On today’s Writing Prompt Wednesdays post, we go over elevator pitches.
Imagine if you are on an elevator with Michael Bay (or Hollywood director of choice). As he got on one floor, you heard him complaining that he doesn’t have the next big project to direct. You know you’ve got the project he wants, but he’s getting off on the very next floor. You have 10 seconds to convince him to buy your manuscript. What do you say?
Elevator pitches are single sentence concept statements that contains the central essence of a manuscript. Generally speaking, an elevator pitch should fit on the back of a business card (using a font size no smaller than 10) without running over the edges. If the pitch is bigger than that or requires smaller font, then it’s too long.
When pitch writing, there are several items to consider. First, remember your audience. You might want to have several pitches ready in case one agent has a thing for vampire cats while other agents hate anything with the word vampire in it. Also, some books lend themselves to being compared to other properties. For instance, Latchkeys the Series is “Scooby Doo meets Goosebumps meets Doctor Who.” And still other pitches identify the essential conflict of the book and sometimes include the consequences of failure.
If I were to come up with a pitch for Iron Man (the first movie), it would be something like “Alcoholic billionaire inventor saves the world in a mecha suit from the one man he trusts the most.” Okay, this is a little long, but I hope I’ve made my point.
Da Prompt: Pick 5 movies / television series, each one of a different genre (mystery, science fiction, fantasy, soap opera, etc.) Write 3 pitches for each of these. For extra credit, follow up these by writing 3 pitches for your own work in progress.
Da Wordcount: A single sentence, no more than twenty words.
NOTE: For those who have seen Iron Man 3, look at the first 5 minutes of the movie as what NOT to do. Aldrich Killian tries to get Tony Stark’s and his current fling’s attention for a pitch, and fails miserably.
Have fun! Let me know if you have any questions regarding this particular exercise.
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Writers are frequently asked the question “Where do you get your ideas?” The question is a hard one to answer because we all find our inspiration in different places. Some people need to be given prompts, little snippets of ideas to spark their imaginations.
With that in mind, I am posting Writing Prompt Wednesdays. The goal is to inspire writers with exercises meant to train their skills and fire up the creative juices. There are rules. Most prompts will have associated word counts or style instructions. These are not meant to restrict the writer, but give the writer a chance to explore different ways of writing.
If you are an author in search of that one juicy idea, I hope these posts help. If you have ideas for writing prompts, please let me know.
Da Rules:
1) Anything goes so long as you stick to the spirit of the prompt.
2) I ask that if you do publish something based on one of my prompts, that you post the good news (and the link) in the comments of the prompt that inspired your success. You want other people to help you celebrate, right?
#sfwapro
