NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

ETA 12:03, March 25th, 2010: Alright, all, the contest is officially closed! Congratulations to cwolfe2009 and Ted Boone! We'll be in touch with you soon. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest, and we're stoked to see you all back for Script Frenzy!

The pitch: We're inviting all the novelists of NaNoLand to come write a movie, play, TV show, or graphic novel script with us in April for Script Frenzy. To celebrate the imminent launch of the Frenzy on April 1, we're giving away two slots in Lani Diane Rich's online novel-writing classes.

To enter, just post a logline in the comments of this blog, either for your upcoming Script Frenzy script or for a screenplay adaptation of one of your NaNoWriMo novels. What's a logline, you ask? Great question!

A logline is your one-sentence answer to the question: "What's your movie about?" On the rare occasion, you can stretch it to two sentences, but ideally, loglines are brief, packed with information, and exciting! That means a sentence with punch that will engage your audience and make them go, "Wow! I need to see that movie."

A tall order! To inspire all you creative folks, here are a few loglines for well-known movies:

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: A dashing archaeologist races against Hitler's Nazi forces to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, a weapon that could turn the tides of history.

Jaws: After a series of grisly shark attacks, a sheriff struggles to protect his small beach community against the bloodthirsty monster, in spite of the greedy chamber of commerce.

Rushmore: A precocious private high school student whose life revolves around his school competes with its most famous and successful alumnus for the affection of a first grade teacher.

Loglines can be tricky, but they can also be a fun exercise to start thinking about the script you want to tackle in April. Here's a logline for a screenplay I've been working on:

His parents wounded by the death of their beloved oldest son, a young boy desperate to keep his family together sets out to do the impossible: resurrect his brother.

So, one more time. To win one of two spots in Lani Diane Rich's novel-writing classes, just comment to this post with the logline for your planned Script Frenzy screenplay, or a logline for the movie adaptation of one of your NaNoWriMo novels.

Discovery: Discover the story you want to tell in the first stage of preparing for a novel. Great if you're ready to start planning for NaNoWriMo 2010!

Revision: Polishing your rough draft. This is for all you winning Wrimos deep in revisions for your incredible, but raw, novel.

For more General Class Information, check here.

If you've already signed up for her classes, or decide you want to and still enter the contest, Lani will refund your tuition if you win this contest! You can't lose!

Please include a link to your NaNoWriMo author profile or blog so we can get a hold of you and let you know you've won. Two winners will be chosen at random at noon, Pacific time, on Thursday, March 25.

Thanks to Lani, and good luck to you all! We're excited to see the loglines you come up with!

- Tim

Quick note: To defeat spammers, we review every comment before it's posted on the blog. Because of this, your logline may take a day or more to appear. Fear not! It'll get up there.