{"id":360,"date":"2017-03-06T11:43:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T02:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/?p=360"},"modified":"2017-03-20T08:35:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T23:35:16","slug":"pitch-madness-draft-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/pitch-madness-draft-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitch Madness Draft Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

I learned about Pitch Madness<\/a>\u00a0shortly\u00a0before the submission deadline.<\/p>\n

I have been rewriting and revising my first NaNoWriMo novel, The Fire Before<\/em>, for years. And I do mean years. Since I wrote the first awful draft in 2011, I have torn that book to the ground, rewritten it, revised, and had others tear it apart again. And I really believe that it\u2019s as ready as I can make it. This year, one of my goals was to grow some ovaries and start sending it out to agents and publishers.\u00a0Pitch Madness\u00a0seemed like a perfect opportunity to do that. If I made it through to the next round, I’d have experienced writers working with me to\u00a0refine my pitch and my first 250 words in order to get them in front of the participating agents by mid-March. Really, it\u00a0would have been stupid to not<\/em> submit.<\/p>\n

I spent the weekend before the submission date\u00a0condensing my 90K-word novel into a 35-word pitch (!) and refining the novel\u2019s first\u00a0250 words. I submitted my information to the contest as soon as the entry form went live, and then I spent the waiting period telling myself I was delusional to think I really had a shot. When I learned that the contest had over 1340 entries that\u00a0would be winnowed down to 60 writers going to the next phase, I felt really<\/em>\u00a0delusional.<\/p>\n

Today, the team leaders posted their\u00a0draft picks.<\/p>\n

They announced the first 30 writers over Twitter early this afternoon. I wasn\u2019t one of them. Although I knew there was a chance I could be in the next round of 30, I was pretty sure it was over for me.<\/p>\n

They announced the second group of 30 writers in the early evening, and I wasn\u2019t in that group either.<\/p>\n

I knew it<\/em>. I tried very hard to cheer myself up and look ahead to the next Twitter pitching contest, but I still don\u2019t deal well with rejection. (I made a really great life decision by trying to become a published writer, right?) I stuffed leftover cake in my face as a consolation.<\/p>\n

And then Brenda Drake, the competition host, announced a surprise: They were going to add an extra 10 writers to the draft.<\/p>\n

And then this happened:<\/p>\n

\n

Team Candy Castle with @SamJoyceBooks<\/a> and @maryannmarlowe<\/a> gets THE FIRE BEFORE. #PitchMadness<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Samantha Joyce (@SamJoyceBooks) March 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n