Ode To Disappointment, Hard Work and Excitement

Freitag, 4. November 2016

   Welcome dearest reader!
   Usually I don't write posts like this, but I this is important enough for me to still do it. Also, who can say no to seeing something shiny and new.

   This post is about this amazing, intimidating and scary thing called Pitch Wars. For all of you who might be confused as to what that is, let me tell you. Pitch Wars is an annual contest for writers where, if you're story gets picked, you and your mentor work on it for two months. Then in November your story, along with those of everyone else who was chosen, are posted for the agent showcase. (Don't mind me being bad at explaining!)

   I've submitted something of mine to Pitch Wars in the past and I was rejected, which sounds meaner than it is really. My stories were not it, but this year I had faith. I believed in my story, I knew it was good, so once the submission gates were opened, I threw my hat into the mix and hoped for the best.

   Disappointment hit me like a truck the day the mantee list went online because, just like the year before, my name wasn't on it. I was crushed. My story wasn't good enough, I thought. Maybe next year, I told myself.

   But then something truly unexpected happened. An email showed up in my inbox from Judi, one of the mentors I had submitted my story to. In said email she told me she loved my story (!!!!) and that, although I wasn't officially part of Pitch Wars, she still wanted to work with me. I was over the moon, barely able to form sentences and think straight.
   Someone believed in my story and wanted to dedicate her time to working on it, making it the best version of itself it could be. Impossible, unbelievable, crazy, but totally true.

   Over the past two months Judi not only became my mentor but also my friend. We worked on my story, we talked about everything and anything, and discovered that we're quite similar in regards to many things, and were even both born during May (though during different years). Despite not making it into the contest, I still won. Thanks to Judi my manuscript transformed and became better, the story clearer and simply everything I hoped it would be.

   But that isn't where the story ends. Days before Halloween I got an email from Judi, a new one that wasn't part of our epic conversation, and in this email she told me that there were free spots for the agent showcase and that she submitted my story, and it was accepted. I basically had two days to prepare everything for the agent showcase. Scary but I was so excited I didn't even care about any of the stress.
   Thanks to Judi and her amazing work, not only did I turn my story into the best version of itself, but also scored a spot for the showcase simply because Judi believed in my words.

   Tomorrow the YA entries for the agent showcase are going live and I am already loosing my mind, but I wanted to take this moment and just say thank you, Judi. Thank you for your hard work, your time, your faith in me and my boys, and thank you for your friendship. No matter what'll happen once Pitch Wars will be over, no matter if my story will receive a ton of requests or none at all, I've still learned a lot and found a new friend, which is more than I expected or even hoped for.

   Thank you for believing in me and my words!

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