Synopsis - FIGMENT - YA/Fantasy
Posted: October 3rd, 2010, 10:10 am
I am so grateful for the help I've received on the query. I'll admit off the top, I find the synopsis incredibly daunting. Please have at it.
GEORGE is AUDREY PARKER’s (17) imaginary friend. He was supposed to leave her to six years ago. ‘The Council,’ his leaders, expect him to return to his world for a new human assignment—after all, girls her age aren’t supposed to have pretend friends. Instead, he stays tucked in the back of her imagination, watching her depression and isolation grow, until the start of her senior year.
Her first day begins typically—name calling and a very public fall—but change comes immediately when JOSH EVANS, the “it” boy helps her up. Then, an old friend invites her to eat lunch at her table. George knows Audrey struggles with relationships, in part, because she thinks he abandoned her. He wants to help her break out of her self-imposed solitude, but he’s not sure what he can do. He’s not real.
Then one day, he surprises himself and pushes Audrey out of the way when she’s about to be ambushed by the school meanest girl. The next day he wipes a tear away. Fueled by his newfound skill, he does something even crazier: he becomes human.
Being human isn’t as easy as he expected. Without an identity or money, he camps out in the woods behind Audrey’s house with items he steals from her house. Motivated to get closer to Audrey, he concocts a story which enables him to start high school. Based on her misperception that he is a runaway, he and Audrey forge a friendship. She helps him find odd jobs to make money and crafts fake documents to get the school off his back. In return, he secretively finds ways to get the mean girls off her back and encourages Josh to ask Audrey out. He wants to tell her the truth, but he’s afraid of what the Council would do to her. He’s been warned by his contacts that the less she knows, the better. If her mind is closed to the idea, it may prevent the Council from getting to her through her own imagination. In fact, he’s told it would be best to distance himself from her altogether. That proves harder than he expected, especially after he helps her practice dancing for Homecoming, he knows there is more to their relationship than friendship.
Signs that something is amiss drive George to panic. Audrey sees an imaginary friend on the bus. George is confronted by one at school. Then one day, they’re all gone, and he knows he’s in trouble. He must leave Audrey to protect her. Unfortunately, saying goodbye is the trigger that causes Audrey to figure out who he is, which opens the door for The Council to get to her.
Once Audrey realizes who George is, she tries to run after him, but is pulled away from her world and into his by BOO BOO, the former imaginary friend of her neighbor. He explains that her mind is under attack by the Council. He takes her to Central, the hub through which all imaginary friends filter, to figure out how to save her. There, they eventually meet up with George, and the three of them face mind bending challenges from feathers and trees that attack to confronting their personal demons.
In one attack, they lose Boo Boo, but they’ve gained information which George plans to use to get Audrey back home. George knows he won’t be able to join her; he must stay to make sure the Council can’t get to her anymore. George and Audrey make it to the room where human minds are contained. Overwhelmed by the volume of containers, they only have time to find one. In a goodbye kiss, the two finally admit to feelings that have been unacknowledged.
Immediately after Audrey leaves, George is captured and convicted by the Council. They lock him back up in white space of nothingness to await his sentencing, but Boo Boo and other friends free him. Under disguise, they send him off to an imagination, planning to close the connection permanently. George has to find a way to become human again or he will be stuck in a new human’s imagination. At the last second, he succeeds.
He’d been warned that Audrey’s connection to his world is cut off, and she’s not likely to remember him. He rings her doorbell, uncertain as to whether she’ll recognize him. At first, she gives nothing away, treating him as if he were just a kid from school, but then she asks him if they are safe, and relief floods him. After he recaps what happened in Central, the two nervously acknowledge their feelings for each other and kiss again. It’s everything he imagined it could be.
GEORGE is AUDREY PARKER’s (17) imaginary friend. He was supposed to leave her to six years ago. ‘The Council,’ his leaders, expect him to return to his world for a new human assignment—after all, girls her age aren’t supposed to have pretend friends. Instead, he stays tucked in the back of her imagination, watching her depression and isolation grow, until the start of her senior year.
Her first day begins typically—name calling and a very public fall—but change comes immediately when JOSH EVANS, the “it” boy helps her up. Then, an old friend invites her to eat lunch at her table. George knows Audrey struggles with relationships, in part, because she thinks he abandoned her. He wants to help her break out of her self-imposed solitude, but he’s not sure what he can do. He’s not real.
Then one day, he surprises himself and pushes Audrey out of the way when she’s about to be ambushed by the school meanest girl. The next day he wipes a tear away. Fueled by his newfound skill, he does something even crazier: he becomes human.
Being human isn’t as easy as he expected. Without an identity or money, he camps out in the woods behind Audrey’s house with items he steals from her house. Motivated to get closer to Audrey, he concocts a story which enables him to start high school. Based on her misperception that he is a runaway, he and Audrey forge a friendship. She helps him find odd jobs to make money and crafts fake documents to get the school off his back. In return, he secretively finds ways to get the mean girls off her back and encourages Josh to ask Audrey out. He wants to tell her the truth, but he’s afraid of what the Council would do to her. He’s been warned by his contacts that the less she knows, the better. If her mind is closed to the idea, it may prevent the Council from getting to her through her own imagination. In fact, he’s told it would be best to distance himself from her altogether. That proves harder than he expected, especially after he helps her practice dancing for Homecoming, he knows there is more to their relationship than friendship.
Signs that something is amiss drive George to panic. Audrey sees an imaginary friend on the bus. George is confronted by one at school. Then one day, they’re all gone, and he knows he’s in trouble. He must leave Audrey to protect her. Unfortunately, saying goodbye is the trigger that causes Audrey to figure out who he is, which opens the door for The Council to get to her.
Once Audrey realizes who George is, she tries to run after him, but is pulled away from her world and into his by BOO BOO, the former imaginary friend of her neighbor. He explains that her mind is under attack by the Council. He takes her to Central, the hub through which all imaginary friends filter, to figure out how to save her. There, they eventually meet up with George, and the three of them face mind bending challenges from feathers and trees that attack to confronting their personal demons.
In one attack, they lose Boo Boo, but they’ve gained information which George plans to use to get Audrey back home. George knows he won’t be able to join her; he must stay to make sure the Council can’t get to her anymore. George and Audrey make it to the room where human minds are contained. Overwhelmed by the volume of containers, they only have time to find one. In a goodbye kiss, the two finally admit to feelings that have been unacknowledged.
Immediately after Audrey leaves, George is captured and convicted by the Council. They lock him back up in white space of nothingness to await his sentencing, but Boo Boo and other friends free him. Under disguise, they send him off to an imagination, planning to close the connection permanently. George has to find a way to become human again or he will be stuck in a new human’s imagination. At the last second, he succeeds.
He’d been warned that Audrey’s connection to his world is cut off, and she’s not likely to remember him. He rings her doorbell, uncertain as to whether she’ll recognize him. At first, she gives nothing away, treating him as if he were just a kid from school, but then she asks him if they are safe, and relief floods him. After he recaps what happened in Central, the two nervously acknowledge their feelings for each other and kiss again. It’s everything he imagined it could be.