Why You Need to Write an Elevator Pitch

Write, Elevator Pitch

Imagine you find yourself in an elevator standing next to your favorite director – the one man who would be perfect to take your pitch for a screenplay and turn it into the movie of the decade, adored by critics and rewarded with box office riches. You have precisely two minutes before the ding of your floor’s arrival separates the sliding doors in front of you. What would you say?

Would you talk about the blue sky outside, complain about the cost of gas, or capitalize on those few fleeting seconds life suddenly provided to sing your song and dance and convince the director that you are ready and able to hand him his next perfect project?

The chances of you actually finding yourself in an elevator standing next to your favorite director are, of course, slim to none. But whatever your dream, it is best to enter every day prepared to make it happen. If you are writing a novel in hopes that you can one day see it in print, you should be able to sum up your synopsis in three minutes or less.

This is called an elevator pitch.

How does one go about drafting an elevator pitch, condensing dozens of story threads to such a degree that they can be instantly delivered without losing any of their magic?

Take out your author’s arrow and shoot for the bulls-eye. Pare your story down until you are at the nucleus of the essential. Even a 1,000 page book must have a summary printed on the back. The job of the elevator pitch is to distill the story elements of your narrative, while casting the essentials beneath the brightest beam of light.

Writing down your elevator pitch will help you to understand your story; understanding your story will allow you to write the best version of that tale possible. Unfocused writing most often paves the road to an unfinished or unsatisfying book. If the chapters don’t fall like dominos, each one falling tumbling in front of the next, the ending will likely find you in struggle.

Few authors are willing to wrestle through to the ending of an unclear narrative. There are even fewer willing readers.

Focus on the core of your book by finding the single thread that can be pulled to unravel it all or sew it together. Yes, the best stories have several elements all singing at the same time and in a similar key, but there is always something essential that binds them all together. One topic, idea or element that supersedes all others.

Understanding precisely what that is might be all the tinder you need to keep the creative fire of your novel burning hot. If you are stuck, or perhaps not proceeding through your manuscript near as fast as you would like – STOP.

Pick up a pen and piece of paper and try to write an elevator pitch, you know, just in case you find yourself on the way to the 22nd floor with an editor from Random House. Of course, you could always get a ghostwriter to do it for you.

Ghostwriter Dad
Write, Elevator Pitch