Pitched Down the Elevator Shaft
Oct. 12th, 2008 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michaeldthomasI have a bad blind spot. As most of you know, I'm not a shy person. I enjoy being on panels at conventions. I have no fear of public speaking. I love meeting people, and I pride myself in my ability to engage in thoughtful, fun conversations with just about everybody I meet. With Lynne, I've had many dinners with major BNAs without feeling intimidated. Hell, I held my own on a panel with George R.R. Martin and Jim Frenkel. There are very few subjects that trip me up.
Except for one notable subject. I suck when it comes to talking about my writing. If somebody asks me about it, I freeze up and my tongue whips into knots.
As most of the writers out there know, there is something called “The Elevator Pitch.” It's an old screenwriter thing. The concept is that you can summarize your work in a punchy package to an executive in the time it takes an elevator to get to their floor. For instance, you might tell an executive, “I have this screenplay for a great new movie called Zombie Love in the Time of Ebola. It's like Bridget Jones's Diary meets Predator.” The executive is so impressed by the concept, they then throw millions of dollars at you.
I can't do this with my novel. I have a hell of a time summarizing it. The problem stems from a couple of sources. The first is that I hate talking about my creative work if Lynne's working. As most of you know, I often tag along with her as she's doing her SF Archivist thing. I'm basically there as her assistant. I help research authors, books and movements for her. I also keep track of the appointments and what was said at the meetings. At an event like WisCon, this is a big deal since she might talk to over 40 authors in the span of the convention.
Because of this, I feel that it's a conflict of interest to mention my own aspiring career. I never want a potential NIU author to think that I'm trying to get anything personal out of their relationship with Lynne and NIU. I am there to help the mission of saving SF for posterity. I really believe in this mission. This means that I push my own writing to the back of my brain.
I'm also just very sensitive about my work. For whatever reason, criticism devastates me. I'm getting better, but even this little WindyCon workshop makes me nauseous.
I've now run into this elevator pitch problem a few times. The first time was at the Fantasy Matters conference. I was getting coffee with Drew Bowling and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. Drew and I were just shooting the breeze when he found out that I was writing a novel. With infectious enthusiasm, he pumped me for the details. I did the best I could.
The next time I ran into this was at WisCon. I ended up in a similar conversation with David Anthony Durham. I'm not even sure that I actually spoke English when I went into the vague details of the book. A day later, I was in a hallway creating a fire hazard with most of the Wyrdsmiths. Since I talked about the novel on their writing blog, the phenomenal![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kellymccullough pumped me for the elevator pitch. I stumbled and sounded like a moron. Kelly then dispensed much good advice about always having that elevator pitch ready.
I obviously didn't listen. This week we had dinner with the lovely and talentedsarah_prineas. This was an archive dinner. Halfway through the evening, Sarah turned to me and asked about the novel. I didn't quite know what to say. I realize that she is a mutual LJ friend, but I had no idea that she actually read my blog.
I sort of made it through an elevator pitch. She was wonderfully supportive. Sarah heaped praise on me for just getting through that first challenge: finishing the novel. She even asked me what agents I was considering.
The real lesson here is that I'm farther along in my career than I think. Even though I'm still revising Murder Ballads, I need to start thinking about selling it. I have to get that pitch into shape, and I need to start thinking about my query letter and agent list.
I'm a little freaked out.
Except for one notable subject. I suck when it comes to talking about my writing. If somebody asks me about it, I freeze up and my tongue whips into knots.
As most of the writers out there know, there is something called “The Elevator Pitch.” It's an old screenwriter thing. The concept is that you can summarize your work in a punchy package to an executive in the time it takes an elevator to get to their floor. For instance, you might tell an executive, “I have this screenplay for a great new movie called Zombie Love in the Time of Ebola. It's like Bridget Jones's Diary meets Predator.” The executive is so impressed by the concept, they then throw millions of dollars at you.
I can't do this with my novel. I have a hell of a time summarizing it. The problem stems from a couple of sources. The first is that I hate talking about my creative work if Lynne's working. As most of you know, I often tag along with her as she's doing her SF Archivist thing. I'm basically there as her assistant. I help research authors, books and movements for her. I also keep track of the appointments and what was said at the meetings. At an event like WisCon, this is a big deal since she might talk to over 40 authors in the span of the convention.
Because of this, I feel that it's a conflict of interest to mention my own aspiring career. I never want a potential NIU author to think that I'm trying to get anything personal out of their relationship with Lynne and NIU. I am there to help the mission of saving SF for posterity. I really believe in this mission. This means that I push my own writing to the back of my brain.
I'm also just very sensitive about my work. For whatever reason, criticism devastates me. I'm getting better, but even this little WindyCon workshop makes me nauseous.
I've now run into this elevator pitch problem a few times. The first time was at the Fantasy Matters conference. I was getting coffee with Drew Bowling and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. Drew and I were just shooting the breeze when he found out that I was writing a novel. With infectious enthusiasm, he pumped me for the details. I did the best I could.
The next time I ran into this was at WisCon. I ended up in a similar conversation with David Anthony Durham. I'm not even sure that I actually spoke English when I went into the vague details of the book. A day later, I was in a hallway creating a fire hazard with most of the Wyrdsmiths. Since I talked about the novel on their writing blog, the phenomenal
kellymccullough pumped me for the elevator pitch. I stumbled and sounded like a moron. Kelly then dispensed much good advice about always having that elevator pitch ready.I obviously didn't listen. This week we had dinner with the lovely and talented
sarah_prineas. This was an archive dinner. Halfway through the evening, Sarah turned to me and asked about the novel. I didn't quite know what to say. I realize that she is a mutual LJ friend, but I had no idea that she actually read my blog. I sort of made it through an elevator pitch. She was wonderfully supportive. Sarah heaped praise on me for just getting through that first challenge: finishing the novel. She even asked me what agents I was considering.
The real lesson here is that I'm farther along in my career than I think. Even though I'm still revising Murder Ballads, I need to start thinking about selling it. I have to get that pitch into shape, and I need to start thinking about my query letter and agent list.
I'm a little freaked out.
