7. Log Lines, Log Lines, Log Lines

29 March 2025

Alison Rocket Ross

This time on AARON (35) LANDSCAPER…

Note: I’m still leaning towards dead body in the neighbors lawn, just letting it cook. And all of this is part of the process so we must proceed!

Upon review of our last session, I got to thinking, what if we combined some of those inciting incidents? For instances #8 Aaron has to leave while his apartment is being fumigated and #7 Aaron joins a dating app. We push them together to get this log line…

When Aaron is forced to leave his apartment for pest control, he joins a dating app to find couches to crash on.

It’s an interesting idea, but my main concern is that it’s so wildly out of character for Aaron. He’s the kind of guy that would just sleep in his car if he had to. Not to mention his extreme fear of intimacy and attachment. But you can see how these combinations can be valuable while sorting out your story.

Ok, something else. How about #12 Aaron walks into a bar and finds a horse and #3 Trivia night gets cancelled indefinitely. Which leads us to something roughly like this…

Aaron arrives at his weekly trivia night to find not only is the event canceled indefinitely, but there’s a live horse at the bar.

…which is not helpful. It doesn’t tell us anything. It just sounds like a silly brainstorm (which it is).

So why am I wasting your time with this?

To shed the bad ideas. Sometimes writing sucks. We trudge through mountains of our own idiocy to find tiny little grains that we can actually use. I find it to be an excellent exercise to try out different ideas even if they ultimately lead to nothing. We’re not wasting time, we’re just exploring. You want to be writing your story thinking what if I had only gone that other way… When we commit to an idea, we’re gonna go hard into. Tear it apart. Break it down and rebuild it. So make sure you like where you’re going or it’ll be another one of those half-projects.

Moving on…

Let’s try one more.

#5 One of Aaron’s Friends goes missing.

Now this one has potential. It’s something unavoidable and out of Aaron’s control. It shakes up his world and he cannot simply walk away from it. He must make some decisions.

From a visual standpoint, it makes sense that he’d be at trivia night and this friend, who is there every week, is gone. We can jump right into it. Lots of staring at the door while the world happens around him. Considering trivia night is Aaron’s one big night a week and these are his only friends, it would hit him harder than most that this person is absent.

Boom. We got ourselves a mystery.

I’m thinking slow build. The other friends think nothing of it. Aaron goes home to his ANTS with a bad feeling. But what can he do? Call? No answer. Maybe this person is on vacation. Aaron doesn’t know.

Soon after, the missing friend is on the news. There’s a nationwide search for this somebody.

Note: Things to avoid unless you have a really good idea avoid cliches like the missing person was secretly involved in the cartel or something. It’s better to keep it simple here so we can focus on Aaron.

This is quickly turning into something like a buddy cop story. Or better yet, the trivia team gets together to do some detective work. Scooby and the gang! Through their search for their missing friend, Aaron finally gets to feel like he’s part of something. Like he belongs. Only problem is… when they find the friend, things go back to normal and he’s not ready to give up the new found camaraderie.

Now that… that’s interesting. We have a lot of options here. We could even make Aaron slowly turn into a bad guy if we wanted to.

An ensemble cast of characters. A mystery. Desperation. I’m picturing a comedy, maybe even a horror comedy. Throw in a love story and we got it.

Log Lines

I’m not editing these as I go, so… bear with me.

After a friend goes missing, a quiet landscaper and his weekly trivia group team up to find answers.

In search of their missing friend, a weekly trivia group uses their random knowledge and inquisitive nature to uncover the secrets of their friend’s sudden disappearance.

In the midst of a nationwide missing persons search, a trivia group bands together to bring their friend home in time for the trivia playoffs.

Aaron, a shy landscaper, must rally his trivia team to find their missing member after they disappear out of thin air.

Aaron, a shy landscaper, must rally his trivia team to rescue their abducted teammate before the cartel takes revenge. (See, this one’s dumb).

Ok, that’s about enough of that.

I can see some of the scenes in my head. More like shots. It’s colorful. Funny, but turns into a thriller pretty quick. Like if we crossed The Hangover with any of those “whodunnit” limited series on Netflix. I’m not keen on writing murder mystery and this would have to have so many moving parts…

Let’s go back.

Log Lines for Finding A Body in the Neighbor’s Yard

After digging up a skull in the neighbor’s yard during a landscaping job, Aaron must tread carefully as he investigates a potential homicide.

Secrets, lies, and whatever emerge in a gated community after a landscaper digs up a skull in the governor’s yard.

Note: You don’t have to get all the words right the first time. Just like the opening scene, we’re going to be fine tuning our log line. I’m just writing whatever comes to mind as quickly as I can.

When Aaron digs up a skull on a landscaping job, paranoia plagues the the quiet community.

Paranoia, panic, and accusations lead to civil unrest in a formerly quiet neighborhood after a landscaper digs up a skull in the mayor’s lawn.

Let’s take a second to breathe. These log lines are… fine. But I’m finding the good ones aren’t true to Aaron. He’s demoted from main character to random landscaper. We could make that work, but I’d rather push through Aaron instead of setting him off to the side.

Although…

Paranoia, panic, and accusations lead to civil unrest in a formerly quiet neighborhood after a landscaper digs up a skull in a neighbor’s lawn.

This, but we see everything through Aaron. I’m thinking Rear Window mixed with that episode of The Twilight Zone where the power goes out and everybody turns on each other. (Plus that’s more my writing style).

Faster paced than I was anticipating, but if we just accept that this is going to be a thriller, then I think we’re on the right path.

Next time, let’s really dig into that story. We can start coming up with ideas, scenes, characters. 

I’ll show you a little trick I use to boost the suspense and up the ante.

Off to cook!

-Rocket