Tweet UP Til Dawn: Confessions of THE PITCH GIRL pt.2

I know what you’re thinking “What the heck is a Tweet Up?” That’s what we were all saying. I had envisioned a cyber café where we all tweeted about the conference, but it was actually a lounge called FACES & NAMES. Very cool place.

I texted my girl friends to meet me there and walked over with Steph and a few others, but not after thanking Chuck for helping me out with my pitch, he promptly told me that I shouldn’t have been nervous because I had a good pitch and at the time I thought he was just offering a little “lip service.” You know when people just say things to make you feel good, but when he actually remembered my characters names I thought “Okay, maybe it wasn’t so bad.”

So I get to Faces and Names and I’m as perky as a kid on pixie sticks I’m handing out with my new writer friends, when I some faces I recognize from the conference website, the Writer’s Digest editors, so I go introduce myself (Like I said, I’m not a shy girl. Lol) So I get to talking and it turns out I was standing right next to Phil Sexton, one of the editors who emailed me about my discussion board. We had an awesome conversation about his workshop on publishing success. I cannot even begin to tell you how friendly and welcoming the WD staff was. Phil and I chatted for what seemed like forever and he gave me some helpful advice.

I worked the room a little more and got to meet Rich Knight and tell him how his pitch almost made me stay in my seat, his story was so gripping and unique that my works couldn’t do it justice. If you want to know more check out his blog: http://knighttakesrook.blogspot.com/
I also met Michelle, who turned out to be from Arizona too (We're already planning to do lunch one day soon), but the find of the night was my friend “THE MASTER PITCHER” A.K.A: Andrew Rosenberg http://blog.dawnsrise.com/ this guy made my pitch, he had a way of selling you your own story with the brief info you gave him, and coupled with the fact that he sitting on a story which sounds like an award winning film, we had alot to talk about.

It’s writers like these that make your conference experience, you walk away with friends you know you’ll have for years to come. He helped me in the simplest way find the essence of my story that would grab anyone who heard it at by the end of the first sentence. (I’ll share my pitch with you during my Pitch Slam post)

So my girlfriends ended up volunteering to hear pitches and offer an unbiased opinion and I got to pick the brains of a few YA reading Mom’s about some controversial topics.

The night was a blast; I had awesome new writer friends. I made plans to do a little pitch practice with Steph and Nick the next morning, but my mind was never far from my pitch, which needed some work. I had to find a way to include the paranormal element of my story and include Andrew’s advice.

We get back to the studio around 2am and I’m kicking myself for staying out so late, I’ve almost talked my voice out, I’ve met so many people. I grab a seat, my note pad, and a pin and I’m determined to have a sellable pitch before I dare close my eyes.

My girlfriends were planning on going out to a club, but opted to stay and help me. (Amazing Friends) it was 5am by the time I finally shouted “Why is it getting progressively worse” My brain was shutting down, my friends were dozing off and fear started to set in. I was half way through the biggest slice of pizza I had ever eaten when I decided to go back to the conference, the pitch practiced in front of the whole conference, there was something there that people liked, or else they wouldn’t have crossed a room to tell me how good it was, or shook my hand at the lounge and asked me to tell them more.

The sun was all but rising when I dotted my last period. I didn’t know if it was delirium, sleep deprivation, or hysteria, but it sounded like my book and I thought “If they like the pitch, they’ll like the book because this is what it’s all about.”

I had pitch practice with new my friends at 8 so I thought “Why sleep?” I put my note pad and my new "5am PITCH" in my bag started getting ready.

Check back in tomorrow for my post about TEARS and PITCHING.