Well, I have a dilemma. One of my characters has to die about halfway through my novel, but I have no idea how she's going to die. My original plan was for her to be murdered, but I've redently decided to make my villain a bit less evil. I still want the villain to kill the character, but I want it to be an accident.
So, does anyone have any ideas how someone could be accidentally murdered?
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NaNo '06- Winner!
NaNo '07- 8230 words. Gave up before the first week. Epic Fail!
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27,482 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 02 50
Well, that depends on your novel... is it modern-day, medieval, futuristic, 70's...? There's always the possibility of a weapon or a spell misfiring.If your villain is one of the psycho "I can't control myself" types, have him go on a rampage and accidentally kill her.
I'm not very full of ideas at seven in the morning. x.x
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Oct 10, 2008 - 02 56
One thing that bugs me is when a bad guy knocks out, or drugs or gasses the goodies into unconciousness and then leaves them to their own devices until they wake up with no apparent ill effects beyond a bit of a headache. I'd love you a lot if your bad guy did that and came back to find they'd died from a reaction to the drug, or choked on their tongue or aspirated, or had a blood clot on the brain (the tap on the head as an "off switch" is especially galling to me.) Something the baddie caused, but never intended to end up with them dead.
16,330 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 03 47
Hit and run?
----------Food allergy?
Accidental bump off a tall balcony?
The classic knife gag: "Ooops... handle first, handle first..."
Villain drops a penny from top of tall building?
Any kind of industrial/factory accident?
Horse trampling?
Outsourcing: villain asks for scaring or beating, but hired thugs go too too far?
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12,647 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 03 56
Hey (someone tell Dragonchilde!) what we need here is a new "Adopt a Death" topic in the Adoptable stuff thread.
----------The most common accidental murder (i.e. manslaughter) is a traffic accident. If your bad guy is stalking your doomed character, then he could be racing up an alley in his car to catch her up and she steps right in front of him.........?
Don't panic. It's all in your head.
30,032 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 06 44
Sorry, I havn't looked in this thread for a couple of days, but thanks for the suggestions everyone! ^_^
If it helps, my novel is set in modern day (2003 actually, but that doesn't matter...) and there isn't any magic or anything involved. I kind of need the death to occur inside the MC's house, so I can't really use traffic accidents... Or could I? It might work... You've got me thinking about that now.
----------NaNo '06- Winner!
NaNo '07- 8230 words. Gave up before the first week. Epic Fail!
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Oct 12, 2008 - 11 59
I'll give you a true life example.
Rick was a nice guy but could be a bit of a bully when he was drunk. he got an eviction notice from his landlord in the small, near-slum apartment complex he lived in, he marched around the parking lot, drunk out of his mind and yelling a lot. A neighbor, who we'll call Li, came out and told Rick that it was a good thing he was going, no one wanted him around (it should be mentioned here that all of the nighbors partied with Rick at big block party style barbecues in the neighborhood and Rick's wife often babysat their kids. This was a predominatly Oriental neighborhood, and that worked against Rick later.)
Li got up in Rick's face. Rick told him to back down three times before he decided he'd had enough. While he might yell a lot and say mean things while he was drunk, he was really not violent. so he puts a hand on li's chest and gave him a shove. That's where things went wrong.
Rick was 6'1" and Li was about 5'5". Li had also been drinking, so, instead of catching himself as he fell like he would have if he had been sober, his reaction time was non-existent and he fell straight back and hit his head on the concrete, cracking his skull and sinking almost immediately into a coma. Rick got taken to jail and Li to the hospital.
Two days later, the family, at their dr's suggestion, pulled the plug. Li died and Rick was charged with second degree murder. But wait, there's more...
Turns out that the particular state this all happened in had passes a hate crime law ten years earlier and had not had the opportunity to whip it out yet. Here was this big white guy and this little oriental guy. What better time to test out thier new..er..old law than now. At this point, even the police that had arrested Rick were crying foul and were willing to testify on his behalf. The entire neighborhood took a "village' mentality and those who had agreed to testify for Rick were now following the words of the 'elder' and testifying against him. Rick's lawyer turned out to be someone who supported the Hate Crime law and didn't even want to defend him but had no choice since she was his court appointed attorney. Somehow she just never had time to work on his defense. In the end, Rick got 15-30 in the violent offenders section of the state pen (which was hard on Rick since, when he wasn't drinking, he was a very shy, quiet individual). There are willful murders who have walked out of the courtroom with less time than that.
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Characters Killed: 1
Family Members killed for inturruptin WiP: 5
Co-Workers Killed for asking "How hard can it be?": 8
Caffiene consumed: 17 cups, 4 cans, 2 shots.
NANO 2008--The Ghosts of RIver's Bend
37,000 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 12 20
there have been SEVERAL instances in the local news in the past week where someone smashed a car into some else's house... and if the people in the house had been in the room at the time they would have been killed. so i guess you can die from a 'traffic' accident in your own home.
----------:-o
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NANO 2008 - a gang of pathetic losers including an angsty and overly feminine gothboy vampire, a sniveling demon prince, an ugly elf and the obnoxious Mari'Su go on a pointless and non-sensical quest through a completely illogical
29,620 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 16 23
Since your novel is taking place in modern times, your character could be riding a bicycle at night and get killed by a driver not paying attention to the road or driving too fast.
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