The One Sentence Pitch

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” -a six-word story, popularly attributed to Ernest Hemingway

“Extreme cutting like this is a gateway to voice. Let’s say there are two phases in writing (although these tend to morph in and out of each other): composition and revision. We tend to associate voice with the first (“I just burst out my first draft in my true voice, singing out my spontaneous vision!”), But, in my experience, voice really gets made during the second phase–as we edit and, especially, as we cut. Most of us tend, in the first draft, to sing for too long, in ways that sound pretty similar to all of those other writers singing.” -George Saunders, book A Swim in the Pond in the Rain (In Which Four Russians Give A Master Class On Writing, Reading, and Life)

(Inspired by a recent text exchange with my friend Turney and George Saunders’ “cutting exercise” in his wonderful book on writing, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain…)

Let’s say you’re preparing to pitch someone. Maybe it’s a studio executive your film idea. Or a venture capitalist your business idea. Or just a trusted friend your passion project idea.

Can you boil your pitch down to one, single, powerful sentence?

It’s worth trying. Because if you can, you know you have something.

Here’s a way you might go about it:

Step One…Write out your pitch in longhand. Go fast and furious. Don’t edit yourself. Just write until you’ve gotten everything out of your system. (If it helps, you can talk it out loud in a tape recorder and then transcribe your words.)

Step Two…Type it up. As you type, you’ll inevitably start to edit.

Step Three…Cut your typed pages down to one page.

Step Four…Cut your one page down to one paragraph.

Step Five…Cut your one paragraph down to one sentence. State what your idea is, who it’s for, and why you want to do it.

This single sentence is the one that will stay with you and your audience. It’s the one you’ll return to over and over. The one that will keep you motivated and on the right track, no matter the obstacles. The one that will have lasting impact.

(By the way, this exercise is also useful for goal setting. Give it a shot. Let me know how it goes.)