Drafting the Pitch

So January slipped into February, the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl, another plane tumbled from the sky somewhere in Asia, and I am now approaching page 150 of my rewrite.  I expect to be done with Draft Two in four weeks, give or take, and then I’ll let it rest.  I will leave the novel alone, ignore it, try to forget about it for six to eight weeks before I work on it again.  And then, I’ll read it for the very first time.  All of it.  I hope at that point not to hate it… at least, not too much.

 

In the meantime, I am meeting with some agents two weeks from now.  Agents?  Yes, agents – one from a publishing house in Portland and another from an agency in New York.  I don’t know entirely what to expect from the meetings – at best, I’ll land a book deal; at worst I’ll be told to give up my writing career altogether; but really, I imagine the result will be somewhere in between.  “Good luck, contact us when you’re actually done and ready to publish,” or “We’re not really looking for that type of book right now, but keep us posted on your progress anyway.”  Regardless of the outcome, I have to do this.  I have to know what it is like.  I have to see myself in the eyes of agents like them and hear what they have to say.

 

In preparation, I’m working on my pitch.  Here’s what I have so far:

 

When his B-17 bursts into flames during World War II, LaMar Whittier – a farmboy from rural Idaho – finds himself alone on German soil with no idea how he’ll escape or whether he’ll survive.  What he discovers as he crosses enemy lines will change him forever.

Two years earlier, LaMar defied his father’s wishes and joined the US Army Air Force, leaving home in search of adventure and determined to prove himself a man.  His dreams of piloting warplanes quickly dissolved into nightmarish missions high above German-occupied territory.  Little could he have known just how short-lived his combat career would be.  Now, as he trudges through Germany, Luxembourg, and onto France, he is forced to grapple not only with devastating thirst and hunger, but also with questions about courage, failure, and the will to go on.  Instincts cultivated by years of farming and hunting keep him alive in spite of having to navigate some of the most treacherous obstacles of the war – Germany’s Westwall and the Maginot Line in France.  Will he survive?  Will be captured?  Will the love of his life back home give him up for dead?

Seventh Mission is a 130,000-word historical realist novel based on my grandfather’s experiences during World War II.  Falling on the literary scale somewhere between Unbroken and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the novel will appeal to readers of both the literary fiction and non-fiction genres.

 

Keep in mind, I’ve never written a pitch before – I really don’t know what I’m doing.  I want to make it more exciting, and that’s my plan for this week, to rework it until it sparkles.  Mostly, I don’t want to give too much away because, even in the second draft, the book continues to morph as it matures, becoming something greater than just another war story.  Do I have the talent to rise to its greatness?  Only time will tell.

Comments

[Paul Fullmer]

Have you published yet? I grew up in Mackay Idaho (same age as Glen) and have always wondered about your Grandfather's story. All I ever knew was that he bailed out and evaded. I am very interested as I give tours on the B-17 at the Museum of Flight

[Kathryn Whittier]

Paul - thanks for your comment! The book is undergoing Draft Three now, and it's taking a while. It's getting good though. I'm aiming to have it done by the end of the year, then pitch to agents next year, then it takes a year or two to get through the publishing process (if I score a publisher). Long story short - it'll be 2017 or 2018 at the soonest, but I'll be sharing sneak previews on this blog from time to time, so stay tuned!