nanowrimo_lj | Another newbie with plot issues (Reply)

This is my first year doing NaNo, and I'm getting a little freaked out. I've had a general idea kicking around in my head for several years, but the problem is that while I've got the characters and the build-up and the crisis fairly well defined, I'm not at all sure what happens after that, how my characters find redemption.

I'd feel better going into this if I had at least some idea where my story was going.

The story set up is like this: Three friends (Allison, Emma, and Jaime) grew up together, but have started growing apart. Jaime's always had a crush on Emma. They finally sleep together, she gets pregnant, but doesn't tell him. Shortly after he finds out, she miscarries, and Allison (who is a med student) is unable to help her.

Emma has a actual, physical loss, but the other two have a more intangible loss: lose faith in herself (Allison), and God (Jaime), and they’re unable to deal with other anymore (Jaime feels like he’s been betrayed, Allison feels like it is entirely her fault, Jaime and Emma have each lost their child, but they have no idea of how to help each other with their grief), so their lives split.

The question is…. How do they each find redemption? How do they come to peace with what happened, with themselves, with each other?

Allison is the do-er, the one most likely to be proactive about it, but she's also the most independent & isolated from the rest, whereas Emma is more likely to be dependent on other people for her recovery. Jamie's the most immature of the three, and I'm not sure whether or not he grows up a little by the end.

Also, I have a few scenes of this already written, some of which I'm happy with, some of which I'm not. I'm considering re-writing these scenes (possible POV change), but one of my friends has told me that this is a bad idea, and I should just start NaNo where I left off in my previous writing. Any opinions?

partially x-posted to the NaNo forums