Story Outline

A vague outline of my story which is currently in progress...

            The novel is going to be told through the point of view of a seventeen year old girl named Lamb. She is a recovering self-injurer who fears she might be slipping back into old habits and is trying to cope with the world around her, including stress from school and family, and the inevitable persecution from random members of society when they notice her self-injury scars. She begins writing as a means to deal with everyday life, and imagining her own fantasy world to mask reality. She begins seeing people as angels, monsters, and other assorted creatures based on their personality traits (her abusive boyfriend Aiden is a wolf, while her best friends Rain and Sadie are angels).           

             She lives with her mother, father, and younger brother in a small town in Nevada and goes to a public school. She meets Aiden through her childhood best friend, Bear. They develop a friendship and eventually start dating, although few people know about this. As time goes on and Lamb's trust of Aiden increases, she reveals to him that she is struggling not to hurt herself, and he tells her that he used to deal with the same issue. Although somewhat comforted by this, she still keeps the details of what she is going through to herself, because she feels slightly intimidated by him.

            Aiden is a grade higher than Lamb, but approximately two and a half years older. Lamb is shy and kind of quiet with a small circle of close friends, while Aiden, being naturally rebellious and outspoken, is well known and liked by the majority of people. They spend lots of time together outside of her house in the yard during the summer. They don't have that much in common except for writing and drawing. Aiden's work is dark, focusing on pain, sadness and death. Lamb feels scared for him; wants to take away all the imperfections in his life- the family issues, the depression. She wants to fix him and make him happy.

            Aiden, however, pushes Lamb to spiral out of control. He constantly pushes her to drink alcohol, have sex and use drugs; beginning to get angry with her when things do not go his way, eventually escalating to slapping, hitting or kicking her when he is frustrated. During one particular episode, he grabs her wrist and holds so roughly that his fingers leave bruises and his nails dug into her wrist, leaving crescent-shaped cuts which wind up scarring her. He acts possessively, as if he has taken ownership of her, one day finding a stick in the yard, snapping it in half, and scratching "property of Aiden" into her forearm. Lamb tells no one what is happening to her; she is afraid that no one will believe her story over his, and not even her closest friends know what is going on. Lamb eventually cannot cope with all of the added stress from her relationship and begins to having regular relapses (which will be not be described in detail and will be obscure, since it is a delicate issue). She is also terrified that if she did eventually decide to confide in anyone about the abuse, they will want to see proof -i.e. in the form of bruises, etc. - and discover that she has been relapsing (which she has also told no one about).

            Even with all of the abuse that Aiden is putting Lamb through, she still goes out of her way for him. He shows up at her house in the middle of the night when her and her mother were having a late dinner and watching a movie, saying that he was fighting with his stepmother and his father had kicked him out. They spend a few hours talking outside, Aiden jumpy whenever a car would pass by, but Lamb taking no initial notice. He eventually begs her mother to let him stay for the night, to which she reluctantly agrees. They spend all night watching movies and cartoons, and when morning comes Aiden leaves. He does not come back again as she is expecting, and a week passes by before she starts to get worried and walks over to his house. His stepmother answers the door, and tells Lamb that Aiden ran away a little over a week ago, but his family thinks that he is staying with a friend and will keep her posted. Lamb leaves, slowly walking back home, realizing that he had lied and used her. A few more weeks go by with no word from him, until she runs into his little brother one day. He tells her that Aiden is back at home now and brought a girlfriend with him. Lamb goes numb and feels sick- she did everything for him, put up with everything he dealt her, and he lies to, uses, cheats, and abandons her.

            It is a few months before she reveals to Sadie and Rain what happened with him. She decides to refrain from letting Bear know, because he and Aiden had been friends long before they had started dating, and she does not want to be the cause of any inevitable open conflicts or fights that would get Bear in trouble. Sadie and Rain were horrified to hear everything that had gone on and were ultimately concerned about Lamb's relapses. She feels guilty for worrying them and assures both of them that she is fine and has been making a steady recovery, not having had a relapse in a little over a month.

            She goes back and forth between being okay, some days venturing out into the open without hiding behind long sleeves, and others having breakdowns and feeling like she is a disappointment to every one around her. The story continues without any events as dramatic as what happened with Aiden, but mainly focuses on Lamb’s recovery and the relationship development between her and her friends. She eventually comes to terms with the fact that there will always be people who she will struggle against, but there are just as many- if not more- who are kind, good people that won’t persecute her for her past mistakes; she just has to find them. The prevailing message will be that hope is always within reach, and that the smallest things we do can impact even complete strangers in ways we cannot comprehend.

Author's Note

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions. (x

Reviews

[Raya Avans]

You have created a very well written and structured platform for your story, It gives me confidence to say I have a feeling this will be very good and I am defiantly interested in following along with it as you write. I don't think I have any suggestions now, just want to see how you lay it all out when you get it into a story, you seem to have a very clean and interesting writing style, needless to say, looking forward to more. :)

~ Rae