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Algonkian Writer Conferences - Pre-Event Writer Assignments

For the Algonkian Novel Workshop Writers Only

Below are seven assignments which include readings and links. All of these are vital to reaching an understanding of what elements go into the writing of a commercially viable literary project, whether novel or narrative non-fiction. There is more to it, as you will learn at the conference, but this is for starters and a good primer.

You may return here as many times as you need to edit your topic post (login and click "edit" at the bottom of your post), even following the pitch conference. Pay special attention to antagonistic force, breakout title, conflict issues and setting.

Quiet novels do not sell. Keep that in mind.

Michael Neff
Algonkian Writer Conference Director
http://algonkianwriterconferences.com
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Instructions for Posting Responses

After you've registered and logged in, read the assignments below, click on "Post Reply" on the upper left of the page and enter your responses in the box provided, then click "submit." Once done, your reply will appear in this topic. Please make one reply for all of your responses so the forum topic will not become cluttered.

Strongly suggest typing up your reply in a separate file then copying it over to your post before submitting. Not a good idea to lose what you've done!

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THE ACT OF STORY STATEMENT

Before you begin to consider or rewrite your story premise, you must develop a simple "story statement." In other words, what's the mission of your protagonist (hero/ine)? Their goal? What must be done? What must she or he create? Destroy? Save? Accomplish? Defeated?Defy the dictator of the city and bury brother’s body (ANTIGONE)? Place a bet that will shake up the asylum (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST)? Do whatever it takes to recover lost love (THE GREAT GATSBY)? Save the farm and live to tell the story (COLD MOUNTAIN)? Find the wizard and a way home to Kansas (WIZARD OF OZ)? Note that all of these are books with strong antagonists who drive or catalyze the plot line going forward. More on that later.

If you cannot conceive or write a simple story statement like those above (which will help define your story premise) then you don’t have a work of commercial fiction. Keep in mind that the PLOT LINE is an elaboration of the statement, of this "primary complication" of story statement. Also, look over the brief summaries of these novels in the Author Connect Deal News. These contain the simple statement, but more elaborated into a short hook.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT: write your story statement.

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THE ANTAGONIST PLOTS THE POINT

Since the antagonist in most successful commercial fiction is the driver of the plot line(s), what chances do you as a writer have of getting your manuscript, regardless of genre, commercially published if the story and narrative therein fail to meet reader demands for sufficient suspense, character concern, and conflict?

Answer: none. But what major factor makes for a quiet or dull manuscript brimming with insipid characters and a story that cascades from chapter to chapter with tens of thousands of words, all of them combining irresistibly to produce an audible thudding sound in the mind, rather like a fist hitting a side of cold beef?

Such a dearth of vitality in narrative and story frequently results from the unwillingness of the writer to create a suitable antagonist who stirs and spices the plot hash. And let's make it clear what we're talking about. By "antagonist" we specifically refer to an actual fictional character, an embodiment of certain traits and motivations who plays a significant role in catalyzing and energizing plot line(s), or at bare minimum, in assisting to evolve the protagonist's character arc (and by default the story itself) by igniting complication(s) the protagonist, and possibly other characters, must face and solve (or fail to solve).

CONTINUE READING ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.authorsalon.com/page/general/AntagonistsInLiterature/

SECOND ASSIGNMENT: in 200 words or less, sketch the antagonist or antagonistic force in your story. Keep in mind their goals, their background, and the ways they react to the world about them.

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CONJURING YOUR BREAKOUT TITLE

What is your breakout title? How important is a great title before you even become published? Very important! Quite often, agents and editors will get a feel for a work and even sense the marketing potential just from a title. A title has the ability to attract and condition the reader's attention. It can be magical or thud like a bag of wet chalk, so choose carefully. A poor title sends the clear message that what comes after will also be of poor quality.

Go to Amazon.Com and research a good share of titles in your genre, come up with options, write them down and let them simmer for at least 24 hours.Consider character or place names, settings, or a "label" that describes a major character, like THE ENGLISH PATIENT or THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST. Consider also images, objects, or metaphors in the novel that might help create a title, or perhaps a quotation from another source (poetry, the Bible, etc.) that thematically represents your story. Or how about a title that summarizes the whole story: THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, etc.

Keep in mind that the difference between a mediocre title and a great title is the difference between THE DEAD GIRL'S SKELETON and THE LOVELY BONES, between TIME TO LOVE THAT CHOLERA and LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA between STRANGERS FROM WITHIN (Golding's original title) and LORD OF THE FLIES, between BEING LIGHT AND UNBEARABLE and THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING.

THIRD ASSIGNMENT: create a breakout title (list several options, not more than three, and revisit to edit as needed).

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DECIDING YOUR GENRE AND APPROACHING COMPARABLES

Did you know that a high percentage of new novel writers don't fully understand their genre, much less comprehend comparables?

When informing professionals about the nuances of your novel, whether by query letter or oral pitch, you must know your genre first, and provide smart comparables second. In other words, you need to transcend just a simple statement of genre (literary, mystery, thriller, romance, science fiction, etc.) by identifying and relating your novel more specifically to each publisher's or agent's area of expertise, and you accomplish this by wisely comparing your novel to contemporary published novels they will most likely recognize and appreciate--and it usually doesn't take more than two good comps to make your point.Agents and publishing house editors always want to know the comps.

There is more than one reason for this. First, it helps them understand your readership, and thus how to position your work for the market. Secondly, it demonstrates up front that you are a professional who understands your contemporary market, not just the classics. Very important! And finally, it serves as a tool to enable them to pitch your novel to the decision-makers in the business.Most likely you will need to research your comps. We've included some great starter websites for this purpose below. If you're not sure how to begin, go to Amazon.Com, type in the title of a novel you believe very similar to yours, choose it, then scroll down the page to see Amazon's list of "Readers Also Bought This" and begin your search that way.

Keep in mind that before you begin, you should know enough about your own novel to make the comparison in the first place!By the way, beware of using comparables by overly popular and classic authors. If you compare your work to classic authors like H.G. Wells and Gabriel Marquez in the same breath you will risk being declared insane. If you compare your work to huge contemporary authors like Nick Hornby or Jodi Picoult or Nora Ephron or Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling, and so forth, you will not be laughed at, but you will also not be taken seriously since thousands of others compare their work to the same writers. Best to use two rising stars in your genre. If you can't do this, use only one classic or popular author and combine with a rising star. Choose carefully!

FOURTH ASSIGNMENT:

- Read Caitlin's Comparables on Author Salon: http://www.authorsalon.com/craft/view/62/
- Develop two smart comparables for your novel. This is a good opportunity to immerse yourself in your chosen genre. Who compares to you? And why?

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CONSIDERING THE PRIMARY CONFLICT - COMING OF THE "AGON"

Conflict, tension, complication, drama--all basically related, and all going a long way to keeping the reader's eyes fixated on your story. These days, serving up a big manuscript of quiet is a sure path to damnation. You need tension on the page (esp in fiction), at all times, and the best way to accomplish this is to create (or find them in your nonfiction story) conflict and complications in the plot and narrative.

Consider "conflict" divided into three parts, all of which you should ideally have present. First, the primary conflict which drives through the core of the work from beginning to end and which zeniths with an important climax (falling action and denouement to follow). Next, secondary conflicts or complications which can take various social forms (anything from a vigorous love subplot to family issues to turmoil with fellow characters). Finally, those inner conflicts the major characters must endure and resolve.

And now, onto the PRIMARY CONFLICT.

If you've taken care to consider your story description and your hook line, you should be able to identify your main conflict(s). Let's look at some basic information regarding the history of conflict in storytelling:

Conflict was first described in ancient Greek literature as the agon, or central contest in tragedy. According to Aristotle, in order to hold the interest, the hero must have a single conflict. The agon, or act of conflict, involves the protagonist (the "first fighter") and the antagonist (a more recent term), corresponding to the hero and villain. The outcome of the contest cannot be known in advance, and, according to later critics such as Plutarch, the hero's struggle should be ennobling. Is that always true these days? Not always, but let's move on.

Even in contemporary, non-dramatic literature, critics have observed that the agon is the central unit of the plot. The easier it is for the protagonist to triumph, the less value there is in the drama. In internal and external conflict alike, the antagonist must act upon the protagonist and must seem at first to overmatch him or her.

The above defines classic drama that creates conflict with real stakes. You see it everywhere, to one degree or another, from classic contemporary westerns like THE SAVAGE BREED to a time-tested novel as literary as THE GREAT GATSBY. And of course, you need to have conflict or complications in nonfiction also, in some form, or you have a story that is too quiet.

For examples let's return to the story descriptions and create some CONFLICT LINES. Note these come close to being genuine hook lines, but that conflict is present regardless of genre.

The Hand of Fatima by Ildefonso Falcones
A young Moor torn between Islam and Christianity, scorned and tormented by both, struggles to bridge the two faiths by seeking common ground in the very nature of God.

Summer's Sisters by Judy Blume
After sharing a magical summer with a friend, a young woman must confront her friend's betrayal of her with the man she loved.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
As an apprentice mage seeks revenge on an elder magician who humiliated him, he unleashes a powerful Djinni who joins the mage to confront a danger that threatens their entire world.

Note that it is fairly easy to ascertain the stakes in each case above: a young woman's love and friendship, the entire world, and harmony between opposed religions. If you cannot make the stakes clear, the odds are you don't have any.

FIFTH ASSIGNMENT: write your own conflict line following the format above. Keep in mind it helps energize an entire plot line and the antagonist(s) must be noted or inferred.

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OTHER MATTERS OF CONFLICT: TWO MORE LEVELS

Consider "conflict" divided into three parts, all of which you should ideally have present. First, the primary conflict which drives through the core of the work from beginning to end and which zeniths with an important climax (falling action and denouement to follow). Next, secondary conflicts or complications which can take various social forms (anything from a vigorous love subplot to family issues to turmoil with fellow characters). Finally, those inner conflicts the major characters must endure and resolve. You must note the inner personal conflicts elsewhere in this profile, but make certain to note any important interpersonal conflicts within this particular category."

SIXTH ASSIGNMENT: sketch out the conditions for the inner conflict your protagonist will have. Why will they feel in turmoil? Conflicted? Anxious? Sketch out one hypothetical scenario in the story wherein this would be the case--consider the trigger and the reaction.

Next, likewise sketch a hypothetical scenario for the "secondary conflict" involving the social environment. Will this involve family? Friends? Associates? What is the nature of it?

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THE INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING

When considering your novel, whether taking place in a contemporary urban world or on a distant magical planet in Andromeda, you must first sketch the best overall setting and sub-settings for your story. Consider: the more unique and intriguing (or quirky) your setting, the more easily you're able to create energetic scenes, narrative, and overall story.

A great setting maximizes opportunities for interesting characters, circumstances, and complications, and therefore makes your writing life so much easier.

Imagination is truly your best friend when it comes to writing competitive fiction, and nothing provides a stronger foundation than a great setting. One of the best selling contemporary novels, THE HUNGER GAMES, is driven by the circumstances of the setting, and the characters are a product of that unique environment, the plot also.

But even if you're not writing SF/F, the choice of setting is just as important, perhaps even more so. If you must place your upmarket story in a sleepy little town in Maine winter, then choose a setting within that town that maximizes opportunities for verve and conflict, for example, a bed and breakfast stocked to the ceiling with odd characters who combine to create comical, suspenseful, dangerous or difficult complications or subplot reversals that the bewildered and sympathetic protagonist must endure and resolve while he or she is perhaps engaged in a bigger plot line: restarting an old love affair, reuniting with a family member, starting a new business, etc. And don't forget that non-gratuitous sex goes a long way, especially for American readers.

CONTINUE TO READ THIS ARTICLE THEN RETURN: http://www.authorsalon.com/craft/view/97/

FINAL ASSIGNMENT: sketch out your setting in detail. What makes it interesting enough, scene by scene, to allow for uniqueness and cinema in your narrative and story? Please don't simply repeat what you already have which may well be too quiet. You can change it. That's why you're here! Start now. Imagination is your best friend, and be aggressive with it.

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Story statement:
Grace must prove that love is the hardiest substance on earth and that it will overcome all obstacles against all odds.
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Antagonist or antagonistic force:
Madison Moore is a black hole of hopelessness determined to prove that positivity is a fool’s game. He aims him arsenal, forged from the abusive past that molded him, at Grace’s fragile hope. While he silently begs for Grace to buoy them both, his relentless death grip drags them to the bottom again and again. Even Madison’s limited ability to love is cloaked in his desperate need to prepare Grace and their son’s for the world that will inevitably crush them by doing the terrible and necessary deed himself.
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Breakout title:
Choose
Alone in Our Skin
Acrobatics of Breathing
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Comparables for your novel:
Shine Shine Shine, by Lydia Netzer:
Smart, quirky female protagonist forced to reconcile the chasm between the perception and reality of “coming of age” as an adult, wife, mother, daughter and friend.

The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg
Wry and painfully comedic stare-down between the family story Edie thought she created and the collective remembrance of what actually happened, while her adult children struggle to avoid repeating the tragedy of illusion in their own lives.
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Conflict line:
A woman battles her husband’s alcoholism, overwhelming doubt and a brutal attack that nearly kills her sending ripples of consequence generations into the future.
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Inner conflict:
• Grace is desperate for a family.
• She holds a fantasy about perfection, which is at odds with her desperation.
• She doubts her instincts, but finds courage in inconsistent and unpredictable moments (when enough is enough/she’s reached her boiling point).
Grace believes her first date with Madison has gone terribly wrong after she brings up his dead brother and his stepmother. Madison’s reactions are inappropriate for a first date and deeply revealing of his inner torment. Grace should cut her losses and never see him again, however when Madison asks her on a second date (attending a funereal) it plays into Grace’s desperation for a white-picket fence life (trigger) and she ignores her gut (reaction). She then lies to her best friend and roommate, the fiery truth telling Lily, about why Madison didn’t walk her to the door, saying she didn’t want him to, when in truth he abandoned her on the sidewalk.

Secondary conflict:
• Lily: steadfast, resolute, fixture of Grace’s deepest truths.
• Grace: driven by her desperation and sinking in her doubt, she is loosing her better/stronger self.
• Madison: driven by fear and the past, pulls Grace away from her best self, but towards characteristics of sacrifice that can be confused with virtue.
• Dr. Bill: heightened self-indulgence at the expense of women.
Grace asks Lily to write a letter of recommendation for Madison and her to adopt. Lily confronts Grace about her reservations while Grace is at work on the Labor and Delivery ward. The two women engage in a conversation about why Grace is not conceiving naturally. Lily proposes that it’s because there is no real love in her marriage and points to Madison’s deficits “he’s a racist alcoholic jerk”. Meanwhile, Dr. Bill is in and out of the scene. He’s already been established as an overt and painfully comical character of extreme chauvinism. In the midst of Grace and Lily’s conversation the doctor tries to hit on Lily, who promptly puts him in his place.
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Setting:
Time period:
• Earlier scenes: barely post Vietnam, Nixon/Watergate scandal, as time period relates to gender issues.
• Mid scenes: 80’s beach, skate, pre-teen culture.
• Later scenes: time surrounding 9/11 attacks

Environment:
Earlier scenes:
Camp Casey Korea: Interplay between the GIs, Halmeoni, Doris, Sister, Umma and the whores on the dusty streets amidst the neon bar signs and tinny music.
Mercy Hospital: The chaos of labor and delivery on Halloween night. The mini-universe on the ward w/interpersonal dynamics. Grace as a patient after the attack with machinery and sterility. Grace as nurse when Ty’s wife delivers pre-term and Grace saves their baby.
The Beach: The irrepressible force of nature. The pull of tides, the suicidal waves, the seemingly endless vast nature of the ocean. The scene where Ty and Grace conceive & the scene of the attack=place of highest tensions.
Mid scenes:
Grace’s vs. Madison’s house through the eyes of their son. Grace: working hard to pull her dreams together for herself (finally reaching for happiness) but her son alone=she's never home (empty lonely house). Madison: doing what he thinks his ex-wife wants for Les (make him eat fish), but can’t keep up with the house. Dirty, beginning to understand all Grace did, but won’t admit.
Later scenes:
Avery’s house vs. mother’s house: Avery: representation of single-mother’s struggle. Loneliness, chaos vs. controlled, stifling, beautiful, perfect, plush (mother). Scene of Avery & Les's 2 sex scenes.
PB High: the social dynamics in the teacher’s lounge, the principal’s office and the hallways (lockers, bells, etc=the familiar re-imagined=perhaps reader was not aware of behind-the-scenes of their HS).
Safeways: mini-universe in the aisle (highly charged sexually)=again, what’s really going in those aisle=familiar reimagined.
Grace and Lily’s house: filled with feminist art & Grace and Lily’s life-time love. Candle-lit, warm, homey
Mercy Hospital: where it all comes together but with each character in a different seat than they had before.
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STORY STATEMENT: Benjy must overcome child sexual abuse and spiritual confusion in order to confront and release his abuser.

ANTAGONIST FORCE: Adam is sixteen and an abuser; a careful abuser, who has learned how to hide his behavior at an early age. As he matures he becomes more adept at blending in with society--his main goal throughout his life. After abusing his younger brother, Benjy, for many years, he goes on to abuse his stepson. By this time he has seen what happens when the abuser gets caught, so he steps up his efforts to protect himself, ultimately killing his stepson. He continues to abuse children, and is imprisoned for the rest of his life. He is a dung-covered bug, unconcerned with the relationship between events and wanting, even at the last, to fantasize about his actions and to use others for his own selfish ends.

TITLE: Grind My Bones; The Abandoned Nursery; I'm Still Alive

MICRO-ESSAY ON COMPS: Grind My Bones is a novel in the form of a memoir, in subject matter similar to Martha Beck's 2005 memoir "LEAVING THE SAINTS," and the 2002 memoir "RUNNING WITH SCISSORS" by Augusten Burroughs. Beck links the Church with the abuse, but in Grind My Bones Mormonism is incidental to any criminal sexuality. As for "Running With Scissors" the similarity is the Stockholm Syndrome and how it affects the victim. Fiction can arguably be said to speak a higher truth than non-fiction, and so Grind My Bones is offered in the same spirit as the following novels, all of which speak an indisputable though widely varying truth about child sexual abuse, all of which reach a higher level of veracity than the best of memoirs: "The Night Listener" (2000, Maupin); "Push" (1996, Sapphire); "The Color Purple" (1982, Walker); "Tender Is The Night" (1937, Fitzgerald).

CONFLICT LINE: An ex-Mormon in search of his spiritual identity must overcome disease and doubt to face and release his childhood abuser.

INNER CONFLICT: Benjy's major inner conflict involves his feelings of guilt surrounding the act of child abuse. (Guilt and confusion surrounding his homosexuality is a minor inner conflict, resolved once he leaves the Mormon Church, and only briefly revisited for a day when he is diagnosed HIV positive.) He has a recurring dream in which he is often the voyeur, the abused, and sometimes the abuser. Is the dream a message from God? If so, what can he do to help the child? In his waking mind he usually thinks the dream is about himself. Sometimes, though, he is convinced there is a child in desperate need of his help. For many years the dream leaves him, when it returns it comes with more fearful images and more sinister implications.

SECONDARY CONFLICTS: One of the secondary conflicts at first appears as a major conflict: Benjy has lost his only friend--his sister Dinah. For him this remains a primary concern, haunting him throughout the novel. Because of his history of abuse and rejection, by family and Church, the rejection and judgment of Dinah remains boldly highlighted in his mind, representing for him a lifetime of misunderstanding and insincerity. ANOTHER SECONDARY conflict is the Mormon Church and the New Age movement: both these modes of thought influence Benjy; the first with its patriarchy and blindness to child abuse; the second for its similar abuses of power by those who want to label AIDS a disease one gets for going against Nature. ANOTHER SECONDARY conflict is Benjy's mother, who has presumably rejected him by the age of six. ANOTHER SECONDARY conflict is the gay community. The extreme shallowness of many in the gay community is a turn off to him, as is the rampant promiscuity, which he feels has culminated in the Internet Age into a culture of anonymous sex that can best be described as "click, click, click--sex." The conflict here is that Benjy has trouble realizing he has a negative opinion of sex in general, if it is not accompanied by silk curtains, candles, violin music, and genuine affection.

SETTING: First half of novel is set in a village in middle Georgia, beginning in early 1970s. The town is divided between black and white, and the slave cabins crumbling behind the 1850 farmhouse where Benjy lives is a constant reminder of that separation. SETTINGS WITHIN SETTINGS: the abandoned nursery, surrounded by pines and convered in kudzu; the large linen closet in the center of the house, cold as a crypt. The second half of novel is set in Florida: in a seaside town, and in Tallahassee. There is also a brief sojourn in the Carolinas as Benjy attempts to "pray the AIDS away" during what he terms is his "Native American Vision Quest." ANOTHER IMPORTANT setting is the locale of the recurring dream: a lonely chicken farm, where Benjy's soul is tested.

THE ACT OF STORY STATEMENT

Allison must help bring the teacher who sexually abused her as a teenager to justice.
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THE ANTAGONIST PLOTS THE POINT

Starting in his college years, Daniel, a charismatic and highly regarded high school choir director, becomes a serial sexual abuser of teenage girls. He uses his position of authority and his charm to groom the girls, a new one every year or so. He showers the most vulnerable and insecure of his students with gifts and attention, plying them with alcohol and drugs and playing on their sympathies (e.g., “My wife doesn’t understand me”) with no regard for the damage he does to them. He overcomes any concerns his colleagues and the girls’ parents express through the force of his personality and his professional accomplishments or he plays on the desire of most people to avoid conflict, bullying them into silence or begging for another chance. This behavior goes on unabated for over thirty years. When finally arrested, he attacks the girls, most of whom are now adults, as liars and manipulators, maintaining his innocence and causing admirers to rally to his side. This in turn keeps many of the women from coming forward, making the case against him harder to prove.
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CONJURING YOUR BREAKOUT TITLE

Wheel of Being (“Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being. Everything dies, everything blossoms again; eternally runs the year of being.” Friedrich Nietzsche)

The Life You Get

Redeeming Value
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DECIDING YOUR GENRE AND APPROACHING COMPARABLES

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw
Young people experience a life-altering event, then spend their adult years coming to terms with what it means for them.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Told from the points of view of different members of a family, the book explores their complex relationships as they break apart and come together again.
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CONSIDERING THE PRIMARY CONFLICT - COMING OF THE "AGON"

Raped at 17 by a teacher she trusted and admired, Allison must overcome her feelings of shame and worthlessness if she is to have peace of mind and find deep human connection as an adult.
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OTHER MATTERS OF CONFLICT: TWO MORE LEVELS

Allison feels conflicted because she admired and even had a crush on Daniel. She spent many hours alone with him and on some level thought of their relationship as romantic and forbidden (though not sexual) but carried on with it anyway. The night he raped her, she had gone out with him against her better judgment and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol he provided her. Her culture has taught her that women who are raped must have done something to deserve it. Thus, she feels extreme shame and remorse and as if she has no standing to seek redress. When he is finally arrested years later, she is reluctant to speak out.

Allison’s mother, Frances, is an alcoholic. Her divorce from Allison’s father when Allison was a young teen started her on a downward spiral in which she neglected both of her daughters. As an adult, Allison resents her mother’s weakness and avoids spending time with her as much as possible. This places more of a burden on Allison’s younger sister Caroline to care for their mother, who has health problems and early signs of dementia, causing tension between the two sisters.

One of the board members of Allison's school pressures Allison to admit the 8 year old son of the board member's business partner, despite the child's low test scores and behavioral issues. No matter what Allison does, she risks a rift in the board that threatens her job and the school's reputation
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THE INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING

Mitchellville, Texas is a fictional suburb north of Dallas. In the 70s, it begins to boom as white families leave the city and its rapidly integregating schools and neighborhoods for homogeneity and safety. It is in Mitchellville in their new cookie cutter house on Hummingbird Lane, that Allison’s family falls apart, a victim of the sexual revolution. Her father has an affair with a younger woman, for whom he leaves Frances. He marries her and starts a second family, while life in the house on Hummingbird Lane becomes the site of her mother’s drunken scenes and a place where her mother’s boyfriends call the shots.

For Allison, sprawling Mitchellville High School and especially the choir room, is at first a refuge from her chaotic home life. There Daniel gives her private voice lessons and enlists her help in selecting music for the choir. After the lessons, Daniel takes Allison on long drives in the country on the outskirts of Dallas, preying on her vulnerability and pulling her in to a secret and ultimately destructive relationship. Later, Daniel’s office in the choir room, a place where the two of them had spent hours listening to music and talking about life, is the scene of his attack on Allison and her refuge is shattered.

In the present day scenes, Mitchellville has become more diverse even than Dallas in the 70s. The houses are filled with a mix of immigrants from Mexico, Africa and Asia, with and without families; the occasional pair of men or women; African-Americans; and older, white long-time residents whose children have grown up and moved out. This changing world intimidates Frances, Allison’s mother, but it is also the place where, as the world changes, Daniel’s long-time abusive behavior is finally exposed.

As an adult, Allison lives in Austin, four hours away from her family, where she once again finds refuge in a school, Austin Country Day. She returns to Mitchellville only for brief visits a couple of times a year. She is a highly competent and tough principal, spending very long hours at the school. She lives alone in a high rise condo downtown where she is literally above it all, removed from most interaction with the world below.

It is on a trip to New York, where Allison reconnects with another teacher from her days at Mitchellville High and gains greater understanding of what happened to her, that Allison takes her first tentative steps toward confronting Daniel and allowing others to know the real Allison for the first time since she was a girl.

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Norma Scogin

Story Statement
In her quest for survival, Vittoria uncovers her ancient Strega heritage and must use it to make sense of her life in post-plague Florence.

Antagonist or Antagonistic Force
Magda is a cold and calculating prostitute who takes the opportunity the Black Death brings to escape her wanton way of life and uses her manipulative talents to convince depraved grave-digger Pietro to help her to steal riches from countryside villa abandoned due to plague. Their plan almost goes off without a hitch until they find Vittoria has taken temporary refuge in the villa. Vittoria’s quick thinking and the unexpected return of Marlon, the villa’s lord, completely ruin Magda’s plan to make a new life and she swears that she will find a way to destroy Vittoria’s life in return before she escapes.

Adolfo is of noble birth and has nothing but time and money to waste. He believes that anything in his line of sight is his personal property, including women. Aldolfo first lays eyes on Vittoria when she makes her less than triumphant return to Florence but she makes it abundantly clear that she is not for the taking. Adolfo has many ways and means, as well as an entourage of cronies that help him scheme and plot to get what he wants, but the stakes are raised even higher to claim Vittoria when he meets Magda.

Breakout Title
A Sprig of Rue
The Strega of Florence
The Cimaruta: The Deliverance of Diana’s Daughter

Novel Comparables
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
Release date: April 30, 2002
A housemaid emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. She struggles to survive and grow while facing death, superstition and witch-hunting in a time of plague.

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Release date: March 1, 2002
Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning a young girl's world upside down. She flees the city with her grandfather but soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and she must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease.

Conflict line
A young girl finds herself as one of the few survivors of the Black Death and struggles bridge the gap between the faith she once knew and the magical Strega heritage she's recently discovered in order to save her own life and those she loves.

Inner conflict
Vittoria will experience fear and face her own mortality when she loses both her parents to plague. When she meets Tsura and the Strega clan she is both wary and mesmerized by them, and is conflicted and hesitant to believe she is of their blood. She fears for her life when in the presence of Magda and Pietro, and loses herself in the blackness when she kills Pietro. Vittoria’s blossoming love relationship with Marlon is the one thing that pulls her through that experience, but the whirlwind romance is cut short and she is devastated and emotionally beaten upon her return to Florence. She finds solace in Tomas, a young man she assisted during her hasty departure from Florence, who shows her that love doesn’t have to be painful. She faces again her mortality and the possible loss of her family, and confronts her belief system when faced with a witch’s death at the hands of The Church when she is wrongfully accused of devil worship by Adolfo.

Secondary conflict
Vittoria falls deeply in love with Marlon but he is emotionally unavailable and leaves to pursue a fantasy adventure following in the footsteps of Marco Polo. Tomas is uncertain of his own sexuality but knows that he loves Vittoria, and makes it his mission to support her and helps to raise Vittoria and Marlon’s daughter Zola. Vittoria embraces her Strega knowledge and works as midwife and medicine woman to assist her fellow Florentines in order to fill the painful void that Marlon has left in her heart.

Setting

Early Scenes
Florence – Vittoria’s home on near the Duomo; Vittoria flees through the streets of Florence towards to River Arno with stops in various piazzas and encounters Tomas and the twins; River Arno accident scene where she is dangling from a bridge that was damaged by a run-away death cart and is saved by Tomas.
Tuscan Countryside – Chestnut grove where she encounters Tsura the Strega; Nomadic Strega camp reminiscent of a modern day gypsy camp; Strega ceremonial circle where ritual magic happens, Strada Chianti the road between Florence and Sienna where she finds refuge in a large villa; Inside the luxurious villa where she encounters the murderous Magda and Pietro; On the grounds of the villa where she prevents Marlon’s death and kills Pietro; Collection of shorter scenes around the grounds and inside the villa as Marlon and Vittoria get to know each other.

Middle Scenes
Sienna – Inn in the Piazza del Campo run by Maria and her artist brother Bartolo; Sex scene with Marlon and Vittoria in their shared bed quarters in the Inn; Banquet scene in the courtyard of the Inn; Flagellant scene which disrupts the fun of the banquet and causes emotional strife within many of the participants including Marlon; Marlon leaves Vittoria for Venice to pursue his fantasy expedition to China after first delivering her back to the city gates of Florence.
Florence – Vittoria visits the city Magistrate’s office and first encounters Adolfo; Returns to her home near the Duomo to reclaim her old life with great difficulty and find she has an unexpected visitor; Tomas hears of Vittoria’s return to the city but finds her broken and very depressed when he tracks her down; Vittoria hones her magical skills within the confines of her home, trains as a midwife/healer, and often ventures to the countryside to visit with the Strega; Vittoria finds out she pregnant and Tomas swears to stand by and care for her; Vittoria believes she's seen Magda at the market.

Late Scenes
Florence – Pivotal scene where while feigning interest in Tomas tailoring skills at the shop in Vittoria’s home Adolfo steals a very important journal from Vittoria which contains Strega information that was forbidden to be written down. He does this out of spite for her rejection of him; Inquisitor pays Vittoria a visit and she is dragged from her home and paraded through the streets to the jail; Horrible jail cell where she is made to stay for a long time and there she delivers a servant girl’s baby who turns out to have been raped by Adolfo; Torture chamber where Vittoria is strapped into a dunking chair and is forced underwater by the Inquisitor; Marlon returns to Florence and has a confrontation with Tomas; Strega arrive in Florence to assist Vittoria. Final scenes to be determined.

Story Statement -
A testament to determination and resolve, Fresh Widow, will inspire its readers to believe in perseverance, conquer life’s challenges, and strive to create legacies for generations to come.

Antagonist/Antagonistic Force -
Wilona Lightsey is a woman given to needs. Trouble is, her needs are more imagined than real, and the cost of favoring them comes at any price – to anyone. A 28-year-old “widow” who, in her daughter, Charlotte’s, eyes is capable of at once becoming a heretic and jezebel. Commanding public sympathy through an affected lameness of her left leg, the assumed result of infantile paralysis, the manifested behaviors of Wilona’s narcissism know no bounds. Maltreatment of herself and her daughter, Charlotte, ranges from petty manipulation to the ultimate betrayal of Charlotte as a young married woman. In her final days, when she is presented with a redemptive opportunity that could only result in a positive way on herself and those around her, Wilona’s struggle of contempt vs. honor has an unexpected interruption. In her dying hours, as she confesses her “sins” to Charlotte, the true prices for her lifelong apathy of others becomes a genuine motivation for sympathy and change.

Breakout Title -
a) No Good Deed b) Second Best c) Fresh Widow

Genre and Comparables -
Fiction authors “Joshilyn Jackson” who wrote “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty,” and Dorothy Allison, who wrote “Bastard out of Carolina.”

“Fresh Widow,” compares favorably to author, Joshilyn Jackson’s work “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty” as its protagonist, Charlotte Lightsey, is as intrepid as Mosey Slocomb. Charlotte’s family background is also likened to the “Boatwright” family in “Bastard out of Carolina,” by Dorothy Allison as it has many of the same beguiling elements but with a different ending as a direct result of a strange and unexpected twist of fate.

Primary Conflict -
A young woman having been caught in a lifelong struggle with her mother’s behaviors only realizes how to conquer its consequences after she is ensnared by the manipulations of local transient, Ora Reynolds, who knows all the secrets.

Inner Conflict -
Charlotte Lightsey struggles to rationalize/overcome her mother’s abusive behaviors and their effects, in a desire to love and be loved by her. While she suspects that her biological ancestry is not what her mother has outlined to her, she has no way of proving differently, and to Charlotte this makes all the difference in her chances for life’s fulfillment.

Secondary Conflict -
Leland Clyne – Charlotte’s first love and first husband who is a favored “son of the city,” but has a personal agenda for his marriage to Charlotte.
Ora Reynolds – Transient woman who works both sides of the fence for and against Charlotte – only later to become her staunch ally.
Fletcher Clyne - Father of Leland, and unknown conspirator with Ora.
Anne Clyne – Mother of Leland, and socialite who has an unmentionable connection to Charlotte’s mother, Wilona Lightsey.

Charlotte Lightsey, having been married, widowed and experienced other life-altering events, is now faced with a realization conveyed by Ora Reynolds which not only compromises her former mother-in-law, but also casts a shadow over the future of infant son, Frederick, unless she can vindicate a former transgression.

The Setting -
When rumors of impending construction of a new manufacturing plant for intercontinental ballistic missiles start to circulate in the small Midwestern town of Jefferson, Kansas a local “widow” realizes that the population influx for new jobs could include the person who holds the power to reveal a long-kept secret. As the summer heat of 1962 arrives, so does a second wave of new hires and their antics threatening the staid traditions of a quiet political town.

Story Statement

When outside issues, the military draft, the civil rights movement, violent rivalries and nepotism – press against the arc of family dynamics -- and his wife liberates herself from the domain he’s created, Thomas must erect a new foundation on which to build a safe haven for his children and himself.

Antagonist

Thomas’ wife, the newly-liberated Louisa
Louisa confounds her husband when she moves on to a world that he doesn’t have influence over. Half in jest, he has called their marriage a home-management partnership. Not a partnership, and not what she wants and needs after bearing 5 kids. Louisa chases a new life – without husband or kids. Both Louisa’s physical absence and her long-distance interference antagonizes Thomas, makes him more resolute in exercising control over his household, and sends him seeking ways to fill the hole in his life. The situation helps the kids find a chink in dad’s armor, as he grows distracted and then distraught. Louisa’s boldness, independence, newly-revealed ambitions - her guilt-induced interjections into their lives, fuels both the fears and aspirations of the kids. The eldest daughter follows her, the teen sons find their own avenues of rebellion, and the youngest two, confused and hurt, stumble along. Thomas’ thorn is that his wife dared to breach their contract and that he must captain the family ship alone. The urge to defeat or at least diminish her is one tact; the complete dismissal of her existence is another. (She’s dead to us.) The injustice and injury he serves to his ex seems to trump what he perceives as her attempt to (destroy) injure him, and, to him,is not an indicator of his moral virtue.

Titles

Rumble
Roots of Protest
Facing Cultural Reality


Comparable Novels -

Schroder Amity Gaige (2/13)
Father takes on new identity to keep daughter in his life during custody battle.

Home Front Kristin Hannah (1/13)
The story of a family with “wounds”.

Brand New Human Beings (6/2012) Emily Jeanette Miller
Stay-at-home dad faces trials as his wife betrays him, his dad dies, and life gets complicated.


Conflict Line

After his wife liberates herself and leaves their five children in his care, a husband attempts to put an end to the interfering influence of his ex-wife and fortify the safe haven he’s built to insulate his children from the tumultuous and rebellious realities of the late 1960’s.

Inner Conflict

In moments of confusion or despair, Thomas worries about how he – and others who fail, will be judged by their God, about whether their choices will be deemed sinful, or whether certain sins – or the infrequency or circumstance of their sins, wouldn’t diminish the otherwise stalwart morality that the individuals have cultivated during the trials of life. For Thomas, the thought of being judged an imperfect specimen, or worse, a sinner, by God, or anyone, is unacceptable. Because of that, he pushes hard against aberrant impulses that surge inside. And that physical exertion makes him thirsty for liquid escape. The recurring themes make him vacillate. Is he righteous or immoral? Yes, he kills the pony. Did he have the right to do that? His marriage dies. His sin? His daughter choses to live with her mother. His failing? He harbors grudges and loses perspective. He considers ending ‘things’. And in the moment when things get worse – and he has no choice but to act, how will he be judged?
Hypothetical scenario: A co-worker murders her abusive spouse, eliciting in Thomas the urge to physically put an end to his ex-wife’s interference. After hours of anguish, and a drinking bout, and before Thomas acts on his impulse, he contacts his friend, a priest, and initiates a discussion about how to speak to, and about, the wife who is being held for killing her husband, without revealing that he is trying to justify the horrible act he has played out in his own mind.

Secondary Conflict
Thomas is taken with Josie from their first meeting. He could be her protector, her mentor, her lover…no, not lover. The risk of involvement was too big and distracting. Nor could he be father-figure, teacher, or even friend. Yet he is drawn to her, sexually and otherwise. In the bars, he hides in the shadows and watches her play the suckers for their attention and booze. Unable to decide what he wants from her, he stays in the background and watches as the punks take what they can get from her. But Josie plays him, too.
Hypothetical scenario: After a social evening, an adult evening away from his kids, he becomes the object of Josie’s unabashed passion, her body presses on his, a kiss that shoots sparks through him, only to realize that her calculated show of affection was meant to hook the interest of one of the thugs at the bar. Through his drunken fog, he feels like a fool. Yet he can’t dismiss her, has to work with her, and needs her to fill the void in his life.

Thomas’ world

On two acres, parceled off from a stretch of farmland, Thomas raises his kids’ awareness, stretches their minds, challenges them to become good neighbors, yet tries to insulate them from the rumblings of the small town - and the rebellions of the big troubled cities that lie just beyond his control. It’s 1967, and when the kids break from the boundaries of their father’s domain, they witness - and as they get older, get involved, in the movements that define the era. Taking their positions on Vietnam, civil rights, women’s rights, the kids express their need to be free of their father’s control - to fully participate, to demonstrate their grasp of the issues that are closer to home than Thomas could imagine. The actions of their lives shift down-town, where, in the Main Street sandwich shop that the family helps operate, Thomas and his kids meet bigotry and conflict face-to-face. Between the pool hall attached to the shop and the huge, detached garage of their rural homestead, along the side streets and on school grounds, Thomas and his family interact with, and are affected by, the life threads of neighbors, friends and family who are trying not to let life unravel.

First assignment: write your story statement

Four quirky twelve year olds are brought together by a secret meeting place on a conservation sanctuary, a herd of sheep, an eccentric grandfather, and heirloom seeds in a community garden. When they uncover an alarming threat to life on the sanctuary, they are determined to expose it. Through their adventure and struggles with their families and each other, they learn valuable lessons about nature, personal strength, friendship and family.

Second assignment: 200 words or less, sketch antagonist or antagonistic force (goals, background, way react to world about them)
Martin Millstone is an egocentric industrialist obsessed with making money, and doesn’t agree with the government that nature needs to be preserved. His goal is to use the preserve for dumping the waste water from his industry. He treats the world and those around him, including his adopted son, Justin, in a condescending and self-serving manner.
Shannon is an angry, rebellious twelve-year old who thinks her grandfather is a crazy, eccentric man. Her goal is to be reunited with her parents as soon as possible.

Third assignment: create a breakout title
Seeds
Finding Home

Fourth assignment: two comparables for the novel. Why do they compare?
Genre and Comparables:
Middle grade author Carl Hiassen: quirky characters and environmental mystery
Middle grade author Sharon Creech: humor and voice

Fifth assignment: write your own conflict line following the format above.
Conflict line: Four twelve year olds, each struggling with a family issue, solve an environmental mystery that threatens their home.


Sixth assignment: inner conflict of the protagonist
Inner conflict for Arabeth: Arabeth wants the same loving, supportive relationship with her father that she had with her mother. Since her mother’s death, Arabeth has found solace in the natural world even more than she did before. When her father accuses her of fabricating the presence of illegal trucks on the preserve for attention, she is overwhelmed with anger and hurt.
Secondary conflict:
Nathan and Justin-Nathan feels threatened by Arabeth’s interest in Justin
Shannon and her grandfather-Shannon, angry at her parents, transfers this to
her grandfather
Justin and his father-Justin disagrees with his father’s basic attitudes, behaviors

Setting:
The novel takes place in forty scenes. The settings for these scenes include:
The Domus Silvae-meeting place established years ago by Arabeth and Nathan inside a very old, massive oak tree, the century plus old farmhouse where Arabeth’s family lives, Nathan’s kitchen, at the lake and in the forest of the preserve, at the community garden, at the Millstone Industries office building, in Martin Millstone’s office

Story Statement: Days Last Forever
Emma must prove that love consummated is eternal and not bound by time and place.

Story Statement: Days Last Forever
Emma must prove that love consummated is eternal and not bound by time and place.

Antagonist:
Emma’s husband, RJ is the personification of love gone wrong. Though Emma is his ideal concept of a perfect lover, he fails to sufficiently love himself and thereby tears away at the very heart of her perfection. Through his neglect of her, his cheating, and his lack of concern for her actions and whereabouts, he drives her further away, yet closer to the realization that love is not negotiable, nor is it dependent on another fulfilling our deepest desires for acceptance. His destructive actions propel the plot to the point of tragedy and resolution, and by necessity; he must learn the lessons of true love through the faith that Emma has spent a lifetime modeling.

Breakout Title: Days Last Forever

Genre: Upmarket Literary Fiction.
Comparables: Tuesdays With Morrie meets The Notebook


Primary Conflict Line:
Emma must fight alone for lost love by transcending the limitations of time.

The Protagonist’s inner conflict: Emma is constantly immersed in the excitement of new love while fighting to hold on to what is left of her marriage.
Secondary Conflict involving social environment: Emma’s obsessive love for a much younger man is a struggle that seems to have no resolution.

Setting: The setting undulates from past to present in the protagonist’s mind and memory all the while creating only a sense of the present for the reader. Physically, the story is set on a sprawling country property in north Texas along the Red River complete with an old abandoned ranch house, wheat fields, a pecan grove and numerous old barns and out buildings. This is a place where nature rules and time seems only an issue once outside the barbed wire perimeter of the land.

Story statement:
Smith Fuller must choose between remaining in the passive cocoon of his own sense of failure and allowing himself to risk connection with two new friends, grieving Allen and suicidal Frankie, both in desperate need of safe harbor and comfort.

Antagonist/antagonistic force:
Alicia Martinelli, Smith’s ex-wife, is the central antagonistic force, as she is the catalyst who brings both Allen and Fankie into Smith’s life and she represents both Smith’s past and the “alternate life” he might have had. She is not a violent or directly opposing antagonist. She seeks certainty and tries to convey an image of being sure about herself, her plans, her actions, her beliefs, in contrast to Smith’s willingness to display his own uncertainty. Smith’s tentative and unambitious nature was one reason that Alicia left him just a year into their young marriage. She judges him as too timid, even in his expression of grief over her lost pregnancy. Her sense of certainty is largely rooted in her Evangelical Christian beliefs, which Smith had once tried to share but now rejects. These beliefs now push her to remain with her husband, Jack, who has molested their daughter, Frankie.

Title:
Tri-County Salvage and Repair
Wake to Sleep
Shaking Steady

Comparable novels:
Tri-County Salvage and Repair could be viewed as the late middle-aged version of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot. The protagonist, Smith, is still trying to figure out, more than two decades after his divorce, why he was not good enough for his ex-wife, Alicia, who chose the stronger, more confident, more ambitious Jack for her long-term marriage. Tri-County also examines the details of depression, suicidal tendencies and the long-lasting effects of childhood abuse.

In its examination of the crucial but often unpredictable lines of connection that grow between very different types of people, along with the inescapable influence of the past, my novel has some similarities to Janet Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad.

Conflict line:
Smith’s passivity and uncertainty come into conflict with his newfound ability to help and comfort others when he must decide whether his love for Frankie demands that he confront her abusive father, Jack.

Primary conflict:
The primary conflict throughout the novel is really Smith’s internal conflict about his own worth. This is evident in almost every scene, in the form of his continual self-criticism. The conflict reaches its climax in relation to the most important external conflict—between Smith and Jack, the former friend for whom Smith’s wife left him while they were still in college. Smith has purposely avoided feeling a sense of conflict with or anger toward Jack since the breakup of his marriage, almost 30 years ago. Now, however, as Smith has developed a father-like relationship with Alicia and Jack’s daughter, Frankie, and has also learned that Jack has molested Frankie, he needs to decide whether and how he should confront Jack.

Secondary conflicts: There are numerous secondary conflicts, many relate to the larger issue of a conservative Christian (and therefore certain, settled) view of the world and a more existential, open, ambiguous view of the world. Many of these involve important secondary characters.
• Frankie’s internal conflicts—should she kill herself or not? Should she retain a relationship with her father or not?
• Smith-Alicia conflicts:
o Alicia’s sense of purpose and ambition vs. Smith’s sense of uncertainty, contentment, complacency
o Alicia’s obsession with grief over first miscarriage vs. Smith’s denial/inability to absorb it
o Smith’s anger at Alicia for staying with Jack
• Allen vs. Josh’s past, Josh’s family and the religious judgment of their relationship
• Allen vs. Peggy’s political conservatism—his anger at her strong stance against marriage equality as a state senator candidate
• Allen vs. Alicia—his anger at her for staying with Jack and for not pushing her relatives more in terms of accepting him and Josh.
• Alicia vs. Smith and Allen—feels they can’t understand her commitment to Jack OR the depth of her love for Frankie. She wants to see them as two separate things, while both Smith and Allen see them as closely connected and therefore contradictory
• Allen vs. Smith—anger at what he thinks is not enough anger at Jack—Smith’s too-calm nature

Setting:
The main setting for the novel is a converted one-story brick motel which now serves as Smith’s combined home and place of business. He calls his business Tri-County Salvage and Repair, though most other people refer to is as a junk shop. The setting replicates the temporary (tentative) and de-valued nature of Smith’s own life. The exterior of the business is worn and ragged—an asphalt parking lot that is disintegrating, which Smith has been slowly covering with gravel, vines working their way into the brick walls, plywood covering some of the windows. The interior is dim and dusty and cluttered with an eclectic mix of cast-off items. Smith does pick up and repair old appliances and then offers them for sale. He also sells pretty much anything that someone else needed to get rid of. Most of the motel space is used for the shop, workroom, and living areas, but there are a couple of small, empty rooms. He is able to convert these back to regular bedrooms, first one for Allen, then later one for Frankie, when they end up on his doorstep.

The larger setting is rural northern Illinois—flat and empty and quiet. In winter scenes, the desolate nature of the unending white of snow-covered fields mirrors the internal landscape for characters in different periods of depression and grief. In spring scenes the setting also mirrors the hints of re-birth for Smith, Allen, and Frankie.

The social setting is one of moral and religious conservatism, though Smith is somewhat of an outsider to that. The most extreme part of this religious social setting is the Christian college that Smith and Alicia both attend and where Alicia meets her current husband, Jack. The fact that this is the setting for Alicia’s initial betrayal of Smith adds to Alicia’s development as an antagonist who is either hypocritical or self-deluded.

ALGONKIAN WRITERS BLOCK EXERCISES

1. Story Statement:

(Reconcile feelings from past abuse to achieve a loving relationship)

A man must confront and move past the damage caused by a psychopathic abuser before he can move forward in his life.


2. Antagonistic Force:

Amber Mack is a psychopath who has caused damage in every significant relationship in her life. One of her most poignant victims is her much younger brother-in-law, Kai Devlin. After murdering his parents in an unsuccessful bid to garner more of her husband Craig’s attention, her plan backfired and she ended up saddled with Kai. While her husband continued working long hours building a business, she had ample opportunity to hammer at Kai’s psyche in revenge.

While he was between the ages of five and 11, she verbally abused him and made sure he received as little emotional and material attention as possible. Most damaging of all, however, was the secret sexual relationship she maintained with him at night. Feeding her own private fetishes, she told him he was gay (this would turn out to be untrue), and that she must “train” him to prepare for the “cocksucker’s lifestyle.” Overall, she did her best to teach him that sex as a “queer” would be painful and miserable, and that he “deserved” the life because of his worthlessness.

Kai was removed and placed in the care of his gay uncle after he learned of the abuse, but Amber remained a threatening background figure. Finally, as Kai was trying to reconcile his conflicting feelings for women and create a meaningful, lasting relationship with a woman, she abruptly reappeared in his life, nearly derailing his recovery.


3. Breakout Title

Consider character or place names, settings, or a "label" that describes a major character, like THE ENGLISH PATIENT or THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST.

Finding Kai

Consider a quotation from another source (poetry, the Bible, etc.) that thematically represents your story.

(“The distance is nothing when one has a motive.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)

Stronger than the Distance


(“Do not sabotage your new relationship with your last relationship’s poison.”
― Steve Maraboli)

Sabotaging the Past

(Book title: Evicting The Perpetrator:A Male Survivor Guide To Recovery From Childhood Sexual Abuse)

Evicting Amber


(From menweb.org, My Stolen Life by Timothy Null
The little boy was dead, he was cast aside and in his place grew a halfling, one that was not whole, one who could not be. He still looked the part of the small boy. He was one who still did what the DEMON LADY said. One who showed no fear, one that took the pain and abuse. One who showed no no tears. One who was forever changed. The halfling survived, half living half-dying)

Surviving the Demon Lady
Evicting the Demon Lady


4. Genre/Comps

I think I might need help here. I’m not completely sure this novel fits easily into a typical genre, although I think it would appeal most to those who enjoy women’s and/or contemporary fiction. I am currently writing it primarily as a relationship story. However, the barriers to an HEA are more real and ugly than would be found in a typical romance (ex. the psychopathic sister-in-law, the fact that the sexual abuser in Kai’s childhood was female, and Kai’s questioning of his sexual identity). It doesn’t carry the typical romance tropes (ex. my characters are attractive, but not exceptionally so, and while there is sex, there is no swooning, no bodice-ripping, and much of the story takes place at work, where they are serious about their jobs). I’m curious to know what you all think and what direction you think I should take with it.

BTW, in researching the genre, I could find very few novels written that explore the female abuse of male scenario.

Forgiving Sam
B. Powell Clark 2002

"....Abducted at age nine, Sam was tortured and brutally sodomized by Ralph Sommers, a man who had already raped and killed another boy. When Ralph's wife, Deb, helps free Sam, it appears that the love of his mother and father will eventually heal his emotional wounds. Unfortunately, these wounds fester during the course of Sam's adolescence and adulthood.... Believing that he somehow caused his own trauma, he suffers from asthma and mood swings. After many poignant crises and some answers from his therapist, family members, and Deb, Sam finally forgives himself and moves forward, although he is unable to complete the process until a final, potentially heartbreaking calamity occurs.”

Claiming Georgia Tate
Gigi Amateau 2005


"When her beloved grandmother dies, a young girl's minister grandfather unwittingly sends her to live with an abusive father.... With a vivid narrative voice and an extraordinary cast of characters, first-time author Gigi Amateau tells an unflinching and unforgettable tale of a sensitive girl caught in the trauma of incestuous abuse. But CLAIMING GEORGIA TATE is also a joyful story of survival — an ode to the solace of true family, the mercy of strangers, and the possibility of hope and healing."

Boy Toy
Barry Lyga

A high school senior tries to make sense of an inappropriate relationship with a female teacher that occurred while he was in middle school.



5. Primary Conflict

After a childhood marked by his sister-in-law’s highly deviant sexual abuse, as an adult Kai must confront and reconcile his conflicting feelings about women and his own sexuality if he is to have hope of achieving a meaningful emotional relationship.

6. Inner Conflict/Secondary Conflict

Kai’s inner conflict revolves around his need to face the fact that he has not had any meaningful emotional relationships in his life because he still must confront issues related to the traumatic years he spent at the hands of his psychotic sister-in-law. He had relatively extensive counseling during his teen years after he was removed from the situation, but he has always believed he could get over his remaining anger toward women and his conflicting feelings about his own sexuality without outside help. During the course of the novel, he learns he needs the help of a therapist, his family and his closest friends if he is to achieve closure.

One scenario related to both issues occurs after he has met Rylan and she has walked away after getting a dose of his boorish behavior toward women. He feels significant loss for the first time in his life after she leaves him, but he doesn’t fully understand why. A week after this incident, he takes his horses back to the ranch and witnesses a poignant moment between his uncle and his partner after a health scare. It is this moment that causes a double epiphany for him -- he realizes for sure he is not gay, and he also realizes he wants a relationship of the kind of depth his uncle has with his partner. It is this experience that causes him to seek counseling and attempt to contact Rylan to try to work things out.

7. Setting

The two primary settings for this novel are LA and Wrightsville Beach, NC., where two different movies are being filmed (about a year apart). Most action occurs on film sets or locations, and the storylines of the two movies have some significance. The LA movie is a western with the unlikely casting of rapper 50 Cent (or a similar fictional rapper), which provides some comic relief, as he is not much of a horseman.

The NC movie is more significant to the story because more time is spent on the relationship in this location. (more detail to come).

Note: the novel opens and closes with scenes involving horses and water - the opening with a horse jumping off a cliff into a river and the closing with the same horse being hit by a boat propellor in a channel at Wrightsville Beach during the shooting of a scene. The opening is the first time we see Rylan notice Kai, and the closing scene marks the moment Rylan decides to risk her own emotional self and commit to a relationship with Kai.