The Restless Writers have had some challenges this summer.
The pages and word counts have evaporated kinda like sweat. It’s been a summer of renos, indexes, puppies, and house hunting. Our meetings have gone down more like patio parties and opportunities to kvetch about our lives and ‘honey-do’ lists. But there is hope! We have all managed to share new ideas and bring the early workings of new-fangled projects to the table (along with brie and butter tarts).
We have pitches. Four of them.
Creating a pitch can be a bit like peeling back the layers of an onion. We all know a well-crafted pitch begins with a brief sentence that describes the book. So we started there, then followed it with character and situation information. We did this while taking into consideration three key story sparks and of course, the ultimate hook. We managed to come up with a structure that worked for us, while keeping in mind that we were pitching to each other as a writing group and not agents. We were pitching ideas, not complete projects.
And this is how we did it.
THE PERFECT PITCH:
- WORKING TITLE
- LOGLINE (i.e. one sentence summary)
- GENRE (i.e. YA/Women’s Fiction)
- WORD COUNT
- SIMILAR BOOK TITLES (or similar author’s style)
- MAIN CHARACTER (and main character’s goal)
- SITUATION
- CONFLICT
- DISASTER
- STORY RESOLUTION
Perhaps this is a template that you too can use while you pitch your new project to your peers. Try it for a few different projects before you settle on one. While it is a bit scary, it’s totally worth it.
Now the real work begins. We are about to begin plot summaries and outlines.
Our pitch of a Summer is setting us up for a fantastic Fall!
Andrea
bjas
Sharon
Maria
Restless Writers 
Yay for perfecting your pitches! Love the formula. 🙂 I think figuring out a pitch early on in a project makes a huge difference in terms of keeping the writing focused. I’m at that exact stage now — sorting through early brainstorming and notes, etc, to clarify what the story is (or what I think it is!). I need to write a decent pitch before I go much further. Thanks for this post…you’ve inspired me!
Hey Shari! Thanks for the comment. Pitching can be fun. With me, it’s a good kick-start on the road to writing. Hope it gets you moving too. Good luck with going all the way!
I’m going to my first-ever writer’s conference in October and there is a “Pitch Slam” session on the second day where we get to meet with as many agents/editors as we can in 90 minutes at three minutes a pop.
I’ll admit the idea scares the bejeesus out of me. But I plan to look at this PITCH list between now and then to be REALLY sure I know what I’m doing.
I figure life itself is a learning experience. And my nerves about this weekend won’t kill me.
Right?
It is quite scary the first time you do it, but once you do it, it can be addictive! Your adrenalin takes over. Enjoy the rush and good luck!!!
Hi Folks: While I am not a “writer” per se, I enjoy checking in on you folks, and have nominated you for a One Love Blog award. If you accept the nomination, and of course you don’t have to accept, you are supposed to nominate 15 of your favourite blogs. Good luck with a productive fall season. Kim
Wow, what a lovely surprise! Thanks kp! We will add this to the agenda for our upcoming meeting. Thanks again for visiting and for thinking of us. and by the way, you are EVERY bit a writer, and I love your blog 🙂
Thanks B….nice to see your face again!! Kim