Meghan K. Strapec
The Option To Be by Meghan K. Strapec
I’m not writing this of my own free will. You’re probably wondering how someone could be forced to write something like this. I was wondering that myself, and I made it pretty clear that I thought it was a fantastically stupid idea, but that only got me in more trouble. If you get yourself into enough trouble, they can force you to do almost anything to get out of it, assuming you want to. And I do. I didn’t really mean to get into it in the first place, but that’s just how my life works.
When you grow up in middle-of-nowhere Ohio, anything outside your God-forsaken, piece-of-crap town sounds exciting, especially when that thing is leaving for college two years early. But when you come from a backwards place with a mother who forgets you exist and a father you’re not willing to mention in polite company (or any company), it’s hard to start fresh. You’ll try pretty hard, but sanity hasn’t come easy since Noah left. And after the eighty-seventh person calls you crazy, you might just be driven to get yourself into some trouble with the dean that leaves the entire university talking, whether or not they’ve got the facts right.
THE OPTION TO BE is a YA epistolary novel about becoming who you are instead of what has happened to you and offers comedy, empathy, and hope to the awkward outcast in all of us.
The Book Doctors:
We like the voice in this pitch very much. We really get a sense of what it will feel like to read the book. We also love the first sentence of this pitch. But we think the opening paragraph meanders a little bit after that. We’re not that interested in you speculating about what we’re wondering about. We want more facts about the situation. We are also very confused as to what’s the plot of your book. Part of the problem is that you use the second person. This makes it difficult to see what the action is that moves the story forward. What does this person do so that everyone calls him crazy? You tell me in the last sentence that there is comedy in your book, but I don’t see anything really funny in the pitch. I also see no comparable titles here, and I think this would serve you very well.
John Michalik
March 16, 2014 @ 6:23 pm
Meghan has my vote!
Kevin M.
March 18, 2014 @ 7:16 am
John Michalik, I second that!
Casper
March 18, 2014 @ 7:17 am
Unreal article.
Mike B
March 19, 2014 @ 4:44 pm
Love the plot! You have my vote. :/
Mateo H. Emmanuel
March 19, 2014 @ 5:06 pm
You did a great job on this and you have my vote!
Kaleb Moody
March 21, 2014 @ 5:21 am
Ms. Strapec definitely has my vote.
Jacqueline Linnehan
March 21, 2014 @ 2:15 pm
Like the opening sentence; captured my attention.
Maureen Nahill
March 21, 2014 @ 2:17 pm
I vote for Meghan!
Suzanne Crowley
March 23, 2014 @ 7:28 am
Has my vote!
JP N
March 23, 2014 @ 3:28 pm
You have my vote!
C. Evans
March 24, 2014 @ 6:54 am
I’ll admit that I’m intrigued, but still hold reservations. The pitch is interesting, but the few grammatical inconsistencies do drive me a bit crazy.
On the plus side, I think that the idea of a character being “forced” to write their story is an interesting one. It helps create a much more personal interaction with the book, as it gives less of a feeling that “this is something that happened to someone” and much more of a sense of “this is what happened to this person who wants me to know what happened.” On a similar note, I also appreciate the fact that you have a sense of how people react to something they heard only a piece of: extrapolation from the bare facts that they know. I also appreciate the fact that your character seems realistic in the way that they react, not being someone who overcomes a bad past despite problems, but instead making mistakes in a similar vein to the way that I’m sure everyone who has gone through teenagedom has.
On the minus side, there are a few extremely tired cliches that bother me somewhat. I can excuse the fact that the main character is a prodigy who manages to graduate two years early, as it makes it slightly more likely that they would have done something foolish, but paired with the ‘pseudo-orphanhood’ of the character – a negligent mother and no real father, or at least one that nobody would want – is extremely reminiscent of multiple books, including Roald Dahl’s “Matilda”, Eoin Colfer’s “Artemis Fowl”, and more. Perhaps my greatest problem with this pitch, however, is the sheer lack of details. I have the character’s life story, a Ohio native with a ‘bad’ family who is also a prodigy and may or may not have some mental issues, but if I could ask this character any question right now it would have to be “Are you a boy or are you a girl?” Another, more minor criticism I have is who this “Noah” is. The most reasonable assumption is that he is an ex-boyfriend, but there are many more explanations that completely alter the course of the story. “Noah” could be the name of her father, in which case the reason the character has “a father you’re not willing to mention in polite company” is easily extrapolated to be a father who left their family alone to pursue something (or someone) else. “Noah” could be the name of a brother, who left home to live on the road, causing ____ to happen to the main character. “Noah” could also be the name of a friend from the protagonist’s hometown, who left in such a way that it inspired the main character to see the town in a new way, possibly as the “God-forsaken, piece-of-crap town” it’s described as.
The majority of the weak points are explained by the choice of using second person in the pitch, because while it’s more intimate it also makes it more difficult to provide details without sounding awkward.
Overall, this seems interesting, although the formatting of the pitch makes it a bit awkward. As a sucker for these kinds of stories, if I saw it in a bookstore then I would likely buy it (even if only to find out who “Noah” is), but I might not choose it over other novels.
Tim
March 24, 2014 @ 8:33 am
🙂
Jake Moynihan
March 27, 2014 @ 10:44 am
Liam and I are cousins.
jim nicoletti
March 28, 2014 @ 10:30 am
Put me down for 1 vote for Meghan !
Judith Enabulele
March 28, 2014 @ 1:02 pm
You have my vote Ms. Strapec!!
Skelly Enabulele
March 28, 2014 @ 1:06 pm
Good luck Ms.Strapec, you have my vote!!
Kely Franz
March 29, 2014 @ 3:18 pm
Of course I voted for Meghan!
John Appleseed
March 31, 2014 @ 5:33 am
Fantastic
Molí
March 31, 2014 @ 5:35 am
Good Job!
Elijahhhhh
March 31, 2014 @ 5:39 am
Very nice….. You should go professional.