In response to his brother's quest for a retrial, a young man in prison must defend his innocence while plotting to murder one of the guards.
Antagonist Plots the Point:
Likely a victim of abuse himself, Dan, the abusive step-father, torments Edom's childhood and threatens the safety and hard-won happiness of Edom's older half-brother.
When Edom is old enough, and when the prospect of Dan's intrusion into his brother's serene and idyllic family looks unavoidable, he tries to kill his step-father - a seemingly justifiable deed that lands him in prison.
The ironic freedom Edom has procured by nearly killing the novel's primary antagonist is overturned by the presence of a prison guard who emerges as the present-day antagonist - in Edom's mind, his monster resurrected. Confronted, anew, by the lingering physical and psychological effects of his step-father, and asked to recount them by his well-intending brother, Edom considers the new-found control he has over the antagonists in his life.
Breakout Titles:
1. My Own Keeper
2. Esau, I hated
3. Dear Brother, This might excuse everything.
Comps:
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout
Conflict Line:
Incarcerated for attempted murder, a young man wrestles with the offer of reconciliation and fights feelings of guilt while plotting the murder of a prison guard.
Two more levels of conflict:
Inner Conflict Sketch: The protagonist wrestles with the sense of his own guilt and how to convey degrees of innocence and culpability to his brother. To a certain extent, he feels his imprisonment is just; or in the very least, an acceptable trade for the life he left behind and for the deed he did to leave that life. But in the face of his brother's quest to have his sentence overturned, he finds his toughest challenge to be his own reluctance in revealing the ultimate truth of his situation.
Secondary Conflict Sketch: The protagonist is obviously incarcerated, though he seems oddly at ease with almost all aspects of prison life: lack of control, lack or privacy, lack of freedom, failing health, psychoanalysis. His attitude approaches a general resignation that is almost wise - with one exception: a single prison guard who reminds him of his step-father, the ultimate antagonist of his pre-prison life. As is such, an enemy he thought was behind him has, in a way, followed him into a prison - a place where, ironically, he thought he might be free.
Setting:
The story begins in a prison as a young man decides to write a letter to his brother. From there, the story wanders back to when he first came to prison: getting off the bus, going through intake, interacting with staff. We get a tour of the facilities through his experiences: his cell, solitary confinement, the cafeteria, the rec yard, the doctor's office - and in each of these settings is detailed the degree of his confinement and isolation.
As the prisoner writes his letter, the story returns at times to his past, to the life-shaping events of his childhood and to the events that landed him in prison. We see confinements here too, in his house and hiding places, though the events in each set the tone for his seclusion more than walls and doors and dark places.
New York Pitch Conference - September 2021
in New York Write to Pitch 2023 and 2024
Posted
Story Statement:
In response to his brother's quest for a retrial, a young man in prison must defend his innocence while plotting to murder one of the guards.
Antagonist Plots the Point:
Likely a victim of abuse himself, Dan, the abusive step-father, torments Edom's childhood and threatens the safety and hard-won happiness of Edom's older half-brother.
When Edom is old enough, and when the prospect of Dan's intrusion into his brother's serene and idyllic family looks unavoidable, he tries to kill his step-father - a seemingly justifiable deed that lands him in prison.
The ironic freedom Edom has procured by nearly killing the novel's primary antagonist is overturned by the presence of a prison guard who emerges as the present-day antagonist - in Edom's mind, his monster resurrected. Confronted, anew, by the lingering physical and psychological effects of his step-father, and asked to recount them by his well-intending brother, Edom considers the new-found control he has over the antagonists in his life.
Breakout Titles:
1. My Own Keeper
2. Esau, I hated
3. Dear Brother, This might excuse everything.
Comps:
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout
Conflict Line:
Incarcerated for attempted murder, a young man wrestles with the offer of reconciliation and fights feelings of guilt while plotting the murder of a prison guard.
Two more levels of conflict:
Inner Conflict Sketch: The protagonist wrestles with the sense of his own guilt and how to convey degrees of innocence and culpability to his brother. To a certain extent, he feels his imprisonment is just; or in the very least, an acceptable trade for the life he left behind and for the deed he did to leave that life. But in the face of his brother's quest to have his sentence overturned, he finds his toughest challenge to be his own reluctance in revealing the ultimate truth of his situation.
Secondary Conflict Sketch: The protagonist is obviously incarcerated, though he seems oddly at ease with almost all aspects of prison life: lack of control, lack or privacy, lack of freedom, failing health, psychoanalysis. His attitude approaches a general resignation that is almost wise - with one exception: a single prison guard who reminds him of his step-father, the ultimate antagonist of his pre-prison life. As is such, an enemy he thought was behind him has, in a way, followed him into a prison - a place where, ironically, he thought he might be free.
Setting:
The story begins in a prison as a young man decides to write a letter to his brother. From there, the story wanders back to when he first came to prison: getting off the bus, going through intake, interacting with staff. We get a tour of the facilities through his experiences: his cell, solitary confinement, the cafeteria, the rec yard, the doctor's office - and in each of these settings is detailed the degree of his confinement and isolation.
As the prisoner writes his letter, the story returns at times to his past, to the life-shaping events of his childhood and to the events that landed him in prison. We see confinements here too, in his house and hiding places, though the events in each set the tone for his seclusion more than walls and doors and dark places.