What a great way to pitch your work! I'm interested!

Aww, thank you so much! So glad you liked it!

And so rare! Most of the time I read them and feel bad. I think this is one of the first times I've felt buoyed.

It made me so happy when you said "Specificity!" in the chat at one of our events. I think of that often. :)

Ha! Perfect. I am too.

Reminds me somehow of the Dorothy Parker quote: "I can't write five words but that I change seven."

Please think of me when you're ready! Even if I'm officially closed to queries. Jessica (at) ContextLit (dot) com.

I can see how it'd take 30 hours--it's delicate work! And you never know if cutting one thing will change something else.

Yes! And honestly, it feels so much better, the times we have time to tell you something. I feel awful sending forms!

Thank you! Yes! These things can make a life-changing difference!

I think so! DM'd you my best guess. :)

Thanks, SFF Reviews! :) I love that plan!

Haha yes, and then no one is tempted to use my least favorite writing workshop term, "flesh out"! I hate when people say "Just flesh it out" like ahhhhh stoppppp

You could think of trope like a trellis.

It can provide a general shape, but you can grow just about any plant on it.

Some plants will take up the whole thing, some will probably wrap around it and weaken it, some will leave room for spiders to build webs and birds to build nests.

Yup! Voice has energy like the characters do. Pretty sentences (or snappy ones, or funny ones), carry energy as well. Same with great imagery, tension, momentum, tone.

Ideally, I think, reading should feel like you're absorbing creative energy.

Not like you're reading an instruction manual.

That level of nuance makes the difference between, for example, all of the enemies-to-lovers stories.

I suspect some of these stories purposely lean into character. Lucy's obsession with smurfs, Josh's difficult father.

Yeah! There are only so many familiar tropes and ways to combine them.

But there are practically infinite character possibilities and human reactions to these worlds we create.

This isn't to say that you can or should be all character all the time, of course.

But let's say you're using a familiar trope or two. I'm going to be there for what it does for your characters, what they worry about, hope for. What the story feels like, looks like. What meaning we can make.

I admit my eyes start to glaze over if you use more than three or so words/names from your world in the beginning of the pitch.

However, the minute you add a character moment that makes absolute emotional sense on earth, my feeling of comprehension comfort skyrockets.