Death of the Outline

I spent the better half of yesterday writing character profiles, researching names and reading all sorts of writing tips as preparartion for Nanowrimo 2012.

I came up the following: Four women who are connected by one and they are each searching for happiness in love. One of them is in a common law relationship but her partner has not fully committed himself to the union. One of them is single and struggling to find the "one". One of them is discussing marriage with her boyfriend of four years but has make it a neccessity that there will be no wedding without an engagement ring and the other one has three men vying for her hand. The story is supposed to follow them as they struggle to get their own way and find happiness in love. They will make mistakes, they have character flaws, they will push their men away and in the climax; be all alone. There will be a sub-story following their friendship with each other as it is tested by their character differences and strengthened by their commonality. It was going to be set in my home country with some local dialect, local places and local struggles of women. I picked out names for the girls, making the group of ladies a multicultural one from different financial and educational backgrounds.

So what happened to that plot, to those character profiles?

It still exists on paper but I don't feel like it has the power to make it to 50,000 words.
I read a writing tip yesterday which said, "Every scene and every chapter must keep the protagonist off-balance - things may get better for him/her, or worse, but they need to be constantly changing." (http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Plot.html) I don't feel like I can do this for these characters. I don't feel they have that sort of impact or their story is such a great one to be told. Sure, they are not Mary Sues, but are their story intriguing enough that someone would want to read about it? I know you will say it depends on how I tell it, but honestly I don't feel I can tell their stories that well.

These women are a reflection of friends I have in my life, and their true struggles with finding happiness in love. I do intend to emblish every detail when I write it, but the truth is, it is based on people I know and I am not sure it that makes for something fascinating or gripping.

So as self doubt prevails, today I aim to either make their stories worth reading about by plotting my chapters out, or by coming up with a whole new idea. Which one I will do, I dont know, you will have to return tomorrow to find out.

Thanks for visiting
XoXo Anjie