How To Turn Your Logline Into A Pitch

Many writers struggle with coming up with that perfect logline for their project - let alone writing one, and then it's time to take that and turn it into a pitch. Well, it can all become pretty intimidating rather quickly! 

Luckily for you, our fab guest post today is written by TV writer (Hollyoaks) Drew Hubbard - where he shares a step-by-step process on how YOU can turn your loglines into a pitch each and every time. 

So let's begin by handing over to Drew!
 
Struggling with the dreaded pitch document, a new writer challenges himself to improve, or face worrying about them forever.

Why now? Why me? - I always thought that all I needed to do was write a script, but the closer I got to breaking in, the more I discovered that the script is only half the battle. You must be able to sell it first. But how do you turn pages of carefully considered dialogue and action, into a single page? I realised I better learn.

Relevant Backstory - Since 2015, I've been doing a quick and easy exercise to generate ideas. I turn a word-of-the-day, into a one sentence idea for a tv series/feature. The only rule; it must be original. I wanted to get in the habit of instantly thinking up ideas, should I ever get asked, “we want a show about X, any suggestions?”. You can take the word literally, or free-associate it. If you try this now, you'd have over 200 ideas by the end of this year. (I use this one).

Synopsis - These ideas fuelled my 12 week logline-to-pitch challenge. Out of the 365 ideas from 2015, I chose the ones I felt had legs and inspired something in me. Those 40 ideas where then carefully narrowed down to the 10 strongest concepts. I turned each idea into a logline (see “relevant info” below).

I gave myself 12 weeks to turn them into one-page-pitches. Why 12 weeks? Well, I had a plan.

Week 1: Work out genre, format, flesh out characters, and outline the pilot episode, or full storyline if it was a feature.

Week 2: Move all those ideas into my one-page-pitch template (see “beyond the challenge” below), and roughly flesh it all out. This often amounted to 2 or more pages.

Week 3: Condense into 1 page. Keep the sizzle of the idea, but be clear, concise and compelling.

I started with the first logline. In week 2, I also started week 1 of the next logline. So, by week 3, I was working on three ideas at once, all in different stages of development. This way I could gradually find my rhythm of working simultaneously on several ideas.

After some initial feedback from peers, I realized my original template wasn't quite right and needed some tweaking. Once I found a template that worked *for me* I was off.

Slowly, the process of crafting a one-page-pitch became easier. Honestly. It started to become second nature writing a compelling synopsis in only a few paragraphs. What was once a thing to be dreaded, became fun.

This was a challenge about pitches, but it also had the added challenge of fleshing out new ideas with a fast turnaround.

It helped that I didn't have a deep emotional attachment to a rigid concept, and I was free to change things up. I found that thinking up interesting B stories, and minor characters wasn't necessary, as they often didn't make the synopsis anyway (save them for the treatment right?).

I also used thesaurus.com a lot. I mean A LOT. Finding a single interesting, active word, that said more than a few words could do, was my saviour in keeping my synopsis short. It added another layer to my challenge. How much white space could I add to the pitch?

So 12 weeks went by, and I printed off my final pitch with a smile. Now, I'm not saying these pitches are perfect, but they're a damn sight better than the kind I reluctantly churned out before my challenge.

If I'm honest, I would spend a little more time on them before I sent them out to a production company, but the important thing is, the hard work is done.

I feel much more confident in turning my latest spec scripts and ideas, into compelling one-page-pitches, and I can approach them with confidence.

Beyond the challenge - This is going to become a regular thing for me. It was a great exercise although next time I think I'll perhaps do 4 in 6 weeks instead.

Thinking of trying it for yourself? Awesome. You'll need to find a pitch template that works for you. There's loads online, so find one, or several, and adapt them to suit the way you write. As for my layout... well, I laid out this article with the same headings as I use for my pitch. Title at the top, logline underneath. A little about why I wrote it and why now.

A little about backstory (or world of the show if it's set in a world unlike ours, such as my dark-comedy set in an infertile 2050). My synopsis also introduces the characters.

I have a little section about what happens beyond the pilot (skip this for a feature obviously), and occasionally I'll have a little bit at the bottom that gives any relevant info I couldn't fit in elsewhere, like if the script won a competition, if it's a book adaption, or a brief description about concepts the reader my not be complacent with (such as info about cheerleading stunts for my kids series).

Relevant info – Loglines. There's plenty of stuff on the internet about how to shape one, but ultimately you end up with something like: 

A (specific event) forces a (specific protagonist) to do (something active) against a (specific antagonist)

Or

A (specific antagonist) must do (something active) against a (specific antagonist),
to reach a (goal) or face a (stake)

                          

Anyway, I hope this article has been of use to you.

Please try out my word-of-the-day idea, and even give the 12 week (or shortened) logline-to-pitch challenge a try.