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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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I have this fun idea for working on how to pitch story ideas. I just thought about it trying to work on mine, and as we have all discovered, pitches can come out sounding drastically different from what the source material actually is.
So, I want you to write an elevator pitch for a classic or best-selling novel. Can you make a tragedy sound like a comedy? How about vice versa? To make this more fun, don't leave the title. Make us guess. And don't be afraid to be as goofy as you want. Let's make hook writing less stressful and hopefully learn something.
Here's mine:
A bail bondsman is caught up in the tumultuous affairs of the wealthy when his mysterious neighbor discovers he is a relative to his lost love.
This one should be easy.
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Joined: 6/18/2012
Posts: 228
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I love this idea.
Thanks for starting it!
Anyone have a guess on our bail bondsman? 
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Joined: 2/21/2013
Posts: 40
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I think you mean "bond salesman." That's what Nick Carraway was in The Great Gatsby.
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I don't understand the concept "elevator" pitch. Is this like a story you started & we add bits to it?
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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Niedermann, I do mean bond salesman. That's the danger of having the TV run in the background. It suggests things. That is why I don't write with it on. And now I can't fix my flub. It will remain to mock me for eternity.
Back on topic.
Congrats with getting it right. I was reading it recently, for like the fourth time, and realized you can practically hear poor Nick roll his eyes half the time thinking, "These people are crazy."
GD, an "elevator pitch" is basically the one to two sentence line for your book. "Elevator pitch" is a screen writing term for hook. You need to be able to pitch your work in an elevator. That's where the term comes from.
So, who's got one for us?
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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I'll go first:
A betrayed wizard tries to evict some unwanted guests from his sanctuary.
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Joined: 2/21/2013
Posts: 40
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I want to say "The Once and Future King," but it isn't right is it?
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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A book-burning fireman begins to hoard what he is charged to destroy.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Fahrenheit 451, natch. How about:
A 38 year old advertising canvasser wanders around Dublin, wondering if his wife has been faithful.
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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James Joyce's Ulysses.
New one: A tiny domicile on a wind-swept plain becomes the new home for familial city slickers who attempt an abrupt transition to a hunting/farming lifestyle.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Carl, that isn't Little House On The Prairie is it?
TP: I've not read Once and Future King so that's not the answer. It might be, but it's unintentional.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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I don't know if anyone will get this one, but here I go.
A young psychiatrist considers his life and relationship with his wealthy wife, whom is also his patient.
And another one:
A human scientist is left on a planet to observe a race of people who can swap between male and female genders.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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LeeAnna. I don't know the first one but the second sounds like The Left Hand of Darkness.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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(Gives Atthys a cookie.) You're right. The second one is THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS.
I don't know how good a clue it would be if I told you that the first one predates the second one by about 30 years.
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Joined: 2/21/2013
Posts: 40
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LeAnna: is the first Portnoy's Complaint?
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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Nope, but nice try. I know it sounds super generic. Does it help if I say the writer is American?
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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@Timothy Maguire: Yep, it's The Once And Future King.
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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A wealthy orphan raised by foreign strangers must learn to adapt when he is reintroduced to those of his original social sphere.
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Joined: 10/14/2012
Posts: 229
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If the foreign strangers are apes..... I'll go with Tarzan on that one.
Would work with Oliver twist too as Fagan was an import.... but I'm sticking with Tarzan.
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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I thought I might be making that too easy.
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Joined: 10/14/2012
Posts: 229
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Are you certain it wasn't down to my having a tremendously astute, insightful and intuitive mind?
No, you're probably right.
Ok here's one.
Chimney Sweep, sweeps childminder off her feet, his lyrical accent showing his Martian origins.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Mary Poppins? Though clearly the book is different to the film.
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Joined: 10/14/2012
Posts: 229
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Damn, thought the Martian would throw it, but yea, that was down to the Dick Van Dyke, who strictly speaking wasn't in the book.
Cockney's from Mars.
You got it, so now...........YOU'RE IT!
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Okay, so let's see. Something topical: Desperate war hero trains last hope.
Go nuts.
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Joined: 2/21/2013
Posts: 40
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Von Ryan's Express?
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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No, thought I like what you did there.
Here's another, for the same book: Students try to reach the door at the bottom.
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Joined: 5/13/2013
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Hmm - I'm taking a stab here TM, but my guess is one of the Harry Potter books.
An angsty teenage boy has an eventful return to New York while contemplating the harrowing reality of becoming an adult.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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I haven't read it in decades, Jamie, but it sounds like Catcher in the Rye.
Also, I like your idea about Harry Potter. It fits the first book.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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I seem to have a knack for unintentionally making these look like other books. It wasn't supposed to fit Philosopher's Stone, but eh, it's as good as any other.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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It's interesting how generic you can make classics sounds.
I'll re-post my last one:
A young psychiatrist considers his life and relationship with his wealthy wife, whom is also his patient.
A couple more guesses and I'll just tell you what it is.
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Joined: 10/14/2012
Posts: 229
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Michelle Remembers?
Can't think of any others. If it's not that, I might as well go with Tarzan again... it came good the last time.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Tender is the Night.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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A delusional ex-patriot completely misinterprets an epic poem.
Any takers?
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Joined: 2/21/2013
Posts: 40
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Ulysses by Jimmy Joyce.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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TP! Excellent! Not at all the book I was thinking of but excellent all the same.
Anyone else want to hazard a guess? Hint: author was Russian.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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Yay! Atthys got it right. He gets a cookie.
I have never read a book where even scholars had a hard time agreeing on who the "bad guy" was like Tender is the Night. That book stunned a whole class into emotional numbness. It was weird and subtle, whittling away at you.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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I suppose I should confess that I haven't read it in decades and can't remember much about it, but something tweaked my memory so I looked it up. I DO remember Nabokov when he met Fitzgerald shaking his hand and saying: "Tender is the Night, excellent. Gatsby, awful." Or something like that. I'd go to the mat for Nabokov as a writer, any time, any where, but he could be a jerk sometimes.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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Well, Fitzgerald was buddies with Hemingway, and he wasn't always the best of guys either despite his writing.
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