Elevator Pitch

At least that’s what the final post of November was supposed to be called.  It was going to be flash fiction about an elevator pitch to a stranger, but also an allegory of sorts, for scary things that feel like an elevator pitch; a job interview, a first date, even pitching a story to a magazine.  In the story I was going to write, the person making the pitch is ultimately grateful for the opportunity, but is let down.  Not because there wasn’t any interest, but because the one making the pitch was overwhelmed by the moment.

And yeah, it sounded great in my head, too.

But here we are, on the last night of NanoPoblano 2022, and me with a great idea, not coming to fruition.  Or to quote Mickey (Joshua Jackson, Pacey from Dawson’s Creek) in the 1997 movie Scream 2, “It’s a perfect example of life, imitating art, imitating life”. 

My life.

But what am I so afraid of?  Well, for one thing, I hate rejection.  But recently, I’ve begun to get past that by intentionally submitting poetry to contests that unequivocally rejected me.  And something like that has its own way of getting you over the stigma of rejection, if not face-to-face, at least in writing.  So that’s really what the entire post was all about, Charlie Brown.  The way I have learned to talk myself out of failing, by talking myself out of trying, and learning how to try all over again.

And this November, full of words, but no rejections, was attempted intentionally for just one purpose; to get my writing muscles strong enough to write every day, for the purpose of being word-strong enough to endure the pain of rejection.  Maybe a lot of rejection.  But if the words are strong enough, and the elevator pitch is right, maybe strong enough for success.  So even though what I had planned to close out the month with didn’t happen, something honest and real DID happen. 

This post happened.

So with that, I’m about to log off of the blog for the next couple of weeks, but I won’t log off from writing, because I’ve got a lot of writing to do.  And here, on the blog, I will keep everyone who reads, in the loop.  The successes, AND the failures.  Because failures will come, but without the failures maybe the successes won’t.

Now, tell me what your elevator pitch is.

And tonight I won’t conclude as usual with, “Talk to you tomorrow”. 

But I will say, “Talk to you soon”.