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My current WIP is a YA thriller. The MC is a 17 year old high school girl.
Four years ago, before the story takes place, she and a friend accidentallly committed murder and got away with it.
In that scene, she and her friend, a 13 year old boy, were "fooling around" in a remote outdoor area. They had their clothes off down to their underwear and were pretty much "heavy groping." A park ranger arrives and catches them and is about to call it in to HQ when the boy kicks the 2-way radio away and knocks the man to the ground. The man's head smacks against a rock and he passes out.
Believing they've killed him, they get dressed and are about to leave when the man comes to. Fearing jail or worse, the boy takes a rock and smashes the man's head. They then bury the body and leave.
Pretty horrible stuff.
How would this affect the MC? The boy is leaving town the next day, so this was supposed to be their last night together, so he doesn't reappear until now when the present story begins. He's got to be pretty screwed up, but MC doesn't know how screwed up that is.
And the story doesn't follow the events that took place following the murder, but the murder did go undetected (body was never discovered). So, we don't get a feel for what she went through in the days/weeks/months following the event. We only see her now, four years later. Since the event, she has put on weight. Also, she doesn't dwell on the murder--in fact, for story reasons, the murder scene won't be revealed until maybe 2/3 of the way into the story.
(I'm also toying with the idea that all this time, she believed her friend did the final killing. In fact, she's repressed the memory that in fact she picked up the rock and dealt the final blow.)
Thoughts?
Four years ago, before the story takes place, she and a friend accidentallly committed murder and got away with it.
In that scene, she and her friend, a 13 year old boy, were "fooling around" in a remote outdoor area. They had their clothes off down to their underwear and were pretty much "heavy groping." A park ranger arrives and catches them and is about to call it in to HQ when the boy kicks the 2-way radio away and knocks the man to the ground. The man's head smacks against a rock and he passes out.
Believing they've killed him, they get dressed and are about to leave when the man comes to. Fearing jail or worse, the boy takes a rock and smashes the man's head. They then bury the body and leave.
Pretty horrible stuff.
How would this affect the MC? The boy is leaving town the next day, so this was supposed to be their last night together, so he doesn't reappear until now when the present story begins. He's got to be pretty screwed up, but MC doesn't know how screwed up that is.
And the story doesn't follow the events that took place following the murder, but the murder did go undetected (body was never discovered). So, we don't get a feel for what she went through in the days/weeks/months following the event. We only see her now, four years later. Since the event, she has put on weight. Also, she doesn't dwell on the murder--in fact, for story reasons, the murder scene won't be revealed until maybe 2/3 of the way into the story.
(I'm also toying with the idea that all this time, she believed her friend did the final killing. In fact, she's repressed the memory that in fact she picked up the rock and dealt the final blow.)
Thoughts?