Novella outline - tell me what you think

[Queen of Rain]

I've written a few short stories lately and I'm gonna start putting then together hoping they wil one day become a novella. It will be in swedish however I hope you guys can say what you think about the ideas in it and come with mroe ideas in how to connect it all even more!

So
We have an unnamed character, a waitress in her early twenties waslking around casually in town thinking a mixture of thoughts. Momst are memory flashes of her former lover, and especially his new mistress. More and more one realises her obsession with this man, yet one is partly happy for her development of strenth in daring to think about him again not tryign to block out the memories. Parlty because it may be the possibility of movin on as she decides she doesnt want to be invisible anymore.

Then we have the father of the waitress above, named Mark who has complex for growing old, yet faces that the unwritten rules of masculinity forbids him to do somethign about his complexes. He admires his workmate James who reamins attractive even though he's getting older adn as the story develops one realises James is Mark's daughters ex-lover.
Mark also tries to find a younger lover but realises in the end that attractieness doesnt lie in that. So he starts to fancy a woman his own age (havn't really decided on details here) - and decides to screw the unwritten rules and has his grey hair coloured over.

Then we have Ida who realises that her relationship to Jack is totally ok. They used to be a couple but now they jsut meet up randomly as thney're of different elements. so she knows he will be gone by morning and realises that she's totally fine with that as she knos they'll meet again but she has no need for eternity. She talks about how they meet in sin yet that is now their religion. In the end she wakesd up and he's left adn she is still happy as she had a nice night but that spontaneous meetings between her (callign her self a dryad- forest creature) and him (ocean prince - water) is enough.

Finally we have Ida's friend Manda who for the first time of her life has a one-night stand. A tequila coated evening and then an amazing night. Next morning she feels different but leaves the young australian guy back in his bachelor apartment. sHe realises she has doen nothign wrong but that oen night is all that they will get because they aren't made for each other adn that is ok. sHe has dared doing somethign she dream of as a teenager and that one shouldnt do as a woman in her 30ies. And she should be sad realising he is such a bachelor with traces of many women, but she isnt because these women made him into an amazing lover.

Thats it so far folks.. hope it made some sense (you'll get to read it all when my bestseller is translated to english)
question right now is how to connect ida and Manda's stories with Mark and his daughter's..
adn what other characters in this mess that should get a voice.. James's wife, the australian guy (maybe he could "save" Mark's daughter), or maybe the woman who will date Mark..
so many ideas..

[Queen of Rain]

Please, I wud sooo need some feedback...

[Robin]

It's not something I would want to read, but it sounds interesting. A little soap opera-ish, though, but I suppose throwing in people who are older makes it more Stephen King-esque than As The World Turns-esque.

I guess Ida and Manda can be connected voa blood relations, or relations from schooling. Jack could be a nephew or cousin or old high school buddy of James, because from what I've read James is a ladies' man, and Jack doesn't seem to mind that he and Ida aren't entirely compatible for each other.

Doing something with Jack would seem the most logical, because then you'd have Ida and Manda connected with the rest of the story by default.

[Queen of Rain]

Thank you dear.. I know it sounds really soap opera atm.. but thats because I can't really go into the literary stuff.. Esp Ida's story is very poetic in its style critisism says; I spend an entire stanza jsut describintg the way the salt touches his face when he stands on the balcony..
the entire work is very influenced by the better works of Joyce Carol Oates, focusing on relations in a literary way...
I'll definately bind Ida and Manda together somehow, James is a bit older than Jack, so friends would be far of but somehow he could be his mentor.. Jack is somehow a younger version of James, neither are mean characters, thney just don't believe in monogamy..

[Robin]

That's why I thought maybe nephew or cousin...cousin makes it sound like they need a small age difference, but I think that sometimes the age differences can be startling. My cousin is thirteen years younger than me.

I think that you would need to think up a lot more stuff to have James be a mentor to Jack. It would need a blood tie, or something very close to it. I don't think it's common for older people to just take others under their wings. But it's your story. If you can explain how James came to be Jack's mentor, you can give it a lot of realism.

I've never read any of Oates' work. Maybe if I did I could help you more on this. I can go read up on her, I suppose.