WIP novel ruining my life.

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I've been stuck on this one book (my first) for two or three years called Redesigning Eva. I have no plot. I have no solid characters. In a word: jackshit.

Then start over from scratch with something else. There is no need to expect to finish it and letting that stress you out. Even vastly successful authors scrap ideas. Start over from scratch with something entirely different and keep what you have accomplished, in this attempted work, to maybe incorporate into the new novel, at some time, if possible. If it proves not to be possible to incorporate anything of it, you may have gotten a good start on the new novel, already, and that not being possible would be unimportant.

Redacted.

Maybe hold on to the characters until life tells you what to do? You might have something happen that rather epically brings you to an idea of what to do with the story?

So what's Redesigning Eva? Sounds like it could take a lot of quite dark and interesting psychological thriller or horror angles.

Imagine Molly Ringwald as a neurotic, Valium-popping, teenage basket case. Then imagine her in a punk sci-fi future where the "redesigning" of humans is common. Imagine Molly volunteering for a shady corporation's bioenhancement project to become a supergirl for selfish purposes. Then imagine her having second thoughts as she has mind games played on her. Soundtrack by Wang Chung and Vangelis. Rated R.

Don't worry, my ideas and books in progress have taken a hiatus. I started a children-ish book a few months ago called Goblins, and I haven't done anything with it in a long time. Just relax and do other things, and you may come across things that inspire you and give you ideas for your novel.

What is it about these characters and this premise that's kept you with them for several years? There must be something of value there. My advice would be to try to get at the heart of the matter, extract it, take it along with you and start fresh from there.

I would not set it aside indefinitely or scrap it completely. I took that route a few years ago and have regretted it ever since. Writing a novel is hard work and I think it's supposed to be.

I'm trying to come up with a complex, intricate story told from Eva's perspective. There's going to be a lot of unanswered questions, and you would probably have to read it more than once to figure out what the hell is going on, but I don't want to treat the audience like idiots.

I want it to be a future noir: high-tech, low-life. The character's morality is fairly gray/black, though whose is black and whose is gray is a matter of dispute. The story has a grim, bleak, and cynical tone, but if its pushed up to the point that the reader thinks this motley crew of characters is a bunch of scum, all connection is lost. I've got to make them likeable, if questionable.

Another thing I want to pull off is an unreliable narrator. A theme of RE is the thin line between reality and unreality. By the end, there's a chance Eva's story wasn't entirely on the spot.

Like I said in the other thread, maybe it's just not the right time to write it if you're struggling so much with it right now that it's causing you stress. Maybe putting it aside until more ideas come to you is a good possibility at this point.

I edit books. Would you like me to have a try at it, maybe I could shake loose what's stuck?
No charge.

So far, all I've got is Eva Elliot.

Is it a women-in-prison novel?

I sentence you to watch some of Jess Franco's more tasteless efforts. Repeatedly.

I know we're probably going to pull this way off base from what you want it but, what I"m already seeing:

1) she had the great idea to have herself perfected or worked on
2) now that its happened and everything in her world has changed including the way her body operates and the way people treat her, and the person she's allowed vs. not allowed to be creates a lot of really big psychological problems - ie. her old self which she still is internally can't keep pace with the changes, she's not allowed to be her old self just by virtue of appearance/personality conformity and hence she's losing everything, can't even get a date because no one feels like she's showing her real self - which technically they wouldn't accept anyway.
3) She takes what's left of her and goes on both an internal and internal mission trying to salvage what's left of herself and have some semblence of a life that isn't worse from what she was already running from.
4) She's told by the surgeon that he can't restore her. They had kept a model of her old self but the server had been corrupted. Perhaps even someone stole the data on the mainframe.
5) Take that last turn of events farther - the thieves intend to take her old self, pretend she had a restoration, but really its not her - and she gets wind that these people are thinking about going on a robbing/killing spree - including her parents, rob, take over government with assassins done up as politicians, etc.
6) Ultra Violet/Equilibrium-type drama ensues as she brings out the guns and possibly the pliers and exacto-knives for more 'intimate' encounters with organizational heads. Before her operation she was a chess wizz or survival nut, so she out-cloak n' dagger's em all and along the way ends up being more like their own boogeyman/woman where it even gets a bit Ring'ish from the enemy's perspective.
7) End of the book - something more profound happens; the mission was to get her old face and body back to exactly what it was but, it takes a twist and something bigger - either for better or for worse - prevails to where yes, she stopped the killings, but her going back to her old self is physically possible but not ideologically possible (whether she'd be incarcerated for vigilante activity, if she finds out that the plot was part of something even bigger and uglier where she needs her abilities to shut it down, or if she finds out that nothing she thinks is real is - and that she doesn't exist in any form that she understands, the biggest pushover in the universe lands a lucky bullet on her when its all said and done; take your pick of sucker-punch surprise endings).