So the writing community's version of March Madness is all set for the hosting round. For most of us who entered, we've been benched and get to watch the rest of the action from the sidelines. But just like any other talent, you can choose how you want to use that time. Do you sit on the bench and sulk, wallowing in your misery?
You can. It's your choice. Personally, I think suppressing all your disappointment and sadness isn't healthy. But don't waste all your time on it. Give yourself a day, or a week, to indulge your feelings a little. Acknowledge them, take a little time for self-care, and then pull yourself up and get ready to work.
Because your other choice is to watch the winning team and learn from them. Read their pitches, once the agent round begins. Look for others in your age category and genre; see what they're doing that works, and apply those techniques to your own manuscript. Admitting that your writing is flawed is HARD, people! Our stories are so often personal, a snippet of our souls, that sharing them and then facing rejection can feel devastating.
Finding out that your truth wasn't quite good enough? That can be even harder.
But it's all fixable, if you stick with it. Don't take yourself out of the game. Google everything. Read about how to pitch online, in person, and via Twitter. They're all different. Read about comma usage, if that's where you struggle. Read about how to use beat sheets if you struggle with pacing. Try the if/then method. Fill out character worksheets until you know each character, no matter how minor, better than you know your own family. Read up on settings, historical eras, poisonous plants, futuristic technology, whatever your story needs to make sure it's believable.
Then go out and look on Amazon for all the top-selling books in your age category and genre. Read as many as you can get your hands on, and start with the most recent ones. You want to know what sells right now. Read the reviews people have written of those books, dissecting them. What did people like, and why? What bothered readers?
And find yourself a small crew of critique partners and beta readers to work with. You don't need that many, although some people like having several at a time. For me, I have one tried and true CP who reads all my work after a couple drafts. She is amazing and thorough and puts me under a microscope. I have a few other new ones, and we're still testing out our relationships to see if we'll work well together. Finding your people can take time, but it is so incredibly worth it. These are the people you'll thank in your acknowledgements. They're the ones you'll want to call when you finally get that offer of rep, when that contract comes your way. And they'll keep you sane in the meantime.
I keep forgetting to add this: Critique for other people. If you can start reading other people's writing more consciously, looking for errors deeper than basic grammar, figuring out what you liked/disliked and why, you start to develop those skills to apply to your own stories. I have a much easier time analyzing other people's work than my own. And sometimes I can come off too harsh, unfortunately, so I'm working on honing my own critiquing skills. But the more you do it, the better you get at breaking things down and seeing the nuts and bolts of how a story ought to work.
So...ahem. On to something slightly more concrete. My pitch for Pitch Madness was not great. I didn't put as much time into it as I needed to. But during the reading round, I had time to sit down and (again) read over advice from the pros on pitching, and I hope what I crafted is going to land me some requests. I had to entirely scrap the way I had been structuring my 35 word pitch and start over again. As much as that sucked, sometimes it's necessary.
Here's the pitch I entered:
Seventeen-year-old Emily has two weeks to write a novella or she’ll flunk English and lose her full-ride scholarship. Then her characters start arguing with her—unless she’s losing her mind. And that’s her worst nightmare.
It's not awful. It identifies the MC right away, without spending too many words on her. I found, after feedback, that readers needed Emily's age to know whether she's a college or high school student. So that's the WHO. WHO your pitch is about needs to be clear, but sometimes we get too wrapped up in wanting to tell about how cool our MC is that we waste space on extra details. Keep the WHO slim.
WHAT is next. That's the challenge, your MC's main obstacle. In my case, it's having to write the novella or flunk and lose her scholarship. So I've laid out both the obstacle and the stakes (why she has to overcome that particular challenge).
HOW is last. HOW is tricky. And it's part of where I think I failed in this pitch. HOW is more subtle - which path is she going to take, and why, and how does it affect her ability to overcome this obstacle? (You don't have to answer all of those questions at once, but those are the kind of things at play here.) Without some reason here, you end up with "My character is going to rob a bank today because I said so." Instead of "My character is going to rob a bank today because he's been out of work for eight months and he's already sold everything he can, including a kidney, and he's out of options because the bank dropped off a foreclosure notice that morning." It's why any of this matters, and why it should matter to the rest of us.
Here's my newly drafted version, after I spent half an hour trimming it from about 50 words down to 35:
Emily dreams of curing the disease that took her mom, but school’s too expensive. When an eccentric teacher’s magical typewriter triggers her fear of inheriting dementia, she must face her fears or lose her scholarship.
I'll admit, I still don't think it's perfect, but it's getting better. We still have the WHO up front, but I decided to eliminate the age. I think it gives a rough impression of her age, especially since it's YA. It's enough to go on.
You'll notice I backtracked on the WHAT here. (This is the part I'm not sure about yet.) The premise of having to write a novella or lose her scholarship is downplayed, but I'm hoping with the addition of WHY, it will work out.
HOW/WHY is given much more space in here. WHY should you care about this story? Because it's about invisible illness. WHY does Emily want to go to med school? Because of her dead mom. WHY does the magical typewriter freak her out so badly? As a person with a family history of dementia, I can tell you first hand that it gets to you. Forgetting things, mis-remembering things, feeling confused...it's not a pleasant worry to have hanging over your head. Anyhow. All this makes Emily a much more sympathetic, and interesting character. Her plight becomes more interesting, more nuanced, as well. The connection from A to B to C isn't as clear as I'd like it, but it feels stronger to me.
As always, if you have thoughts, comment away! If you want to hit me up on Twitter and talk about pitching, you know where to find me. @ me, or DM me if we follow each other.
