An uninventive children’s author, whose supposed dreams have long been documented in his bedside journal by a mysterious ghostwriter, wakes up to a shockingly blank journal upon the release of his debut novel.

This is a working logline for a short story (not a film per se), nevertheless I thought I would share it here just to get some feedback on whether or not the logline in question is effective.

Edit: I’ve just come to realise that there isn’t really a stated goal, nor is the conflict/stakes as clearly implied as I feel it could be. If that is the case then let me clarify that the protagonist is heavily reliant on the seemingly self-writing dream diary because it has become habit for him to plagiarize from the prose it once contained (though the protagonist tries to persuade himself that the book is based on subconsciously written tales of his own dreams and therefore doesn’t see it as plagiarism). Evidently his writing career is at stake when the book reveals itself as being an other-worldly entity, and not that of his own subconscious.

Despite this I’m still curious how the logline holds out as it is. Needless to say, the current logline is structured like so: “[A compelling character], [status quo/antagonistic force] and [inciting incident].”