Pitch Madness is like tossing a line in the water and waiting for a fish to bite. A writer pitches her work by summing up a manuscript in a tweet (less than 140 characters) and hashtags for the event and genre. An agent favorites the stories he wants to read. The writer responds via email with a query letter and sample pages.

When I keyed in my log line, I had nothing to lose. I’d just watched Bené Brown’s TED talk. I was ready to be vulnerable. What I didn’t know, besides how quickly I’d have to reformat the first ten pages of my manuscript, was that I’d enjoy reading the other pitches and benefit from the kindness of other writers. Instead of crazy oneupmanship, they retweeted the competition. You could feel the love. Seriously.

The hashtag #PitMad trended on Twitter on March 29. I can’t wait to try it again.

*Twitter blocks the agent’s avatar when it’s embedded in a post, but the writer knows the agent’s identity.