Pitching Tips

First off, think “economy of words”.  Be stingy.  Pretend you’re going into a cash-only store to buy enough supplies to survive on a deserted island… and you have $10.

Make.  Each.  Word.  Count.  

Hell, make your punctuation count.  Get funky with your structure.  Pick words that are VIVID, EVOCATIVE and LOADED so your reader’s imagination is doing the lion’s share of the work.  There are shades of meaning to words— use this in your favor!

Also, don’t get cute.  Lots of pitches have a quick little cutesy “and it was only Tuesday” or “and that was before Mom found out” type tags at the end.  Let me say this now— not on Twitter, baby.  There’s no meat to it!  Cut it out!

Another tip that may sound relatively uninintuitive is to ditch the trope and theme altogether.  Like I had said in my tips for pitch contests, we’ve all heard the general story before.  Redemption.  Quest.  Coming of age.  Tweet ONLY what makes your pitch original.  Lots of people save the world, tons of characters are special and don’t know it.  Take a moment to discern how to tell your story in non-confusing specifics only.