I'm writing a horror/mystery story and I need some help on some plot holes I found but can't fix. In the story goes into an old house that is abandoned. Any ideas on why would the house be still standing and not demolished. And I have a ghost of an 8-year-old girl, I want her to kill someone but how do I explain that. She is only 8 so how do I make it believable. Someone suggested to me that her mind could have developed during the time she was in the house as a ghost but I think her being 8 will shock the readers. And also, how would a ghost be able to kill someone? She doesn't have a corporeal form so how would I explain that. And the first person she kills is out of revenge but I also want her to kill the MC's love interest. Why would an 8-year-old girl randomly kill someone? I was going to say because she is tied to the house and she thinks that killing someone in the house would set her free. But I don't know how to explain that...
Well, I'm not sure how cliched it would be, but looking from the perspective of an 8-tear-old left alone in a house, she probably just wants some company. Is the character looking for revenge a detestable person? Is it possible the child could latch onto them for affection/attention? The death could be an accident, or you could go a bit twisted and deeper, with the deceased child believing that killing the person is in itself a show of love. That is of course, dependent on how the child died. As for killing regarding ghosts, you have quite an expansive thresh hold with the human soul and how a Spectre may interact with it. Good luck.
Abandoned property is often left untouched depending on the condition of it. If the owner is too attached to it, for any one of many reasons, then they may leave it standing. I also do not think there is tax owed on officially abandoned property, so it may very well no cost anything. Until the property is sold to someone who wants to use it, then it will remain untouched. Where I live there's actually a lot of property that is abandoned and untouched despite it being a hazard. No warnings are put up and they aren't even boarded up, just left collapsing and nothing done...forever it seems like. A large reason is because the area is so poor in some cases that the county doesn't even want to waste funds tearing it down. There may even be a tax break that the owner gets by leaving it up, a loophole that the impoverished have discovered so they get some kick back from the state, but I'm not sure on that, not an accountant. If it's a mansion for example, and an old one, then it might also be a protected site and can't be demolished unless there's a very clear reason to. As for the ghost killing someone, this can be done in a mental manipulation sort of way. She can make the person so depressed or something that they want to kill themselves. Make them feel bad enough and make them feel guilty for doing something awful (even if it really wasn't their doing), then tell them to do "X" to make them feel better, and now she's officially killed someone. She can even plant thoughts in their mind that aren't there. Also, with ghosts, you can take the approach that they have grown angry enough and powerful enough to manipulate the physical world and turn corporeal long enough to make something fall on the victim, throw something at them like a knife, or any manner of things. Might even be able to grab them and do things with them. I typically don't like horror movies and stuff, but I think there was some concepts in movies like "Drag Me To Hell" that you may want to explore. Studying the genre would help you a lot I think. Revenge can be for any number of reasons. It's a ghost, and you have to remember that she wouldn't be thinking like a sane human being. Could be that every woman she sees she thinks it's her sister or someone she hated. And/or every guy she sees is someone that did something awful to her, if you want to go really dark with it especially there can be the rapist angle. Also, she might think some of these people are the ones that killed her, and at this point she just wants to rack up a body count. Might not even remember that she's killed a bunch of people, each one is like the first to her. Ghosts can have a separate set of rules entirely, they don't have to have great memories...just the memories of what happened to them before they died.
Ok, that makes sense. The person she kills is because she is mad at them. It was her cousin her parents adopted when she was really young because his parents died. They lived together for her entire life. Something happens and she dies. I was thinking it could either be that he killed her but it was an accident. Or he didn't actually kill her but he blames himself. So for example, she trips and falls into a pond and drowns. Obviously, it was bad luck that killed her but maybe he blames himself because he brought her to the pond in the first place. So he feels guilt and she finds out who her killer is. She gets mad but I think the root problem of her anger could be the fact that he left her all alone in the house. I think she would latch onto to him because they were lifelong friends. And I like the idea of her thinking she is showing love by killing him.
Thanks for the ideas. I like the idea of her going on a killing spree. Maybe she kills the person because she is lonely but when she does his ghost doesn't stay, let's say it went into the light or "moved on". So she is still alone. And then she goes on a killing spree to find new "friends"
Meh, I'm not too sure about the "lonely" aspect, to me it doesn't seem like a strong enough motivation, but that's purely my opinion. One thing to keep in mind is that she may not even know she's dead, could be oblivious to it. If she does know she's dead, then I'm going to bet 100 to 1 that revenge is a much stronger emotion for her. I'd be pretty ticked off if I was her. haha
I agree that revenge would be a surprising and darker emotion. Since she is only 8 loneliness or needing a friend is more believable. But like you said she is a ghost so her mind is probably messed up and not of a usual 8-year-old. Thanks for the help btw
The house could still be standing because it’s on private property and the property owners insist that they keep it. Why do they want to keep it? This could be connected to your story in some way. A loved one could have died in there in some strange way, or they feel that demolishing it would release some great evil. Also, abandoned houses do exist. Abandoned, messed up houses exist! As for the problem of the eight-year-old, she could have been born on the psychopathy scale and have no emotional reaction to another person’s pain. Many psychopaths don’t kill, however. Or she could have Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and have issues creating meaningful relationships with others. She could also have been abused by someone who looks like a person who did the abusing. They are many, many disorders that cause kids to do terrible things. Even typically developing children murder people. Feel free to research the Slenderman stabbing. Another way you could go is that the child died from a demonic possession and now the demon owns the child’s sould and forces the child to do terrible things. How would a ghost kill someone? Sometimes ghosts can become material for a time and cause scratches on their victims. They can also get into the minds of people and make them think thoughts about harming themselves or others. Or the ghost could set traps. Ghosts can make people sick by their negative energy. It might be worth researching demonic possessions or vengeful spirits. Good luck!
Maybe the girls leads them into dangerous areas of the house, like rotten floors etc, so they die by 'accidents'. She is possibly doing this because she thinks she can possess their bodies, so she can live again. Become the adult she has always wanted to be.
Thanks for the suggestions! I wanted her to be a typical girl but being a ghost altered her mind somehow. I want her to still be like an 8 year old. She could have the demon possession but I want her to kill someone out of revenge, a demon would only want another host body. So I want her to have full control and to be willing to harm people. I don't want to give her a mental disorder because of the stereotype that is always used in movies that people with mental disorders are dangerous. I basically have the idea but I don't know how to portray it in my story. I also tried to research stories of ghost children being vengeful but I can't find any.
Aptly said, mental illness is not dangerous, but is often portrayed so. It's a sickness, one that the sufferer does not want, and if aware of it, tries to keep it under control. I'm surprised you couldn't find stories with child ghosts killing people in revenge. It seems like it would be fairly common, but again, I don't much like horror movies and stuff, so I wouldn't know. I think on some level you might just have to blaze a trail here, make it believable, but don't worry about being too realistic. It is a ghost story after all, realistic went out the window...unless...there really are ghosts of course...mwahahaha!
Yeah, I think I would have to make up something and hope the readers believe me, or make it really vague haha. I am also thinking about the demonic possession. I don't want it to control her but maybe it can cause her to have the dark thoughts that a typical 8-year-old wouldn't have. I don't know how to explain it but I'll just make something up. I need to do some research on demonic possessions, I just hope my mom doesn't see my search history.
As it is true that mental illness isn't always dangerous and is often stigmatized, however, I work in a mental hospital where the patients are court-ordered to be there. I’ve seen the aftermath of their assaults, and I’ve read their charts. Some have done some terrible things. Mental illness unchecked could become a problem. Not everyone experiences that, but believe me, I’ve seen it first hand. It gets portrayed as dangerous, because the serious cases make it to the media. Someone taking their meds and managing just fine won’t make the headlines, nor does it make for an interesting story.
I just thought of this as I was shutting off my computer since you aren’t interested in the child having a mental illness, then perhaps we must remember that children can be jerks too! The kid could just not like the person, or the person could do something that makes the child angry! Emotional development in an eight-year-old is typically pretty basic!
Does she realize she is killing? I know you said the first killing is out of revenge, so, what she does on purpose. But, does she fully understand death and life? Reality and fantasy? I know children at that age has a hard time with what is real and what isn't. Taking that kind of limited reasoning, and then confronting it with 'hey, you're dead but yet walking around in the real world' could really produce issues. Then, what happen to her? It you want to make an 8 year old a killer then you are comfortable with going with some of the very real abuse with that is inflicted upon children in real life. Some of the stories I've read, seen and heard about I can see producing an child killer in the context of your story.
Abandoned housed in horror and mystery are such a staple I don't think anyone is going to question it. It would still be standing because whoever built the house knew how to construct a stable abode. She picks up a knife and kills someone. You can make that believable by having her know about the person she is trying to kill before she initiates the action. Are you still writing a horror story? Telepathy, if your stories interpretation of a ghost is that literal. Keep in mind, ghost aren't real. You can make up new rules for these ghosts if you want. Why would someone randomly kill an eight-year-old? Maybe this eight-year-old is frustrated with her newfound death and would like for others to experience the same cold and hollow feeling she does by forcing them to join her in the limbo between the living and the dead. These are not plot-holes, by the way. A plot-hole would be if a character was trapped inside the house, but is later seen outside of the house with no explanation as to how the character got there. This is a plot-hole because it shows a lack of continuity. What you have listed are breaks from reality which do not under any circumstances conflate with reality. Fiction is allowed to be unrealistic, solong as it still possesses internal consistency. Just write whatever you think best conveys what happens in your story.
Well, I would say she doesn't fully understand death. Based on what she went through when she dies it can mean lonelinessc to her. Because when she dies it seems like everyone left her when in fact she left them. And she can get the idea of killing someone from her parents saying "don't do this it is dangerous", "it can kill you" for certain things like touhing a knife or sharp things. Maybe one of these things is the thing that kills her.
I had automatically went to the 'abusive home' story line. You bringing up the possibility of a 'tragic accident' shows that the first or obvious idea is not always the right one. Here we have is a child experiences this tragedy, maybe one that strikes the whole family, and is now trapped in that tragedy. Only, instead of it happening to her, she is causing it to happen to others. The unfairness of tragic events could be the real villain here. I use to watch a lot of old European horror movies. A lot of those movies would leave out linear plot and even narrative and focus on imagery that is almost dream like. Not only could the imagery be disturbing and horrific, but, the sense of something that is happen beyond our understanding is a fear inducing element. People like to understand what is happening and why. They like to believe they have control. They want to believe that bad things happens only to bad people (i.e. it won't happen to them). You story seems perfect to play on these elements. Godspeed!
In a lot of world building done for horror stories, most people are not aware that supernatural forces are real. So, people tend to try and rationalize something they do understand by trying to make it into something they do. Now, if while they are doing that this 'something' is killing their friends and trying to kill them, they are having to work through the concept that something unreal is real while also confronting something horrible and unjustified is happening to their friends and themselves. Now, battlefield PTSD, in this case, can be similar to some interpretations of what ghosts are. A soldier goes through an event that so traumatizes him that a part of him is always at that event. Subjected to the right triggers, and suddenly he is reliving that event in his head. The memory is so real that his physical senses believe they are seeing, tasting and feeling what the mind are telling them. The place they are at becomes that battlefield, the people around them become those combatants, friend and foe, from that event. I hope that clarifies what I was saying and helps. Godspeed!
