Pitch Wars Update #1

It’s hard to believe, but I am less than two weeks away from the end of my revision period for Pitch Wars. (If you’re reading this and have no idea what Pitch Wars is, you should read this post first.) I’m not going to lie, the whole thing has been tough, but it has pushed me harder than I expected, and shown me just how capable I am.

So, what’s happened so far? The simple answer is a shit ton. I received my edit letter from my mentors on November 9th. I was actually at a social media influencer event that day, which is funny because my main character is an influencer herself (a much more successful one than I am). My edit letter contained some over-arching suggestions of how to improve my manuscript. My main issue was the conflict of my story, which I knew was going to be the biggest area of focus for revisions. After I had some time to digest the edits, I jumped on a video call with my amazing mentors, Alexa Martin and Suzanne Park. We talked everything out, and they asked me some really pointed questions that helped me figure out where this whole thing needed to go. Once we ended our call, I sat and brainstormed, coming up with a new plan for my book. They gave me a month to get my first round of revisions done, which seemed crazy fast, but actually worked out really well for me. One thing I’ve learned through this process is I work much better with a deadline. I wrote every day except for Thanksgiving from November 11th-December 11th. I sent my first round of revisions off to Alexa and Suzanne and then sat back and waited patiently (hahahaha).

Not going to lie, the weeks waiting to see what my team thought of my revisions was harder than waiting to see if I was selected. The self-doubt was rough. Were they going to hate it? Tell me to start over? Inform me they didn’t think I would be ready for the showcase? Name a worst case scenario, and I thought about it. A lot. But then Alexa tweeted this…

…and all was okay. I was sitting in the car with Matt, wondering why I had so many Twitter notifications, and when I read that tweet, I literally teared up. I knew I still had work ahead of me, but I also knew I was going to be able to make it happen. So where are we now? I have ten days left before my final draft is due for some super duper quick last minute proofing. I still have seven chapters to revise, final copyedits to make, and Alexa and Suzanne just gave me an awesome idea to spice up my first chapter. Oh, and I still need to nail down my pitch, and revise my query. So basically, the next ten days are going to be intense! But I feel so good about where things are going, and I know I can do this. Honestly, having cheerleaders who I admire and respect as much as I do my mentors is making the biggest difference. I’m going to come out of this process with a manuscript I’m so proud of, and some seriously awesome writing tools I never would have found on my own.

What happens after the due date, you ask? Well, my pitch and first page go live on the Pitch Wars website on February 5th. Agents then have five days to read through it and request more from me if they’re interested. I have to decide if I want to hear about requests as they come in, or if I want to wait until the end (I’m leaning toward this option, but I know it’s going to be so hard to wait!). If any agents want to see more, I then have two weeks to send over my materials. At this point, I’ll also likely send my query to a couple of agents I have at the top of my dream agent list, just to see if they’re interested.

It’s a really exciting, but super scary time, but I’m so hopeful things are going to work out well. If nothing else comes of this, I have grown so much as a writer in the past three months, and honestly, that’s priceless. Stay tuned for more updates (and/or mental breakdowns) as everything shakes out in the next few weeks!

Now, go buy my mentors’ books! (Affiliate links, yo.)