Review & Giveaway: Finding the Core of Your Story

Have you ever had anyone ask you, “I hear you’re a writer. What’s your story about?” Usually, when this happens, I curl up in a ball of embarrassed fright and confusion, trying to figure out how to condense two hundred pages of manuscript into a manageable soundbite. Recently, however, I benefited from the advice of Jordan Smith, a filmmaker and friend from Holy Worlds Christian writing forums. With his help, I’ve been able to write a (decent) 1-sentence hook for my story—in short, a logline.

How is this supposed to help you? Can you get logline advice from Jordan, too? Well, you’re in luck: Jordan just published a book titled Finding the Core of Your Story: The Quick and Easy Guide to Writing a Logline. Here’s the description from the product page on Smashwords:

What's a logline? It's a very short description of the core of your story. It gets to the heart of what your story actually is and conveys that information in as little space as possible. Ultimately, it’s a tool you use to get busy people interested in your story.

Not only that, it’s a handy tool for keeping your story on track. If you don’t know what your story is about in a single sentence, you run the risk of meandering your story into places where it doesn’t belong.

Filmmaker Jordan Smith has earned a reputation as a logline guru. Now he’s written this fast-and-easy book to share his logline know-how with you. Inside, you’ll find:

- The Quick-Start Logline Chapter to get you going right away

- The four fundamental logline rules

- Useful chapters on nitty-gritty logline details

- More examples than you can shake a stick at

- And more!

You don’t have to be a filmmaker to use a logline. You just need a story that you want to tell. Whether you write novels, movies, or even operas, this book is for you. Every storyteller should be able to say in one sentence what his story is about. This book will help you learn to do just that.

I read this book—finished it in one sitting—and I definitely agree with the description above: Jordan’s humor and easygoing voice, along with the short and to-the-point chapters and practice exercises in each chapter, makes this book a valuable tool for any writer or screenwriter. Also, as a novelist, I appreciate the insight into writing from the screenwriting angle—Jordan presented his material in ways I wouldn’t ordinarily think of. Plus, it's affordable even for impoverished writers like me.

If any of this has piqued your interest, I encourage you to head over to Smashwords and buy Jordan’s book, Finding the Core of Your Story, here.

But wait. Remember the title of this post? I said there would be a review…and a giveaway. That’s right, three of you will be getting a copy of Jordan’s book, for free! So what do you have to do to get it?

Simple: comment below with a guess at how long my story’s logline is (a logline is one sentence, remember). The three people to get closest to the answer get a free copy of Jordan’s book. Be sure to leave your email address in the comment, so I can contact you with the code for your prize!

Enjoy guessing, and everyone, be sure to read Finding the Core of Your Story here.

Update: The giveaway is now closed. Thanks for participating!