Wednesday 22 December 2010

Questions As A Pitch

Moving on from making the plot into questions, I also thought it clarifies the mind as to the over all theme or character arc by transforming the story into a question (or several questions).  

Will Elizabeth find true love, while sticking to her principles? (Pride and Prejudice)
Will Briony ever be able to make amends? (Atonement)
Can Jennet balance the demands of her husband, her children and her art? (An Equal Stillness)

Yes, it makes them all sound like a trailer for a B movie, but it does capture the essence of the books, the 'what it's really about'.  In fact, thinking about it, the blurb for Adultery for Beginners used the question format: Can an adulterous wife be a good mother? which neatly encapsulates the theme.  

Pitches are so hard to do - it has to be worth a shot at least!

2 comments:

Kath McGurl said...

I think it can be very hard to encapsulate in a sentence what a book is about, and this seems like a really good way of doing it.

Sarah Duncan said...

And even if it isn't the solution, it's quite fun playing around with questions.