JWalker

Is this enough plot to make into the length of a novel?

PART 1
Susan and Mark is a married couple living in Dublin city centre. They had met each other at college and had fallen in love straight away. Susan worked in fashion and Mark worked with computers. The first time they try to have a child Susan has a mis-carriage and loses the child during the sixth week of her pregnancy. Susan acts as if nothing has happened and six months later she's pregnant again. This time around she loses the baby in the 14th week of her pregnancy. The loss of the 2nd child hits her hard and she becomes distraught. Mark stands by Susan through all their loss and their marriage grows stronger. Susan quits work which leaves Mark to become the money maker e.g. paying for the foods, rent for the apartment and clothes etc. During the next three years Susan gets better and becomes pregnant yet again. She has her son prematurely but he's okay. Three months later everything is going great. But Mark and Susan are happy especially with baby Max. But Max dies a few days later. Over the next six months Susan and Mark's marriage falls apart. Susan becomes angry with herself, thinking that Max's death is her fault. Mark becomes more distant from her unable to watch his wife lose control especially when his father had been like that when he was growing up. Mark falls for a woman at work and ends up leaving his wife. Susan on the other hand gets more depressed.

PART 2
It's a year since Mark walked out on Susan. She still lives in the same apartment which her friend Clare helps pay for. Susan is so grateful to her friend and can’t stop thanking her for helping her get on with her life. Susan thinks about trying to save her marriage. But one day out of the blue she receives divorce papers from her husband Mark. She is devastated and all the negative thoughts she had repressed come back. In a matter of an hour Susan tries to kill herself. She slices her wrists open and waits to die. Just as Susan collapses to the ground Clare arrives at the apartment. She finds Susan in the bathroom lying on the ground. Clare rings for an ambulance and ends up saving Susan's life as a result. Susan is still very suicidal at this stage. The doctors treating her are worried she might try and commit suicide again. They send her to a support group for people with depression. It's there that she meets her childhood best friend Robert who she hasn’t seen since they were in their early teens. Robert helps Susan through her depression and how to live with it. Robert knows what it's like to live with depression. His girlfriend Michelle was killed in a car accident where he was the driver, and ever since then he has had to live with depression.

PART 3
Over the next six years of constantly having good and bad days with her depression Susan starts to get better. She falls in love with Robert and becomes pregnant once again. At first Susan is so worried that her past experiences will repeat themselves. And as she’s rushed into hospital with Robert by her side she hopes everything will be okay this time around.
Four years later Susan and Robert sit in a park having a picnic. As they sit there talking to each other, a small girl comes running towards them, their daughter Sara. Robert then asks Susan to marry him and she says yes. The three of them live happily ever after.

Sam Winchester

It sounds like you've got plenty of plot there, J. You're gonna need a few side-stories to keep it interesting, though. Maybe something about Mark and how his life is after he walks out on her - make his life crap for a sort of karmic revenge; that way you keep everyone happy. Other than that, it sounds good. My only problem would be that this type of story has been done numerous times. Yours is going to need something special to make it work.

Sam.

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BOURBON

There seems to be 'enough plot' here, JW, but I think the main concern is going to be characterisation. Unless you draw some vibrant characters and their interaction is sparkling, I think you might find yourself with something that reads like watching someone crying in a corner...

I almost feel like you have written the backstory for characters from another story.

BB

Mike C

Without actually reading your post the answer is yes. Plot is fine. It's what you do with it that makes or breaks the story.

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IrishLad

At the risk of sounding trite, and not meaning to:

Kramer vs. Kramer: Man and woman break up, fight over custody of child.

Five Oscars, thirty-one total awards, fifteen nominations.

Saving Private Ryan: A group of soldiers are sent to find a fellow soldier behind enemy lines.

Five Oscars, fifty-two total awards, fifty-three nominations.

Granted, those are films, but they are stories first.

You seem to have planned out your novel well, but plot will only take you so far. And it will almost certainly change before you're done, so I would caution not to lock yourself into it. Characters have a way of surprising the writer once they become more real.

Anyway, good luck, and post once you get going. I'm sure we'd all love to see it.

Cheers

BradW

You definitely have enough plot there for a novel. I suggest telling the story from the husband's point of view as his character seems to be the most active and it might be a good way to show a different angle to the whole post-partum depression thing which is usually told from the female perspective. Getting the male perspective would make your novel stand out.

lin

A lot of fleshing out a plot is what I'd call "embroidery". Minor characters who have interesting rap and lives and issues. The backdrop of the city and society they live in. The character of their conversations. What's going on with their other family members.

One word on the happy ending: I recently saw two movies that could have ended up with a heart-warming "bonded by children" ending but turned it down in order to do something less trite. One is "Eastern Promises", where the penultimate scene led me almost to suspect that I'd see Viggo Mortensen show up smiling at the child. Au contraire.

The other is Juno, a really startling original script in many significant ways, in which ANY setup leading to what we expect gets derailed and what happens is more interesting.

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JWalker

Thnx everybody I hav developed the plot more now so hopefully I'll post the 1st chapter soon.

JW

Damian_Rucci

Good to hear about posting the first chapter. You've got a good plot and enough of it definitely.

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