Need help with novel pitch

[waldenwriter]

I'm going to the San Diego Christian Writers' Guild fall conference Sept. 25-26, and they are having faculty consultations there. Basically, you sign up for 15 minutes with a "faculty" person - which includes people from various backgrounds - and, if you're a beginner, they can take a look at what you have and give advice.

I would like to present my current novel-in-progress to someone during this conference - preferably to three people, since you can sign up for up to three faculty consultation appointments. (It's iffy if I'll even get that, since the appointments are first-come, first-serve, and I won't get priority cause I'm not a Guild member). You can read more about my novel here.

My main question here is for help writing some sort of pitch to show at these consultations. I won't have time to present a full proposal, obviously. But I'm thinking I could just write some short thing to give to the faculty members to look at. (beckyminor suggested something like that to me in another thread). But I'm drawing a blank on what exactly such a thing should include, etc. Please help!

[JenLenaMom]

You should probably include your hook, the main conflict and maybe a brief suggestion of how it gets worked out. Seems like Jeff had a tip about this. Or maybe it was a post at WTME.

Found it! www.wherethemapends.com/writerstools/writers_tools_pages/publishing_biz_pages/synopses.htm

Writing a good synopsis for the synopsis writing challenged, lol, excellent name!

I (and probably others) would love to help you refine it once you get a rough draft done.

[beckyminor]

I have read in multiple places that editors fully expect your synopsis to be the worst thing you've ever written, which gave me some comfort.

But I would absolutely follow the link JLM gave you and distill what you could do from there. The info there is great. I would also take a look at Marcher Lord Press's submissions area for ideas. Getting your book boiled down to a 10 word hook, a 100 word premise and a 750 word synopsis is an excellent (though grueling) exercise. If you can get your story into words with that kind of economy, you should be able to pitch it to someone no matter how short a time you have with them. (Just don't even THINK about trying to do so in a bathroom. I heard a horror story from somebody...maybe Chip MacGregor...about a guy who tried to slip him a proposal at a urinal. Aaaak!)

One of the best nuggets I read at the Wherethemapends link is that a synopsis is NOT a summary. It makes 750 words a lot more useful when you are trying to explain the reader's "take away" and not give every awesome twist in your plot.

Good luck with getting the one sheet, or whatever you come up with together. And try not too pull too much hair out!

[waldenwriter]

Good news! I just sat down to type up my pitch, and I realized I already had written a summary sentence, summary paragraph, and short synopsis in the process of the novel design plan I was following. I looked at them and felt they might work. I used my summary sentence for the hook and my 1-page synopsis for the synopsis. I didn't use my summary paragraph for the premise because the synopsis basically just takes the 5 sentences in the summary paragraph and fleshes them out, so I felt to also put the summary paragraph would be redundant. I just took the basics of the story and summed them up in a sentence (granted a very long sentence).

Just thought I'd update. The conference starts tonight with a roundtable/award dinner, then most of the action happens tomorrow.

[beckyminor]

What a relief to find some of that work already done!

Enjoy the conference...I'm sure you'll have a blast.

[Christian Soldier]

Have fun!

[waldenwriter]

Thanks Becky and CS! I'm back from the conference now, and I'm glad I went. It was still rather nervous-making, since everything was so new to me. But I went to three good workshops -- a beginner's one on what beginners need to know to write and get published, one on brand identification, and one on fiction proposals -- and had three successful faculty consultations. All three of the faculty members I went to liked my story, especially the last one who said I had a good story going and even offered to connect me with someone she knows who is a successful Christian fantasy writer.

We also had the privilege to view a clip from Dallas Jenkins's upcoming movie, since he was there as a faculty member.

I met some nice people, including a woman much older than myself who also writes science fiction. I even mentioned The Anomaly to a couple of people - the sci-fi-writing lady and a lady who was in the hotel shuttle with me who offered to connect me to some lady who, among other things, does stuff for Second Life (a sort of MMORPG).

So that's my report.

[beckyminor]

Sounds like time very well spent WW! I hope those introductions give you a great foot in the door somewhere down the line.

[waldenwriter]

I hope so too! I sent e-mails to those two people today, and so we'll see what happens. I never expected to get possible connections of that sort at my first writing conference.