My PitchWars Experience

Here we are, on the eve of PitchWars! For those of us who participated, it’s kind of like Christmas Eve, with even more excitement and definitely more nerves.

I can’t believe how fast this month has gone by… and I’m pretty sure I have never said that about January before, because here in Canada, the abundance of show usually makes January intolerable. But because most of my free time has been devoted to everything PitchWars– doing revisions, crafting pitches, corresponding with mentors– the time just flew.

I went into PitchWars really hoping for somebody to come in and pick apart my manuscript and suggest changes to make the MS stronger as a whole. I definitely got that and a whole lot more! When I first heard about the contest and checked out all of the mentors, I was overwhelmed with the number of amazing people I could submit my work to. The hardest part was narrowing it down to four! But two mentors really stood out from the start– Lori Goldstein and Evelyn Ehrlich. Their wish lists aligned the best with what I had written, and I got a sense of their personalities and thought we would be a good match.

Unlike many other hopeful mentees, I didn’t have the chance to scroll obsessively through the pre-PitchWars Twitter feed because I had laser eye surgery done that week. I had to stay away from my computer and phone for a full twenty-four hours, and I was instructed to avoid staring at devices for the first few days afterwards (torture, right?). Lori and Evelyn both emailed me to ask for more chapters and a synopsis, so I used my spurts on the computer wisely. Looking back, I’m kind of glad I couldn’t stalk the Twitter feed, because I think staying away helped me keep my sanity.

Imagine all of our surprise when the mentors’ picks were announced early on Brenda Drake’s blog. THAT day I couldn’t stay off the Twitter feed. I was happy– and shocked!– to see my name twice under the mentors’ choices. I was chosen as Lori’s mentee and Evelyn’s first alternate. I felt like I had won the mentor lottery (a feeling that was validated many times afterward)!

Lori and Evelyn both helped me so much with my manuscript, which went into the contest with the title FAST GIRL and is now called FIRSTS (one of the many things my mentors guided me on). Lori read the full MS and her level of feedback absolutely blew me away. She was so detailed and thorough, and best of all, she really understood where I wanted to go with the MS. All of the changes she proposed were things I knew would strengthen the MS, and did. She taught me to consider every word choice and to always make sure I was always saying something in the most effective way. She let me know where I needed more emotion to make my main character more relatable. She pointed out my filter words (“look” was seriously overused!). Lori and Evelyn both helped me craft a more effective query letter, and they worked with me to create a pitch to use in the agent round. They worked incredibly hard for me!

I honestly can’t thank my mentors enough. I have learned so much from them, and I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for the world. I’m so glad I got to know Lori and Evelyn over the past couple of months. They’re wonderful people and amazingly talented writers. I can’t wait to buy all their books. I’m also grateful that I got to know the other mentees. I will keep my fingers crossed that everybody gets lots of requests, and I can’t wait to hear about the good things that will happen for all of you!

PitchWars isn’t for writers who don’t like critiques. PitchWars is for writers who are open to making changes, to ripping their MS apart to put it back together as something better. If you’re willing to work hard, you’ll reap the rewards. I got everything I hoped for out of PitchWars, plus a lot more. Thanks to my mentors, I’m more conscientious of my own writing and will apply the skills I learned to future WIPs as well. So if you’re a writer on the fence about applying, DO IT! You won’t regret it.

And of course, PitchWars wouldn’t be possible without Brenda Drake, the contest mastermind and all-around positive person in the writing community. Thank you, Brenda, for bringing so many writers together and forging a sense of community. We are all very appreciative!

Good luck to everyone tomorrow… I’ll be cheering for all of you!

(My lovely mentor Lori’s great post about what she looked for in a mentee!)