Jillian’s goal is to escape the dead-end life with her mother and to learn that she can count on herself.
2. The Antagonist
The antagonist is Jillian’s mother Laura, who is an alcoholic and a hoarder. Laura was a loving mom when Jillian’s dad Rick was alive, but she became addicted to alcohol and started hoarding after Rick was killed and she was injured in a car accident. Laura’s goal is to be numb, and the more Jillian recovered from losing her dad, the more Laura retreated from society. Laura’s hoarding and drinking caused Jillian to feel like an outcast and ultimately causes them to lose their home in a fire.
3. Breakout Title
· The Everywhere Road
· The Strays
· She, Herself
4. Comparables
· The People We Keep – Allison Larkin (2021)
· Where the Heart Is – Billie Letts (1998)
o My novel compares to these because they are stories about young women who are out on their own for the first time, learning that they can depend on themselves, yet also learning to let others into their lives. Themes of loss, friendship, journey.
5. Hook Line
· Nineteen-year-old Jillian was suffocating beneath her mother’s “treasures” and became homeless, when she must find the confidence to drive an old man to the West Coast so he can reconnect with his son.
6. Conflict
· Inner Conflict
Jillian feels abandoned by her mother and doesn’t have self-confidence that she can fend for herself – in reality, she has been fending for herself.
In one scene in my novel, Jillian has dropped Arthur off at the sidewalk at Old Faithful and went to park the car. When she finds that Arthur is not at the bench where she told him to wait, she frantically searches the geyser viewing area for him. Her heart is pounding, and she is scared that she has lost Arthur. As she is searching the viewing area for him, she remembers when she got separated from her mom at a store when she was six. She is feeling that same fear.
· Secondary Conflict
Secondary conflict involves Arthur, the old man that Jillian is caring for. Jillian thinks that she is taking Arthur to the West Coast so he can live with his son. Arthur hasn’t told her that he is estranged from his son and his son doesn’t know he is coming. Jillian doesn’t learn this until they go to meet his son and he doesn’t want anything to do with Arthur.
7. Setting
· My story is set in contemporary time and starts in Cleveland, Ohio and ends on the California coast. The early scenes take place in Jillian’s house, where her mom’s hoarding has filled the rooms boxes and bags of her mom’s “treasures,” and Arthur’s home where the furnishings are dusty and old-fashioned, but organized and spare. The middle scenes take place along Jillian and Arthur’s travels to the California coast – the heartland, the mountains, and Yellowstone National Park. The later scenes are set at Rose’s cottages in Elk Creek Cove, California (a tiny fictional town) and San Rafael, California, where Arthur’s son lives.
New York Pitch and Algonkian Pre-event Assignments - 2022
in New York Write to Pitch 2023 and 2024
Posted
1. Story Statement
Jillian’s goal is to escape the dead-end life with her mother and to learn that she can count on herself.
2. The Antagonist
The antagonist is Jillian’s mother Laura, who is an alcoholic and a hoarder. Laura was a loving mom when Jillian’s dad Rick was alive, but she became addicted to alcohol and started hoarding after Rick was killed and she was injured in a car accident. Laura’s goal is to be numb, and the more Jillian recovered from losing her dad, the more Laura retreated from society. Laura’s hoarding and drinking caused Jillian to feel like an outcast and ultimately causes them to lose their home in a fire.
3. Breakout Title
· The Everywhere Road
· The Strays
· She, Herself
4. Comparables
· The People We Keep – Allison Larkin (2021)
· Where the Heart Is – Billie Letts (1998)
o My novel compares to these because they are stories about young women who are out on their own for the first time, learning that they can depend on themselves, yet also learning to let others into their lives. Themes of loss, friendship, journey.
5. Hook Line
· Nineteen-year-old Jillian was suffocating beneath her mother’s “treasures” and became homeless, when she must find the confidence to drive an old man to the West Coast so he can reconnect with his son.
6. Conflict
· Inner Conflict
Jillian feels abandoned by her mother and doesn’t have self-confidence that she can fend for herself – in reality, she has been fending for herself.
In one scene in my novel, Jillian has dropped Arthur off at the sidewalk at Old Faithful and went to park the car. When she finds that Arthur is not at the bench where she told him to wait, she frantically searches the geyser viewing area for him. Her heart is pounding, and she is scared that she has lost Arthur. As she is searching the viewing area for him, she remembers when she got separated from her mom at a store when she was six. She is feeling that same fear.
· Secondary Conflict
Secondary conflict involves Arthur, the old man that Jillian is caring for. Jillian thinks that she is taking Arthur to the West Coast so he can live with his son. Arthur hasn’t told her that he is estranged from his son and his son doesn’t know he is coming. Jillian doesn’t learn this until they go to meet his son and he doesn’t want anything to do with Arthur.
7. Setting
· My story is set in contemporary time and starts in Cleveland, Ohio and ends on the California coast. The early scenes take place in Jillian’s house, where her mom’s hoarding has filled the rooms boxes and bags of her mom’s “treasures,” and Arthur’s home where the furnishings are dusty and old-fashioned, but organized and spare. The middle scenes take place along Jillian and Arthur’s travels to the California coast – the heartland, the mountains, and Yellowstone National Park. The later scenes are set at Rose’s cottages in Elk Creek Cove, California (a tiny fictional town) and San Rafael, California, where Arthur’s son lives.