Logline, synopsis, treatment or bible: which do you need?

Each development document answers one reader's question. The logline answers "what is it?" The synopsis answers "what happens?" The treatment answers "how does it play?" The pitch answers "why should I care, right now, in this room?" And for television, the series bible answers "how does it keep going?" Write them in roughly that order, and send only what someone has asked for.

This guide carries one invented story through all of them, so you can see the differences side by side instead of reading six separate definitions.

The sample story

"Last Crossing" is an original concept invented for this guide. It isn't based on any film or series. We'll use it in every section.

The setup: an island ferry is closing after the summer, and everyone on the island is leaving with it. Its captain, Ruth, has piloted the crossing for twenty years. On the last night, she finds a teenage runaway hiding in the car deck, and a storm is coming in.

Logline

Worked example · the logline (hypothetical)

When the island ferry she has piloted for twenty years makes its final run, a stubborn captain must get a teenage stowaway to the mainland ahead of a storm, or lose them both.

Notice what it leaves out: the backstory, the ending, the theme. Those belong in the documents that come next. A logline is a promise of a story, not a summary of one. If yours needs a third sentence, the story may not be clear to you yet.

Synopsis

Worked example · the synopsis, first paragraph (hypothetical)

Ruth Calder has captained the Saltmarsh ferry for twenty years. On the night of its last crossing, she finds Jonah, sixteen, asleep in the back of a parked van on the car deck. He won't say where he's running from. Ruth decides to turn back to the island and hand him over, until a storm closes the harbor behind them and the only way left is forward.

The full synopsis continues to the end, including how it ends. That's the main difference from the back-of-the-book copy many writers default to. A reader can't judge a story whose ending you're hiding.

One-pager

A one-pager isn't a separate kind of writing. It's a single sheet that packages the others: title, format and length, the logline, a short synopsis, the tone, and a comparable title or two. Producers and managers often ask for it after a query or a meeting, because it travels well inside a company.

Treatment

Where the synopsis says what happens, the treatment shows how it happens. Each paragraph should have a turn in it, the moment something changes, the same unit you look for when you break down a scene.

Worked example · two paragraphs of the treatment (hypothetical)

Night. The car deck hums. Ruth walks the lanes with a flashlight, the way she has a thousand times, and stops at a van with a cracked rear window. Inside, a boy is asleep on a pile of moving blankets. She doesn't wake him. She radios the bridge: turn us around.

She climbs to the bridge. Before her first mate can reply, the radio cuts in: the harbor master is closing the island port behind them. The storm has moved faster than forecast. Ruth looks at the dark ahead, then at the dark behind, and takes the wheel herself. Below, Jonah is awake, watching the lights of the island go out one by one.

Directors and producers read treatments to see the film before it exists. A director will ask of it what they ask of a script: where does each scene turn, and what must the audience see? That's the same thinking behind a director's prep workflow. Write the treatment so those answers are on the page.

Pitch and pitch document

A pitch is spoken. You have a few minutes in a room or on a call to make someone feel the story. A pitch document (sometimes a deck with images) supports or follows it: the hook, the world, the main characters, the arc, the tone, and why you're the writer for it.

Worked example · the opening line of the pitch (hypothetical)

"Everyone on that island is leaving. Ruth is the last one who has to, and she's the one driving the boat."

Notice that it isn't the logline read aloud. A pitch opens on the feeling: an image, a character, a question. The logline can come a minute later, once the room is leaning in.

Series bible

"Last Crossing" as written is a film: one night, one crossing. If it were a series, the bible would have to answer a different question: what happens next week, and the week after? Perhaps the ferry doesn't close. Perhaps Ruth runs the last private crossing to an island the mainland has given up on, and every episode brings someone aboard who can't go back. That's an engine. A bible without one is just a long pilot synopsis.

Side by side

Conventions differ between companies, countries and formats (feature, series, animation). Treat the table as a map of common practice, not a standard. When someone asks you for a document, ask what they expect to see.

Which to write first

For your own development, work from small to large: logline, then synopsis, then a treatment or outline for yourself, then the script. Each one tests the story before you invest in the next. If you can't write the logline, a treatment won't fix it.

For sending out, reverse the logic: send the smallest thing that answers the question you were asked. Most first contacts need a logline. A one-pager answers "tell me more". A treatment or a bible usually comes later, when someone is seriously considering the project.

Before you hand anything over

Writers are often asked to "leave something behind" after a pitch. For writers working under the Writers Guild of America's agreement with the studios, the guild is clear about this. Its handbook says:

Producers and studios should never ask writers to leave behind their pitch materials.

The handbook lists pitch notes, pitch decks, outlines and treatments as leave-behinds. In a separate section, about writers already under contract, it gives an extra-contractual treatment as a common example of free work writers get asked for. That's US guild guidance for its members. Outside the guild's agreements, practice varies, so decide before the meeting what you're willing to share, and when.

Practice exercise

Exercise · one story, three documents

Task

Take a story you're developing and write its logline, one synopsis paragraph and one treatment paragraph for the same moment.

Time

30 minutes

1. Write the logline in one sentence: who, what they want, what stands in the way, what's at stake.
2. Pick the moment your story turns. Write it as synopsis: what happens, in summary.
3. Write the same moment as treatment: present tense, what we see, where it turns.
4. Compare the two paragraphs. If the treatment paragraph has no image a camera could film, rewrite it.

OutcomeYou can see whether you know what the story is, what happens, and how it plays.