Overview:
Annabelle has been living a very carefully constructed life with as much control over as many variables as possible; but you can't control other people. One phone call, five words is all it takes for her world to unwind.
Your brother's dead, come home. Her baby brother, always smiling and pleasant was now gone from the world; and she had to go to her old home town to say her goodbyes to a shell once so filled with life. A car accident they had told her, but Annabelle's life had been plagued by nothing but them; this was a coincidence, hammered home before her plane even leaves the ground. She needs to say goodbye to her brother but her past won't let her go as easily.
Character Descriptions:
Annabelle: A slender woman in her early twenties with long black hair and blue eyes. Her pale complexion makes her eyes stand out, making them appear large in her slim set face. Annabelle is very shy and introspective, she doesn't trust anyone to make her happy but doesn't know how to make herself content. Years of being constricted and severely punished for wrongdoings has left her indecisive and fearful. Annabelle is afraid of herself because she sees other's monsters through herself like a mirror but sometimes the mirror reflects the landscape more than the object.
Daniel: He is a sleek and polished man in his late twenties, with piercing green eyes he's always had his options when it came to the opposite sex. His intelligence makes mundane existence misery, Daniel hopes only for a mere distraction from the petty dealings of the regular people around him. His childhood has left him cold and calculating, but not completely lacking warmth.
Father: A middle aged man with a slightly haggard appearance but sharp wit. Most write him off due to his unshaven features and unpressed clothes; less care has been taken to match the amount of respect received. His lack of compassion and empathy takes slight notice in public, especially around animals and children. When his wife died whatever compassion he had dissipated and he sought the company of a woman in a child's body.
Setting:
The setting varies over the course of the novel and is set in the present day, the characters first meet in an airport elevator and are in proximity until their flight takes off. Throughout the flight the characters interact and are forced into the cockpit of a thrashing airline. The novel continues to follow these individuals as they struggle to survive in the hostile environment they find themselves in.
Narrative POV:
I will be writing my novel in the past tense from a first person perspective, this will allow for me to focus less on what is happening in the moment and more about the characters thoughts and actions. With past tense you are able to slow down or speed up your story with the ability to fill in gaps along the way. I have also found that when I write in the present tense I tend to get mixed up and incorrectly refer to something in the past tense. Writing in the first person will allow for me to show the reader what my character is actually thinking not just doing in a way that I have strict control over.
Chapter Outlines:
Chapters 1-2: Within these chapters the readers will be introduced to the main characters and getting a small glimpse of the life Annabelle has built for herself before her carefully constructed walls come crashing down, her baby brother was in a fatal car accident.
Chapters 3-7: Experience the preparation and gut wrenching waiting as Annabelle begins the journey back to her home town and the monsters that still haunt it.
Chapters 8-10: With a mind full of memories Annabelle hides her distress within the normalcy of the crowd, expression barely changing as crowds stream by until she comes face to face with a man with unorthodox eyes and earns a thought provoking nickname.
Chapters 11-13: As the hours before her flight disappear before her eyes, Annabelle can feel there's something wrong with the building pressure in her chest, crowds have never been in her comfort level but she could feel that she was being watched.
Chapters 14-18: She still scanned the crowds while waiting in line to board her flight, almost giving up until her eyes fall upon a man too intently watching the line. She watched as this man finally found the one he was looking for; he smiles, staring directly back at her. She scans to find the nearest security but when she turns back, the man is gone. She can do nothing, set on a path with no control over anything but herself. Annabelle smooths her ruffled feathers just in time to have all thoughts uprooted; her seat buddy was none other than the man that calls her by color.
Chapters 19-25: Nothing to do no but sit back and enjoy your own mind. Travel back in time with Annabelle and the mysterious figure that creeps throughout her mind, bringing back nights at home long since banished from thought.
Chapters 26-30: Half an hour into the flight (or was it only thirty seconds?) there's a notable conflict in the cockpit. Flight attendants scurry around talking amongst themselves in panic, trying to stabilize the carry-ons and calm the guests on board. Flecks finds his sense of humor, teasing Annabelle about her reaction to the turbulence, gently goading her into conversation.
Chapters 31-34: The plane has finally leveled out; Daniel and Annabelle now begin to converse deeply and quietly. As they slowly begin to learn more and more about each other Annabelle begins to see that the past has a tendency to follow you in different forms.
Chapters 35-40: Panic strikes the cockpit once more, but this time it's different. Instead of the slightly organized panic of earlier, the flight attendants were in an all out blind panic; smashing into each other and service carts, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. As all of the guests strap on their seat-belts, Annabelle watched as they all held onto something or someone, alone she scans the seats until a hand on hers grounds her mind.
Chapters 41-45: As the plane descends faster and faster Annabelle clings to Daniel; terrified and her mind scattered, the last thing she feels is his fingers wrapped around hers. When Annabelle loses her cool Daniel brings their faces close; as the plane makes impact the only thing she can see are Flecks. They awake tangled in each other and debris, neither were mortally wounded and they support each other as they search the rubble in hopes of survivors.
Chapters 45-48: As they separate the living from the dead Annabelle searches for one in particular; the man that watched her. With growing despair they desperately search through grotesque scattering of remains for anything to help the small band of survivors live another day, but with the plane scattered across the island and half in the sea many people turn to the animalistic depths of their soul. As alliances form and weapons raised, Daniel and Annabelle must fight side by side in order to survive; but where was the man?
Chapters 49-52: Days pass as the survivors dwindle in numbers; with the women vastly outnumbered they become the new currency among the broken people, stolen or traded just like any type of food found. As a group of ragged males rise to power they begin to gather all the females they can for the man in power and those he looks well upon.
Chapters 53-59: The number of free women become scarce as those that protect them are slaughtered and scavenged. Soon Annabelle is the last women not apprehended, all thanks to the teamwork and desperation between her and Daniel; but Daniel is just one man, hunted by many. They keep on the move and stumble upon the group's hideaway scavenged from the main body of the plane, they separate to cover more ground and locate the exact boundaries of their camp. All seems to be going well until Daniel realizes that it must cover at least half of the island they crashed on and that it was now a race; the first man to find Annabelle would keep her until death.
Chapters 60-65: Daniel frantically searches for Annabelle, but as the moon hangs ever lower in the sky he begins to loose hope. As Annabelle begins to winde her way back to where she last saw Daniel, she stumbles upon one of the women from the camp; Annabelle tries to console the women and journey back to Daniel together. All seems to be going well until the women suggests a shortcut that she has seen the men take, they come upon the path only to be ambushed and taken. Outraged at the women's betrayal, Annabelle can do nothing but try to fight her way free; the last thing before the darkness takes her are her own screams. Hours after her last scream echoed across the island she awakes, only to be face to face with the man; he had found her.
Chapters 66-70: Groggy and beaten Annabelle barely catches a glimpse of the man's true features before he commands her to be escorted his quarters. She's shoved inside the biggest makeshift hut in the surrounding camp and left to wait until the man comes back for her. Hands on her body bring her back to consciousness, trying to get inside her before she even has her eyes open. Her elbow contacts bone and her teeth find flesh only for the hands to be suddenly ripped away from her. She watches as two other throw him to the floor and start to beat him; her attention divided between the potential danger and the man just waiting for the others to finish at the entrance.
Epilogue:
Literary Elements:
In this novel I intend to use various literary elements such as anthropomorphism. Using anthropomorphism I will be able to give objects a human-like quality so I can make even the most mundane and overlooked things into a powerful emotional symbol. Some of the other literary elements I plan to use are alliterations, analogies, denotation, flashbacks, foreshadowing, imagery and to include an epilogue.
