I need help with a plot point. Here is some basic background: Mr. Y (drug lord) and Mr. X (silent partner) were in business together. Mr. Y is killed and Mr. X wants his money. He kidnaps Mr. Y's girlfriend (who was forced to be a player in the business) and wants her to help him get his money. This is where I am stumped. I don't know what information she could have. Mr. Y wouldn't have given her any access information or anything. Either she overheard or snooped around. I just can't think of what information he would have to get from her.
I don't know. Most likely in some off-shore account under some pseudonym. Mr. Y was very elusive and paranoid.
torture will be involved to get the information from her. But the problem is that she wasn't a willing participant and wasn't told anything. That's where I am stumped.
My friend suggested that she may know something without knowing... like the name, or a location or something else. At this point, Mr. X just wants his money and is going to use any tactic he can to get to it. She is the only link since Y is now dead.
I could be wrong, but I think @BayView was trying to get you to look at the angle of money to solve your problem about the girlfriend. If you're going to write a story like this, you need to figure out all the details, including one as important as where the money is hidden. If you figure out exactly where the money is and how it got there, then what the girl has to tell—or what the kidnapper thinks she has to tell—may become apparent. It'll have to do with the money, or there isn't any point in kidnapping her, is there? Perhaps she doesn't know anything, but Mr X thinks she does? Mr Y may well be elusive and paranoid, but YOU the author need to know what he knows. You don't need to tell the readership, and certainly not at the start, but you need to know it. I think you need to work out this kind of detail more specifically than just 'some offshore account' if you want your story to be believable.
Thank you, I get your point, but the money is such a minor point, it isn't what is driving the story. Maybe that's why I am not putting that much importance into it. It's more that Mr. X is so greedy that he wants his money and will do anything he can get it. It's more of the dynamic between Mr. X and the girlfriend, who is actually one of the main characters.
Well, it's your story, and you need to work out what you need to have happen. I really don't think anybody else can do this for you. If it's the dynamic between the two characters, rather than the money, that motivates the kidnapping, then you'll need to come up with a good reason why the kidnapping is happening. I'm afraid that's part of the writing process. Figuring out what you need to do to make things happen. It's a mistake to rely on brainstorming from other people, because then what you come up with is somebody else's idea. I know it's annoying when you're stumped, but the trick is to step back and let the story cook a while in your own brain. Either write or envision a scene between the two characters. Figure out what they say to each other, what their manner is like, what kind of character emerges from both of them. You've got a basic idea, but you need to put flesh and bones on it. I'd say forget the hows and whys, and just get the girlfriend and Mr X together in a scene in your head, and watch what develops. Hear what they are saying, what they sound like. See what their attitudes are. Is he complacent, and thinks he always gets his way? Is he threatening? Is he attractive? What is her attitude? Does she hate him? Does she even know him? Does she have another boyfriend whom she loves? Or is she a power-hungry minx who will try to manipulate him, because she knows he's got the hots for her? Start working in this vein and I think your story ideas will start to flow—including the excuse for kidnapping her. But right now you seem to be working with puzzle pieces rather than characters. Don't be afraid to take time with this ...and all writing time isn't spent with your fingers on a keyboard. A lot of writing time is spent thinking, daydreaming, etc. While it may look like you're working like mad, forcing an issue by writing and writing and writing and hoping something good will come of all those words can be a discouraging waste of time. You need to take time out to think, and let ideas cook in your subconscious. Work on something else in the meantime. Brainstorming when you get stuck? That's getting other people to do your work for you, and it's not a good habit to develop. Trust me. The biggest rush you'll get when writing a story is when YOU come up with the answer to a problem that's been plaguing you. It's the difference between fixing your printer yourself and calling in the IT people to do it instead. The first gives you confidence that you understand how the printer works, and pride that you figured it out for yourself—and it gets the printer fixed. The second just gets the printer fixed.
I appreciate your input, I guess it's a little difficult to convey what I'm looking for (since I don't know either) but I'm already 24 chapters into this and hit a wall. I know these characters, I know what's happening in the long run. That's why I was saying this is such a minor point to the bigger picture. I'm sure what's I start this chapter I will figure it out. Just sometimes when I'm stuck just a subtle suggestion or something helps trigger the bigger picture for me. I'm sure I'll get out of the corner I wrote myself in.
Yeah, just take your time. It'll happen! I find good long walks through familiar territory can sometimes jog an idea. It's a trick I've used many times when I've been stuck. The danger is that you'll end up talking to yourself, and shouting things like 'YAHOO' when the solution finally comes to you. Take a notebook with you.
I always talk to myself as the characters, that usually helps. I think you're right, I didn't put importance in the money so I don't know what she would be questioned about because I don't know where it is. I usually always get it before I fall asleep, then I never remember when I wake up. Ha!
