I think I have come up with a way to organize some of the complexities of multiple story/plot lines. I will let you know how it works out. In the mean time I will soon post it here for others to use, if it suits them.

Ok let me explain why I was having trouble. I have 4 distinct parts to my book (or books if I write enough, and I may), each parts' major plot line individually follows, more or less, the 'story structure', but the main subplot(the love story) follows the 'hero's journey' structure in each part.

OK...breath...breath dang it! Complicated design, yes! Good idea, we will see when the first draft for part 1 is done.

I didn't realise this until I started having problems and was looking for outline methods to help me organize.

I may be reinventing the wheel, but this has helped me to visualy grasp the flow and fit of the scenes. It is in spread sheet form so please let me know if any of you would like a working copy of the basic outline.

(If I am just being overly stupid here, it's probably because I can't keep my thoughts in order and write by the seat of my pants.)

Mike

The reason I've had to do this is because I can't remember where I was each week when I have time to work on the novel (work make it really hard for me). So this actually is going to help me remember what is what and where. I get what you said about not adding to much to make you want to quite. I am not doing that; I am creating a world in a post new age civil war period of the USA. The wars, the battles, the new abilities, who's running what and where, economic suppression, etc...had me losing myself. The only way I can simplify my complicated ideas is to get them organized.
(ok, ok, I will shut up now, lol )