A problem...

I think I found one of the reasons I'm having such trouble with my current project.

I've lost focus of a central conflict.

The story was originally a deconstruction of the idea of the supernatural boyfriend and how that sort of situation could very easily go wrong. It was all about a girl and dealing with an abusive relationship that is still abusive for all of its "speshulness". It was about overcoming fear and distrust and learning to move on with your life.

Problem was, I realized just how stupid my main character was and I tried to rectify that by adding another character to the mix rather than just accept that a particular relationship was the thing going wrong and maybe that I didn't need that relationship.

The thing with my story now is that I don't have a central conflict. With Laura as the main character, sure that one relationship with Clark didn't work out, but at least I had a conflict. I just needed to think of another way to resolve it. With Melody, Laura is still a player with her relationship with Gabriel and that conflict is there, but it becomes secondary. And so I've lost a central theme, because Melody has no conflict. She's there to help Laura solve her problem and to be there for Clark. Suddenly, the story has no point of interest and that's why I'm having trouble with it. There's no conflict. I lost it somewhere along the line.

So I have a few options:

a) Go back to my original idea, cut what wasn't working and expand what was. Originally, this thing was supposed to be a short story and I think it might just have to turn back into one or perhaps some sort of novella. I don't really see it in its original form as a novel.

b) Figure out some sort of conflict that would make Melody's story fit into Laura's somehow. The problem with this is that I'm losing Laura's story, which was the original story I wanted to tell.

All in all, I think this is something I'm going to shelve for a little while so I can ponder it and not feel freaked out that I'm not working on it. I might figure something out, I might not. I'm just going to let it sit for right now. I like the characters and I want to do something with them, so if they end up repurposed somewhere else, so be it.

I'm not going to let it get to me anymore.