I recently came up with an idea for another piece of the puzzle behind the backstory of one of my characters, a native Brit teenage girl, who ran away from home to America and has been there for several years by the time of the story's beginning. Now this premise, while it seems to scream potential to me, also seems to be firing off countless "this isn't plausible" alarm bells. Basically, when my character was in middle school, she had a friend she met online through a freak chance encounter, and who wound up becoming one of her closest friends as time went by. However, due to being unable to set aside her overzealous personal beliefs, she wound up alienating this friend and eventually pushing her away until she eventually lost all contact with her by the time she entered high school. After a traumatic incident causes her to have an epiphany about these beliefs she's grown up with all her life (and in the process become alienated from all of her family and friends), she soon realizes that the online friend she pushed away was the closest and most real friend she ever really had, and decides she can't live with herself if she doesn't try to find this friend and make amends with her. And so, one day, when seeing off her brother at the airport, she happens to witness a careless airport employee shamelessly flaunting protocol and granting her a once-in-a-million opportunity to stowaway on an airplane to America, she decides there's nothing left for her at home and, with only the tiniest sliver of personal information to go on (a single picture of a landscape her friend sent her and the tiny bit of context of where she took it), becomes a runaway trying to gather more clues on a heartfelt -- but impulsive, naive and dangerous -- mission to fix the biggest mistake of her life. Now the biggest potential pitfall of this idea that screams out at me is that it might actually literally be impossible. As in, I'm not even sure if in this modern age it's still possible, even if blocked and only knowing them from one instant messaging service, to be completely incapable of getting a message to them online. Are my instincts accurate? Is there any way I could have her be in America for similar reasons with a little tweaking of the circumstances?
Okay, so correct me if I'm mistaken, but this friend blocked the MC on the instant messaging service? If I'm correct, could the girl make another account somehow and reconnect with her? Or if the girl shared her name with the MC, could she search for her on social media? Even if she didn't share her real name, and the MC just knows her username, you could make the friend have the same username on another account somewhere, which could be google-able. All in all, I think it would be possible to do.
That was my thought as well: People often use the same username across multiple accounts so she could easily find her.
Maybe even a go-between, someone they mutually knew that might let slip what other message service and name to use.
Damn it! I knew there was something obvious I was missing. I feel like a total idiot now. Edit: Okay, so, thinking about it more, perhaps her friend may have abandoned the messenger over the year since she was blocked, and used a different username? That is if this concept is still worth it. I may need to go back to the drawing board for good reasons to put a character like this as a runaway in America.
No need! You were just too close to it to see it clearly. Happens to all of us. It's part of the process.
Some people just add number or symbols to a username. I've seen a lot of people that use year of birth in their username. My point is about getting her to America. In your info you she was at the airport seeing off her brother. Think about her age - e.g. if she has no drivers license how did she get to the airport in the first place? Or is she still at school?From what you put I'm guessing that she realized she wants to get in touch with the friend a year or so after the relationship goes sour. It can take a while to realize these things. There are the other practicalities of immigration/paperwork or if she's in the hold it gets exceedingly cold in there, could she survive an eight hour flight in the hold? Also with security the way it is now as a non passenger you never get passed the security checkpoint. No passport or ticket means no fly. Don't want to be negative on the idea but these things will probably need to be answered/explained. The reader will expect it as well. Otherwise if you don't go down the stowaway route what about her being an exchange student, working in America or on a family holiday in America. Something that would give her a reason to be in America in the first place. How long is she travelling in America? It's a vast country that takes days to drive across. Research Greyhound buses or train journey times - they are long. Do some map journey planners to look at timings and what's on they way. Does the car break down partway? Where do they sleep? There may be people on here who can help when you know where the friend lives and where the mc starts from. For me I would want enough fact to be realistic, artistic license is good but if you tell me we have the internet and Facebook but I can walk unnoticed to the departure gate and be a stowaway or get easy access to baggage handling etc areas I don't believe you and would be unlikely to want to carry on reading. If these were pen friends in 1990 then I might believe airports and airport security were different then. Think about her age in terms of ability, knowledge, money, understanding, voice. A 14 year old is different to a 45 year old in terms of fitness and finance. My point, in a very long winded way, however she gets to America has to be thought out. It's a solid idea just get your facts right. Planning this story May help sorts some of the issues out.
I like the general idea of it, but I think the others are right in that you would have to put a bit more thought into how she actually gets to America. I don't think I'd find it believable the way you've described it. I don't know what kind of security cruise liners have but maybe that would be another route worth looking into? I do think you can get around the messenger thing by her desire for a fresh start and the wish to apologise coinciding - she knows she could just write to her but actually going there would fulfill both her need to apologise and her wanderlust / self discovery. The other thing is to make sure if she's grown up in the UK you show the differences between the UK and USA! We don't have middle and high school here, we have primary school (up to 11) and secondary school (11-16) then sixth form, college or apprenticeships (16-18, though some cater for older). And some sixth forms are attached to secondary schools, others to colleges. There did used to be some middle schools for ages 9-11 but they've been phased out. Feel free to ask if you have any questions!
