Pitch Day

I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be for my first pitch session. A few practice runs at lunch with Pete and Charlotte and bob's your uncle. Good to go. To be honest, I'm just looking forward to it being over now. It's completely distracted me all week, to the point of missing a meeting I really shouldn't have missed. Damn.

In a companion article on Pitching by Christopher Lockhart (again thanks Julian for sending me the link!) he had many words of wisdom that I shall try to follow tonight. Here are my crib notes from the article: "The Construction of a Pitch"
http://twoadverbs.web.aplus.net/pitcharticle.htm

• Be Organized.
• hit the most crucial aspects of the story.
• Blossom from rudimentary to more complex.
• Avoid the desire to tell too much.
• Use visual aids to provide greater comprehension.
• Don't express the theme of the piece.
• "Less is More"

And here's his recommended Pitch Order:

- Present the Genre (very important)
- Open with a question or an "imagine" scenario to engage them.
- Present the rudimentary storyline - the logline.
- Introduce the Protagonist. Can include the fundamentals of the protag's arc
- Then go into a more detailed account of the story throughline.

• Take the simple route.
• Convey the major conflicts
• take the story to the conclusion

- AFTER the beg/middle/end, then you can add some details.

There seem to be as many rules to selling a script as there are to writing one. I guess it's like learning new terminology at a new job. Once you know how it works, it becomes second nature, and you forget about all the restrictions, and get on with the task at hand.

Still, does sort of make me want to work on my novel instead. ;P