Class 14 - Writing a Pitch

Exploring the theme

Last time, we said we were going to get started on the next assignment by working on it in class. Remember that this is our end goal:

plan, research, write and edit a single piece of memoir or reportage that reflects the theme: what I want the world to know about Burma/Myanmar.

In the last session, you were generating some initial ideas. In this session, we are going to share our ideas about what we might want to write, and we’re going to start working on shaping a pitch.

For your homework, I asked you to choose a topic you think might be promising to write about, and to do some research to see what other articles are written on this topic (or on a similar topic). I asked you also to read these articles, share links on the Our Stories padlet.

We’re going to start in breakout groups, by talking about our ideas:

1. What ideas (if any) have you had so far?
2. What other articles are out there?
3. Which of these articles do you like the most, and why?
4. What problems are you facing in formulating your ideas?

Writing a Pitch

A pitch is a proposal for a story you want to tell, one that you share with editors or publishers to see if they want to publish your work. We’re not going to start thinking directly about publishing today, but writing a pitch can be a great way of shaping your ideas. So we’re going to be working in this session in writing a pitch for your story (which will be your assignment) so that you can get a clear idea of what this story is, and what you need to do to write it.

A good pitch needs to be

• clear
• concise
• detailed
• well-written
• compelling

Remember that as a creative nonfiction writer, you are a storyteller. One common complaint amongst editors is that people pitch ideas to them when in fact what they are looking for are stories. So the strongest pitches will be those that set out to tell a story. You can think of your pitch as being made up of three mini-stories, each one a paragraph long.

• In the first paragraph, summarise the story that your piece will be telling, and tell us why this story matters and needs to be heard here and now.
• In the second paragraph, tell the story of how you will write the piece. How long will it be? How will you research it? What information will you draw on? Books? Interviews? Your own experience?
• In the final paragraph, tell the story of you: who you are,,your experience and interests, and why you are the person to write this piece.

Let’s look an example, from a recent successful pitch of my own:

Pitch: Resurrecting the Siraya Language

[PARAGRAPH 1] Once spoken widely across Southwest Taiwan, by the late 19th century, the indigenous Siraya language had all but disappeared, pushed out by the dominant Hokkien. In the early 20th century, Siraya was believed a lost language. But over the past few decades, Siraya has seen a remarkable resurgence, prompted by the discovery of a parallel Dutch/Siraya text of the Gospel of St. Matthew made by Daniel Gravius in the 17th century. The story of Siraya is fascinating because it was believed to be a dead language. But since the discovery of Siraya/Dutch texts, the later discovery of indigenous Siraya documents and the appearance of wordlists from colonial times translating between Japanese and Siraya, linguistics and community activists have revived this once-dormant language. Now there is even a Siraya language elementary school. I’d love to write a piece for you about the revival of the Siraya language, and how it has led to a revitalisation of Siraya communities, and to increased official recognition.

[PARAGRAPH 2] For the piece, I will speak to linguists, historians, scholars and indigenous activists working on the Siraya language. I will visit the Siraya National Scenic Area outside of Taiwan, to meet those involved in Siraya education projects and in reviving Siraya culture. And I will attempt to get to grips with some Siraya myself. As for the “why now?” hook, the revival of indigenous languages is part of a broader political confidence in Taiwan as a place with its own distinctive, multicultural identity. Language death is currently in the news, and so there is something wonderful in a story of a language once feared dead, but now thriving and finding new communities of speakers. And finally, Tainan — which is in the heart of Siraya country — is this year celebrating 400 years since its foundation, so this seems a good time to tell this story of loss and renewal. All the best, Will Buckingham

[PARAGRAPH 3] Wait! There’s no paragraph 3! Why not? Because I’ve written for this editor before, so I don’t need to introduce myself! Remember that this forumla for writing a pitch is flexible according to circumstances!

Reading Pitches

Because pitching is a specific genre of writing, you can best get a sense of how to pitch by reading the pitches of others. So have a look at the following link, find an article that interests you, and see how the author pitches it:

Open notebook

We’ll then put you in groups to discuss the pitch, and why you think it was successful.

Writing your Own Pitch

Now we’re going to move onto writing your own pitch. For this exercise, put down three headings:

• Story 1 (The story I want to tell)

• Story 2 (The story of how I will tell it)

• Story 3 (The story of who I am, and why I am the person to tell this story)

When you have done this, you need to write one short paragraph for each of these headings.

We’ll then share these in groups.

Homework

For your homework, start thinking about the sources you will need to draw on to research this piece. Do you need to read books or articles? Interview people? Go back to old diaries? Look through family photograph albums?

Make a list of your sources to bring to the next session.