I attended a local writing workshop yesterday that was put on by the awesome Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. There is A LOT to unpack from the workshop, but I thought I’d start with one of the first sessions I attended, How to Write the Perfect Elevator Pitch. The facilitator, acclaimed literary agent Stephen Fraser, said that the point of the elevator pitch is to help the writer and agent make it easier for non-literary people (i.e. sales reps) to talk about our books.
Now, I initially thought this jumped like 18 steps ahead of where I currently am as a writer. My agent equipping sales reps with an elevator pitch about my story? Yeah, first I need an agent. Then a publishing firm has to agree to take on my book. Then said publishing firm must be big enough to have sales reps in the field ready to talk about my project. And once all of those things are in place, sure, then I’ll think about an elevator pitch.
But then Stephen mentioned that the first part of creating a pitch is to succinctly describe the essence of the story. What’s it about? What does it accomplish? Why did you write it? That last part obviously connected with me, given the theme of this blog.
Wouldn’t it be helpful, I wondered, to come up with a rough pitch of your story before you actually start writing it? Obviously, you should have the freedom to change the story during the writing process and the pitch doesn’t have to include specific plot points, but it could get at the essence of the story. What message are you trying to convey to your reader?
Something like: “This is a story of female empowerment” or “This is a story about celebrating what’s right with the world.” And then describe at a high-level how your story will accomplish that. I’d imagine this pre-story pitch would help you stay focused on your goal for the project as you create it (Stephen seemed to agree when I suggested it to him after his session).
So, after I finish with the brainstorming exercise I’m currently going through and choose my next story idea, I’m going to start with this exercise before writing the first word. And WDYC blog followers, you’ll be the first to see it when it’s finished…