Questions As A Pitch

Moving on from making the plot into questions, I also thought it clarifies the mind as to the over all theme or character arc by transforming the story into a question (or several questions).  

Will Elizabeth find true love, while sticking to her principles? (Pride and Prejudice)

Will Briony ever be able to make amends? (Atonement)

Can Jennet balance the demands of her husband, her children and her art? (An Equal Stillness)

Yes, it makes them all sound like a trailer for a B movie, but it does capture the essence of the books, the 'what it's really about'.  In fact, thinking about it, the blurb for Adultery for Beginners used the question format: Can an adulterous wife be a good mother? which neatly encapsulates the theme.  

Pitches are so hard to do - it has to be worth a shot at least!

The Elevator Pitch 2

Yesterday I looked at combination pitches, a type of pitch I'm not very happy with myself, but if you've got the chutzpah to carry off, great. If not, don't worry as you need to develop the longer elevator pitch - the 25 worder - for your covering letter anyway and you can use that.

Start with writing down the answers to the following questions.

Who is your main character? What's the most important information about them?

What do they want? Why do they want it?

Why can't they get it? What/who stands in their way?

How do they try to get round it?

What's the setting?

What's the story about? What's it really about? (is there an underlying theme/message eg love conquers all, triumph over tragedy, the role of women in today's society)

Now try writing a pitch using your answers and trying to be as specific as possible, and following this formula:

This is a story about X who wants Y but is prevented by Z so tries A, and in the end B happens.

This is a story about Isabel Freeman*, back in the UK after 15 years abroad, who wants something more in her life than being labelled a wife and mother in provincial suburbia, so she starts a job that leads to a passionate affair with her boss which then goes wrong.

That's 50 words. Is it any good? Well, it covers the main points and tells us who, where, when, what and why (the theme - women's loss of identity when they're wives and mothers). It's low concept - there must be thousands of books that this pitch could describe - but it's the pitch for Adultery for Beginners and it worked for me!

*Technically, film elevator pitches don't name names eg housewife instead of Isabel, but they work better for books by naming the characters. I suspect this is because films tend to be more plot driven, books character driven, but don't know for sure.

At last! I've got my finger out and have committed to running some day courses:

Writing a Novel - 31st July in Bath and 18th September in Truro

Getting a Novel Published - 1st August in Bath and 19th September in Truro

Contact me on sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk for more info...

The Elevator Pitch 1

The elevator pitch is a term from the film world. You imagine that you happen to get into the same lift as a producer, and you've got from the ground floor to the 14th floor - a journey of about two minutes - to try to interest them in the premise of your film. That's the elevator pitch.

As writers we might use an elevator pitch in two circumstances. Firstly, someone says: what's the book about? Do you say...

a) Gosh, well, um, it's sort of about this woman and she's feeling really unsettled in her life, but then she gets a job, and her husband doesn't want her to, but her friend has fixed her up with the interview so she goes - they've only recently moved into the area - did I say they were ex-pats? Well, anyway, she starts this job with this bloke etc etc etc....

b) It's about a woman who has an affair which goes wrong.

If you're anything like me, your natural instincts when put on the spot tend towards verbal diarrhoea coupled with a blank brain. Most people need to practise their pitch to enable them to come up with something short and succinct.

The second circumstance is in the covering letter. This is a brief selling summary of the story you're telling, and you're supposed to be able to do it in twenty five words. I think anything up to about fifty would be okay.

So, having established what it is, and when you'd use it, how do you write it? I've got two formula, one for today, one for tomorrow.

1. When you take two already established films/books/genres and put them together, or put an established film/book in a new setting. Alien was famously pitched as "Jaws in space". Eoin Colfer pitched Artemis Fowl as "Die Hard with fairies". I once pitched Adultery for Beginners as "Joanna Trollope with more sex and a wider vocabulary" but tragically couldn't keep a straight face while doing so. You need to have something you can actually say without wanting to die, which is why the combination pitch is so tricky. It's either fabulous (Jaws in space) or it's dreadful.

The other version is thankfully less cringe-making - but more on that tomorrow.

At last! I've got my finger out and have committed to running some day courses:

Writing a Novel - 31st July in Bath and 18th September in Truro

Getting a Novel Published - 1st August in Bath and 19th September in Truro

Contact me on sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk for more info...