{"id":130395,"date":"2024-09-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/?p=130395"},"modified":"2024-09-13T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T09:00:00","slug":"pitching-backwards-and-standing-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/pitching-backwards-and-standing-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching backwards, and Standing Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, I threw out a Feedback Friday challenge based off the first volume of our Good To Great course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essence of that task, and of the course material, was to consider your book\u2019s elevator pitch not as a final thought \u2013 a sticker glued on to the book cover at the final minute \u2013 but as a blueprint for production. What\u2019s the book\u2019s DNA? What are its most essential ingredients, the elements that make it up? If your book is to succeed, that answer has to be compelling. Your book will stand, naked, on a bookstore table (or an Amazon page) that\u2019s crowded with repeat bestsellers and authors much better known than you. There\u2019s no way to win that contest except by having an idea that shines so bright and attractively that your book compels attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course video (which I urge you to watch; it\u2019s free<\/a>) talks about how to start with an ultra-short pitch\/blueprint \u2013 a list of ingredients even \u2013 and how to build out from there. To characters, to settings, to themes, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim here is that every<\/em> aspect of your book should be firmly founded on your core idea \u2013 and that the idea itself should be so compelling that the book can\u2019t not sell. The absolute key is to make sure that every part of your book lines up behind a single great idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitching backwards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I hope it\u2019s obvious that that\u2019s a sound way to build a book\u2026 and yet \u2013 have I told you too late? Almost all of you reading this email have already written all or part of your manuscript. So me telling you now that you should have done something 60,000 words ago may not exactly strike you as terribly helpful. (One of you on Townhouse said that \u201cpitching backwards feels like a feat of gymnastics\u201d \u2013 which is a fair comment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is helpful. These things are helpful at any stage and every stage. If you know what you\u2019re aiming at \u2013 a book where everything lines up perfectly behind one stellar idea \u2013you can always navigate from where you are to where you need to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trick is to navigate without cheating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you mustn\u2019t ask is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do I take the material I have already concocted and make it look as though it obeys these rules?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you must ask is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHonestly \u2013 does my material feel like it all lines up in this way? And is the idea strong enough? And, having thought these things through, are there adjustments I should make to the stuff I\u2019ve already written, even though I know it will cost me weeks of work to make those adjustments?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything else, you can bodge if you like. You can have a character who\u2019s a bit limp, a scene that\u2019s a bit weak, a plot turn that\u2019s a bit contrived, a setting that\u2019s a bit bland. All those things \u2013 and your book can still sell. None of my books has gone out into the world with no bodging anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a weak idea? Or a book that doesn\u2019t manifest the strong one that you started with? That book won\u2019t sell. And it doesn\u2019t deserve to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yes, pitching backwards is an arse-over-tip way to do things. (That lovely phrase comes courtesy of my sister\u2019s long-ago riding instructor, a woman so sweary, she\u2019d make Princess Anne look genteel.) But if you didn\u2019t do the exercise properly when you started out, you need to do it properly now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is your idea strong enough?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there total unity between that idea and everything else in the book \u2013 characters, themes, settings, everything? Are those things so tightly glued together that your book feels somehow inevitable, necessary?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are the questions you must ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And pitch backwards if you have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing stones and character Verdicts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I set these Feedback Friday tasks, I\u2019m often surprised at what comes back. Those surprises are always positive; I always learn something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, I realised that we build character up in layers. To we humans, the top layer is the one that matters most. To a pitch-concerned novelist, it\u2019s the bottom layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what I mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Fiona Griffiths? How do we describe her? Here\u2019s how I think about forming an answer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing Stones<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I start with some key facts \u2013 rocks projecting unmissably from the landscape. They\u2019re the things that any explanation of Fiona has to acknowledge. Any triangulation has to start from there. So:<\/p>\n\n\n\n