So my NaNo is not going so well.
Mainly because I have no plot- plots? What are those? Am I, the sci-fi and adventure writer, supposed to come up with a good, historical/realistic fiction plot?
Or maybe the issue isn't in my plot, it's in my subplots, or lack thereof. So this is my admission that I am desperate. Halfway through NaNo, I am having some serious issues coming up with what to write for my next 19,000 words because most of the 21,000 I have so far are utterly useless and are so far, separate parts of the novel that are standing alone. I made a post on the YWP asking for help a few days ago, and it has garnered exactly one response (thanks Desiree!!), so I'm posting it here in hopes that my very very few reader(s) has/have not given up on me and my lack of posts.
Title: I have no subplots and my main plot is too depressing.
(Before I begin, there may be some triggers in my plot. Just to let you know).
"My story is set in the 1960's. In the beginning (part 1), my main character (Emma's) dad is drafted for the Vietnam War, so she gets sent from New York to go live with her Aunt Lucille and cousin Johnny in Montana. Kids make fun of her for being a 'city kid', Johnny can't stand her, and her aunt treats her badly because of her father. Emma does make a friend at school, though, Annie, and she walks to and from school with an older boy named Rory who lives nearby. She also finds advice and a close friend in her neighbor, an old man named Mr. Hansen. Through all of this, Emma writes letters to her father and gets one in return. Her sunt finds it and burns it because she says he is a bad influence on Emma. Part 1 ends with Mr. Hansen having a heart attack and dying, and Emma feeling like it's her fault because she was with him earlier in the day and so upset about her aunt burning the letter that she does not notice the symptoms he is about to have a heart attack.
Part 2: Emma runs away after his death and she's kind of starting to learn that people aren't all honest. The part ends when she finds out her father died 2 years ago, right after she received the first letter, because that was when he committed suicide. He was never drafted for Vietnam, he went to prison for some things that aren't NaNo appropriate and didn't want Emma to know because she was only 11 when he was convicted.
Part 3: I don't even know what happens except that Emma is depressed, and at some point Rory (who is 3 or 4 years older than her) graduates high school and leaves for college, serving only to make her more depressed. It ends with her finding her father's suicide note because she was curious enough to go look through the box her friend sent her three years ago at the end of Part 2. (Before this, she hadn't brought herself to read anything but her father's obituary.)
Part 4: I have no clue what happens except that somehow Emma gets through it and at the end of the novel she is 18, graduating high school, and about to go back to New York.
Basically, I have the main things I want to happen, but not all of it can be so depressing because no one wants to read that. Also, I have to have some stuff in between or it makes no sense, just jumping from one point to the next. I have Emma narrating the past up to the end of Part 3, which then goes to the present tense, so some of that stuff is a little out of order just because of her reflecting and how she remembers it. But currently, there is nothing happy, and no subplots, and that's a problem. Also, Annie is currently a useless character because she's a quiet bookworm and Emma is the complete opposite so I don't know what to do with her. I also don't know what to do with Johnny after part one. He's a year older than Emma, a teacher's pet, and a big superior jerk.
I need help."
...Aannnnyyone?
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