The logline is the heart of your story, and summarizes, in one or maybe two sentences, the hero, his problem or goal, the main conflict, and ideally also what is at stake if the hero fails. Usually it does not suggest outcome.
Using Narata and your creative powers, you will flesh out the following logline structure:
When <interesting event or problem happens>, <interesting hero> decides he/she must <hero’s goal>, or <high stakes>.
Some examples:
-
When a serial killer kidnaps a senator’s daughter, a talented rookie FBI profiler decides she must find and stop the killer by enlisting the aid of a brilliant cannibalistic psychologist, or another innocent victim will die.
-
When highly professional terrorists take over a corporate building, a hot tempered off-duty cop decides he must stop the terrorists alone, or his wife and everyone else will die.
-
When he can’t get work, a male chauvinist actor decides he must pretend to be a woman so he can get a role on a popular soap opera, or his career will be over.
It’s vitally important that you make sure your logline gives the reader an idea of what kind of opposition and problems the hero must overcome as he pursues his goal.
Once you start developing your story in more detail, your logline should be expanded to include the names of key characters and places, and maybe also some other elements. This makes your concept feel more solid and less anonymous. In the examples above, you would probably include: Clarice Starling, FBI Academy, Hannibal Lecter, and Los Angeles, John McClane and Michael Dorsey, Tootsie, New York City.
Even if a card seems totally irrelevant, give it an extra chance before discarding it.
1. Sort Your Deck
Sort all your Narata cards into smaller decks, one for each category, with backsides up. Lift a few cards off the top of each category deck (about a quarter will do) and gather them into your wild deck. To tell the category piles apart, use the ten extra cards marked with the nine categories and WILD.
2. Character and Setting
Draw three Character cards, three Location cards, and three wild cards. Place them to your left, faces up. Study the cards. Look for compelling character and setting combinations, occupations, personalities, or other things suggested by the cards. Jot down two or three possibilities that appeal to you. Discard any cards you feel are superfluous.
3. Problem or Goal
Draw two Goal cards, two Activity Cards, two Event Cards, and three wild cards. Place them to your right, faces up. Study these cards, and compare them to the ones on the left and what you have written down so far.
At this point, complete loglines may occur to you, which is great if it happens. But your goal right now is to choose a specific main activity for your hero that he will engage in throughout your story.
Examples:
-
A policeman in the countryside, struggling to survive a disaster.
-
Students going to the beach, planning to have a great time.
-
A teacher under arrest in a small town, striving to clear his name.
3. Finish the Logline
Draw two cards each of the following categories: Creature, Society, Situation, Object, and add a card from your wild deck. Place them between or below the two groups of cards already on your desk.
Take your time studying these new cards. Compare them systematically to the other cards, and to the ideas you have already written down. Take more notes. Even if a card seems totally irrelevant, give it an extra chance before discarding it.
Your goal now is to choose all the components that make up a good logline: an interesting hero, an interesting event or problem, a goal for the hero (and what problems or opposition he will face), and what is at stake.
When <interesting event or problem happens>, <interesting hero> decides he/she must <hero’s goal>, or <high stakes>.
In each session, push yourself to create two or three loglines you think are pretty good and which you could see yourself developing into complete stories. Part of the purpose of this exercise is to get used to working hard on developing solid concepts, and the randomness of the Narata cards helps your mind go places it would not otherwise go.
Of course, the Narata cards are supposed to work for you, not you for the cards, so when you start having ideas that don’t emerge from the specific cards you’re presently working with, it means Narata magic is happening! If the cards should insist on your Die Hard should have an ageing archeologist running around a skyscraper knocking off bad guys, then it’s time to tell the cards to shut up, so you can take your story where you know it needs to go.
