Having some structural woes I need assistance with <3

The Chatters
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So, I’ve had a very small outline for the series I’m working on, but have recently been killing darlings and reshuffling things around, and I’ve hit a small snag.

The basics:

In book one of my series, I have it structured a bit weirdly.

So Plot A: Will open with my MC (Elya) and her trainer/parental figure (Bannus) in a “day-in-the-life” that’s contrasted when (that night) what’s essentially a refugee/rebel (Noah) shows up on their doorstep, begging for help. This is a “big deal” to Elya because it reveals Bannus’ traitorous affiliations and actions, and forces her to reckon with this swap. Moreover, it challenges her character, and some other devotions (a vow) she has made and the long-game she’s playing (which is essentially her entering a military organization).

PLOT A (which will take up almost the entire part of the beginning of book 1, maybe 7 chapters) will be Elya/Bannus getting Noah to a safehouse, and then leaving him there. Noah acts as a sort of “warped mirror” for Elya’s character to grow, and begin questioning things about her religious trauma/vow. BUT it also sets up the path that Elya will be entering this military organization as a double-agent, asking Bannus to help her become part of the Network.

PLOT B is triggered when–a few weeks later–Elya is summoned by her father (the king) and told that a draft will be happening soon (demon-activity spiking due to natural phenomenon/anomaly) and he expects her to join.

PLOT B will show Elya in the training corps.

THEN I have PLOT C which introduces her duo-protagonist, Ruven, who will be meeting Noah (who has gotten to the “safe location”) and will be having his own spy arc.

Now, context: Noah/Ruven have a very dynamic on-the-page relationship that extends through BOOKS. I am almost hesitating to even have Plot A happen (and instead focus only on Plot B for Elya and Plot C for Ruven–moving the Noah-meeting to Ruven’s POV/plot entirely) and having Elya simply joining the military as a double-agent already.

The problem is, I’m really not sure what readers would want, and I would be cutting a massive portion of Elya/Bannus’ arc already. While Plot A is pretty tense/uneasy/full of growth, I’m also hesitant because “Plot B” seems to be more thematically a “hook” and I’m worried people will see Plot A as a sort of long prologue for Plot B. Moreover, I feel Plot A might detract from Plot C (and Ruven’s arc as a whole).

But I really like Plot A, I think it grounds Elya as a character (before she is drafted/enters) I think it contextualizes her and Bannus’ relationship a lot, and it neatly ties together Elya’s POV and Ruven’s POV (with Noah) which is central considering they won’t interact for a LONG time.

The real and only problems I have with Plot A are: its length, and potential detraction from Ruven/Noah’s relationship.

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Are you able to separate A and B plots into different drafts for your convenience.

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Hm, I’m not too sure what you mean, I’ve outlined them both into separate pieces. Do you mean I should draft them both first (like write both out) to see how they function?

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Yes!

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I would begin with not worrying about what readers want :laughing:

It’s not clear to me, have you already written this book out, or is it just the outline? Because the only advice I can think of is to write the whole thing out, let it lie for a while, then go back and see what sticks.

If you remove Plot A, how are you going to insert the information that it originally conveyed into the rest of the story? And what’s the endgame?

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I’m not sure if writing the entire thing out will help in this instance (they are currently outlines). As it’s less about “what sticks” and more a forked-roads issue I’ve come across. I’ve written certain scenes/pieces of it out to see how I feel about it (letting them rest) and got nada. Did not resolve anything. If I wrote both ideas out completely (full novel length) then I would have to be writing two entirely separate novels, as changing one scene (esp. something like a character introduction) will shift how characters interact with one another throughout the entire novel.

I’m hesitant to put in that much work if the structural issue can be resolve at the outline-level. Alas, it might be a case of needing to take a step back from the project for a while. I’ve been suffering from some emotional blunting for roughly 6 months–and while I’ve fs been able to continue writing, plotting, etc. I fear that during the main stages of finally coalescing ideas, I might need to “feel” things more clearly before making these types of decisions.

I’m typically a very emotional/instinctual author (but its drowned out by blunting) and have been writing the coat-tails of craft knowledge thus far, but it seems I’ve hit a major wall. Unfortunate. I do hope this clears up soon, lol.