 Writing an 85,000-word novel is easy. Writing 250 words to describe those 85,000 words in a way that will make an agent want to read your book is hard. Your novel has (probably) a main character, secondary characters, a primary plot, maybe a B plot, maybe some complex relationships, tough decisions... there's a lot going on. If you write science fiction or fantasy, there are new worlds and rules to explain. And all of it is important to the story, or you wouldn't have put it on the page. With all these moving parts in your book, how do you know where your pitch should begin? Use these five magic words:  In his book Save the Cat, Blake Snyder wrote: And after the concept, whenever I hear a screenwriter wind up to pitch his movie idea, somewhere in there I better hear some version of: "It's about a guy who..." Starting your pitch really is that simple. Think of it this way: Let's say you and I are having coffee and you say, "I'm looking for a new TV show to watch. Have you seen anything good lately?" "Yes, I just saw Squid Game and loved it." "Squid Game? I've never heard of it. What's it about?" I have two ways I could start describing the show to you. Here's the first: "It's set on this remote island somewhere near South Korea and there are 456 people playing kids games for money but none of them know that if you lose the game you die by getting shot by these weird soldiers who are wearing pink coveralls and face masks. And there's an old man with a brain tumor and this guy who runs into his childhood friend and a crazy lady and a girl who's a thief and she has this beef with a gangster she used to work for but there's a cop trying to infiltrate the island and..." You're probably lost already. That's too much information for any one person to follow, and you're also probably thinking, "Yeah, but what happens?" Here's the second way I could describe the show: "It's about a guy, Seong Gi-hun, who's a broke, middle-aged gambling addict living in South Korea. He meets a mysterious man at a train station who tells him he could win a lot of money just by playing some games. Gi-Hun thinks this sounds like a pretty good proposition, especially since he just found out his daughter is moving to the United States with her mom and stepfather and it might be a really long time before he sees her again. The problem is, there are deadly consequences for losing these games." Way easier to follow, and now you have some idea of what might happen to the protagonist. It's much easier to shape a setting around a character than it is to try to fit a character into a setting in a pitch. When you start with a variation of those five magic words, "It's about a guy who..." you can get to the heart of the story much faster because you immediately introduce the protagonist. That gives you the opportunity to tell the agent what that character wants to achieve and what they have at stake, which is what every agent wants to know when hearing a pitch. This post was composed by Carlie Webber, a certified professional editor and former literary agent currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration at Pepperdine University. Her favorite genres to read and edit include MG, YA, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and contemporary fiction. Carlie is part of the social media staff at Writing Day Workshops. Attend a writers conference in 2025:
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