Something like a twitter pitch (help)

I'm applying for a fellowship and I need to summarize my current project in no more than three sentences. I'm trying to do this for my novel, and... it's really hard. Sure, I've been able to jot something down and for days now I've been playing around with it. The thing is it seems very boring an vanilla. And I would like to think my story is anything but boring. So, how do I get that across in such a limited amount of space? How do you make things things interesting and stand out?

I want to be able to use this to demonstrate I'm both a skilled writer and I have a great story. I'm looking for any tips you guys might have who have done something like this or a twitter pitch kind of thing. Or just if you have any ideas about this in general. Why is this so hard? I feel like it shouldn't be this hard.

 

I guess this is the problem. It's sort of end of the world, sort of zombie apocalypse, blah, blah, blah. When I try to do this short pitch it could basically be any story. But the thing is that's not really what the story is about more than it's framing. Does that make sense? And even if I say something like this is a story of loss or love or devastation, that's all really generic, too. And I only have three sentences to make this work. I just don't know how to get across that this is a unique story or get anyone to care about this story while having a sense of what it's about. And on top of that I want these three sentences to not just get across what the story is about, but also show that I'm a writer. It's very hard. Much harder than I anticipated.

I'm not looking for anyone to write it for me but more so tips on how to pull something like this off. Have you done a twitter pitch or something similar?

 

Yeah this is a difficult task. Have you tried reading blurbs for lit fic as an example?

Here's the one on Goodreads for Crime and Punishment:

This is four sentences, but while the 'framing' is just a murder, investigation, and struggle with conscience, it's wrapped up in what makes it unique.

 

Thanks for the example, but to me that sounds pretty forced and dense like the author was trying to cram it all in. Which is I guess sort of what we're trying to do with this sort of thing. I'm just hoping I can get something that shows my writing skill as much as it encompasses the story. I'm not sure I can pull it off. But this will be the first impression I make on people I am asking for funding.

I keep trying again at least every day to come up with something. And I do feel like I could use a number of these, but I just keep thinking I can do better even if I'm not exactly sure how to really pull that off. I know there is a lot of competition for these grants and fellowships. I just want to be taken seriously and have a shot. I'll apply before the deadline for sure, but this is something I will probably keep working on up until that point.

Does anyone have an example of a successful twitter pitch? Is that just about grabbing thew attention of the agent with the story's hook? Or is there something else about those pitches that makes them successful? I honestly don't know, but I'm curious.