Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Pitches, bitches

I'm working on my pitch for the Emerald City conference this weekend. Ick. I should be better at pitches, I write them a lot for my day job. I also give them a lot for my day job. But that doesn't make it any easier.

The best guidance I've found for in-person pitches is Diana Peterfreund's "Pitch and Roll" workshop at Romance Divas forums. You can find it in the "AOTM" section of the forums. She breaks down the necessary components that a pitch should have.

It's hard as hell writing one. When someone asks me what I'm writing, I usually respond with a much too long and convoluded response including a lot of "this happens and then this happens and then..." I feel like I'm in that scene from "Dude Where's My Car." (A link for those who think I'm crazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPjhPLrvUKg)

Anyhoo. I'm trying to find descriptive tags for my characters and it seems that all descriptive words have left my brain. I'm also trying to narrow down the conflict to something interesting and believable. Proving to be difficult as well. But, I'll git 'er done.

Why am I pitching instead of letter querying anyway?

3 comments:

Elisabeth Naughton said...

For the experience. For the connection. For the networking. THAT'S why you pitch when you can (and you still letter query everywhere else).

I'll be around tonight, so if you want to run your pitch by me (bwahahahaha), you know where to find me. ;)

And don't stress. You'll do maaaahvelously. I can feel it.

Lisa Pulliam said...

Yeah, yeah, yeah ;-) I hate it when you're right! Agh! :-) I'll definitely be running it by you tonight. I need an encompassing word for "self-sacrificing." I know there's a word out there, but it escapes me.

I may also be asking your advice to pick between a couple of Halloween costumes ;-)

Paty Jager said...

Don't worry, You'll be fine! I haven't even started thinking about my pitches yet. I need to reaquaint myself with both my books before I leave on Friday morning.