Live To Write Another Day by Dean Orion (free ebooks for android .txt) 📕

I’ve written myself pitch scripts at times, but generally I tend to prefer to write it in my head as I talk it through to myself, over and over, and commit it to memory. I find that I’m a little less attached to the specific words when I do it that way, and a little more focused on the beats of the story and the big ideas. I also feel that this technique makes it a bit easier to pick up where I left off after being interrupted, which will happen in almost every pitch meeting.

Either way, whether you write yourself a script or just write it in your head, you have to know the material backward and forward.

 Pitching with Partners

Pitching with a partner (or multiple partners) allows you to enjoy many of the same advantages that writing with a partner does, the greatest of which is that you don’t have to carry the whole load by yourself. Even if you’re a great pitchman, it’s always nice to have that other person in the room to play off of. Two or more voices are also much easier on the ear of the listener than one because of the natural variety in tone and inflection that’s created. The trick is to alternate speaking at palatable intervals, which means you really have to be on the same page and know who is going to say what and when. In other words:

You have to be working from the same script.

Fortunately, most of the people that I’ve developed projects with over the years have shared this approach to partner pitching, but there was one occasion when it was definitely put to the test.

Not too long ago I was pitching an interactive project in which I had two partners. The project also involved demonstrating some innovative technology designed for live performances, so it wasn’t exactly like pitching a television show or a movie, but the same principles apply. We needed to sell our personalities in the room, we needed to tell an engaging story, and above all, we needed to work together with precision and give a good performance. The problem was that one of my partners wasn’t too keen on rehearsing. Not that he was lazy or didn’t care. In fact, he was very committed. He just didn’t have that much experience pitching and felt that rehearsing would cause us to lose our freshness. He didn’t quite get the concept of being a well-rehearsed actor, and insisted on just winging it. So the third guy and I rehearsed our parts as best we could without him. Sure enough, when we got into the room, guess which one of us got flustered and stumbled over his words?

The last thing you want to happen in a pitch meeting is to look unsure of yourself. Even if you actually know the material cold and just have a momentary lapse, the instant that happens it puts a seed of doubt in the buyer’s mind about whether or not you can do the job. So why take that chance? Why not do everything in your power ahead of time to prevent that from happening?

One bad experience was all it took to make my interactive pal a believer. The next time out, he was much more amenable to rehearsing his part and, not surprisingly, came off much more confident in the meeting.

 Be Open and Flexible

I don’t want to be a buzz killer here, but it wouldn’t be very forthright of me if I didn’t tell you that the majority of your pitches will probably not result in a happy ending. It’s a sobering fact, I know, especially given how much of a writer’s heart and soul goes into telling a good story, but as any salesman will tell you, pitching is a numbers game. You have to get a lot of people to say “no” before someone says “yes.”

The thing about pitching in the entertainment business that makes this fact even more maddening is that the decision to buy or not is highly subjective and unpredictable. There are so many factors beyond just the merits of what you’re offering that go into it: for example, what the company already has in development, if there’s a budget to buy your pitch, what is currently working in the marketplace, etc. And sometimes when you do get that “yes,” it doesn’t come exactly the way you expected. That’s why it’s so important to be open and flexible, and ready for anything that happens in the room that might even lead to a yes.

Here’s another story for you that illustrates this point. After I had written an episode of a television show called The Invisible Man, the producers were so happy with the job I’d done for them they asked me to come back in and pitch another one. This obviously didn’t guarantee me another sale, but naturally I was very excited and immediately shifted my brain into overdrive to come up with that next great pitch.

Now you remember my buddy, the acupuncturist, who lets me use his office? Here’s a case where not only was the environment a wonderful creative cocoon that allowed me to do my best work, it also gave me the perfect idea.

In the show the main character, Darien Fawkes, has a synthetic gland implanted in his brain by a secret government agency. The gland allows Darien to turn invisible but it’s not without its glitches, as he can’t always control his invisibility. My idea was that, during a mission, Darien wrenches his back and subsequently goes for acupuncture in a desperate attempt to both heal himself and alleviate the pain. But when the acupuncturist puts the needles in him, she inadvertently stimulates the gland and discovers that she can control it—which inevitably leads to no good.

As always, I put as much work into the story as time would allow, diligently prepared, and then went in and pitched my heart