Pitch Perfect
Okay, maybe it shouldn’t be pitch perfect. I’ve been putting the start to my pitch for the York festival later this month and doing a lot of research on how to do a perfect pitch. The one thing is though there is never really a perfect pitch – something that is perfect for one person may not be perfect for another, but I can be pitch prepared, pitch perfected (for me) and pitch profitable – okay profitable is a stretch, but its linked to marketable and begins with a P. The research has basically turned up the same things – all stuff that you would expect really.
- Set up, Hook and Resolution all need including.
- Short and attention grabbing – at most 2/3 sentences, ideally the size of a tweet to hook your audience.
- You can use a combination of books/film to give a clear idea of the story e.g. James Bond meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer mixed in with Nancy Drew (Now that would make an interesting book!)
- Needs to describe the main character.
- Needs to show the heart of the story.
- Needs to have a compelling central idea.
- Needs to explain the core conflict.
- Needs to show the differentiating factor.
- Needs to show the setting.
- But shouldn’t just use lists.
That’s hell of a lot to put into a couple of sentences and that’s without even trying to condense 90,000+ words to less than a paragraph or two minutes of speaking. Luckily I managed to find a copy of the logline to the fantastic book – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/1407109081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299186296&sr=8-1) – side note if you haven’t read this trilogy you really should it’s amazing. Anyway here was the logline:
In a future North America, where the rules of Panem maintain and control though an annual television survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place.
How good is that is shows you:
- The main character and her age.
- The main conflict.
- How its different – the whole kids fighting on tv thing – gladiator meets big brother.
- The setting.
So using that as a base, I worked on for ideas myself and emailed them out for some feedback and this is what I came up with:
- In modern day Britain, the underground elemental world of the Guardians is facing a rebellion against their Elite system and both sides are pinning their hopes and expectation on sixteen-year-old Abigail Cooper, still grieving from her mother’s strange and untimely death and much more interested in her ‘normal’ life, regaining popularity and boys than her ability to control fire.
- Headstrong sixteen-year-old Abigail Cooper will fight against anything she doesn’t like whether that be enemies at school or being forced into the elemental world of the Guardians, where she expected to learn how to control fire and become a proper Heir to the royal Elite, the monarchical like ruling system that includes her mother’s ‘murderer’.
- The elemental world of the Guardians is in conflict as a rebel group tries to upset the system of monarchy and take over and both sides see their savour in sixteen-year-old Abigail Cooper who has little interest in the system or controlling fire and just wants to return to her normal life of boys, regaining popularity and sport.
- Sixteen-year-old Abigail Cooper is a runner, both physically and mentally, she avoids thinking of her mother’s death, the elemental world that she has been dragged into and the fact that she is losing her popularity at school that is until injury stops her and she turns to a rebel organisation that will help her throw fire in the face of the Guardian Elite that she is an Heir to.
I’m waiting on feedback from people – so if you have any idea which you like, comments would be really appreciated. I’m really not sure with one I like the most – I did come up with my TV/Book/Film parallel though.
The Vampire Diaries (books) meets Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV Series) set against the backdrop of the French Revolution in modern day Britain.
Then of course there are all the things to do on the day:
- Don’t talk about the process – no one needs to know how you got there, just that you did.
- Don’t pounce on people.
- Don’t verbal vomit – remember to breath and pause between words.
These two articles were the most helpful on finding all this and they go into much more detail including explain ‘The Hunger Games’ tagline in full.
http://www.writing-world.com/publish/pitch2.shtml
http://www.writing-world.com/publish/pitch.shtml
So what else have I been up to – well pitch procrastinating. I picked up a copy of ‘The Mockingbirds’ by Daisy Whintey (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mockingbirds-Daisy-Whitney/dp/0316090530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299187481&sr=8-1) a while ago after hearing a review on a podcast and well it’s been sitting in the bottom of my bag waiting to be read. Well yesterday after the battery in my kindle died out, I pick it up, think I would just read a chapter or two while I waited for brothers 4 and 5 to finish school. Needless to say I got instantly hooked (I was finished in less than a day), which is strange really as it’s a date-rape story but it was really compelling. Each chapter kept you turning. All the characters were well rounded and interesting. The protagonist when through a strong character arc. It kept you questioning what was going to happen next while still feeling sympathy and drawn into the main character – who grew stronger with page. And most importantly it had just the right ending – not a happily ever after all the problems fixed but justice was done and the main character showed she could get through this – she offered real hope. Its definitely going on my recs to others list and my reread list, not that I have time to do that. But now I do need to stop procrastinating, even if it is on great books and get back to pitch preparation mode.
Talk again soon.
p.s. Anyone able to spare some cash giving to charity please, visit my brother’s website and support the Sheffield Children’s Hospital – http://givingwild.com/