Victim as a Perpetrator

Zelenka

Zelenka

Going home!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
2,921
Reaction score
488
Age
46
Location
Prague now, Glasgow in November
Hey all,
Just brainstorming my potential NaNo project and wanted to run this by. Are stories where the apparent 'victim' turns out to have actually committed the crime him / herself a bit cliched, do you think? Obviously not so easy to pull off in a case of murder ;) but I mean for instance where it seems as though someone's out to get the victim's company or family for whatever reason and there are all sorts of suspects but it turns out in the end that he set it all up himself, for publicity or to get out of some legal problem or what have you.

Is that sort of thing overdone do you think? I was trying to think of examples, as it seems maybe I've seen it a lot in televised crime fiction.

But really just trying to think through stuff so any advice is welcome :)
 
kaitie

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,732
Reaction score
4,650
Do you mean a situation where, for instance, a woman has had her husband murdered and is supposedly attacked, and you think she was the second "victim" only to find that she was the one who really planned it?

I don't know. I watched that story on Law and Order the other day, and I'm sure they have about fifty thousand similar episodes. However, I think it's more in the execution and the hows and whys than anything else.

The biggest difficulty, IMO, is faking out the reader. I almost always expect it. I see something like that and my first thought is "Oh it's the wife" or whatever. If you could pull it off and legitimately make the reader think it's someone else and it comes as a surprise it would be all kinds of awesome.
 
Zelenka

Zelenka

Going home!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
2,921
Reaction score
488
Age
46
Location
Prague now, Glasgow in November
kaitie said:
Do you mean a situation where, for instance, a woman has had her husband murdered and is supposedly attacked, and you think she was the second "victim" only to find that she was the one who really planned it?

I don't know. I watched that story on Law and Order the other day, and I'm sure they have about fifty thousand similar episodes. However, I think it's more in the execution and the hows and whys than anything else.

The biggest difficulty, IMO, is faking out the reader. I almost always expect it. I see something like that and my first thought is "Oh it's the wife" or whatever. If you could pull it off and legitimately make the reader think it's someone else and it comes as a surprise it would be all kinds of awesome.
Click to expand...

See, this is exactly what I was thinking - would it be the first thing people would expect? I have a 'consultant' type who's basically there for his expert knowledge, and my instincts right now are telling me he's set the whole thing up, murders and all, for his own agenda (and to get rid of a rival by setting him up). But soon as the idea hit, alarms went off.
 
mirandashell

mirandashell

Banned
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
16,197
Reaction score
1,889
Location
England
I think it's so common now that it would be difficult to mislead the reader. I can often spot it a mile away.
 
heyjude

heyjude

Making my own sunshine
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
19,740
Reaction score
6,192
Location
Gulf coast of FL
I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. Give it a twist! Something new, something different.
 
Zelenka

Zelenka

Going home!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
2,921
Reaction score
488
Age
46
Location
Prague now, Glasgow in November
heyjude said:
I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. Give it a twist! Something new, something different.
Click to expand...

See, I don't know if this is a stupid idea, but I was kind of thinking what if it was maybe obvious to people that he might be behind it, but the mystery part is why, what it's actually for, and go for something a bit more twisted than the usual.

And will I hold my hand up and accept the flamethrowers when I say I have actually never seen Dirty Harry besides the usual clips that turn up everywhere? I don't really like Clint Eastwood (now I'll duck).
 
heyjude

heyjude

Making my own sunshine
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
19,740
Reaction score
6,192
Location
Gulf coast of FL
I think that's a fabulous idea.

And I've never seen Dirty Harry either.
 
Jilly McGilly

Jilly McGilly

Crumpled!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2010
Messages
394
Reaction score
111
Location
Northern Virginia
I'm definitely on the side that says it's all in the execution. If you're going to give the story a shot, test it out on Nano. The wonderful thing about Nano is that you'll know pretty quickly if the idea isn't working out. :)
 
Zelenka

Zelenka

Going home!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
2,921
Reaction score
488
Age
46
Location
Prague now, Glasgow in November
Jilly McGilly said:
I'm definitely on the side that says it's all in the execution. If you're going to give the story a shot, test it out on Nano. The wonderful thing about Nano is that you'll know pretty quickly if the idea isn't working out. :)
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought about it that way but yeah, true enough. NaNa has been a good way of testing plot strength for me in the past.
 

leon66a

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
128
Reaction score
16
What if you use the reader's expectation to fool them. Play it out as if the hook is that the MC did it, but actually it was his secretary who knew all his passwords or something. Be coy enough with the plot to make the reader think you're going for the obvious plot twist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.