention to.

And I think finding which one of these you’re really trying and wanting to write is incredibly helpful in honing your concept. Of course, you want your idea to be fresh and different in some way, but there is a flexibility within these basic templates that allows limitless creativity – while providing a structure to create within.