Thriller
Incident, protagonist, goal and a deadline
Free · private browser tool
Free Logline Generator
Generate loglines from a genre, your protagonist and their goal. Keep the strongest, sharpen it and start the story from it in Plot.
Logline generator
Six loglines for your story. Keep the one that sells it.
Choose a genre, then describe your protagonist and their goal, or leave them blank and let the genre fill them in.
Genre
Deadlines, witnesses and chases
Describe them the way a pitch would, without a name: who they are and what makes them interesting.
What they must do, as you would finish the sentence "They must…".
0 of 6 kept
Editing a logline or its note keeps that card when you generate again.
Your loglines
Thriller
Ends on what stands in the way
Thriller
Every part at once: stakes and obstacle together
Thriller
Incident, protagonist, goal and a deadline
Thriller
Every part at once: stakes and obstacle together
Thriller
Ends on what stands in the way
Opens as a new Plot project once you sign in or create a free account. Inkwell keeps this copy for 24 hours.
This board stays in the current tab. Open it in Plot, copy it or download it to keep it after a refresh.
View and select the export text
# Loglines 1. When a witness names the wrong man in court, a night\-shift translator must prove who really pulled the trigger before the jury reaches a verdict\. Incident, protagonist, goal and a deadline 2. When a routine delivery turns out to hold a sleeping child, a disgraced bodyguard must get the child across the border, but the border guards have been paid to look the other way\. Ends on what stands in the way 3. After a stranger leaves a phone with a running countdown on a café table, a disgraced bodyguard sets out to find out who sent it before the timer reaches zero, but every number it calls belongs to someone already dead\. Every part at once\: stakes and obstacle together 4. When a stranger leaves a phone with a running countdown on a café table, a retired safecracker must find out who sent it before the timer reaches zero\. Incident, protagonist, goal and a deadline 5. After a routine delivery turns out to hold a sleeping child, a disgraced bodyguard sets out to get the child across the border before the people who lost the shipment catch up, but the border guards have been paid to look the other way\. Every part at once\: stakes and obstacle together 6. When a witness names the wrong man in court, a night\-shift translator must prove who really pulled the trigger, but the real shooter is sitting on the jury\. Ends on what stands in the way
Useful output, not a score
What this tool gives you
Six loglines at a time
Each card is a complete logline: an inciting incident, a protagonist, a goal, and the stakes or the obstacle in the way.
Built on your story
Describe your protagonist and what they want, and every logline is written around them. Leave either blank and the genre fills it in.
Keep the best and rewrite it
Keep the loglines that work, draw again for the rest, and edit any card until it sounds like your story.
How to use it
- 1
Choose a genre
Pick thriller, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, horror, romance, drama or comedy.
- 2
Add your protagonist and goal
Describe the main character the way a pitch would, and what they have to do.
- 3
Keep and sharpen
Keep the strongest cards, draw again, then rewrite your favorite in your own words.
Questions writers ask
What is a logline?
A logline is a one-sentence summary of a story that names the protagonist, what sets the story going, what they want and what stands in the way. Writers use it to pitch a script or a novel and to keep a draft on course.
What is the formula for a logline?
A common shape is: when an inciting incident happens, a protagonist must pursue a goal before the stakes come due, but an obstacle stands in the way. Each card here follows one version of it and says which parts it carries.
What is the difference between a logline and a synopsis?
A logline is one sentence that sells the premise. A synopsis tells the whole story, ending included, in a paragraph or a few pages. Write the logline first: it is the test the synopsis has to pass.
Are my loglines saved?
They stay in this tab while you work. Open them in Plot to keep them in your projects, or copy or download them before you leave the page. What you type stays in your browser.
Defined in the glossary
Logline
One or two sentences that capture protagonist, conflict, and stakes — the shortest honest pitch of the story.
Premise
The basic idea a story is built on: a character, a situation and the conflict it creates, often put as a "what if." What if a weatherman had to live the same day over and over?
Inciting Incident
The event that breaks the protagonist’s ordinary world and forces the main story to start — early, concrete, and hard to ignore.
Stakes
What a character stands to gain or lose depending on whether they reach their goal. Stakes give the audience a reason to care about the outcome: without a cost to failure, even a dangerous plot feels weightless.
Protagonist
The character whose pursuit organizes the story — the person whose want, decisions, and costs we track most closely, even if they are not morally "heroic."
High Concept
A premise so clear and striking that one sentence sells it, such as "a bomb on a bus that explodes if it drops below 50 miles an hour."
Keep working with the draft
Free Plot Twist Generator
Generate plot twists around your own characters, each with the setup to plant early so it lands. Keep the best and write it in Plot.
Open toolFree Movie Title Generator
Generate movie title ideas from your genre and your story's own words. Keep the best and open your script in Plot with the title on its title page.
Open toolSave the Cat Beat Sheet Calculator
Enter your script's page count and get all fifteen Save the Cat beats on the right pages, grouped by act, with a beat sheet template you can copy.
Open toolStart the story from your logline, with every card you kept saved beside it.