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As you might already know, there are a lot of people here willing to help you with your comics. One of the biggest problems I see on this forum is that people post very long essays on their idea and never really get to the meat of what their idea is all about.

LOG LINES
I think it would help a lot of people here to pretend like they're pitching a movie to a Hollywood producer. The first thing a producer is going to want to hear is a "log line." A log line is a single sentence that sums up your story. It's not as easy as it sounds! If you are having trouble summing up your story in a single sentence, maybe you need to work on focusing what your story is about. Here is an example of a log line based on the movie Iron Man:

Playboy billionaire industrialist and inventor Tony Stark builds a robotic suit to escape from terrorists, and becomes a superhero to stop rogue executive Obadiah Stang.


THE PITCH
So assuming the producer digs you idea, you now give him a treatment or pitch. For our purposes I'm going to request you keep the pitch to one paragraph. Here you can go into some more detail. I wouldn't go much longer than this:

Tony Stark runs Stark Industries, a multinational arms company. While demonstrating weapons in Aphganistan he is kidnapped by terrorists. They try to force him to build a bomb for them, but instead he uses his ingenuity to build a robot suit and escape from them. He decides that he's been irresponsible, so he builds an even better robot suit and becomes a superhero. After discovering his own company is supplying weapons to terrorists he must stop the evil rogue executive Obadiah Stang!


WHAT NEXT?
So now hopefully you've sold the idea! Okay, so there are probably not any real Hollywood producers on this forum (but who knows?) However, every day at least 3 or 4 people post story ideas in this forum, and this will ensure that people actually READ your idea rather than skipping over it. Believe me, when most people are given a giant WALL OF TEXT they don't read closely as they would have if the idea was more organized.

If you want you can write some short summaries of characters. Something short like this:

Tony Stark
Age: 37
Tony Stark is a brilliant inventor who owns Stark Industries. He is a heavy drinker and womanizer. He is also the Super Hero Iron Man.


But what about all those details you've spent so much time figuring out? Don't worry about them right now. Right now you're just introducing people to your idea. If people are interested, they'll ask you questions and it's then when you should elaborate.

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Here is an example of how to format a post like this:

LOG LINE
Playboy billionaire industrialist and inventor Tony Stark builds a robotic suit to escape from terrorists, and becomes a superhero to stop rogue executive Obadiah Stang.

THE PITCH
Tony Stark runs Stark Industries, a multinational arms company. While demonstrating weapons in Aphganistan he is kidnapped by terrorists. They try to force him to build a bomb for them, but instead he uses his ingenuity to build a robot suit and escape from them. He decides that he's been irresponsible, so he builds an even better robot suit and becomes a superhero. After discovering his own company is supplying weapons to terrorists he must stop the evil rogue executive Obadiah Stang!

THE CHARACTERS
Tony Stark
Age: 37

Tony Stark is a brilliant inventor who owns Stark Industries. He is a heavy drinker and womanizer. He is also the Super Hero Iron Man.

Obadiah Stang
Age: 59

Obadiah Stang is a ruthless executive of Stark Industries who is jealous of Tony Stark. He manages to take over the company. He also sells weapons to terrorists.

[...]

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Very helpful. I'll be editing my idea thread to include one of these, so you will perhaps grace it with your presence. =)

EDIT: Done!
Seriously forms like this make it a lot easier, because when they have long essays people can much more easily take apart their idea, even if some people don't want them to.
Thanks for posting this up. I'm sure it will be helpful for some people.
You've aided me greatly, Catbrush.

I need only format the characters now...
I salute you, sir catbrush, and your superior optimism. (That is, I don't think it'll help.)

But good on you, and anyone who actually posts a decent pitch rather than a ramble about something that may or may not be a story. Now for a way to tell the difference from the subject line...
Very nice. I think we all appreciate the time you've taken to put this together. I'll try and edit mine later today. smile
CatBrush
Here is an example of how to format a post like this:

LOG LINE
Playboy billionaire industrialist and inventor Tony Stark builds a robotic suit to escape from terrorists, and becomes a superhero to stop rogue executive Obadiah Stang.

THE PITCH
Tony Stark runs Stark Industries, a multinational arms company. While demonstrating weapons in Aphganistan he is kidnapped by terrorists. They try to force him to build a bomb for them, but instead he uses his ingenuity to build a robot suit and escape from them. He decides that he's been irresponsible, so he builds an even better robot suit and becomes a superhero. After discovering his own company is supplying weapons to terrorists he must stop the evil rogue executive Obadiah Stang!

THE CHARACTERS
Tony Stark
Age: 37

Tony Stark is a brilliant inventor who owns Stark Industries. He is a heavy drinker and womanizer. He is also the Super Hero Iron Man.

Obadiah Stang
Age: 59

Obadiah Stang is a ruthless executive of Stark Industries who is jealous of Tony Stark. He manages to take over the company. He also sells weapons to terrorists.

[...]


You have no idea how much I laughed at the use of Iron Man for this. Very awesome write-up Cat. Gold star!

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WillieHewes
I salute you, sir catbrush, and your superior optimism. (That is, I don't think it'll help.)

But good on you, and anyone who actually posts a decent pitch rather than a ramble about something that may or may not be a story. Now for a way to tell the difference from the subject line...


Well, the whole "HUGE WALL OF TEXT" thing is pretty common here, so at least now people have a thread to point to and say "can we get something like this from you?" It would be cool if we could get some more threads like this, because a lot of times it feels like you have to say the same thing over and over again around here. smile

Benevolent Genius

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User ImageShocking...

I love the idea! Thanks for this.

...isn't it?User Image
I edited mine to give it a proper pitch, perhaps you could critique it?
This should be a sticky...

so that writers can use it...

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Yes! Argh, I get so tired of reading through a wall of text before having any clue.
CatBrush for president.

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This thread is useful. Really useful. I could get used to linking people to this thread.

Would you mind if I copied this thread and made it a sticky on the Smack Jeeves forums?

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