WARNING: this might turn into one of those, "Hannah-blabs-about-her-past" posts, but hopefully it will lean towards the, "Hannah-draws-from-her-past-to-help-other-people." Imma aim for the latter, but I MAKE NO PROMISES.

This will also be mildly short since I am leaving on a trip and won't get back till Wednesday. I STILL LOVE YOU THOUGH.

Ehem. Anyway.

I am currently editing the first draft of last year's nano book, The Dream Walkers. I picked it up after I finished draft two of The Thief's Conspiracy last month. I had not touched DW since writing the 94k first draft in the 30 days of nano, so you can imagine I was a little nervous when I finally sat down and opened up the document.

After all, my only other nano novel was ... not good? XP I mean, it took me a whole stinkin' year to finish the second draft. Despite feeling good about DW, I was bracing myself for a mess.

But ... I didn't really get one.

I opened the document and started to read, and I was so surprised. I'm not saying it was perfect by any means. It still has its issues.

But it's not a completely hopeless wreck like Draft 1 of TC was. I scrapped pretty much all of that book's first draft. And it still needs so much work.

But DW ...

My point is: editing The Dream Walkers is already a completely different experience from editing The Thief's Conspiracy. I'm actually sending DW to a couple of betas, which I could not do for TC.

Which leads to the point of this post. Why I titled it what I did.

We all know the phrase, "Every writer is different."

But it's the same for books. "Every book is different."

I can see you staring at me like, "Um ... yeah?"

Perhaps I should rephrase.

Every process of writing a book is going to be different.

Each book is going to come with a new set of challenges and a new set of perks. Each story you create will present new problems you have not faced before, and new pluses that you didn't know you were capable of.

Each book you write is going to teach you something new about the writing process, and how you function best. How you create stories best.

Each book you write is going to change you, both as a writer and as a person. It will change how you see the world, and it will change how you see those around you.

Books are such magical things, both to read and to write. And edits can be soooo tough. I've been there. Draft 2 of TC was the most horrible, rebellious child I have ever dealt with. Even though I had a feeling DW was going to be nicer to me, I didn't believe it until I started. (I still don't trust it, actually. I'm waiting for the bomb to go off.) It's turning out to be my little precious baby that's just a doll of loveliness and manageability.

Polar opposite of TC.

But I still love them both.

Where am I going with this?

Writers are different. They have different and unique processes. Some techniques work for them. Some do not.

And the same goes for their stories.

Books are different. They often require different and unique processes. Some techniques that worked on other books won't work for them.

So don't get discouraged if the Snowflake Method you used to plot your last novel isn't working. Maybe this book needs something different! I sure planned this book differently. I realized the other day that I did one of my own big personal "no-no's" in the planning of the story, but that's actually what made the characters so strong.

Keep writing, and don't be afraid to try something new!

Have you ever had a method fail you when it previously worked wonders for you? Have you messed around with different ways to write/plan stories? What have you found? 

I used to hate pitches. But now, crazy as it sounds ... I actually really like them? Like, a lot? I KNOW. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME, RIGHT? Summarizing your whole book in a sentence? That's supposed to be every writer's worst NIGHTMARE.

But. That statement ('summarizing your whole book in a sentence') ... well, it's rather misleading.

A pitch is a sentence long hook for your story. Not a summary. It's not like a synopsis, where you need to spill all the secrets and tell the story from beginning to end.

It's the main concept of the story. It's the root core. It's the huge plot thread that carries the book from beginning to end.

If you've written a book blurb, you've already got a good start. But if you haven't, no worries! You can read my guest post on Katie's blog (it was about a year ago that I did this, but remains one of my favorite posts I've written. I really like blurbs!) or you can just start from scratch.

See, with a blurb, you have a little more room to flesh out what your story is about. You can go into detail about the characters and backstory and the inciting incident, along with the rest of the plot.

Your pitch? It's so much easier than you might think.

It's basically your inciting incident, with a hint at the story goal.

So,

Inciting Incident + Story Goal = pitch

See? I did the maths. So easy.

But really. It's that simple!

Let's break this down, shall we?


Some terminology first: the inciting incident is the big Thing that happens (usually in the first three chapters) that kicks the story off. It's what makes things interesting. It's what drags readers into the story and sends them on a journey.

I'm going to use The Dream Walkers for an example, since that's the book I'm taking to the Minneapolis Young Writers Workshop this summer and I need to get a pitch written! Plus, I just started edits so, why not? XP

The Inciting Incident in DW (The Dream Walkers) is: After a dare goes wrong in the land of dreams, Jake does not wake up when the morning comes.

This starts the story because it gives my cast a crossroads. Wait for the doctors to discover what's wrong with him ... or go to Dream World and try to find him.

What starts your story? Find the point and boil it down to a sentence. Then you have the first part of your pitch.

And this flows right after the Inciting Incident. It's kind of the "obvious answer" to the inciting incident. Especially obvious in my case.

The story goal in DW is: Jake's siblings must travel to Dream World to find him and bring him back to reality.

Now it's going to be hard to simmer the book down like this. But you need to focus on how the book starts off. Most of my pitch is resolved within, like, fifty pages. It's the latter part (bring him back to reality) that takes up the bulk of the story.



You're probably glowering at me and mumbling, "but Hannah. Now I have two sentences. How am I supposed to simmer it down to one??"

Don't worry. If you put my two sentences together as they are:

After a dare goes wrong in the land of dreams, Jake does not wake up when the morning comes. Jake's siblings must travel to Dream World to find him and bring him back to reality.

Kind of ... halting, isn't it? There's some stuff I can cut. I could probably get away with cutting the whole "Jake doesn't wake up part" and just hint at it in the later half of the pitch. Like this:

After a dare goes wrong in the land of dreams, Jake's siblings must travel to Dream World to find him and bring him back to reality.

And I miiiight even be able to cut the first "land of dreams". Let's see what that looks like.

After a dare goes wrong, Jake's siblings must travel deep into Dream World to find him and get back to reality.

In the case of this pitch, I was able to cut about half the inciting incident off. Now this is just a rough pitch which I'll want to run by some people, but it's a start.

It's a fairly straightforward process. I mean, only three steps, right!? I know it's tricky, but you can do it! I BELIEVE IN YOU.

Now for some practical advice ...


A pitch is only a sentence long. Once you get the basic elements down, write three or four. See which style you like, find the right wording, etc. It doesn't take long and will help you polish it up. I'm going to write several versions of my above example, since I'm not in love with it yet. Maybe I'll find some wording I like!


I'm not sure if the "conversation pitch" is a thing? I kind of made it up, but someone else has probably thought of it too. But since I've never heard it elsewhere, I've been calling it a conversation pitch. If you know what it's called, shout out in the comments!

Anyway.

Here's the thing.

A professional pitch has closure.

Which is really good for, you know, professionals. That's what you want.

But in the case of talking to friends about your story, well ...

I gave a friend my pitch one time, just as I had written it (because that was what I'd read to do somewhere). And it was so awkward. It was awkward trying to say it and it was awkward after saying it. Everything about it was just ... UGH.

I immediately wished I hadn't spoken it like I was reading it off a paper. It's not that it was a bad pitch, and I knew that a pitch was a really good way to explain what your book is about to friends. But the professional pitch just felt so awkward. What to do?

When I went to the workshop that summer, I was more prepared. I had an official pitch written for the editor who was going to critique my work. And though I didn't actually write a more casual one, I had the pitch swirling in my mind so that when someone asked me what my book was about, I was able to edit it a bit.

My official pitch was short and clear, but I let myself be a little more relaxed for in-conversation one. For your amusement, here's what our conversation went like.

Person: so what's your book about?

Me: it's about a slave girl whose little sister gets sold.

Person: oooooh.

Me: and then she's got to find a way to free her before the buyer comes back and takes her away.

Person: oh, that sounds interesting.

Me: thanks! There are tigers and princes and investigators and assassinations and circus stuff and ... yeah, it's been fun to write.

You get the idea.

What am I saying?

I'm not saying to lose your professionalism.

I'm saying make it into a conversation. Let the other person speak a bit too, exchange some thoughts, and talk about it! If you have a pitch, you've got a great way to talk about your story to people. You'll be much more confident, and you can make a conversation about your book. (How fun is that?) You just have to present it the right way.

Annnnd that was a long post. XP I hope this gave you some ideas. NOW EVERYONE GO AND WRITE A PITCH!

Have you written a pitch before? If not, write one now! Feel free to share your pitches below, if you're brave. It doesn't have to be perfectly polished! Mine sure wasn't. SO SHARE THEM WITH MEEEE. I want to know what you're writing about!

So I mentioned on here a while ago that my cousin and I had the brilliant idea of exchanging the first drafts of our WIPs. I gave her 85k first draft written for nano of 2015 titled, The Thief's Conspiracy, and she handed over the first draft of Delitescent, a massive beast of around 170k words written about three years ago.

The concept of handing over unedited work wasn't exactly a new idea for us. Back in the old writing days, we would actually mail our books to each other. Our letters would contain comments on them with ideas and thoughts.

Come to think of it, I haven't actually shared much of my writing with her that isn't first draft.

It may sound absolutely horrifying to you. Send off your first draft? NO WAY.

BUT. It was actually a really wonderful, beneficial experience. And you know what?

It was encouraging. Ridiculously encouraging.

We did it in a "book exchange" style. So I sent off my work, and she sent off hers. We both sent our first drafts too, which is a big difference from normal book exchanges.

It's very important to remember that this is not beta reading. This is encouragement reading. You are sending your book (and/or vice versa) to the reader, and the reader's job is to encourage you. I'm not saying they need to say the book is perfect. They are reading the book for the sole purpose of finding the good in it, and pointing it out to you.

It's so easy to drown in all the problems your book has. All the plot holes and flat characters and inconsistencies that you need to fix. Encouragement readers poke a hole through the dreariness of edits and say, "THIS SCENE IS AMAZING!! KEEP IT." Just a simple comment like that is sooo encouraging when you're wailing in despair about how horrible your story is turning out.

Before you send your story over, make sure you and the reader understand what the goal of this is. Especially if you're handing over a first draft. The reader needs to know what to expect, and what to look for. They are not critiquing. They are uplifting, and that is all.

We used Pinterest to share notes, and that was wonderful because I got blow by blow reader reactions of the story. If you do it this way, I would recommend copying and pasting the notes onto a document so you can refer back to them when slogging through edits.


You might be thinking, "What's the point?"

Having someone read your book for fun might not seem very helpful when you're trying to edit. But, at least for me, it was priceless. Plus, you have a fan now who is not going to let you give up your story.

And you don't have to hand over your first draft. Maybe you have a friend who isn't a writer, but they want to read your second draft for fun. Maybe that second draft is even going to beta readers.

That encouragement reader is going to be priceless. They're going to help find the gems of your story, and find the bright side of it.

But if you do send a first draft, here are some things to ...



This is a first draft. Remember that. Most of the writing is not going to be very good. There are going to be plot holes and inconsistencies.

But the author is probably already aware of a lot of them. They don't need someone to read the book and tell them what to fix. They can do that much on their own. The later drafts are where they'll need some help.

Your job is to find the good stuff. The stuff that the writer might not see. A certain scene that you loved, a certain character who just sparked life, etc.

Tell them what they're doing right.

Because it's so easy to find the wrong in stuff, we often miss the right. It's encouraging to have someone point it out, and it's important because you want that good stuff to make it through the next draft.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend doing this. Just having one person read to encourage is so beneficial in a lot of ways. It gives invaluable perspective on the story, and makes edits a little brighter.


So what do you think? Is this something you'd be interested in trying out? Have you done it before?