The big picture

So now I have the details worked out -- a better backstory for my heroine, a more realistic role for my hero, greater understanding of their daily lives. Seems perfect. I should get down to writing . . . except . . .

My grasp of the big picture has always been easy; where I stumble is with the small stuff.

GMC -- Goals, motivation, conflict -- they make sense to me in the 'big picture' kind of way. But for some inexplicable reason, I am unable to reduce them to the intimate level of a personal story.

Each of my characters has a etherial goal, motivation and large scale conflict, but what I lack is an individual level version of those things which translates in to the most important element what makes a story -- a plot.

I know what happens. Scenes are planned where events reveal character and history, but I lack that simple A to B to XYZ that is the driving force behind a novel.

How can I have characters so real to me, without a place to put them? Looking back on my previous work onthis story, I realize that the dimension that was missing was the building action that makes fiction different from real life.

My 'story' is more like a biography, ups and downs and steady plodding. Triumphs and tragedies interspersed with description but no urgency.

If I can get over that hurdle by the end of the month, then I'll have something to work on for Nanowrimo -- otherwise I'll be at the same place been for the past several years, floundering and frustrated.

When I first started thinking about this, I was certain I had a plot -- all the revisions to the history either erased it from my memory or it wasn't there in the first place. How could I forget the plot?