i've got a big chunk of my novel thought out (it's one i actually abandoned a few years ago, and i'm re-doing now), but one key point is still giving me trouble.
MC discovers a canister of old film (an unreleased movie clip) at an estate sale and accidentally buys it (it's hidden in something else). The guy who sold it wants it back, but discovers his loss long after the sale is over.
in the film, a famous silent movie star dies (like a scene gone completely wrong). the actor is the seller ( ^^ above) guy's grandfather. the actor actually faked his death, and the MC is the only person who has figured that out - she does it by doing research and talking to film history professors ... eventually the word gets out that this footage has been discovered, and the guy who sold it to her tries to get it back in order to protect a huge secret.
so. the fact that the actor faked his death isn't a big enough secret, but it's definitely part of it. in my previous rendition of the story, the actor accidentally killed someone, but that seems pretty tired and cliche, so i don't want to do that.
what secret is so big that someone would do absolutely anything to keep it hidden 70-80 years later?
----------
nijusjaanu.blogspot.com
17,563 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 12 28
Something to do with prohibition in the 1920's - mafia, drug runners, illegal alcohol, etc. That could be a secret to keep.
----------A quote from an anonymous teacher on a student's paper:
"Your paper is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
30,067 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 13 11
Reputation might be a big deal if it was a famous actor. If it turned out he had, I dunno, illegimate children or something...and that itself might be a big deal in the 20s. Maybe he deserted the army and was living under a false name? I actually like that one much better.
Of course, what jumped directly to mind was that he was an alien from outer space, but I get the feeling that's not the kind of thing you're looking for XD
59,328 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 13 28
i have actually thought about the illigitimate children route ... and i've thought about maybe the actor tries to commit suicide, but ends up harming a bunch of other people instead.
----------hmm..
nijusjaanu.blogspot.com
0 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 13 57
So the seller knew the footage existed, but didn't know where it was hidden. And by the time he figures out the hiding place, the hiding place has been sold. Cool.
Maybe the grandfather/actor faked death to avoid prosecution for a crime. And so the living relatives want to preserve the grandfather's "good name." There's no statue of limitations on murder, so if the grandfather/actor is still alive under an assumed name (I guess in a nursing home), there could be the desire to protect them from being prosecuted.
Or, alternately, perhaps as a result the "death," there was a settlement in which the family ended up being enriched with money or corporate ownership, and if the death is revealed to be a sham, then the money or corporate ownership would be revoked (through litigation). That could be reason enough for the members of the family to maintain the secret at all costs.
26,878 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 15 54
Perhaps he needs to cover up an earlier murder all that time ago. No statue of limitations, and so forth.
31,027 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 16 46
Someone mentioned the Mafia-- maybe this actor saw something he shouldn't've, or got into debt to the wrong people, and faked his death to get away from them?
25,501 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 16 50
Incest may be cliched as well, but I think it would fit.
----------http://www.pterodaustrodreams.org
48,707 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 17 20
He's the son of a well known serial killer. His father painted fabrighet (spelled???) eggs and his killing tendancies were all painted in the eggs before the killings were done. As it turns out, he also paints eggs... but of course, he's not a serial killer. He just doesn't want any of the connections between him and his father to be made.
best wishes...
jade
----------35,059 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 18 09
the secret is that, after the grandfather faked his death, he fathered several biracial children, one of whom was the seller's parent (obviously.) the seller doesn't want anyone to know this because he is secretly the head of an insert-race-here-supremacist organization.
----------DBP for making the seller a black supremacist
TBP for making him a member of the nation of aztlan
59,328 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2008 - 07 44
wow... so many ideas! some good ones :D thanks, everyone
----------nijusjaanu.blogspot.com
