Seven Assignments:
1. Act of Story Statement: Dustin must reconcile with the suicide of his past girlfriend while hunting down the people tormenting the new woman he loves.
2. Antagonists: The novel is about toxic masculinity and deploys several antagonists who both embody that idea and stand in the protagonist’s way. The novel has two parallel storylines, each with a major antagonist. Jenny torments Dustin’s ex-girlfriend, Aeni, until she kills herself. Jenny represents the brutal, self-policing conformity that women enforce against each other. She’s efficient, scheming, and will destroy anyone between herself and her dream to be a ballet dancer. The other storyline features Scott, a self-described incel. He’s translated his self-loathing into a hatred of women. Since puberty, the norms of masculinity have hung over his head like an axe, and he’s always found himself wanting. After years of not “getting” women, he’s part of a very real sub-culture of men who believe they deserve sex and should, thus, get it by any means necessary.
3. Title: Imagine Me Dead
4. Genre and Comparables: My novel is hard-boiled amateur private eye mystery. The best recent comparables are Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter and Winter Counts by David Heska Wambli Weiden. Both feature protagonists struggling not just to achieve their plot goals but with their own dark pasts. Both also find much of their power in strong first-person narrative voices deeply rooted in the personas of their protagonists.
5. Hook line drafts:
Dustin, reeling from the recent suicide of his ex-girlfriend, tracks down the attackers of a new woman he's fallen for, vowing never to let another life slip through his fingers.
Imagine Me Dead is Dustin’s journey to come to grips with the fact that the women he falls in love with—over and over—would be better off without him.
Imagine Me Dead (word count 106,000) is a hard-boiled mystery that tells the story of Dustin, failed poet and former boxer, on a journey to track down a cabal of men’s rights activists guilty of kidnapping and torturing the woman he loves.
Dustin, former boxer and failed poet, vows to make up for the suicide of his ex-girlfriend by tracking down the attackers of a woman he thinks he’s in love with.
Dustin, former boxer and failed poet, believes he can heal the wound left by the suicide of his ex-girlfriend by tracking down the attackers of a woman he’s just met.
Dustin, reeling from the recent suicide of his girlfriend, vows to avenge Robin, a woman suffering the aftermath of a brutal attack.
6. Inner and Secondary Conflicts:
Inner Conflict: Dustin feels a combination of shock and guilt about the suicide of his girlfriend, Aeni. She killed herself at the culmination of a campaign of harassment by what appeared to be a stalker but was in fact a rival ballet dancer. Dustin feels like he didn’t do enough to help her. That guilt manifests metaphorically in a spider that bites him on his first night in Albuquerque after fleeing Portland, the city where she died. Whenever he sees a reminder of her, the venom festering in his flesh boils up, causing him to pass out and have a memory so distinct that he thinks he’s traveling back in time. During these visions, Dustin becomes convinced he can alter history to save her. His guilt about Aeni inspires him, for better worse, to track down the men who attacked Robin.
Secondary Conflict: The book has two primary conflicts: Dustin vs. Robin’s attackers and Dustin vs. Aeni’s stalker. The secondary conflict manifests in Dustin’s volatile personal relationships, all of which involve characters vital to resolving the novel’s plot:
Dustin and his best friend Mikey: Mikey sees Dustin as overshadowing and neglecting him. This leads to small disagreements that culminate in a big blow-up toward the novel’s climax. Dustin and Rudolfo: These two men team up to track down Robin’s attackers. They conflict with each other over differences in both approach and philosophy when it comes to accomplishing tasks. This boils over into a physical brawl towards the novel’s climax.
Dustin and Aeni: Aeni doesn’t want Dustin’s help with her stalker problems, nor does she want him to get too romantically attached. She keeps pushing him away until they have a big fight about it that gets physical just before her suicide.
Dustin and Robin: Robin doesn’t want anything to do with Dustin. She doesn’t want him to find who attacked her nor does she even want him to acknowledge she exists. He keeps pushing himself at her, which ultimately makes him realize that he’s, to an extent, in the same category as any other man who harasses a woman.
Dustin and Scott: Scott doesn’t like Dustin. He’s jealous of Dustin’s good looks, his charm, the way Dustin’s magnetism draws people in. Toward the end of the novel, this gravity shifts when Dustin helps Scott out of a bar-fight, setting up a false connection that throws the reader’s attention away from Scott’s identity as the man who kidnapped Robin.
7. Settings:
Portland: this is the flashback setting, where Dustin tries to save Aeni during his spider-venom blackouts. Portland is stacked with weirdness. It’s a city of bridges, bicyclists, artists, dadaism, strip clubs, and startling indigence.
Albuquerque: this is the present-tense setting, where Dustin tracks down Robin’s attackers. It’s a high-desert city with blasting sun, sneak-attack storms, and explosive acts of violence characteristic of the American West. The narrative tramps through upscale natural grocers, seedy dive bars, abandoned RVs in the desert, bowling alleys, and trashed motels pulsing with the city’s underlife.
Seven Assignments: 1. Act of Story Statement: Dustin must reconcile with the suicide of his past girlfriend while hunting down the people tormenting the new woman he loves. 2. Antagonists: The novel is about toxic masculinity and deploys several antagonists who both embody that idea and stand in the protagonist’s way. The novel has two parallel storylines, each with a major antagonist. Jenny torments Dustin’s ex-girlfriend, Aeni, until she kills herself. Jenny represents the brutal, self-policing conformity that women enforce against each other. She’s efficient, scheming, and will destroy anyone between herself and her dream to be a ballet dancer. The other storyline features Scott, a self-described incel. He’s translated his self-loathing into a hatred of women. Since puberty, the norms of masculinity have hung over his head like an axe, and he’s always found himself wanting. After years of not “getting” women, he’s part of a very real sub-culture of men who believe they deserve sex and should, thus, get it by any means necessary. 3. Title: Imagine Me Dead 4. Genre and Comparables: My novel is hard-boiled amateur private eye mystery. The best recent comparables are Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter and Winter Counts by David Heska Wambli Weiden. Both feature protagonists struggling not just to achieve their plot goals but with their own dark pasts. Both also find much of their power in strong first-person narrative voices deeply rooted in the personas of their protagonists. 5. Hook line drafts: Dustin, reeling from the recent suicide of his ex-girlfriend, tracks down the attackers of a new woman he's fallen for, vowing never to let another life slip through his fingers. Imagine Me Dead is Dustin’s journey to come to grips with the fact that the women he falls in love with—over and over—would be better off without him. Imagine Me Dead (word count 106,000) is a hard-boiled mystery that tells the story of Dustin, failed poet and former boxer, on a journey to track down a cabal of men’s rights activists guilty of kidnapping and torturing the woman he loves. Dustin, former boxer and failed poet, vows to make up for the suicide of his ex-girlfriend by tracking down the attackers of a woman he thinks he’s in love with. Dustin, former boxer and failed poet, believes he can heal the wound left by the suicide of his ex-girlfriend by tracking down the attackers of a woman he’s just met. Dustin, reeling from the recent suicide of his girlfriend, vows to avenge Robin, a woman suffering the aftermath of a brutal attack. 6. Inner and Secondary Conflicts: Inner Conflict: Dustin feels a combination of shock and guilt about the suicide of his girlfriend, Aeni. She killed herself at the culmination of a campaign of harassment by what appeared to be a stalker but was in fact a rival ballet dancer. Dustin feels like he didn’t do enough to help her. That guilt manifests metaphorically in a spider that bites him on his first night in Albuquerque after fleeing Portland, the city where she died. Whenever he sees a reminder of her, the venom festering in his flesh boils up, causing him to pass out and have a memory so distinct that he thinks he’s traveling back in time. During these visions, Dustin becomes convinced he can alter history to save her. His guilt about Aeni inspires him, for better worse, to track down the men who attacked Robin. Secondary Conflict: The book has two primary conflicts: Dustin vs. Robin’s attackers and Dustin vs. Aeni’s stalker. The secondary conflict manifests in Dustin’s volatile personal relationships, all of which involve characters vital to resolving the novel’s plot: Dustin and his best friend Mikey: Mikey sees Dustin as overshadowing and neglecting him. This leads to small disagreements that culminate in a big blow-up toward the novel’s climax. Dustin and Rudolfo: These two men team up to track down Robin’s attackers. They conflict with each other over differences in both approach and philosophy when it comes to accomplishing tasks. This boils over into a physical brawl towards the novel’s climax. Dustin and Aeni: Aeni doesn’t want Dustin’s help with her stalker problems, nor does she want him to get too romantically attached. She keeps pushing him away until they have a big fight about it that gets physical just before her suicide. Dustin and Robin: Robin doesn’t want anything to do with Dustin. She doesn’t want him to find who attacked her nor does she even want him to acknowledge she exists. He keeps pushing himself at her, which ultimately makes him realize that he’s, to an extent, in the same category as any other man who harasses a woman. Dustin and Scott: Scott doesn’t like Dustin. He’s jealous of Dustin’s good looks, his charm, the way Dustin’s magnetism draws people in. Toward the end of the novel, this gravity shifts when Dustin helps Scott out of a bar-fight, setting up a false connection that throws the reader’s attention away from Scott’s identity as the man who kidnapped Robin. 7. Settings: Portland: this is the flashback setting, where Dustin tries to save Aeni during his spider-venom blackouts. Portland is stacked with weirdness. It’s a city of bridges, bicyclists, artists, dadaism, strip clubs, and startling indigence. Albuquerque: this is the present-tense setting, where Dustin tracks down Robin’s attackers. It’s a high-desert city with blasting sun, sneak-attack storms, and explosive acts of violence characteristic of the American West. The narrative tramps through upscale natural grocers, seedy dive bars, abandoned RVs in the desert, bowling alleys, and trashed motels pulsing with the city’s underlife.