I have some awesome characters, and a very very rough idea of what the hell is going on with them. I need help working out what is actually going on. I am terrible at plotting, and a bit which is giving me a problem is a murder scene where I don't know how to actually prove my protag innocent. Anyone willing and able to give me a hand?
Dang, sympathy fistbumps with the plot terribleness, and boy oh boy do I know the issues of Crime Writing. Do you have a rough idea of what plot you want to have, even if it might not be the one that you've currently got going? Could you give me a quick rundown of the issues you've been having with the murder scene, especially any ideas you've already had about making the character innocent?
The murder scene is the setup; my heroine's a teenage country girl who has to flee her village when she's accused of the murder of her childhood rival. I know the murder has to be something to do with the main plot or else it'll just be silly. So far I was considering that the victim was found killed with the axe belonging to the heroine's father, possibly in or near the heroine's home. The main plot so far is the master of an orphanage (where the heroine ends up) experimenting gruesomely on the kids, and the heroine's father should probably be involved in it, and the actual killer was also involved with it (messenger from the city where the big bad is?) I have no idea how it could be proved my heroine didn't do it, but I do know she didn't.
what's your time period? what are your options for police investigation techniques? (/me listens to way too many true crime podcasts...)
Steampunky fantasy - sort of Discworld level. I guess magic could be involved but that would beg the question of why they didn't do that before she had to run away. Maybe tie it into Fantastic Racism - no human magic users in the village, the local elves can scry or something, but it doesn't occur to anyone to ask them? Might be too contrived.
If you involve magic, there could always be the reasoning of a counter-spell involved that screws up anything that could easily prove her innocent. If you don't, though, maybe give her an alibi that isn't able to be accessed until she's already run away and gone through most of the book? The first thing that pops into my head is "She was with someone the night of the murder who left town on a trip before the body was discovered and wasn't due to come back for a while" or something. Of course, there's also the question of how her father might be involved. Would he be able to be the murderer? What is his deal? Also I think this sounds like a really cool premise!
Hm. I was having the murder on the night of the spring fair when there were a number of travellers present, with the big bad's messenger among them, who I was thinking of being the actual killer. If she was talking to the travellers during the murder and they left after it was found out but before she was accused...? I'm not sure how long it should take for her innocence to be discovered, as I want her dad and her childhood friend to go looking for her but only find her either at or after the climax of the plot. I don't want her dad to be a bad guy, but you've got me thinking there could have been some kind of accident, or a magical compulsion; he was getting defiant and the big bad('s minion) fucked with him to keep him in line? I was thinking he was involved with crafting equipment for the big bad as he's a woodworker (hence the axe).
Since the settings steampunk-level, her innocence could be discovered relatively quickly, but since all the characters in play already ran off and if this isn't a universe with instantaneous communication, there might be no way to let them all know that she's in the clear? There are definitely interesting things to play with the dad- especially if he's working for the big bad and goes off looking for his daughter who's supposed to take the fall. Not to mention not being there doing the work for the villain while he's out and about. Also, I know this is usually only helpful advice once you've finished the book, but I've found it helpful to go through the plot I already have and think of alternate ways things could happen. Sometimes I've found a breakthrough in plot by exploring different routes that I wouldn't have considered otherwise.
No, they don't have instant communication; there's nobody with that kind of magic in the village and they no longer know where the hell she is so they couldn't contact her with it even if they had it, so her dad has to go hunt her down. The village is pretty far from the city (I was thinking of having her get to the nearest biggish town and stow away on a train for the capital where she thinks she'll have an easier time of it). I wasn't going to have her be specifically framed, just have a rivalry with the victim and no alibi. Could probably do something with it if either she or her dad was framed...
It's definitely interesting to go the "everyone in the village definitely thinks it was her, but they have zero proof, so ... " which also gives her a reason to stay the eff away, because that village ain't gonna be friendly. probably even if she does prove her innocence.
They're especially unfriendly because her family aren't white. I'm trying to tie in why her dad moved the family out to the sticks away from their own community in the urban areas with what the big bad has him doing. Big bad's doings are hideously illegal, and if he was obtaining his supplies from craftsfolk within the city he would likely be found out, hence why he's contacting suppliers around the country. Dad probably doesn't know the details of the child experimentation.
Oooohh. Oh, another question I have: how old is MC? Is she on the older end of "child" and kind of knows what she's doing wrt running away, or is she younger and this is more of a panicked, sudden plan? Also, why was the victim killed? That would probably help in tying the murder in with the plot
It sounds like you are unwilling to have your darling be a bad person. That is going to make for a weak story because you are insisting she is innocent just because she is innocent. Readers will see right through that.
I've got her as thirteen years old, smart and practical but a bit sheltered; most of her knowledge of city life comes from penny dreadfuls. I was thinking she ran into the bad guy's minion doing something or discovered some evidence. Bit shaky on that too. I hardly see how making my heroine commit brutal axe-murder for no reason at all would make it a stronger story.
yeah, I really don't see how having a character who's innocent run off because they're afraid of retaliation from people who hate them as making for a weak story? that's definitely a plotline that's pretty old. not to mention just because she's innocent legally, it's not like ChelG has said that she's innocent morally or in personality. Do you have any ideas as to how you want the story to end? like, she ends up in the same general area as the big bad, but what then?
She ends up in the city, falls in with a gang of street teens (an Artful Dodger expy, a boy with autism who fled an abusive home life, and a lord's daughter who got pregnant too young). During her time on the streets, she runs into two guys who she recognises from the penny dreadfuls, but the stories are greatly exaggerated and they're actually a pair of drunken thieves who earn extra cash selling tall tales about themselves as roguish heroes. A little later they get picked up by the big bad, who's a pretty famous doctor who runs an orphanage and is pioneering the field of mental illness in children and takes special interest in the autistic boy. Things seem great, but kids are disappearing one by one, and I need to work in some other reasons for suspicion - funding issues, maybe, but then how would the kids find out? As it's getting to the climax, Dad arrives in the city and ropes the aforementioned thieves into performing some actual heroics to help him find his kid.
okay ill prolly have to take some real thought into that plot but just on a surface level that sounds fun as hell and i feel like i can relate to the theives
I've also got a scene I have high hopes for where the gang are getting desperate for food (especially since one of them's ready-to-pop pregnant) and MC, who wears a religious headscarf, sells her hair to feed them. Hope I get the right level of discomfort for her in writing that one.
oooooh Okay, so heres my considerations. what was stopping them before from just going to the orphanage and asking for help, if the doctor seems on the outside as being nice? would the big bad have any reason to recognize the MC? would the MC recognize anything that her father made?
