Yep, I'm still struggling with this story, although I think the struggle is more in my head than in fact. I just have to find what's stopping me from pushing through and finishing it.

I've decided to go back to the beginning. Not the beginning of the story, even though I'll need to do that again too. I've gone back to the beginning of the idea for the story and I'm going to analyse sections and work on it that way.

I've been working on my character tables, focusing on Goal, Motivation and Conflict. It didn't take me long to do because I know the characters. It's all sitting comfortably, but I don't want comfortable. Comfortable is only enough for a short story and this is already at nearly 58000 words. I need to ramp it up a bit.

I've pulled two books from my bookshelf: How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James N Frey and Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. Today I'll be reading two chapters. From Frey: Chapter 2, The Three Greatest Rules of Dramatic Writing: Conflict! Conflict! Conflict!, and from Bell: Chapter 13: Common Plot Problems and Cures. I'll probably add a couple of others as well on structure.

I've put Jonathan's table below. What am I missing?

Jonathan:
Goal Motivation Conflict To get away from Anthony ·       It’s dangerous near Anthony, both physically and mentally ·       Anthony continues to phone Jonathan, finds out where he lives and stalks him.·       Jonathan has lived with fear for a long time. He’s jumping at shadows, his nerves shot. With Anthony stalking him, he doubts his own judgment and can’t find peace.·       Jonathan misses having someone to care for although he never wants to go back to the restricted life he was living. To develop a strong, loving relationship with a man ·       Jonathan needs to be loved by someone other than his family.·       Ben seems to be the embodiment of all his dreams of the perfect man.·       Ben is physically very attractive and emotionally stable and supportive. ·       Anthony seemed perfect in the beginning as well: perhaps Ben will change and become more like Anthony.·       Jonathan can’t trust himself to be a good judge of character anymore: his self-esteem has been constantly undermined by Anthony with little against it.·       Ben is such a convenient escape from both Anthony and the smothering love of his family that Jonathan’s afraid he’s using Ben to escape. Pretty much what he did with Anthony at the beginning.·       Ben has a secret. To live a life of his choosing ·       To gain control of his own life so he doesn’t have to rely on his family for his sense of worth. ·       Jonathan has spent so long being told how to live his life, not just by Anthony but also very gently by his family, that he no longer knows who he is or what he wants.·       He loves his family and doesn’t want to hurt them so can’t tell them he feels smothered by them a lot of the time.·       He has a long-term pattern of doing what he’s told, partly because he doesn’t like conflict. He also still has survivor’s guilt and thinks if he’s super-agreeable they’ll keep him. (‘They’ being his family) His fear of rejection has made him easy to manipulate.