So here is a quick rundown for a story idea. when this first popped into my head I thought it might make a good short story but now I am seeing possibilities for a full-length novel. Now, this is very first draft rambling here but I wanted to get it down and see what others thought. I can go a few ways with this so nothing is written in stone yet. A couple is sitting quietly together one evening. they are bored with life and each other and they sit there until, in a desperate attempt to end the silent, the wife/girlfriend blurts out a random confession of hers from when she was ten. (let us say stole a candy bar) this prompts the guy to do the same and soon they make a game out of it. but soon even that grows old so the game evolves. now during the day, they go their separate ways going about their respective day finding new things they can do to confess to each other too. (small time crimes to something like random graffiti.) this thrusts their relationship to a whole new level of excitement and adventure until one night when one of them (wife I am thinking) confesses to something that scares the husband/boyfriend. the question is, what is he going to do about it knowing what she is capable of. did she record his confessions?
What did she do? I think that determines what he'd do. I think if she murdered someone he'd do something different than if she committed arson. (I'm not sure if it eventually escalated to crimes of that sort, but I think those things would scare the husband/boyfriend)
I'm not sure yet what she would do but I have something in mind that is full of malice. I like the idea of a person committing these acts for the sole reason to have something to confess. I think I need a reason that he would not be able to turn her in. Maybe there is something in his past as well...
I guess it would be psychologically interesting seeing them one up eachother. She robs a bank He commits rape She kills someone He bombs a building She kidnaps and tortures people to death They eventually both kill themselves But thats probably not the direction you want
Honestly, I'm very intrigued. It always depends on how grevious the crimes are, of course. Murder and theft (to take two examples) are very different, and there are loads of things in between. I think your first step is to decide what the crimes are, how far you want to take it. I immediately think of both as having some kind of mental problems, and the reader can see them emerge as the story continues and their crimes get more serious. They keep getting worse and worse until they end up going completely crazy and killing each other. Though I'm not sure if that's where you want to take it
I could imagine a gripping psychological thriller if she accidentally killed someone. Something naughty, but not terribly sinister would making be stealing someone's car for a joy ride. The owner catches her in the act, confronts her and in a panic she hits the accelerator and hits him. She hits the brakes, his head hits the pavement and cracks. She flees from the scene, while he bleeds out.
I'm with him. I can see suspense building if, in the course of an intentional but less malicious act, she accidentally does something horrible. You can use this to wrestle with a balance between guilt/thrill, and the steady deterioration of their relationship and her mental stability. People do crazy things for love. But I also think you have to consider their individual motivations. Most sane minds aren't going to go off the tracks just from boredom. She likely needs to have some instability in her background or there needs to be some sort of trigger that sets her off - could be the accident she flees from comes first and she starts off her confession about stealing a pack of gum when she was ten, which starts their "game" and it escalates from there with him struggling to keep up and her doing wilder and crazier things out of repressed guilt. Just a thought. Incidentally, I stole a pack of gum when I was nine and spent the next four years of my life convinced I was going to hell for committing such a horrific sin, until Father John talked to a group of us at an after school event and said that God understands remorse. Whew! Close call! But the memory of that guilt did a lot to keep me on the right path for many many years after that. Guilt can be a powerful motivator.
I also really like this suggestion. I was trying to think of a way to make the story and the characters a little more complex than just they're both screwed up (although that's a plot that works well for a lot of stories/authors, they're just not my personal favorite), and this is a great way to pull that off. I can totally see it as a scenario where they're both bored not only with life, but with each other, but they're just too comfortable with that boredom to really do anything to stave it off. Then this game starts, and it's not only about entertaining themselves, but also some weird couple's exercise, where it's like they're bonding because while they're committing these acts, they're keeping the other in mind. Kind of like how I appreciate when my boyfriend brings home a candy bar, because I know that means he was thinking about me while he picked something up at the grocery store. When this accident happens, it allows the story to go a couple of different ways. She can begin to resent him because in her mind, to validate what she's done, he's the one who's encouraged this game - how didn't he see how things could get out of control? And he's put off by the accident and her reaction, but he can't turn her in because what if she's right? Or it could be something that brings them closer together, in a twisted sense. It could evolve into them trying to manipulate the other, or team up and try to manipulate others in their world.
