Sex Magic, witchcraft, pornography charges, tabloid headlines ? In 1950s Sydney, Rosaleen Norton was extremely naughty, but did the scandals overshadow an artistic genius?

This is more of a tagline than a logline.

A logline is designed to sum up the story in one sentence in as fewer words as possible – ideally under 35.

This site not only has a great Formula page that explains all the different elements making up a logline, but now there is also a logline generator (link in the top navigation).

Whilst what you’ve written paints an interesting picture of this character, a reader of a logline will need to know more specifically what the story is about. The story could be about a 1950s artistic genius, but it could be set in modern day with an enthusiastic reporter uncovering her life’s work and trying to change people’s perceptions of her.

With that in mind, and having checked out the formula and generator pages, give us a logline that tells us exactly what’s going to happen in the story. Inciting incident, protagonist, and goal (minimum).

Only other thing worth mentioning is that the usual practice for using names in a logline is not to as it takes up valuable words and adds nothing. Biographies can be an exception but usually only when the person in question is well known enough so that the name carries weight. It might be that Rosaleen Norton is very well known in Australia so by all means leave it in, but if she’s not that well known, consider using those two words to describe her instead so we know more about who she was. This is assuming that she’s the protagonist. I, personally, like the idea of somebody else looking back on her life and trying to prove that she was an artistic genius and change people’s perceptions of her but I have no idea if this is the story you want to tell.

Hope this helps.