Pitching your idea to other people

[KidGalactus]

Protip:

When you're explaining your story to somebody else try to think about the whole thing.

Like you just watched the movie of this thing, but not just any movie. It's a movie you really liked. It's not all the unrelated story-jiblets in your head. All the really cool nuanced world-building you just did. It's a movie. You just watched it and now you're telling somebody else to go watch it.

Things to keep in mind:

-who's important?

-What are they doing/what are they trying to do?

-Who do they meet?

-What's (who's) stopping them from being awesome... and what do they plan on doing about that?


Now I deal primarily in long-form plot following, story-driven comics, so your mileage may vary. I just know for a fact that a lot of people hate public speaking and trip all over themselves once it comes down to actually trying to boil their story down to its essential elements(whether it be during pitching to a suit, or just trying to explain your magnum opus "Gun Baby: The baby with guns" to your mom) while retaining interest.

I hope this helps some of you guys out.

Now start posting stuff!

[Rob]

Can I have the rights to "Gun Baby?"

Anyone want to draw "Gun Baby" for me? I'll write it and host it? It will be awesome.

It's a baby.... with guns!

Very good idea about squashing your long story down to 120 minutes in your head. For my long form comic I have a "bible" that hits every major plot point for abuot two years worth of comics but if I tried to talk to someone off that it would be a long, boring conversation.

And public speaking courses FTW! I taught classes in the Army and acted in high school a bit (mostly I built sets and forgot lines) so I had so much fun watching the younger kids FREAK OUT during thier speeches. I've never heard the word "Uhm" so many times in my life. Just so much fun.

[CorvusErebus]

Great advice Alan!

That's a very common problem to. I freely admit to being horrid at summarizing my ideas. I will most certainly be trying to keep this in mind.

[mattstout]

I think it's important to have different pitches for different situations.  You may encounter a situation where you have a chance to talk about your comic VERY quickly.  Then a slogan or a short synopsis is helpful.  If I had to describe or pitch my comic Big Sandy Gilmore that quickly, I would just say "Big Sandy Gilmore is geek humor, woodland style!" 

If you're in a longer conversation, then the movie-plot synopsis is a great plan.  Hit the high points and don't get bogged down in the details.  Realize that the average joe doesn't care nearly as much about minutae of your comic as you do.  Having a humorous newspaper-style strip, this is a little harder for me to do.  It's not like my comic has much of a plot.  I think I would just describe three to five of my main characters and the sorts of situations they might normally find themselves in.

It's also great if you're given a chance to talk about your comic in-depth, too.  If you're up for an interview or writing an article, you need to be able to talk about the details of your comic to people who are interested in your process.

The key, in public speaking terms, is to have expendable and expandable content.  Judge the the interest of the people you're talking to, and be able to add more or take out content of your pitch accordingly without sacrificing the important points. It's good to be intentional about your sales pitches.  If necessary, practice in the mirror or with your family!

[KidGalactus]

Sure. The idea of this exercise is that once you've given them the broad-strokes, if someone wants to know more about a specific aspect, they can just ask you and you can elaborate.

[ran]

A friend let me post this article up on my blog. It's a pretty straight-forward way of pitching your ideas without forcing people to either skim it and write tl;dr or read a massive text wall. It also encourages you to really get to the basics of what your story is about without spoiling too much, and without rambling around in circles. Even if you're not pitching your comic idea to someone, it's a great exercise for getting your thoughts together, as well.

[KidGalactus]

Ran: Cool article. Looks like your friend and I brought up a lot of the same points.

Awesome.


For Rob:





Here you go dude. The baby with guns is all yours.

[Rob]

OMG that is hilarious.

And I've got an idea.

What do you guys think of a community comic? Just posted here on the forums for fun? Volunteers make a comic and every week a new one is posted. Different art styles.... no  guaranteed continuity. Oh man this sounds like fun. What do you guys think? KidG if you like this I'm thinking of breaking this off to another thread and running with it. Baby with a Gun will become our official in house plaything. Thoughts?

[Rob]

Oh man.... can't stop thinking....


"His diaper is packing... and so is he."
 

[TTallan]

Before you guys get too excited.... 

Gun Baby. Not quite what you had in mind, I know, but the coincidence is amusing.

[Rob]

Oh it's a Zuda.

Doesn't look like it's been updated in a fairly long time.

Still, if I did anything on the site here with it it would just be for fun and the community. And it seems only the name is the same.

His art is really good. But the story hasn't got a single baby in it. LOL.

[KidGalactus]

Before you guys get too excited.... 

Gun Baby. Not quite what you had in mind, I know, but the coincidence is amusing.

Just to be perfectly clear, the full title of this is "Gunbaby: The baby with guns"

I don't see the resemblance.

[Rob]

YEAH!  But you still haven't answered me KidG.

Can I Can I Can I Can I Can I Can I?
 

[KidGalactus]

Haha. Sure thing dude. It's all you. You might want to let everyone else know about it first.

Might want to start some kind of list so that we don't get a bunch of people trying to continue the same page.

[Alectric]

KidG, that is hilarious and awesome.

And it sounds like a great idea!  A lot like Sage's Comic at Sage Comics.  I'm in, though I haven't had much experience drawing babies OR guns, so apologies in advance.