Young Writers Society

I'm pretty new around here (...as in this is my very first post), and I joined because I've been having a lot of plot ideas recently. I just need someplace to store all my thoughts. xD
I've had a plot idea circulating my mind for quite a while, but I've been delaying doing much about it as I've run into some problems regarding it.
The plot* involves a 20-something female con-artist (Roxanne) who lives beside a prostitute (Vivian) in poor conditions. They live in a small apartment, and can barely make rent. Vivian is dealing with issues like her abusive boyfriend, and a man she's in love with who Roxanne believes is "too good to be true". Roxanne is dealing with the fact that her past continues to haunt her. She ran away from home at a young age, after her mother's sudden death and right smack in the middle of a custody battle between her aunt and her father. Vivian is determined to help Roxanne find her father, and Roxanne, although hesitant at first, goes along with the idea in the end. One day, she meets a young, rich lawyer. He's drawn to her, but Roxanne is oblivious to his hints, and cons him to get him out of her way. Life continues with its daily problems, and Vivian's abusive boyfriend has finally found out about her lover. Upset, they fight, and he beats her to death. While he does this, Roxanne stumbles home and finds Vivian bleeding and him with an insane glare. Roxanne instinctively attacks him, and although she manages to do some damage, he is able to knock her out. When she awakes, she finds that Vivian is dead. Going into depression, she stumbles around from place to place, becoming disoriented and malnourished, until the lawyer she conned finds her and tries to help her. He accomplishes this, however, begins to make a move on her. Roxanne is disgusted by his advances and pushes him away. She escapes his home to refresh her thoughts. As she returns to his home, Roxanne discovers, after reading a newspaper, that her father has remarried and is working on a new case. Satisfied with the outcome, she makes it to the lawyer's home, where she lets herself become less guarded, and they become friends.

Um, I'd really like some opinions on the plot. Anything. Critiques, suggestions, reviews are all great.
Is there any way to make this more realistic? I would type it up, but I'm unsure if I can write it from a realistic view.
And the last thing that I've been wondering about is...how do I end it? I dislike how predictable endings can be, and I'd like to keep things original and realistic. Any ideas?
Thanks a bunch guys!
*APOLOGIES FOR THE LENGTHY, DETAILED PLOT. Dx

Heyhi, Whiteh.
So, there are a few things that strike me as I'm reading through this...

-- If Roxanne was the one to run away, why does she not know where her father is now? Why does she want to know?
-- I'm not sure I would "instinctively" attack someone who had just beaten my friend unconscious. Out of rage, perhaps, but "instinctively" makes it look a little bit like you couldn't think of a real reason for her to do this - more on character motivations in a bit!
-- Why does the lawyer try to help Roxanne, given that she conned him?
-- Why does Roxanne go from 'disgusted by the lawyer's advances' to 'willing to be friends' just because she read a newspaper article?
-- I'd be interested to see a little more going on in the subplot with Vivian's lover.

These are just a few points where I would think a little more carefully into the plot - I'm not trying to pick it all apart, but if I were your reader, these are the places where I would be querying the believability of the plot.

For the most part, I think your issues could be summed up as "problems with character motivation". You've got some interesting backstory for your two main characters here, so I'd suggest that you try and expand on that and the effect it's had on their personalities, and generally try to develop them a little more. I personally struggle with character development a bit, but you might find that a kind of character questionnaire would help - the kind that ask things like "what would your character do if someone stole their phone?" and so on. I think there's also a game in Writing Activities to do with interviewing characters, so you could check that out, too.

Once you've got to know your characters a bit better, try sticking them in the situations in this plot, and see if the reactions you've given them here still fit. Maybe Roxanne turned out to be really timid, so she really wouldn't attack Vivian's abuser. If the reactions you've said here don't fit, what reactions would? Maybe you can find some interesting new plot direction by exploring those!

This might also help with your ending - if you play around with Roxanne's possible reactions to the lawyer's advances, and the aftermath of that, you could develop something there. I also think, regarding the ending, that finding out her father is okay in a paper, and then just dropping the matter, is far from the best way to do it - if you've made so much of the book about looking for her father, either she needs to find her father, or have a very big revelation about why she doesn't need to.

Developing the characters is also a good way to make the story realistic - if your characters don't act in a way that's believable, the plot will fall apart for the reader ("honestly, she wouldn't really do that!"). But if they do, you can build plot around them.

...I don't know if that was any help. I hope it was at least a bit! Please feel free to send me a PM if you wanna talk about this stuff