5 Ways Treating Your Story Like a Screenplay Can Help

"Loglines help you get the basics of a story right."

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.

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I have always thought that experimenting with different forms of writing can allow works to feed into each other and provide a new taste to the regular work. I have written short stories, novels, articles and even that one single poem I still can’t believe is my work (because hats off to poets! Telling a full-fledged story in a few lines which often rhymes is amazing and difficult work.)

Yet, I had not delved into screenwriting for a long time and have never written a full-length screenplay. But I like to explore various kinds of writing to get better at my craft. So, I took a Screenwriting class by Varun Grover, an Indian writer famous for the film Masaan.

After the short online course, I started writing loglines and synopses for the rest of my work, be it an article, novel or short stories.

While writers who pitch books or scripts may already know the art of writing the two things required for the pitch deck, and how much it helps in the editing process, I was pleasantly surprised to see it work for me.

Here is how it may help you as well:

1. Loglines help you get the basics of a story right.

The logline usually defines the Inciting Incident + Protagonist + Stakes + Conflict. These are the four pillars of any story that help to keep the reader hooked.

For example, the first Mission Impossible movie had the logline, “Under false suspicions of disloyalty, IMF agent Ethan Hunt, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.” From this you know what it is about and still curious to know more.

Now, I understand that the first draft is for the heart. At times, you may be writing from a scene, a character, or just an idea. I do the same, and write from the vibe that I had at the start without thinking of where the story might go.

Yet, after that comes editing. Once you start writing a logline of your stories, you will be surprised to know how many times we forget about the basics, thus slowing the pacing of the story and failing to allow the reader connection with either your characters or the plot. You might not even realize what is missing until you break it down.

For example, a personal essay I wrote recently only had two things, incident and protagonist: “I lost a gold ring today.” It might have sufficed to draw the reader in because of implied consequences. However, I wrote it down for myself to make sense of the direction it was going to take, “I lost a gold ring today at a wedding, and it was not even mine.” Now the stakes and conflict made it easier for me to keep the readers hooked until the end.

2. A synopsis can help you jot down the major beats of your story.

A synopsis is essentially telling your story from start to end with all the major plots and characters.

Before pitching an article, I always have a list of points written down to help me write the piece, once accepted. This not only stops me from going in blind to write the piece but also provides a neat structure. Yet, I never thought that this could work in fiction writing too.

When I wrote my second novel, I wrote it on the go. It was only when I had written it all down and I tried to write a synopsis of it that I realized that the story was meandering without any plot points to hold it down.

My sister’s feedback, “It was nice but something is missing!” made sense. The story had the basics but it felt loose in the middle with no plot advancement. All the major things happening were concentrated in a few chapters. I was skipping from chapter ten to twenty with just one line in the synopsis. A big problem arose with so many words and yet no need for them. Now, I know where I have to work to make the story better.

3. A synopsis can help you fill in the plot holes.

When you are writing the whole of your story down, with all the plot points, the major character arcs and the conflict resolution, you realize what does not work for your story as a whole, and also the connecting dots that may be missing.

Be it adding a secondary character that will help in going from Act 1 to Act 5, or a sub-plot that was just there to fill the pages and did not serve the major arc of the story, it will reveal itself in the synopsis.

4. A logline or synopsis can help you choose the narrative structure to employ.

The ancient roman poet Horace had the advice to start the story from medias res, i.e. from the middle. Yet, not every story can follow this. And it can be confusing to decide where to start, to make sure it is a high point, and also ensure you are not going too much into flashbacks to establish the story.

So, when you have the basics of story through logline or if you have written it from start to finish for the synopsis, and you have all the major beats of the story in front of you, you can better identify the point of interest where your story should start, and what can be shown later.

There are times when I have started my stories closer to the end than the beginning because that part interested me more. It also helped in adding the actions that were important to the story and take out the information that could easily be implied rather than shown.

Similarly, I have also started earlier for a few stories because there was too much being shown in flashback or implied through later actions.

5. Logline and Synopsis help you better sell the story to yourself and the others.

“If you can’t tell your story in one line, you don’t know it yet.” I did not believe in this line often told in writing tips till I actually started using this practice.

In the screenwriting class too, it was repeatedly emphasized that you need to love the story you are selling because you might be sitting with it for years. The instructor was talking about scripts but even with some short stories that are doing rounds of the magazines for me right now, it applies. It is only my belief in the story that helps in sending it out, despite many rejections.

How do you do that when you don’t even know it inside out to love it?

I’ve realized how important it is when you are essentially forced to write down the best from your story to make sure it appeals to readers. I have changed a lot in my stories too because it didn’t make sense when selling it in few words. Anything that might make it clearer in my head can help in presenting it neatly to the reader too.

Only a handful of magazines may actually ask for a tagline or synopsis of your story in the cover letter. Yet, it helps me to write at least a logline before I start editing my story, and a synopsis if I still feel the story lacks in its content.

So, if you are stuck with a story, try distilling it in a logline to make sure you have the components to keep the audience reading, and a synopsis if you need further help.

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