Pitch Wars 2020!
It’s here it’s here it’s here!!
To say I’ve been excited for Pitch Wars is a bit of an understatement. This is my first year involved in any capacity, and it feels all too fitting that I get join as a mentor, co-mentoring alongside my longtime critique partner (and dear friend) Grace Li.
Becca, what on earth is Pitch Wars?
I’m glad you asked, disembodied voice! Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors or publishing professionals choose a writer to work with for three months to revise their manuscript. It ends in February with an Agent Showcase, where agents can read a pitch/first page and can request to read more.
Who are you???
Hi! I’m Rebecca Mix, a Michigander who works in software by day and writes about messy girls, eerie magic, and sticky hope by night. When I’m not working, I’m usually reading, hiking through Michigan’s wetlands, making obnoxious tiktok’s, or sneaking new houseplants into the house. I have a particular fondness for stories about found family, grumpy mentors, and lost kids finding their way; andzxdr as someone recovering from a traumatic brain injury, I’m also interested in anything that explores the interaction of health and creativity. Outside of my writing, I also run the Chaos Sprinting Club, a discord community of 100+ writers that regularly come together to do writing sprints, collaborate, and procrastinate. You can find me goofing off on most social platforms @mixbecca. This is my first time mentoring Pitch Wars, but I previously mentored in Author Mentor Match and had a blast. I couldn’t be more excited to co-mentor with my brilliant friend Grace Li, who is both one of my long-time critique partners and one of my favorite authors. :-)
My co-mentor, Grace Li, grew up in Texas and went to school at Duke University, where she studied biology and creative writing. She is currently a second year medical student at Stanford University, where she spends her time going on hikes by the Pacific, studying organ blocks, and writing stories about found family, grief, and identity. She especially loves retellings; she signed with her agent for a feminist reimagining of the Iliad, and her current WIP is an Asian American Ocean’s Eleven, centering around five college students stealing back looted Chinese art. As a former lit agent intern and high school teacher, she is especially excited to mentor with Becca this year. Find her on Twitter @gracedli, or at www.gracedli.com.
Where am I?
Exactly where we want you. Actually, if you’d just move a little to the left…
Dad?
Yes.
This is getting weird…
You’re right. Let’s get to the good stuff.
Our Communication Style
Grace and I prefer an informal, hands-on, ask-us-anything-at-any-time style of communication—but we’re happy to adapt to whatever our mentee needs. If you want to receive your edit letter and vanish into the wilderness for weeks upon end we’ll understand! But we’re both more than happy to chat via email, dms, text, phone calls, carrier pigeons, etc. What matters to us more than anything is that you’re comfortable! If you want someone that’s always down to chitchat, we’re game! If you want us to keep it to emails, that works, too.
Our Critique Partner Style
We’ve been critique partners for years now and are so excited to mentor together! We’ve seen each other’s writing at every stage -- from zero draft to final revision -- and know how rewarding it feels to have a CP that just *gets* the heart of a story and works to make it better. Becca looks closely at plot and what drives a story forward, and how to keep the tension in the story tight throughout, and Grace focuses on prose and how to structure a scene and its dialogue. Ultimately, though, both our interests come down to characters and their relationships. Stories are driven by the characters in them, and we love to delve deep into character motivations, goals, and fears in order to figure out how to make the story shine.
Why should you submit to us?
To say we’re well acquainted with tough revisions would be an understatement. Beyond the fact that we’re both fabulous, we know what it means to have to knuckle down and tear your book apart at the seams. Grace and Becca have both gone through multiple rounds of headache-making, patience-trying revisions. We’ve been in the trenche--and that means we’re willing to jump in with you. Between us, we’ve helped critique and reshape the stories of dozens of writers (some of whom are probably on your bookshelf right now!)
Also, like, not to be too touch-y feel-y but...we just genuinely love working on story, and we love meeting new writers! Anyone who is involved in publishing will tell you finding your people is key, and it’s been no difference for us. And even though Grace continuously rejects my love by refusing to get an instagram, one of the joys of working together on our stories is that we care about each other and we get each other. I want Grace to succeed! She wants me to succeed. Time and time again I’ve found that having writers who I trust with my stories that understand and care about who I am brings such a vital extra layer to the revisions platform. And that’s one of the things Grace and I are so excited about working with a new mentee!
So while we’ll push you, we’re also going to root for you. We’ll be there with you every step of the way. We’re going to celebrate you and do everything we can to mold your story into its Best Self. We’ll be there with you, every step of the way, and we’ll want you to succeed so badly you’ll probably lowkey be like, “Are these girls okay?”
(The answer is no.)
Join us!
For part two of the post, click here to read what we are (and aren’t!) looking for!
Or click here to go back to the Pitch Wars website!