Yesterday, I was honoured to be a panelist at a fund-raising event for the library in the historic neighbourhood of Olas Altas in Mazatlan, Mexico. We six authors spoke of our experiences getting published. I shared my enthusiasm for perfecting the all-important ‘pitch’. It’s ironic that after years of writing the many thousands of words that comprise the manuscript, selling it may come down to a dozen words. A ‘log-line’.
“Impossible.” “Won’t do it!”
I’ve heard writers react like this — because they don’t or can’t or won’t ‘get it’. The truth is, a) it’s extremely difficult to distill the essence (or heart or point) of your story into a line or two. And, b) if publishers and producers are buried in manuscripts, which they are, then we need to cut to the chase. And, c) writing the perfect pitch can help the writing process.
Let’s look at ‘c’. The heart of a story is like a treasure map on which X marks the spot. The point of a story is like the peak of a mountain – why did we climb it? The climax of a story is a bomb, one that goes off inside the protagonist. If we can’t explain our story in these terms, then maybe we don’t really know our own story. Practicing the pitch can help.
The perfect pitch is powerful, not only because it may sell the book, but because to know the story gives us power in the writing of it. Knowing exactly what we’re writing gives us the advantage of standing on a high hill, seeing everything. Having a perfect pitch is like being king of your story’s world.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey I read your book ROXY and she is so much me. you must have a 17 year old daughter who inspired all the details. the part where the guy takes the ringing cell phone out of the goat’s butt had me on the floor. my mom’s brother has a farm and his goats eat everything not nailed down so, it could happen. Hahaha. But ewwwww where the phone was still ringing and the guy answered it. ewwwwwww!
No, no 17 year old daughter…buy maybe I’ve got a 17 yr old brain. Or maybe the brain has little compartments of arrested development , so that we have all our ages going on at once, and we can chose to visit any one of them. Of course, we would normally want to live in the most highly evolved part of our brain, because that’s where we enjoy the highest degree of sophistication and savvy. But what a shame if we couldn’t appreciate some low-brow humour when we feel like it. Like cell phones in a goat’s…