This is not meant to the final story overview. At this point, I have a vague sense of what the story is. I’m trying to sketch out some ideas. It’s my stream of consciousness at this point in time.

I’ve been playing with a couple of titles for the novel. I have 3possible titles, "Life on the Run", "Running out of Lifetimes" and "Manon the Run". All 3 appeal to me and all 3 do a somewhat decent job ofhinting what the superficial and deeper story is about.

We begin with the prologue. It introduces us to the main character,Matthew. It is early in the morning and the alarm clock is ringing.Matthew wakes up and begins his preparation for the day. He is going torun a marathon in the next couple of hours. He mulls around hisapartment getting ready for the event (eating breakfast, psychinghimself up). We also get a sense of the life that Matthew has led. It’sa fairly successful life but we sense a tinge of regret in Matthew(hence the regretful protagonist). One of things I also need toestablish is why Matthew has decided to do a marathon.

I’ve been playing around with the idea of having Marco (an oldfriend) dying in a tragic accident. In all likelihood, I’m not going todo this. Marco and Matthew used to be the best of friends but have asomewhat estranged friendship now. This estrangement is mostlyperceived by Matthew. Marco still cares for his friend deeply.

At some point, I’ll take the reader back to the point of greatestregrets in Matthew’s life. The greatest regret of Matthew is hisfailure in a sporting event from his late youth. I’m not sure where Ishould introduce this. It’s sort of critical to the plot. It’s key tothe plot because Matthew cannot find his redemption and move on untilhe accepts the past and let it go.

Another of Matthew’s regrets is his inability to tell Marianne hisfeelings. Marianne is Marco’s younger sister. She is also Matthew’slove interest. Another factor in his perceived estranged friendshipwith Marco.

The marathon serves as a metaphor for Matthew’s life. I’m not sure how large parts of the marathon are going to get written yet.

One idea is that Matthew has lost the ability to finish things.Along the marathon, Matthew meets external and internal mentors to helphim face up to his regrets and help him regain his ability to finish.One internal mentor could be his younger self. Other internal mentorscould include fear, uncertainty and doubt. The marathon ends by Matthewconquering his regrets and finish the race. At the finish line, we seeMatthew reunited with Marco and Marianne. Matthew comes to terms withhis regret and is ready to move on with  life.

In the epilogue, we get complete resolution of the story. Perhapswhere he first had to deal with his regrets or a place symbolic of it.But rather than being a place of despair, it is now a place of triumph.We see him, Marianne and Marco together. The story ends.