Riffs, Tiffs and What Ifs

We've moved to a new site - WritingRiffs.com - Appreciate you checking this article out at WritingRiffs.com . We'll be deleting all the content on this site over the next few weeks. Thanks! Steve ______________________________________________ Pitch: A quick, concise communication meant to persuade someone to do something - buy a product, service, idea, etc. A pitch is a story told with the goal of getting someone to buy in to your idea; your request for action. You want them to do something. You appeal to their reason and emotions. They want you to do something too. Don't be stupid, waste their time or insult their intelligence with lame words drained of meaning. Good-to-Great There are good-to-great pitches. They're informative, interesting and on occasion, wonderfully inspiring. They connect with you emotionally and ride the road of reason and common sense over to their intended destination―the "decision." And, more often than not, the decision is good ...

About a year ago, I had the pleasure to co-write an article titled "Ten Tips for Being Good in a Room," with Stephanie Palmer, former Director of Creative Affairs at MGM Pictures. At the time, she had just started a new company called (you're never going to guess ...) "Good in a Room." The article, updated and included below, (with a surprise at the end) draws on Stephanie's years of experience working with stories, writers, creative people and directors as they "pitched" their ideas and stories trying to get them to the big screen. In Stephanie's tenure as the Director of Creative Affairs at MGM Pictures she acquired screenplays, books, articles and pitches and supervised their development. Some of her projects include " Mad Money ," " 21 ," " Be Cool ," " Legally Blonde ," " Sleepover ," " A Guy Thing ," " Good Boy ," " Agent Cody Banks" and " Agent Cody B...