Quote of the Night: “Passion Is Not Mania” (So We’d Better Go Back on Our Meds)

I went to the “Art of the Pitch” panel at the Grad Center last night, which featured an agent as well as editors from major mags including The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, and The Paris Review. I’d heard much of their advice before, which isn’t a bad thing – it’s always good to hear it again, and it’s comforting that the game hasn’t changed that much.

Tips included don’t exaggerate your pitch (“This book/article idea will change the very nature of life itself! And I do mean biochemically!”); make sure you’re familiar with the magazine before you pitch (“Vogue readers will love my article on cattle manure refineries!”); and put a fresh spin on your topic. (“Save money by making your own cottage cheese!” surely hasn’t been done before. Perhaps with good reason.)

The advice that stuck with me the most was about focus. They all agreed it’s important to become an expert on your subject, and the narrower the slice of that subject, the better. You might want to write about money or relationships, for example, but a lot of people want to write about that. (Though expert status regarding relationships seems a bit, uh, out of reach. But maybe that’s just me.)

Since a lot of people want to cover those subjects, you need to figure out your angle, the subset of that larger topic you can write about with authority. That’s what will get you a yes from an editor.

It got me thinking about life in general. I joke that I’m becoming more unemployable by the minute, but I’m only half kidding. What I do well and what I want to do are shrinking by the day.

The strange thing is, the narrower my world becomes, the more life expands. It’s as if by shedding those things (or relationships) that don’t feed my focus, the resulting space fills up with more of what I want and need. The more I let go, the more yeses I get.

What do you think?