Suggestions needed - why is he on the run?

[Gurney]

Hi everyone.

I've got a character who's on the run, with a new identity. I've been musing on why he's on the run, but it's all obvious stuff, like:

he's a mafioso informant
he's a major witness to a serious crime
he's in the CIA/NSA or they're after him
he's a terroristNone of these will be much of a surprise to the reader. Can anyone think of an alternative for his secret identity, other than that he's a super hero or an abused spouse?

Any suggestions gratefully received!

[blacbird]

Ann Coulter has fallen in love with him.

caw.

[zarch]

Maybe he's got no real reason to be on the run. Maybe he's paranoid. It's all in his head.

[MidnightMuse]

There's some beauty in what Zarch just suggested - have there BE no reason. If you can pull that off, and keep them guessing till the end :)

[JanDarby]

Have you figured out the end of the book yet? If you know why he STOPS running, it might give you some ideas about why he started. Or if the character has a sidekick or confidante or at least a secondary character who's on his side, presumably someone who is NOT running, but is very tied to a given location, and you know why he/she has ties, then you can come up with parallel or mirroring reasons for the protagonist to be footloose. Or perhaps the very reason that one character is tied to a location is the sort of thing that would, in the other character's personality, cause him to avoid ties.

Another option: give yourself fifteen minutes to write down all the possibilities you can think of, regardless of how silly they seem. You've got the first handful already. Make yourself keep going, at least to a dozen, maybe 15 or 20. Don't stop and think, just write them as fast as you can. Then take a break, go away and forget about it for a bit. When you come back to the list, the first few will be cliche, and a few will be totally insane, but somewhere in there, you'll find something interesting that can work, although it might need some tweaking.

You might want to do this exercise long-hand, not on a computer. There's some theory out there that writing with pen & paper calls on different, potentially more creative, parts of the brain.

JD

[PeeDee]

There's some beauty in what Zarch just suggested - have there BE no reason. If you can pull that off, and keep them guessing till the end :)

The fun of this would be, every time the matter comes up throughout the book, have him allude to a different reason for being on the run. One time, he's escaped the witness protection program, another time, he's a criminal, another time, he's on the run from the mob. Never really point out from any other point of view that he keeps contradicting himself, just keep stating different views as if they're all true. It's a very subtle way of making the reader realize your guy's a little cracked... :)

[silentpoet]

I had a good idea. He could be a doctor on the run.

Maybe he is running because he just snapped. Fugue state.

[jbal]

How relevant to the story is his reason for being on the run? If totally irrelevant my instinct would be not to say, or to indicate that he doesn't know. My favorite so far is that he's just paranoid/mentally imbalanced, but it depends on what the story needs from this character as to whether it can be used. Other ideas, that he has committed some major crime, has been brainwashed, is an extraterrestrial etc could quickly become cheesy if not handled right.
BTW and off the subject, the past posts on this board have been enormously helpful to me in writing my first novel (now complete) and have for better or worse made me a much more critical reader, so thanks everybody!

[PeeDee]

The best use of the paranoid/on the run situation was the movie Conspiracy Theory where we laugh at him thinking everyone's out to get him...except that everyone is out to get him.

...of course, now the problem becomes, that's already been done.

[MidnightMuse]

My favorite keep-em-guessing-till-the-end movie was Memento.

I would KILL to have been the writer who came up with that one.

[PeeDee]

My favorite keep-em-guessing-till-the-end movie was Memento.

I would KILL to have been the writer who came up with that one.

God, Momento was brilliant. I adore that film.

[MidnightMuse]

Gurney - is this a story you've though through beginning to end, and you just need a better reason for the running - or is this just a vague story idea you have, and you need the anchor to start ?

[jbal]

You know, I was thinking of Memento myself when I posted. But the whole point of Memento is that you do find out this guy's history and it becomes the end of the movie. If that's the case with this story then you need the end before even starting to write in my humble opinion. If it doesn't matter to his actions through the book...but how could it not? Is this a principal character?

[RGame]

Now I want to read a story about a guy running from nothing. It's a lot better than finding out there actually are people chasing the character, like in Conspiracy Theory. Someone must have written this story already, unless it was just invented in this thread. Sounds like it could be really funny.

[Raiyah]

He' sick of his life. It's always been planned for him, even his wife is someone picked for him. In fact, its that time in the future where you can choose the type of kids you have, and now he wants out. He wants to return the way things were, and is bailing out.

[PattiTheWicked]

Maybe he doesn't know why he's on the run, just that he IS. Jason Bourne knew if he stopped running he'd get killed, but he didn't figure out WHY until quite a way into the book.

Then again, maybe it's a game show, like Stephen King's Running Man.

[ViatMortege]

Completely kill superhero/domestic violence; those are so common [not to mention redundant] they want to make me puke.

Doctor running from malpractice suit? Sounds........ frumpy.
Tsk. tsk. I'd trade anything for that sort of writer's block.

Running from a bad life sounds good, but it you do, go for a she instead of a he on the main character front.
Or you could try this;
Man's not running; he's chasing an old flame [collage, highschool, if you like]
Either that, or he can be in big trouble for stealing things from an employer; new computer tech; secret vaccine, something like that.

But hey, don't listen to me; find yourself a white space and think about it. It'll come to you, trust me, they always do.

[HConn]

Gurney, you're a writer. Don't ask other people to do your work for you.

[Jamesaritchie]

Maybe he doens't know why he's on the run. He's just knows he can't allow himself to be caught. . .but who's trying to catch him? He doesn't know this, either.

[C.bronco]

Perhaps he's running from aliens. Just add a copper tubing hat, and there you go!

or

He's a slightly unhinged astronomer who believes he knows when the next big meteor storms will hit, and wants to avoid death via large falling objects.

[LeeFlower]

Innkeeper already mentioned creditors, so my other ideas:

-He is, or used to be, really famous for something, and he's trying to distance himself from that act. Maybe he was credited with preventing an assasination or terrorist attack or something, but he knows it was actually just luck/an accident, so he's sick of being called a hero. Or he's a sports or movie star, or a famous doctor who everyone's always asking to perform some proceedure that he's the best in the world at, and he doesn't want to do it anymore (if you use this last one though, don't tell the WB. And be sure not to call him Andy Brown).

-He is, or used to be, really infamous for something. Like he was a photographer trying to get a picture of a beloved public figure, and said figure was killed trying to escape him. Or his negligence caused a school to burn down. Maybe he was an accountant at an enron-type company, and he either blew the whistle or knew there was something going on and didn't.

[Robert Toy]

He could be a bogus literary agent, who ripped off so many writers and now there is no place that he can hide.;)

[MadScientistMatt]

Another possibility - he claims he's wanted for a murder he didn't commit. The twist is that he did.

[Evaine]

I saw a quite odd programme a few years ago about people who just up and left comfortable, and seemingly perfect, lives.
The lady I particularly remember had a lovely bungalow and no money worries, and one day she just walked out of the house and kept walking. She never touched the money in her bank account. She never called any family or friends. When she was finally tracked down, she was working as a washer up in a hotel and living in a cheap bedsit - and said she'd never been happier. She'd felt trapped by her comfortable life.

[davids]

He is an informant who has had a gay relationship with the Godfather!

What can I tell you my Mafia is an up to date socio-political orginization.

[stephblake24]

Perhaps he is gay (Sopranos), has an illegitimate child he wants to find, running from the IRS, running from the FBI, looking for ex-lover, paranoid, cancer and wants a new life.

[NeuroFizz]

Hi, Gurney
Maybe you're looking at this the wrong way around. Maybe he is not running from something. Maybe he is running to something, or looking for something, or someone. Maybe there isn't anything wrong with his life, except for something he desires enough to pull up his roots and take on a great quest.

[davids]

Ditto Stephblake24 and Mr. Fizz

I really think NeuroFizz of all the above has hit the nail on the head-looking as in a quest-what an original idea-bravo!

[katiemac]

Another thing to consider: if you have the answer to why he's running, but it's not as razzle-dazzle as you'd like, then maybe the why shouldn't be the crutch of your story.

If you're trying to pull a guess-until-the-end thriller with an aesthetic "why" as the climax, then the plot might be doomed from the start.

[Branwyn]

Another possibility - he claims he's wanted for a murder he didn't commit. The twist is that he did.

Or he is the supposed victim and can't be seen alive.;) Because....He could be a bogus literary agent, who ripped off so many writers and now there is no place that he can hide.;)

[AnnMB]

He is married to six different women, and they all found out. I'd run if I were him.

Or even better: He used to be a woman, but had a sex change. The man s/he was married to found out, and is coming to find her (him). The twist is, although, s/he thinks the man is coming to kill him, when the man catches up, he actually falls in love again, and they wind up have a stunning gay relationship.

Hmmm. On second thought, forget I mentioned it. Maybe I'll use that one myself.

[LeeFlower]

...I think we're going to need a few more details if we're going to be anything resembling helpful. Why does he need to be on the run for the story to work?

[triceretops]

He's running from a cult (take your pick or make up an orginal one)

He's running from the amourous affections of a woman, but she's really out to kill him, only he's too vain to know it.

He's running from a mysterious man in black, thinking that somebody is trying to bump him off. Alas, the real truth is that the man in black is a P.I. trying to inform him that he has just inherited a fortune, or that he is a grand prize winner.

Tri

[aruna]

He's running from The Shadow, a mysterious figure (we never find out if it's a he or a she or an it) who wears a black cape and a mask and a bright red spandex suit and is stalking him wherever he goes. MC tries all kinds of tricks to escape The Shadow, but no matter what he does, The Shadow can be seen, ducking around a corner when he looks behind him, peeping out of a doorway, getting up from an uneaten meal to flit silently behind him, never speaking, never actually doing anything, just watching and stalking, and never close up, always about ten yards behind him. The denouement can be that The SHadow is actually the mother he killed in a fit of rage when he was fourteen and came home to find her in bed with the postman, a crime which he succesfully was able to blame on his father, who was executed for murder; the twist can be that The Shadow is actually the father's ghost.

Howzat?

[SC Harrison]

he's a major witness to a serious crime
While this has been done before, the beauty of this premise is, this can happen to anyone. The only prerequisite for this to happen to any of us is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. An ordinary person placed in extraordinary circumstances should make it easier for a wide range of readers to identify with, and become invested in, the character and his plight.