R. A. Savary

This conference experience was nothing short of an awakening for me. Without a doubt, being part of Paula Munier’s pitch workshop was the impetus for this awakening. Her ability to retrieve and simplify the crucial elements of the stories we presented and to maintain those details, sometimes referring to them again when discussing other writers’ works—not only in the same session but throughout the conference—was impressive; this aptitude turned the fixed credentials and inert titles of her bio into vibrant action that conveyed her experience as an editor and her empathy with us as a fellow writer. The session with Paula and Brendan Deneen was especially crucial in exposing critical flaws with my POV, protagonist and antagonist issues, and other necessary details for my pitch and within the story, which I realized in sharing with others later, I had tried to ignore or otherwise mask. One of the recurring things I shared with the other was that in the past, whenever I have had to make major revisions to my story, I’ve been angered and deterred from moving on, whereas now, after discovering I have even more intensive revisions to make, I am excited and filled with new energy. In hindsight, looking at the rewriting process of my novel, my progress and lack of, it was as if an unforeseen dark power forbade me to make necessary changes to the integral parts of my story. As a fellow writer shared it’s like I’d been spinning my wheels. In summary, it should have been obvious but after participating in the conference, I don’t think I had fully realized how important my pitch was to my story, and maybe, my story to the pitch. I like to think of myself as frugal but in reality, I can be quite stingy—this conference was money well spent.

PRE-EVENT ASSIGNMENTS: 1. Story statement: Find daughter and escape from Jack. 2. Antagonist sketch: At a minimum, Jack is a narcissist who, feeling his soul to be connected to some unseen powerful force sets about procuring family members who will be more like pets or slaves than relatives. At maximum, Jack is a psychopathic serial killer who enjoys stalking the family members he has decided to collect as much as he does attaining them. He is an extremely critical, egotistical sort who passes judgement on all of society and the tasks and activities that people partake in. 3. Breakout title: I stick firm with Special as it becomes clear in the second page this descriptive word has significance to Jack, the antagonist, and when used to describe people is what sets them apart from lesser denizens of the planet. Listed are two other begrudgingly chosen titles: The Chosen Ones, Jack’s Special Family 4. Two comps: Intensity, Kiss The Girls, These are the two closest that I can think of, and they aren’t very accurate comps. I only add Kiss The Girls because the girls are chosen because of their musical talent which is similar to Jack Cole in my story Special who chooses his captors based on his desire to create his ideal family. The superiority and judgmental attitude of the villain in Intensity and other Dean Koontz villains is also shared by Jack Cole. The supernatural elements of forces connected to Jack and Grizzle (especially Grizzle) as well as the serendipity and synchronicity of certain events during the search for the two women transform what would be a crime thriller into a crime horror. 5. Hook (logline): A young widow and her daughter become the newest victims of a deranged man obsessed with creating a family by kidnapping the people he deems Special, while another man, smitten by his one encounter with the woman, attempts to track and free them, with the aid of the woman's best friend and a telepathic dog. 6. Inner conflict & secondary conflict involving social environment: The antagonist in Special has an obvious disdain for his fellow man and society in general as well as the certainty that he is a superior being. This was instilled in him by his parents who sometimes still dictate his actions despite the fact that they are dead. Dead by his hands.