FIRST ASSIGNMENT: write your story statement.
A man fights for his land and his family as the encroaching local kingpin makes his final push to claim his prize.
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.
Men like JB Hoyt view the world as their own, to be manipulated as they see fit. His eyes, cold and dark, everything in this world is his prey. JB’s Southern hospitality masks an ever-present desire for control, and the six-shooter on his hip hints at the ends he’d go to achieve it. For Hoyt, he’s always gotten what he wanted, except a successor. He sees that in the feared and respected Lucian Swailes, the number two who has always eluded him. Hoyt, forty years ruling Truett County with an iron fist, has grown his illegal operations with corruption and intimidation. His unassuming mountain lifestyle belies his reach. The last piece of the empire remains unfinished, and Hoyt knows winning Swailes’ allegiance, one way or another, is all that stands in his way.
THIRD ASSIGNMENT: create a breakout title (list several options, not more than three, and revisit to edit as needed).
Truett County
or
Then the Foothills Run Red
FOURTH ASSIGNMENT:
- 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
Genre – Rural Noir
Comparable Works–
Bull Mountain (Bull Mountain, #1) by Brian Panowich
Clayton Burroughs comes from a long line of outlaws. For generations, the Burroughs clan has made its home on Bull Mountain in North Georgia, running shine, pot, and meth over six state lines, virtually untouched by the rule of law. To distance himself from his family’s criminal empire, Clayton took the job of sheriff in a neighboring community to keep what peace he can. But when a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms shows up at Clayton’s office with a plan to shut down the mountain, his hidden agenda will pit brother against brother, test loyalties, and could lead Clayton down a path to self-destruction.
The Ranger by Ace Atkins
Northeast Mississippi, hill country, rugged and notorious for outlaws since the Civil War, where killings are as commonplace as in the Old West. To Quinn Colson, it's home -- but not the home he left when he went to Afghanistan.
Now an Army Ranger, he returns to a place overrun by corruption, and finds his uncle, the county sheriff, dead -- a suicide, he's told, but others whisper murder. In the days that follow, it will be up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and not least about himself. And once the truth is discovered, there is no turning back.
Why –
My work is similar to these two because of the gritty characters and rural settings, along with the intensity of righting wrongs and surviving crooked antagonists’ best plans to overpower and compromise the headstrong protagonists.
FIFTH ASSIGNMENT: write your own hook line (logline) with conflict and core wound.
Logline:
A Georgia farmer with a military past struggling with the recent and past loss of family becomes tragically enmeshed in a decades old feud between the local kingpin and the Youngstown mafia.
Core Wound:
His father’s absence and the spiraling consequences of that loss.
OTHER MATTERS OF CONFLICT: TWO MORE LEVELS
file:///C:/Users/hamburg/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg 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.
Lucian’s father, Barrett (Bear) Swailes left his family when Lucian was in his pre-teen years. Because of his abrupt departure, Lucian’s mother was forced to uproot their family from his childhood home in the foothills of the Appalachians in Truett County, Georgia to the metropolis of Atlanta. Without much information about his father’s work and past, except that he was a contracted bootlegger and heavy hand for JB Hoyt, the now kingpin of Truett County, Lucian struggles to reconcile his dad’s disappearance and JB’s current interest in getting Lucian to follow in his father’s footsteps as one of JB’s men. Lucian clearly doesn’t want any involvement in the crime syndicate JB and his boys have built in Truett County, but how close can Lucian get to the answers about his father’s disappearance if he doesn’t also get close to JB? Will he be putting his own family and farm at risk if he seeks the closure he so desperately needs?
Scenario:
Lucian stands in his apple orchard, grappling with the upcoming harvest and all it entails. As he’s considering the current state of his land and the pressure to pay the mortgage each month, in comes JB with an offer to make Lucian rich, and quickly. Lucian knows that JB is up to no good almost all of the time, and any entrance into Lucian’s life and farm could ultimately put both his homestead and his reputation at risk. However, he also firmly believes that JB holds the answers to his father’s disappearance and abandonment of his family. Heck, he doesn’t even know if his father is alive or dead. The only certainty is that JB is somehow involved, and Lucian needs an in to be able to dig deeper into Hoyt’s past and corruption. With the harvest pending, but money needed even sooner, Lucian must decide if JB’s offer to ensure his bills are paid is worth the risks involved.
Secondary Conflict –
While trying to find answers to his past and balance keeping his farm, Lucian resists JB’s pleas to become one of his leading men. However, a car accident, which results in the death of Pauly Longo’s (head of the Youngstown mafia) nephew (Dom), provides JB and his ringleaders an opportunity to force Lucian’s hand. JB and Boyd, the compromised town sheriff, threaten to leak Lucian’s name to the mafia as the one who caused the accident. Lucian knows Pauly’s name from his father’s past, and he is fully aware of what the Don will do to avenge the death of his nephew. Unwilling to play into JB and Boyd’s stratagems, Lucian tries to balance keeping the locals at bay while also fending off the mafia. Furst, Pauly’s cleaner, is sent to Truett County to sort out the mess, and Lucian has to rely on his instincts as a Marine and father to protect himself from both.
Scenario:
Lucian returns to his farm after the accident, knowing full-well that the man driving the vehicle was alive when he left him and in the hands of Boyd. However, he has a sinking feeling that this accident is just the opportunity JB and Boyd need to finally get their claws in Lucian and ultimately control his life. The next day, Boyd stops by the farm and casually mentions that Dom didn’t make it and that JB wants to have a chat with Lucian about next steps. Lucian realizes he has no choice but to hear JB out. Later, Lucian if forced on a drive with JB to meet with Pauly Longo to discuss his nephew’s death. The usual mafia stereotypes are at this clandestine meeting, and Lucian’s presence at such an important sit down immediately implies his involvement in what is being spun as an intentional hit. Pauly is not amenable to the conditions that JB sets for reconciliation, and the meeting ends with the silent understanding that vengeance is on its way south. Now that he’s been seen with JB, Lucian is certain that Pauly will send anyone and everyone after him to get retribution. Now, Lucian is not only trying to fend off JB, but he’s apparently at war with the mafia.
file:///C:/Users/hamburg/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg 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.
The story is primarily set in Truett County, Georgia in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. During the day, the rolling hills, sometimes with a herd of Holstein cattle grazing on them, provide an idyllic backdrop for the story. However, when a heavy fog or storm rolls in, the gray blanket that envelops the mountaintops calls to the ancestral past and echoes the mystery that goes hand in hand with a geography so ancient. Mountain towns like Truett County feel the fervor of all four seasons: Winter can bring snow and cold that rivals that in the North, lending to a slowly perking spring with the air of new life all around. Doe and their fawns paired with wildflowers juxtapose the recently awakened beasts from their hibernation. Summer can be unbearably hot, sparse with rain, the perfect condition for dirt roads to spew up dust clouds the size of the mountains themselves when rusty trucks with loud mufflers go down them just a little too carelessly. One might easily see a tractor followed by a trailer bursting with bales as he would a luxury car occupied by tourists going down the road. Streams full that swell and recede with the weather seem to cut fields everywhere as well as run along the side of the main thoroughfares. Katydids, tree frogs and cicadas are the music of the night, and sunrise comes early. Fall is a time of great energy as every farmer is either doing his second, sometimes third, cutting of the year, or an array of crops are begging to be harvested. Main Street is decorated to match whatever the holiday of the season is: Storefronts quickly take down Christmas regalia, replaced by hearts and carnations for Valentine’s. Sidewalks follow a patriotic theme for most of the summer, beginning with Memorial Day and ending with Labor Day. The town loves parades and festivals, with the Harvest Festival signifying the true beginning of Autumn.
While the heart of the town and the sprawling farms surrounding it portray abundance, there are places on the outskirts that never seem to see the light of the sun. Trailers with overgrown vegetation, broken windows and lights, and cars on blocks serve as a reminder that not everyone in town has the means, or sometimes the desire, to be on the “inside.” The forests around, from a distance, seem silent and innocent. Yet, marijuana fields, shanty houses, and stills can be found if one dares to explore. The people in the town know of these places, but they also know that if they stay on the beaten path, trouble will leave them alone.
