So, I have this idea: a guy wakes up to find himself the victim of a kidnapping. That's the premise. Pretty basic. And I thought it'd be fun to keep the book with the hostage, except I want the hostage to be the one manipulating the kidnappers into ultimately doing certain things that would help him in escaping. In other words, the kidnappers should want something from the MC that would require the MC's cooperation, as well as the cooperation of the MC's family/friends who are trying to get him home. Preferably this should not be a simple thing - it should be something that should require kidnappers, MC's family/friends, and the MC himself to do multiple different things at different stages of the book. And I'm at a loss as to what that could be... What could the kidnappers want from the MC and his family that would require their cooperation, that also isn't something simple like, "Give me access to your bank account"? And obviously something that requires the kidnappers to keep my MC alive for a certain amount of time.
Maybe your MC works at a company producing some sort of very valuable experimental tech, prescription drug, research, whatever. The hostage takers could be hired by some rival company to steal it, and need the MC alive to bypass the company's biometric security and/or pinpoint the target's precise location. No clue how to tie the family in. Maybe the kidnappers nab him at home in the days before some sort of family event (like a reunion) and the family has to keep up appearances and make excuses for the MC until the job is done.
I can't give a definitive answer but I'll give you some questions to get the brainstorming started. What are the most valuable aspects of life that society collectively desires? (The desire of the Antagonists) Often times hostages are kept alive because of: Information they have, relationships with someone the villain needs to take advantage of, relationships to a business or a vehicle of sorts for acquiring money or assets If the family is involved it could pertain to the information or access to MC's business that would tie them into the plot What about an action? Antagonists need the MC to perform something because they can't do it themselves What if the Antagonist/s or one of the antagonists were somehow related to or in a position to care about the MC and their family? What if the Antagonists were easily manipulated because they didn't thoroughly plan the kidnapping? Think of it the other way around. What leverage could the MC have over the antagonists? Hope this helps...
Experimental or secret technology developments are always a good idea, and fun too! Or perhaps it could be something to do with how the MC thinks. Excuse my random idea spit-balling here; Perhaps those that have kidnapped him are the ones involved in the experimental technology but the MC is a particularly intelligent person. They need him to solve their problems because perhaps their engineers or whatever have been some degree of 'compromised'. He has an array of materials and personal belongings he needs in order to solve the myriad of problems. Since they are probably not always completely up-to-speed with what he is doing to solve their problems, he can get them to bring him things to help him escape without them questioning or even really noticing it. The MC could also (probably) be pretty blatant about it and it could be a little inside joke between the MC and the readers for a bit. A sort of 'oh you cheeky bastard' type thing. If it's an abstract thing they are after, like his intelligence, it puts the kidnappers in a tricky tightrope situation. They don't have all the power for a significant proportion of the time. It would also make it enjoyable for the reader because you can tell them all about the work that the kidnappers have going because the MC would be having to explain it in layman's terms all the time. Maybe they don't realise he is the kind to think outside the box and leave their version of an intern with him! But I always enjoy having smart and cautious antagonists. It might be interesting to have the MC be the one to underestimate the opponent. If the readers are in the same frame of mind as he is then they might also underestimate the kidnappers. A disaster in the plot could be him losing everything he accumulated? He could even ask for a music system for whatever reason and play music to purposefully irritate them all the time. There could be a secret relationship between two of the kidnappers that he realises they know shouldn't happen and just play silly love songs (e.g. Little Mix, Taylor Swift...) whenever they're together, making them all skittish and annoyed at him. Maybe that's a way to build his escape team up and make the good vs bad lines a little blurry at times? I don't know what you think about this rambly idea, it's probably a bit dumb or cliche, but I enjoyed imagining it!
@X Equestris - love the idea of the family keeping on appearances - didn't think of that. Might be an interesting way of weaving things together. Maybe one family member doesn't particularly want the MC to be found... or maybe it was organised by one of them. @Siberian - thank you for those questions. Will have to sit down and have a good long think... @rinnika - your idea sounds hilarious. Probably not what I'd write but the love songs idea made me smile. Thank you! As part of the idea, I was thinking the MC manipulates one of the kidnappers into falling for him, and then using her to escape. I was thinking that's probably how he got nabbed to begin with - one too many drinks and the "hot girl" he's with is one of the kidnappers, only she actually ends up falling for him in the end. I like these blurred characters and relationships I also like this idea that maybe MC owns a business and the kidnappers require his cooperation in order to do something... but then wouldn't it make more sense to kidnap someone else? Or maybe am I making this too complicated?
It's not much - but I like it when the hostage thinks they're getting away, almost finds safety, and then gets taken again. If any of you watch 'the Walking dead' you'll know who I am referring to Or they could dream that they've escaped - wake up - and find that they're still in captivity.
What if MC is in some sort of contest, and the kidnappers nabbed him to reduce the competition? If he's not there, he can't compete.... Or, similarly, what if he was about to do some big thing...maybe unveil a new project, finish a scientific equation, invent some new tech...and he was kidnapped to prevent that from happening?
Both of those seem to run into the issue of "why leave the MC alive?" though you might be able to get away with the first one if it were too petty a thing to kill over.
Last night I saw an interesting movie called Buried with Ryan Reynolds as the star release 2010. If you have not seen that movie, I think it would help you set the mood. The why of any story is as simple or complicated as you want to make it. Often, I think I know why my characters are doing something and I discover I only had part of the story. I really like this idea. It has a wide range of possibilities depending on how you want the work to feel. I also like the tech idea where the kidnappers don't understand the tech so have to rely on MC. The MC is the only one (they can get to) who understands the tech. He convinces them the only person who can get to the tech is MC's assistant. He can manipulate the kidnappers to trust him and the assistant to work together. He can continue adding people as you wish. This reminds me of Little House on the Prairie Episode 807: The Legend of Black Jake. Nels Oleson is kidnapped by a pair of bumbling criminals who demand a $100 ransom. However, Harriet refuses to pay the ransom, leaving Nels to plot his own revenge.
kidnapped infers that they have removed him from the original location. Instead, the MC is in their comfort zone and so can avoid the intruders. The MC can control their access to the outside. MC manipulates the situation, could be interesting to have them knocked off, one by one. Perhaps leaving the last one to "get away" or thinks they got away.
I quite like the idea that at some point it would be revealed that the MC has been kidnapped on his/her own orders unbeknown to the kidnappers. He/she sets up the kidnap to get the kidnappers into a certain situation where he/she can take his/her revenge for some prior kidnapping that was carried out, perhaps it went wrong and someone close to the MC was killed or hurt, so the story turns on it's head and the kidnappers become the kidnapped. This way you can do two things: 1. the MC gets to set out the rules, which means that instead of having to think up reasons to keep him/her alive, they have to because the client (the MC) has set it all up that way so it's self fulfilling. 2. you get to introduce a considerable twist that could really be saved until the very last act, perhaps even finding out that you might have been rooting for the baddie all along. I've been working on a short story about a kidnap that follows the MC entirely from within the trunk of a car, it started off as a challenge to myself that it could be made interesting and turned into me finding it hard to keep it short because there was so much to explore.
You are starting from the wrong thing. Start from the motivation of every main character. Action comes after motivation because of motivation. Results and situations come after action because of action. Every character should have some kind of inner world. It is the base of motivation. Every character has two kinds of personal motivations: 1. Motivations which rise from inner truth, self, the deep essence. This is deep shit. "What I really am when masks & disguises drop." This is the narrative equivalent of soul. 2. Motivations which rise from social "truth", identities, the shallow mask. This is superficial decoration. "How I want others to see me, what are my roles and presentations?" This is the immature wanna-be part of us. There is almost always big conflict between 1 and 2. Theme is usually connected to this conflict. Usually the nature of conflict is that immature part of us does not want to grow up. So immature identity-connected motivation is shallow and childish ("I want, I want, I want...") and the self connected motivation is deep, authentic and honest. If you start building your characters from this inner conflict, you get all else easily.
