Pitch Perfect

I thought my first novel would be set in the San Juan Islands, a late-in-life romance. Then one day, the protagonist walked by, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, "Uh uh... Portland. And by the way, it isn't a romance."

That's the thing about writing. It's a dynamic process. Things change. I discovered how much things can change when I started working on suggested assignments for the writers workshop I'm going to at the end of February.

The good advice in one of the assignments was to write a pitch for your novel, a brief summary to grab the attention of agents and publishers. Writing the pitch at the beginning of the novel writing process can save a lot of re-writing later on.

I could see my precious thirty-three pages of novel dissolving like cotton candy on the tongue as I prepared my pitch. I could see the story needed to change in very specific ways. A lot of what I'd written so far no longer fit.

Darn. But better to find out sooner rather than later as some writers do. Here's the thing about good advice, it's best to take it.

More later.