That’s what I need help with this week fellow bloggers, faithful followers and curious guests.
You see, I’m stuck. I’m roughing out the outline for my next manuscript and I have most of the requisite parts. What I can’t figure out is: how to kill someone who’s already dead. Um, sort of. Someone thinks she killed him but then the body disappeared, but then reappeared. It’s confusing. Keep reading.
My protagonist (Q) gets into a physical altercation with a man (X) who she believes had something to do with her sister’s (T) disappearance. Q thinks this because X is seen wearing T’s very unique (one-of-a-kind) amulet around his neck. During the altercation, Q hits X in the head with a rock then crawls back to her car (she’s hurt too) and calls her then boyfriend (G) for help disposing the body.
When G gets to the scene of the altercation, there is no body. He follows a pair of footprints (presumably X’s) into the desert but the gusting wind eventually erases all tracks. G assures his lady love (Q) that she did not kill X because he walked away. Presumably.
Fast forward several years; the very dead body of X is discovered in a shallow grave in the middle of the desert in almost exactly the same place Q had the altercation with him. No amulet is found on the body. Q calls G to help investigate what might have happened (no, it’s not alien abductions and no they are not still a couple. That’s right a necessary reunion after a very bad break-up).
G’s investigation leads to the discovery of a human trafficking ring (the most likely explanation for T’s disappearance).
Super short synopsis of what is learned during G’s investigation:
X was found wandering on the side of the road by an unsuspecting teen-aged boy (Z) (coincidentally T’s boyfriend at the time she disappeared). Z also noticed the amulet. When Z realized that X was bleeding all over his car and most likely going to die (from a head injury), he drove X out into the desert and dumped him out of his car. (He didn’t want to get stuck with a dead body even if he didn’t kill him.) Coincidentally, where Z dumped X is almost exactly the same place Q thought she killed him. Z kept the amulet that’s why it was not on the body and that’s how G eventually comes to suspect him; G sees Z wearing the amulet.
Here’s the problem: What is the cause of death?
Q hit him on the head with a rock. Z pushed him out of a moving car. Scavengers, weather and time destroyed most of the remaining human evidence.
X can’t have died from the head injury, because Q is the protagonist of the story and cannot go to jail for murder. She has to think she is going to jail for the duration of the story.
Z is a very minor character and really only here as a red herring. The shove out of the moving car did not kill him. He is the number 2 suspect though, behind Q.
What else could have killed X? Coyotes? Vultures? It has to be definitive and eventually ruled as the cause of death over the head injury. The head injury turns out, was not a lethal blow. But something was definitive – what?
So there you go. That’s what I need help with. Put on your thinking caps and give me your thoughts. What ultimately killed X?
What do you do fellow writers when you get stuck? Have you ever killed off a character? It’s hard to get inside the mind of a murderer and virtually impossible to do any research.
Word of the Day: Yegg
Fun fact about me: I’ve never killed anyone. Well, real anyone anyway.
Original post by Jansen Schmidt, February 2016. Photos courtesy Google Images.
Ooh, sounds like a good story! How death by a shallow sink hole? A spider bite? A scorpion sting? Or maybe a wasp nest (in the ground) was near where he tumbled from the car and they swarmed him? Soooo many options. 🙂
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Yeah, I think I’m going to go with something from the natural world – maybe coyotes but that’s kind of gross. I like the idea of scorpions or spiders because the venom wouldn’t become obvious until after an autopsy. That would keep the suspense going and pointed fingers at Q for a long time.
Thanks for the ideas. Have a great week.
Patricia
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Ooh, lotsa intrigue! I recently watched a ton of Game of Thrones episodes, so keep thinking of poison in the amulet. The kind that kills via contact. But that probably doesn’t work in this day and age. Could he have been hit by another car while out on the side of the road?
And yegg is such a fun word for a burglar!
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A poisoned amulet would be cool, but the amulet changes hands quite a few times and ends up with the missing sister’s boyfriend (my red herring) so it couldn’t have killed X. And, the sister used to wear it all the time so that might be kind of dangerous to her as well. But I LOVE that idea.
Thanks for the ideas and keep track of that yegg.
Patricia
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A yegg could have killed him, if he saw too much… 😀
This is a bad dude. Surely he’s ticked off at least a few other people, one of whom could have been following him for some time, ready to finish off the job and seeing a great opportunity…
Of course, that involves expanding your already-complex cast of characters. See why I have trouble writing anything short?
Stuff like this drives me nuts in my writing. One thing I do is list everything I can think of it could possibly be, no matter how stupid or crazy. That means include “aliens.” List at least 20 things. Drop the first few, because that will be the obvious, low-hanging fruit. Then pick the coolest/most surprising/most fun that fits your story. Good luck!
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A list – I’m on it. (I like lists.) It’s weird because I have everything else figured out, but that one loose end. He has to die in order to trigger the next series of events, and I want all fingers to point to Q, but she can’t be a murderer. So . . . where does that leave me?
With a list. (20 random things, including alien abduction.)
Thanks for your help. Have a great week.
Patricia
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I LIKE it! And I like Jennette’s idea. Hmmm. Did he have a phone on him? Did he call the wrong person for help? Did he call the yegg?
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Ah ha – calling the wrong person for help!! I like that idea. He probably didn’t call the yegg, but one never knows. It is fiction after all.
Hmmmm – what to do, what to do?
Thanks for the suggestion, Debra. And thanks for stopping by.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
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I’m not too swift at writing or solving mysteries. I like Jennette’s and Debra’s ideas. I was going to say a snake bite, but adding a twist is always what we aim for. Good luck!
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