Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of blog contests that involve crafting a one-sentence pitch for your novel. We even had one here! Writing one of these is a challenging process, and you can find lots of how-to’s in the online writing community. But until yesterday, I’d never entered one of these contests.
After the mad scramble to get my entry in, I read through the other pitches. What I noticed:
1. If a one-line summary is too general, it doesn’t capture my interest. It needs some specific details about the conflict or story characters. But too much detail makes it hard to read. I try to avoid long explanatory phrases or multi-hyphenated descriptions.
2. It gives you an idea of the kinds of stories other people are writing. If you were writing in a popular genre, e.g. a YA paranormal, your own summary would really have to sizzle. Some summaries stand out just because they reflect a different type of story.
After the mad scramble to get my entry in, I read through the other pitches. What I noticed:
1. If a one-line summary is too general, it doesn’t capture my interest. It needs some specific details about the conflict or story characters. But too much detail makes it hard to read. I try to avoid long explanatory phrases or multi-hyphenated descriptions.
2. It gives you an idea of the kinds of stories other people are writing. If you were writing in a popular genre, e.g. a YA paranormal, your own summary would really have to sizzle. Some summaries stand out just because they reflect a different type of story.
3. My own one-sentence summary could use some fine tuning. In the company of others, it was easier to see where it didn’t read quite right, or where it needed a bit of clarification or a little spark. This is the hardest part – trying to give it a little bit of sparkle when it’s so short!
-- Andrea
The little bit of sparkle in such a short amount of space is what trips me up, too.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you on the making paranormal sizzle. Seems like that's a hot genre lately.
So totally true about these contests! I realized how my elevator pitch looked in the middle of everyone else's! Nice to see what others are writing, too.
ReplyDeleteI learn so much from reading other people's pitch sentences. Plus it's a lot of fun. I'd make a terrible agent because I'd request about 50% of what got pitched to me.
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