Robyn McMahan

Story Statement:

A young woman must decide between saving her relationship and saving herself.

The Antagonist:

The antagonists in the story are Layel’s sister, mother, ex-boyfriend, and her inner thoughts. All of these factors play a part in why Layel is struggling with her mental health. While Layel is staying at the halfway house the calls from her sister and mother complicate things. And the lack of communication from her ex make her more and more nervous about whether or not they can get back together. Time also plays an antagonistic role. Layel’s ex will be moving to LA within three months and Layel feels like she needs to have her mental health in good shape before he leaves or their chances of getting back together will be over. The house itself has some antagonistic forces as Layel is making connections and getting involved in their struggles as well as developing real feelings about the people she is living with.

Titles:

The House of Rigby

(I have had this title for a while and I don’t really have any other idea. This one has always just kind of been the one).

Comparable Titles:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

-        Themes of dealing with suicide and choosing to live. Magical Realism. Blurred lines between real and imagined.

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

-        Ensemble story. Magical realism. Big twist at the end.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

-        Narrative structure.

Log Line:

 A young woman with bpd seeks help at an eccentric halfway house to win back her ex-boyfriend before he moves to LA but she's not allowed to leave until she discovers the house's secret.

Conflict:

Layel’s inner conflict is coming to terms with her borderline personality disorder and her breakup and finding the motivation to push through and live her life anyway when she feels like she’d rather just stop.

Layel’s secondary conflict is her relationship with the residents at the halfway house as well as the house itself. While Layel is going through her struggles the rest of the residents are dealing with their own lives while also leaning on one another for support. This creates many dynamics for Layel to navigate. She is also becoming close with one of the residents and developing feels which confuses her about her feelings for her ex. On top of all that there’s a secret in the house she needs to discover in order to leave.

Setting:

The setting is a somewhat magical halfway house. The house comes with an emotional support lion and seems to change however the residents need it to. There’s a library and an art studio. Every resident has their own room that reflects their personality even though the room is prepared before they even get to the house. The yard has a garden and a labyrinth and a koi pond that the residents enjoy. And birds that will eat right out of the residents’ hands. The house is eclectic and well-lived in. There are soft blankets everywhere and places to sleep. And overall, it has a very comforting and safe aesthetic. Except for the turret where no resident ever goes.   

1.     Story Statement

Layel must fight through the internalized idea that she is unworthy of love and accept the help that’s being offered to her.

2.     The Antagonist

The internal conflict really makes Layel her own antagonist. With her family and ex removed from the situation she is fighting herself and her memories and her mental illness to pull through and become capable of more. But by the definition, 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), in the prompt I think the owner of the halfway house would be the antagonist or the antagonistic force. The owner’s goal throughout the story is to push each resident staying at the halfway house to make it through the day. His degree in psychology/therapy coupled with a battle with alcoholism makes him the perfect person to run this kind of house. His family history and alcoholism is where his core wound stems from and he deals with issues of perfectionism and being enough for the people he's helping. He’s not provoking them for a negative experience/response/reaction but it’s his job to push the residents and especially Layel who the story focuses on out of her comfort zone and to face the issues she’s dealing with.

3.     Title Options

The House of Rigby

4.     Comps

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

-        For the found family and magical realism elements as well as the themes on interpersonal relationships.  

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

-        For the mental health and coping (or lack of coping) and parental relationship themes

Girl Interrupted by Susanna Keyson

-        For the mental health facility setting and the sense of community when healing around others

5.     Logline

After a devastating breakup coupled with a recent bpd diagnosis, Layel takes up residency at a whimsical halfway house where she must confront her fear of trust and abandonment in order to develop the coping skills she needs to survive outside of the house or risk fading away forever.

6.     Levels of Conflict

Before Layel’s arrival to the halfway house she is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (a mood disorder characterized by emotional instability, feelings of worthlessness, insecurity, impulsivity, and impaired relationships) and she is faced with fact that her boyfriend of three years has decided to end the relationship. For Layel this confirms the thing she has always known about herself, no one will ever love her and everyone will always leave in the end. Layel’s mother has never been emotionally available to her and favors her younger sister. And though Layel knows her father didn’t choose to die of a heart condition when she was thirteen, it still kind of feels like he abandoned her too. When Layel arrives at the halfway house she is met by an ensemble of residents all struggling with their own hardships but willing to welcome her into their community with open arms. This dynamic triggers Layel’s feelings of being unworthy of love and her inability to trust the people in her life and challenges her belief that anyone will ever be there for her forever. It also challenges whether or not she can ever accept that some people are only meant to be in her life for a little while instead of feeling completely abandoned when it is time for them or herself to move on. Layel believes that everyone in the house will tolerate her but she struggles to believe that they genuinely care about her.

While at the halfway house Layel is forming new connections and also managing relationships from her past in what feels like a very far away outside world. Everyone in the house bonds with each other in different ways but Layel becomes particularly close with the owner of the house who helps her navigate the emotions she has trouble processing, a young man named Elias, and a young woman named Runa. Elias and her fall slowly into a relationship that is romantic in nature but as she is learning to manage her bpd and heal from her break up and Elias is recovering from a narcotics addiction they attempt to keep each other at arm’s length despite their attraction to each other. Runa and Layel have a quiet friendship and something that feels more intimate to Layel than she has ever allowed herself to become with another girl. It isn’t a romantic relationship on either end but traumatized by her mother and sister, Layel has never allowed herself to trust other women until now. Layel harbors a lot of unresolved resentment towards her mother which comes forth often in her internal narrative and how she navigates the world despite having minimal contact with her mother in her adult life. Her younger sister is disproving of her stay at the halfway house which makes Layel reluctant to speak with her when she calls. And as far as her ex goes she knows deep down the relationship was over long before the break up but the sting of rejection is a lot harder to heal from than losing the person himself.

7.     Setting

The story starts out in a small town in Illinois and then on a train but these settings are very brief. The majority of the story takes place on a fictional river in Maine in a very whimsical house. Though the landscape of Maine plays a minor part in the setting (the house is located in the woods and along a river. We go through all of the seasons in this book so heat, changing colors of trees, rain, snow all play a part in the background of the story), the main focus is the house. The halfway house is a two-story Victorian home made of blue-painted brick, a turret, and stained glass windows. There are sunflowers carved into the paneling on the face of the roof and a door knocker shaped like a lion’s head. Inside the maximalist décor takes over with lush colors, plants everywhere, walls covered floor to ceiling in artwork. Knickknacks in every corner and half-finished murals on the staircase. There are blankets everywhere and cozy places to sit and read. The front and backyard are full of overgrown flowers. There’s vegetable gardens and a green house and a pond in the backyard. The house also has rooms like an art room and a library as well as the typical bedrooms and bathrooms. The bedrooms seem to change with the arrival of new guests to fit there preferences and there is a contraption on the back of the house that plays music when it rains. Birds fly in and out of the open windows and create nests in the corners of the bookshelves in the library. And of course, there is the emotional support lion Felix lumbering around any corner or sleeping on his giant bed in front of the fireplace in the living room.