I am not sure anymore how to go about this WIP

I am now struggling with what my MC's age is and what her occupation is (I wanted a lawyer or journalist).

The basics:
* It is supposed to a story about 5 sisters (but there is 1 main sister who is the point of view character).
* It is supposed to be an Urban Fantasy story.

Problem? I do not have a central plot and conflict and now I am not sure anymore what age my MC should be (early 20s? mid 20s? late 20s? early 30s?) and what her occupation is. I think with her personality and idea I have for a character arc, early to mid 20s might suit better, but she will be less experienced when it comes to her job, still be new and so she probably won't be handling bigger cases and bigger stories. She is now supposed to be 24, but that could change.

Initially she was going to be a 20-year old university student, but then I felt like there was more story to tell if she had a job.

I thought as my MC could be a lawyer or journalist, there could be a case or a story that my MC is going after that ties with the themes of the story.

What do I do?

 

To be candid, it doesn't appear to me that you even have a WIP. You have a vague idea that you hope will become a story, but at the moment you have nothing other than a main character who is one of five sisters (does this even matter?) with nothing else about her determined -- age = unknown; status = unknown; occupation = unknown. You don't have a plot, and you haven't identified a central conflict.

Respectfully, I suggest that you need to stop worrying about writing at this point and just sit back and think about generating a better initial concept of the story and the MC. Or at least one of those two. If you have a strong main character, you can then write many stories around that character. Examples abound, from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and John Carter on Mars, to Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason, to Jack Reacher, to the Bobbsey Twins. Or, you get a dynamite concept for an engaging plot, with a clearly identified main conflict, and you then sit down and decide what attributes the MC should have to work with that plot. From what you have provided, the engineer in me says you are trying to build the bridge deck without having any abutments.

 

I have no plot ideas.

I can come up with character ideas, mostly personalities and themes I would like buy plot and conflict ideas won't come.

I do read books and I watch tv shows but for some reason the inspiration won't come. I am not sure what my problem is.

 

You could try a plot generator, if only to get yourself moving along. There are many on-line. And certainly, you can adjust and grow the plot as your character's come into focus and as your own ideas work into it. Another option is see subplots in the works or shows you've seen/read and use that as your basis for your main plot, and adjusting it to fit your needs.

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but based on what you've said, you don't have a work in progress. You don't have a story, you don't have a setting and you don't even have characters. You've got essentially nothing. You've just got some vague ideas about the kind of thing you'd like to create but nothing beyond that. You really need to go back to the drawing board and figure it all out. Why is anything "supposed" to be anything at all?

 

You need to write what you know. How old are you? what is your occupation 'today'? How many brothers and sisters, do you have. What is your biggest fear? What are you good at? What was the best day of your life? if I asked you to tell me about the most memorable day of your life, how would the story start out. Screw fantasy, everyone has a good story to tell, they just need to know how to frame it. In all honesty, why as a reader why would I give a shit about a journalist with 5 sisters in her early 30s? Every story has a hook, every story has and end. Come up with the ending that means something, come up with a hook, the story will write its self. Sometimes writer's block is a gift.

 

You want to tell a story of five sisters in an urban environment where the supernatural collides with everyday life. Cool. For now, don't worry about the POV character's profession, hair color, etc. Try the following (no particular order) to begin to formulate a plot.

1) Spend some time thinking about what supernatural elements appeal to you. Do you like the fey, ogres, and fairy godmothers, or do you prefer werewolves, vampires, and skinwalkers?

2) What does your main character want out of life, what is she lacking, what does she have that she wants to rid herself of? (This can form the basis for a plot: what exists, what must change, how it changes, what is the ultimate outcome.)

3) How would coming across a supernatural being impact the main character, her desires, her needs, her relationship with her sisters?

4) Once you decide what supernatural beings appeal to you, think about what would happen when your human character runs into a supernatural one while out jogging through a city park or shopping in the mall.

5) Is the supernatural creature a boon or a bane? Will it help the main character or complicate her life? How?

I hope that helps a little. Good luck! I well remember what it was like to want to write a story but not knowing where to begin or what I wanted to say, and I am completely sympathetic with being in that position. Tell yourself a story you want to hear and not what you think might entertain someone else.

 

This is where some of you are wrong and are making assumptions. I do have a setting, I have done worldbuilding and I have a magic system (it could be fleshed out more in some places but there is a good basis), I have a couple of characters and wrote down their personalities (could be fleshed out more, yes), I know what kind of themes I would like to write.

I have been brainstorming on this story all year.

I just have not shared all that information in my first post. So, I do have a WIP. I have 3 more WIPs.

I just struggle a lot with the central plot and conflict.

 

With all due respect, if the responses you received didn't meet your expectations, that might be because you left out a lot of information in your initial post. We can only respond to what we're given, and you didn't give us much.

Also with all due respect, I still don't think you have a WIP. I have an idea for a book. I've had the bare bones of the story firmly in mind, I know who the two MCs are and I have one of them pretty well fleshed out in my mind. And I know exactly where the various scenes will be played out. The second MC is not fleshed out, and I haven't written a word -- this story exists only in my head. I don't consider it to be a WIP, even though the concept has been rattling around in my head for years. It won't be a WIP until I begin working on it -- in other words, not until I start writing.

So you have done worldbuilding. You didn't tell us that, and you haven't told us anything that suggests worldbuilding has anything to do with the story you asked for help with. Ditto magic; nothing in your first post suggests anything about magic. If you have developed some specificity about some of the characters, they must be minor characters because you told us you don't know anything about your MC except that she is one of five sisters. You don't know her age; You don't know her occupation -- or even if she has an occupation, or if she's a university student; you don't have a plot, and you don't have a central conflict.

In the immortal words of the stereotypical thug, Buggsie, "You ain't got nuttin'."

So you asked for help, several people took the time to respond BASED ON THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDED, and now you are complaining because we didn't read your mind. What did you expect?

 

People can only go by what you actually write down.

 

A suggestion [Disclaimer: I am officially an Olde Pharte]:

Years ago, the boss at my first job after I completed graduate school used to talk about what he called the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. I don't think he had the right name for it, but the basic idea is that when faced with a decision, the important thing is to MAKE a decision -- and then to make all subsequent decisions in ways to support the initial decision.

So you are uncertain what age to make your MC. PICK ONE. Write numbers on a sheet of paper, tape it to the wall, and throw a dart to determine the number. However you choose to do it -- get off the dime.

You don't know if your MC is a student, a lawyer, or a journalist. PICK ONE. It doesn't matter, since you don't have a plot. Make an arbitrary decision, then move forward to support that decision.

Once you have her age and her profession, it should then be easier to dream up a plot that involves her or revolves around her. Is she going to be a "prime mover" (someone who makes things happen), or is she going to be a victim (things happen TO her)? PICK ONE.

 

I can see how you feel frustrated with being misunderstood and not getting the advice you've been looking for.

Please answer these question as well as you can:

1. What is the most important reason why you want to write this story in the first place?

2. What makes your protagonist so fascinating that you can't help being eager to write about her?

3. Name one reason why her being a lawyer would be better than her being a journalist.

4. Name one reason why her being a journalist would be better than her being a lawyer.

You can reply here or by PM, whichever you prefer.

 

Read about the Mitford sisters. Plenty of material there for you to take inspiration from.

But I agree with the others. Worldbuilding and character sketches do not make a WIP. All they are is a framework for a story.

 

I find your tone to be quite rude.

To me, a Work In Progress is something that is still in progress, for me the brainstorming and planning stage still counts as a WIP it is more than having nothing at all.

I do have my MC's personality and of her sisters and the MC's love interest and some minor characters as well.
I have a character concept of the antagonist.

1. What is the most important reason why you want to write this story in the first place?
It may seem silly, but I always had wished I had a couple of sisters as I do not have them so I wanted to write about sisters.

2. What makes your protagonist so fascinating that you can't help being eager to write about her?
The idea of my MC is that she is someone who appears confident, ambitous and is very adaptable in her personality, in her manners. She has this inner conflict about where she cares about self-presentation and how others percieve her and cares to impress but at the same time she also wants to be authentic and live up to her ideals. She cares about being accomplished and fears being worthless without her accomplishments.

I don't know how to answer the other two questions.

I never heard of those women until now but I googled them but they seem like they were terrible people, there is nothing inspiring about them.

It is not my intention to make my characters terrible people.

 

Sometimes it's hard to appreciate commentary from others because on a written forum, we don't have the advantage of visual and tone of voice clues that we have in the real world. A piece of the best writing advice I ever got is this: when soliciting feedback from others, consider it without commenting on either the quality of the feedback or the motives of the person offering it. Thank all who took the time to comment, implement appropriate feedback, reject the rest, and continue with the project without having wasted time critiquing the critiques.

It's easier said than done, especially when some comment flicks me on the raw. Unfortunately, those comments are very often exactly the ones I need to take into serious consideration, and sometimes it takes quite a bit of effort to work my way around to accepting them.

 

Two of them, Unity and Diana were admirers of Adolf Hitler. Diana married British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley (father of former FIA president Max Mosley).

Two of them, Nancy and Jessica became successful writers. Nancy fell in love with a Free French officer, while Jessica became involved with civil rights in the US, for a while becoming a member of the Communist party. She was involved in actions such as attempting to stop the execution of a black man, Willie McGee.

Pamela kept her politics largely to herself, although friends said that she had been anti-semitic during WW2. She may also have been a lesbian.

So, horrible people? Maybe, if you view them through a judgemental lens. But as an inspiration for writing, they all led quite colourful lives and provide rich material for plots. Nobody is suggesting you make your characters exactly like the Mitfords. Aristocrats falling in with dictators and freedom fighters? Another sister giving up her privileges to become a civil rights activist, then a radical before becoming disillusioned? I would say that's plenty of material that can inspire a plot.

But it's your story.

 

You don't seem to have a story, just a situation. So you have a bigger problem than your characters age and occupation, and maybe the reason that wont come is because there is no story here.

Sometimes you just have to be patient. Reading and watching things can help, that's where my inspiration comes from, it can generate a spark. Why not go on Amazon and read the plots for similiar things on there. See if anything sparks some creativity.