Would she kill him?

[what?]

A nineteen year old boy has stolen a ship. When he stole it, the ship's owner was accidentally killed. Unbeknownst to him, the nineteen year old daughter of a friend of the dead ship owner was sleeping in the cabin when he stole the ship.

When the girl wakes and learns of her accidental abduction, she demands the boy bring her home and return the ship to its owner. The boy tells of the owner's death and refuses to comply, instead sailing farther out to sea.

At first the girl is shocked and angry, but the two have to work together to survive storms, lack of food and other misadventures. With time she forgives him, and they even share some moments of tentative caresses, seeking comfort in each other's arms.

As they finally find their way home, the boy is overcome by fear of the police, and when the girl sleeps, he again turns the ship out to sea. The girl catches him as he is about to throw their navigation instruments over board. Despite the closeness the two teenagers have found during their time together, the thought to be prevented from going home fills the girl with dread and anger.

The situation is such that she is faced with two decisions:

1. She can kill the boy and save the instruments that will lead her home.

1. Or she can spare his life and maybe not return home ever.

What will the average YA protagonist do?

And what kind of real teen girl would chose to kill him? What kind of character would be necessary for that deed? Or would the fear of not returning home suffice?
​

 

[breaking_burgundy]

A nineteen year old boy has stolen a ship. When he stole it, the ship's owner was accidentally killed. Unbeknownst to him, the nineteen year old daughter of a friend of the dead ship owner was sleeping in the cabin when he stole the ship.

When the girl wakes and learns of her accidental abduction, she demands the boy bring her home and return the ship to its owner. The boy tells of the owner's death and refuses to comply, instead sailing farther out to sea.

At first the girl is shocked and angry, but the two have to work together to survive storms, lack of food and other misadventures. With time she forgives him, and they even share some moments of tentative caresses, seeking comfort in each other's arms.

As they finally find their way home, the boy is overcome by fear of the police, and when the girl sleeps, he again turns the ship out to sea. The girl catches him as he is about to throw their navigation instruments over board. Despite the closeness the two teenagers have found during their time together, the thought to be prevented from going home fills the girl with dread and anger.

The situation is such that she is faced with two decisions:

1. She can kill the boy and save the instruments that will lead her home.

1. Or she can spare his life and maybe not return home ever.

What will the average YA protagonist do?

And what kind of real teen girl would chose to kill him? What kind of character would be necessary for that deed? Or would the fear of not returning home suffice?
​

What would the average YA protagonist do? Why the hell would you want to write about the average YA protagonist?

As for what would I'd do? Well, let's just say I don't fancy the idea of spending the rest of my life seasick and dying of scurvy.

 

[Kolta]

I don't think the fear of not returning home would suffice...

Why make it so black and white? Unless the character is completely out of it at this point (and it doesn't seem that way despite her anger), then her mind jumping straight to "kill" doesn't really seem to click.

Maybe you could fit in some kind of confrontation. Have her try to talk him around, have them argue, or have her being able to find an opportunity to make a grab for the instruments, or have him get knocked out by accident during a scuffle after which she can tie him or lock him up so he doesn't get in the way while she tries to figure everything out.

Either killing the boy or facing the large possibility of never going back seems an unnecessary position to put her in, from what's been given here anyway. Give the scene more space for other possible outcomes. Examine her more precise feelings on the matter beyond her anger and fear and how she usually tries to think her way out of a situation. Take a closer look at their relationship and how she would be able to either appeal to him or use her knowledge of whatever she has on him to manipulate him or threaten him or something. The scene outlined here comes across as too constrained.

 

[SpinningWheel]

Surely if you were the girl you wouldn't just be scared of never returning home, you'd be scared of dying.
Being stuck on a boat (how big is it, btw?) with someone loopy enough to throw the navigation instruments overboard would be pretty scary. If he'll do that, what else might he do?

I think a lot of people would screw up the courage to kill the boy in that situation, others wouldn't. It would take self-control and either cunning or physical strength.

 

[what?]

What would the average YA protagonist do? Why the hell would you want to write about the average YA protagonist?

I may not (want to) write about the average YA protagonist, but there is such a thing as reader expectations and genre conventions, and I don't want to create unbelievable characters. You need to know those, before you transgress them.

 

[what?]

Maybe you could ...

Yes, I could, and I'm grateful for your great ideas and may even work some of that into the final story, but at the moment I'm just trying to understand how plausible it is that a person would decide with a relatively cool mind that her freedom is worth the life of her abductor.

And you answered, that it isn't. Thank you!

 

[Mark Moore]

Personally, I'd have her do it, but my female MCs tend to be of the "killing is easiest" mindset and tend to not place any value on the lives of anyone that are even remotely assholic.

 

[Zoombie]

Where they kill or not is up to them...but something that I think authors should remember is that, unless the character is trained (in the military) or desensitized somehow (through practice), killing a living, breathing human being is really hard.

Humans aren't built to hurt each-other, as you can see by how mentally screwed up you get (or have to be) if you are going to kill people.

Which...I guess makes it really impressive we've managed to do it so much.

 

[JulianneQJohnson]

If she has gotten so close to her abductor, it sounds like a bit of Stockholm Syndrome has kicked in. I think it would be very difficult if not impossible for a person suffering from that to suddenly decide to kill their abductor under any circumstances.

 

[MynaOphelia]

Couldn't she subdue him somehow, tie him up or something, and then take the ship under her control and take it back to shore?

There are a lot more options than just to kill or not to kill...

 

[ejgray]

So, wait. Boy has accidentally killed an innocent person in the process of committing a theft and has accidentally abducted MC. Then Boy has an opportunity to free MC and willfully chooses to re-abduct her, and he demonstrates by chucking the navigation instruments that her survival is not going to be a major concern of his? Uh, I can't speak for anyone else, but were I the MC, I would definitely attempt to incapacitate Boy, if nothing else. It wouldn't be my first choice, but if that required deadly force, I wouldn't hesitate to try it. MC may not be thinking clearly about her own survival, at which point the answer would be no, but that's a choice you'd have to make as author. There are definitely some teen girls who would choose their own lives over the alternative here, and I don't think they'd have to be particularly unusual.

 

[Lauren Griffin]

I think if the girl had something clear she wanted to return home to, a family, a lover (opportunity for a love triangle, could also aid his decision to not want to return her home?), a life that she wants to go back to.

I think you've got the opportunity here to come up with a decent twist, she might not kill him, she might knock him out and be forced to turn him over to the authorities. I, personally, would not want to spend the rest of my life at sea, and also as far as the story goes, this could become tiresome pretty quickly. But then again, I think there's room for something more clever than simply killing him.

 

[frimble3]

Yes, I could, and I'm grateful for your great ideas and may even work some of that into the final story, but at the moment I'm just trying to understand how plausible it is that a person would decide with a relatively cool mind that her freedom is worth the life of her abductor.

And you answered, that it isn't. Thank you!

People are probably right, it's not an easy thing to just kill someone. Although your murderer did it. He decided that his desire for a boat trumped the real owner's desire to live. He decided that your MC's life and plans meant less than his own plans. Plenty of people in the news decide every day that someone else's life is worth less than whatever they want.

'Killing' is not the only option, nor is 'a relatively cool mind'. There's shoving him overboard in a fit of rage, then declining to pull him back up onto the boat. That I can easily understand. She comes on deck, sees him seated by the side of the boat, doing something with the navigational instruments, realizes that he's about to make a unilateral decision about her future (again!), becomes enraged and shove him, hard. He goes over the side into the water. Oops. She now has a nice little debate with herself as to whether to haul him back aboard. Maybe by the time she makes up her mind, he's too weak to help himself. So sad, too bad.

I don't care how he dies, as long as he does. He's a murderer, a kidnapper, a thief, who's killed someone she's close to, and decided that her desires means less than his convenience.
(Really. In the time it took to survive storms, run out of food, and have other misadventures, there was absolutely no way they could make landfall somewhere long enough to drop her off? But I guess that would take away his chance for 'tentative caresses'.)
Sure, Stockholm Syndrome, if you like, but please don't give this a love-story ending.

 

[JulianneQJohnson]

Sure, Stockholm Syndrome, if you like, but please don't give this a love-story ending.

100% agree. She's on the ocean with her abductor, who is not caring about her needs and wants. Would she kill him? I don't know if she'd be capable. But I certainly would like to see some sort of bid for freedom or realization on her part that she needs to get out of the situation somehow.

 

[what?]

... killing a living, breathing human being is really hard.

Very important thought. If I have her (attempt to) kill him, I must show how she overcomes this inhibition (or fails to).

And thank you everone for all the extremely helpful comments and ideas. With your help I finally understood how I want to play this out.

Thank you! And all the best with your works!!!

 

[breaking_burgundy]

I may not (want to) write about the average YA protagonist, but there is such a thing as reader expectations and genre conventions, and I don't want to create unbelievable characters. You need to know those, before you transgress them.

You seem to have missed my point. Asking about the "average YA protagonist" is disingenuous at best. There is no average YA protagonist. Every YA protagonist has her own opinions and values. Katniss Everdeen would chuck that bastard off the boat in a heartbeat. Bella Swan probably wouldn't. As for your character? You know her better than we do. You tell us.

 

[thedark]

Just a random sidenote to say that your plotline sounds delightful. Look me up when you've got a SYW post or would like some claws in your work. I'd like to see how you tell the tale.

 

[what?]

Just a random sidenote to say that your plotline sounds delightful. Look me up when you've got a SYW post or would like some claws in your work. I'd like to see how you tell the tale.

That's very nice to hear Thank you!

I write in German, so showing my work here will have to wait until it gets picked up by a US or UK publisher. I don't currently dare to dream so far into the future

Actually the story is SF. I reduced it to one plot throughline and transferred that to a contemporary setting for the sake of discussion.

 

[Brandon M Johnson]

I worry that there might be a false dilemma here. Why can't she not kill him and still one day return home?

Referring to the original question, unless she's shown violent tendencies in the past, her suddenly killing him in cold blood would be a tough pill to swallow. Now maybe if they get into an altercation and it either escalates or an accident occurs, then it might be more believable.

Good luck with it.

 

[what?]

I worry that there might be a false dilemma here. Why can't she not kill him and still one day return home?

Thank you, Brandon. My opening post does not provide the whole story. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is only the skeleton of one plot line, and it was translated to a different setting (so I could avoid lengthy explanations that would distract from my question).

In the real plot, killing the male lead or wounding him fatally is necessary for reasons I don't want to disclose at this moment. If you want, you can imagine that he is possessed by a demon that will only be released upon his death.

My question deals with consistency of characterization, and you are right to point out that it is unbelievable that a kind and gentle-minded person would suddenly decide to kill someone in cold blood. So I have to motivate her deed, either through a consistent character, or through enough pressure in her circumstances. Using the example of demonic possession, it might be considered an act of kindness to end that possession, even if at the price of the possessed's life.