PITCH

If you're a new or unproduced writer pitching can be very daunting. I've written previously about how to best prepare for a pitch, which you can read all about HERE.

But what if you're a more established writer and you have a great idea but don't have the time to write it up? Can you pitch your idea even if you don't have a one-page pitch, series outline, treatment or pilot episode ready?

The quick answer to this is yes. If you're at a stage in your career where you are regularly taking meetings, or if you have formed a particularly good relationship with a producer or production company, then it's OK to pitch an idea you don't have written down.

Let's face facts if you're a working writer your time is at a premium. When you get a new idea you might write down a quick paragraph outlining the essentials, but you probably won't have time to work on a ten page plus treatment before you contact producers and production companies. In this instance, it's OK to take a meeting and pitch the idea without anything to leave them.

If the idea is a hit and you're asked if you have something for them to read you can easily promise to send them a treatment in a couple of weeks, which should give you plenty of time to write something great. The advantage here is that you won't have to do the work until you actually have to, leaving you free to focus on paid or more pressing projects instead.

Another advantage is if the idea isn't quite a hit you can work on the contentious points again before your next pitch. Someone else will always see holes in your well thought out, polished idea when you can't. So when the time comes to actually put words on the page your project will be a finely honed work of genius and much harder to turn down.

A word of WARNING though - this is really only OK for those producers or production companies you have strong relationships with, those who have made it clear they are happy for you to contact them with any new ideas you have and who you keep in regular contact with. It's not OK to do this with people or companies you only have a casual relationship with or someone you haven't contacted before. In those instances, it's still best to make sure you at least have a one-page pitch or even better a treatment or pilot episode or a good draft if a feature.

Just make sure your idea is well worked out even if you have nothing written down because any holes in it will quickly become obvious when you pitch it. The better prepared you are the better the chance you have.

Happy writing!