Welcome to day three of writing tips from your PitchWars mentors! Be sure to check out day one and two if you missed them.
Andrea Contos
“It’s always worth it to wait for the right agent. ALWAYS.”
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Sheena Boekweg
“Sometimes all you need is three seconds of courage, and sometimes all you need are three CPs demanding the next chapter. Feed your courage, and your CPs.”
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Rajani LaRocca
“One my favorite Neil Gaiman quotes: ‘Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.’ You should listen to what your critiquers say, but you don’t have to take all their suggestions. Also, read your work aloud. Even better, have someone who isn’t familiar with it read it aloud. This makes it easier to catch typos/awkward phrasing.”
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G.Z. Schmidt
“Every chapter should serve a purpose, even if it’s a small one. If you get rid of the chapter and the story feels exactly the same, the chapter is probably fluff.”
Kim Long
“You do not need to show the MC at every waking moment. If nothing happens between getting out of school and the next morning, skip to the next morning. Use a transition. Don’t feel like you have to fill/summarize/show us what happened 24/7. This will improve your pace!!”
Alechia Dow
“Be organized, stay hyped! Open an Excel spreadsheet, do a chapter by chapter outline—this’ll show you what to cut and what’s not working for revisions, AND help you write a basic synopsis. View chapters like movie scenes: do they excite you? Stay excited throughout!”
