The Writer’s Playground Series – Logline Challenge

Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series!

Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft.

Today’s Exercise is

Logline Challenge

Objective: To practice distilling a story idea into its most compelling, one-sentence summary.
How to Play:
1. The facilitator provides a single, broad theme (e.g., “Betrayal,” “Discovery,” “Sacrifice”).
2. Everyone has five minutes to write a complete story logline based on that theme. A good logline includes a protagonist, their goal, and the primary conflict.
3. The group shares their loglines. This exercise reveals how a single theme can branch into countless unique stories and provides everyone with several new concepts to explore.
Best for: Developing a story’s core conflict, practicing pitching ideas, and brainstorming.

This is an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, list of themes to get you started:

Revenge	Betrayal	Justice
Loyalty	Honor	Sacrifice
Redemption	Forgiveness	Greed
Ambition	Jealousy	Courage
Mercy	Duty	Conscience
Freedom	Power	Corruption
Revolution	Conformity	Prejudice
Equality	Tradition	Progress
Order vs. Chaos	Community	Utopia
Dystopia	Propaganda	Legacy
Destiny	Fate vs. Free Will	Faith
Doubt	Mortality	Immortality
Truth	Illusion	Identity
Purpose	Meaning	Creation
Destruction	Time	Memory
Love	Hate	Fear
Hope	Loss	Grief
Obsession	Paranoia	Innocence
Guilt	Loneliness	Belonging
Madness	Desire	Nostalgia
Survival	Discovery	Escape
Conquest	Invention	Transformation
Growth	Decay	Isolation
Connection	Beginnings	Endings
Secrets	Family	Home

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