So many folks are wringing their hands about the state of One Life to Live – wondering how anyone will ever be able to restore sanity to what was once our favorite soap.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Natalie realizes that John loves her but is not in love with her. John realizes the same thing and both decide that they want more than the other can give and they break up. At the same time, as his painful recovery continues, John slowly becomes dependent on the medication that's been prescribed for his pain.
   
   
2. Evangeline goes back to being a defense attorney; Nora reclaims the DA spot. She and Bo start spending time together - at work, with Matthew, and later without - and start drifting back together, much to Asa’s delight.
   
   
3. Paige decides that Llanview has been nothing but bad luck for her and leaves town.
   
   
4. Viki and The Governor re-kindle a past relationship and start dating.
   
   
5. Kevin comes back from London to take charge of The Banner. Kelly and the baby come back, too – and the baby turns out to be Kevin’s and not Duke’s.
   
   
6. Clint and Dorian enjoy their dalliance – that is, until he begins to become uneasy about Viki’s relationship with The Governor.
   
   
7. Evangeline starts working a case that brings her into the LPD fairly often, working with and against John and Antonio. Cristian sees her growing closer to John and starts making jealous noises. Coupled with her already present fear of marriage, Evangeline decides to end things with Cristian. As John's addiction to prescription pain medication gets worse, Evangeline begins to notice that something is not quite right with him but she doesn't immediately know what it is. John's brother Dr. Michael begins to suspect, though.
   
   
8. The Angel Square Hotel gets a makeover and becomes less of a dive and more of a decent-looking place to live. Roxie continues to manage it and her salon. She also manages Ultraviolet for Rex now that he's devoting himself to his work as a private investigator.
   
   
9. Blair nearly dies because of a tubal pregnancy that gets about as bad as it can get. Her brush with death strengthens the bond between her and Todd and they reunite and remarry. The truth about Baby Tommy's true paternity comes out, along with the truth about Rex's attempt to keep the baby from Todd. This, of course, makes Todd a bitter enemy always on the look out for a way to get even with Rex. Meanwhile he and Blair get custody of the baby. Once Blair fully recovers, the pair get back to the business of running The Sun, exploiting a leak from a source that suggests corruption in the state government. Typically enough, Todd is not above printing rumor and innuendo in place of hard news.
   
   
10. Michael and Marcie lose custody of Baby Tommy to Todd and Blair but they hold onto each other and bounce back from the setback. As soon as the regular teacher returns, Marcie admits to herself that her writer's mind misses the excitement of working at the LPD and she gets her job back as the LPD receptionist.
    
    
11. Asa suspects that David Vickers is his biological son and hires a private investigator to find him and bring him back to Llanview.
    
    
12. After some of the people closest to him begin commenting on John's steadily more aggressive behavior and difficult personality and one or two screw ups on the job - one of which nearly costs the life of one of his officers, John realizes that he needs help. After agonizing over it, he voluntarily goes into therapy with Dr. Crosby to work through his issues, beginning with his reaction to his father's murder and right up through his addiction.
    
    
13. Antonio has his hands full with the LPD and being a husband/father and, in order to try and placate R.J., sells Capricorn back to him. Since there’s little hope of regaining custody of his granddaughter Jamie, R.J. goes back to the double-dealing activities he has always been involved in. And it turns out that he has formed an alliance with someone with strong political connections - the kind that can keep him out of jail if he gets in trouble with the LPD.
    
    
14. Layla gets re-involved with Vincent Jones, who finds himself traveling in the same professional circles as R.J., which he keeps from Layla. Evangeline worries about Layla’s renewed relationship with Vincent because she doesn’t trust him. She asks John for his opinion and he tells her that he doesn’t like it, either. Layla won’t listen to either of them, which causes friction between the sisters.
    
    
15. Natalie decides to study to become a Forensics Technician for real this time and quits her job at the LPD, giving her the beginnings of a real career and her own identity apart from whether or not there is a man in her life.
    
    
16. Cristian and Natalie find themselves growing closer and his passion for art slowly returns. He works with Lindsay Rappaport to create artwork for a new show at her gallery - to reintroduce the work of Cristian Vega to the artistic community.
    
    
17. Jessica resumes her job at The Banner. Kevin assigns her to investigate the rumblings he's been hearing about corruption at the state level – before realizing that his mother and The Governor are growing closer, which complicates things.
    
    
18. Nash Brennan is murdered by person or persons unknown but who seem to have ties to Claudia Reston’s father (apologies to all you Nash Brennan fans but I just don't like him - never did). The LPD investigates.
    
    
19. Shannon McBain returns and decides that she wants Rex back. He turns her down, saying how much in love he is with Adriana. But Shannon won’t take no for an answer and decides to try to break them up – to shake Adriana’s faith in Rex by making her believe he’s cheating on her. It works and a brokenhearted Adriana decides to leave Llanview.
    
    
20. Marty Saybrooke decides that returning to Llanview was a mistake and she and her son leave town.
    
    
21. Teenaged Starr Manning begins dating someone else in high school after Cole moves away. The friction lessens between her and her father but it doesn't go away completely - especially now that she's dating.
    
    
22. It turns out that Hugh Hughes had an identical twin brother who was raised by another family – one that’s associated with the Restons. Who is he – good guy or bad guy? (Yeah, I know - Soap Opera 101: The Identical Twin trick but getting rid of Josh Casaubon made no sense - especially since they had only just given him a story).
    
    
23. Someone high up in Pennsylvania state government is murdered in Llanview and the LPD begins its investigation, only to be joined by the Feds, who push their way into the case without explanation. Their investigation brings Sonia back to Llanview and, in light of her past relationship with Antonio, her return causes problems for Antonio, Jessica, and their new marriage.
    
    
24. As John works therapy, his friendship with Evangeline grows. Evangeline now recognizes that all the words in the world don't mean anything unless they're being spoken by the right person and John decides to stop letting things happen to him - that he's got every right to go for what he wants in life instead. Soon they find themselves back where they started, only this time with a firm foundation of shared history and feelings for each other that never went away.

See? Nothing’s impossible. Nothing is out of reach. After all, this is a soap we’re talking about. And what is it that makes or breaks a soap? Story, story, story, that’s what.

So who says that the stories at OLTL can’t revolve around the few points listed above - every actor working, every character on screen with their integrity intact, interacting with more than one other character, each and every story making sense, day by day with all the days connected? It really is possible.

We just have to want it bad enough. And we have to tell them so - over and over and over again.

For as long as it takes.

Because I have seen the best. And there is no way that I will settle for less!