A Pivot Is Your Power

Writing my first book is an exciting journey, layered with moments that go in unexpected directions. A shift or leveling up in your career -- ?whether as a professional, ?entrepreneur or somewhere in between -- will surface similar twists and turns. Here’s how a splash in my face gave me space.

I recently pitched my adult romantic novel at a writers' workshop, the first I’d ever attended. I hoped to get a good swing in front of publishers and make some new contacts at the Toronto conference.

? My aim was also to understand the industry better and whether I should take my juicy tale along the self-publishing route (via Amazon or WattPad for example) or through a traditional agent and then a publishing house (Let me be real: I want a film deal!).

? Fiction authors need to pitch literary agents fully baked novels, yet my contemporary romance wasn’t done. Not even close. I’d written 10,000 words, or the minimum for a novella and less than a fifth of an average book length.

? When I got up from a workshop session for my allotted pitch time, my nerves shot up and my heart started to race. Putting my first work of fiction out in the open for some unknown person to see and review is so exciting and terrifying in a one-two punch. Did I have all the elements expected for a 10-minute pitch? No clue, yet just like my kid-self with pigtails on a softball mound, I repeated: “Ready or not, here I come.”

? Sitting in front of a seasoned literary agent, I batted up my somewhat rehearsed pitch, which highlighted my main plot and purposely left out the novel style I’m taking and a secondary storyline.

? I connected, yet with a pitch that sent my bat hurling in the air and then landing with a heavy thud that sent a plume of dust in the air. The scoreboard, aka the agent's feedback, read: No major publishing house will touch that taboo topic.

? I was taken aback and mumbled an “Oh.”

I scrambled for a quick fix to rejig it, abandoning my artistic vision without much thought and deciding to kill off the hubby in the story to easily meet a traditional trope.

? Why? Did I need to fit a particular mold? Did I want to stick to familiar tropes to sell something? Or was fulfilling my lifelong dream of writing a novel novel crucial to my core?

? Her words jolted me to question what I truly wanted on this journey.

It was invaluable.

I shared the agent’s feedback with fellow romance writers I connected with spontaneously at the workshop. We started a What’s App group, aka the Pitch Bitches, to be each other’s supporters and beta readers. A few had pitched their fully written books to several agents and encouraged me to mull over mine.

Days later, I delved deeper into what I truly wanted (i.e. artistic vision, agency, publishing path and plot) and writing about a forbidden fruit that may get no bites at a publishing house.

? What happened next for me was killer: I sat in my discomfort and didn’t write a thing for more than a week. That’s hard for me: sitting still.

? Yet it helped so much. My guilt of not “producing” trickled in. Thankfully, my husband and the Pitch Bitches supported me continuously with kind words. Stepping back and letting things flow at their natural pace are part of the journey, they reminded me.

?A Pivot is a Power

? Ideas popped up in my mind: a different character in chapter one, a plot pivot in scene two, a flashback to give more of the protagonist’s motivation and conflict. After my writing hiatus, I felt alive again, so invigorated by the shakeup, while still keeping to my artistic vision.

? A pivot is a power. It signals you’re aware of new knowledge and standing at a base to decide what comes next. It’s in your hands to take that swing: big, small or in between.

? Pitches should aim high, and pivots are their power balls.