At the risk of annoying everyone else in this thread, YOUR plot sounds the most promising. Why? Because it's a BUNCH OF NEW STUFF happening, each thing leading to the next. Most everyone else so far has implied that the bulk of their novel will be a single activity repeated over and over again. It doesn't matter if someone finds 3 pieces of Excalibur or 3000; it doesn't matter if the seamstress is attacked once on her crosscountry journey or a thousand times; no new dramatic information is being introduced in either case.
Why did The Ex run away? Stick with what you know. He left because he's always wanted to be a professional writer / artist / filmmaker but he's never had the guts to try. Then along comes The Opportunity -- he goes to LA to peddle his screenplay, he goes to New York to be near the agents and the scene -- and he has to seize it. But a year later he's broke, disillusioned, and come back to the middleclass life. He tried his hardest but his stuff wasn't good enough.
By that same token the woman's job could be the blandest, most mundane, cubicle-drone thing you can think of. In fact, you could just have her work in "an office," without it ever being clear what they produce. She could waste time on the internet, roam around with a folder under her arm pretending to do work, call IT to fix stuff, check her email 25 times a day, debate where to go for lunch, avoid the creepy guy, have superiors always nagging her for "that report that's due," etc. A bland existence in need of excitement could throw those spots of color -- wedding, Mr. 1942, The Ex's literary ambitions, the dashing New Guy -- into sharper relief.
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Why did The Ex run away? Stick with what you know. He left because he's always wanted to be a professional writer / artist / filmmaker but he's never had the guts to try. Then along comes The Opportunity -- he goes to LA to peddle his screenplay, he goes to New York to be near the agents and the scene -- and he has to seize it. But a year later he's broke, disillusioned, and come back to the middleclass life. He tried his hardest but his stuff wasn't good enough.
By that same token the woman's job could be the blandest, most mundane, cubicle-drone thing you can think of. In fact, you could just have her work in "an office," without it ever being clear what they produce. She could waste time on the internet, roam around with a folder under her arm pretending to do work, call IT to fix stuff, check her email 25 times a day, debate where to go for lunch, avoid the creepy guy, have superiors always nagging her for "that report that's due," etc. A bland existence in need of excitement could throw those spots of color -- wedding, Mr. 1942, The Ex's literary ambitions, the dashing New Guy -- into sharper relief.