Writing kidnappings
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1. Purpose
Common purposes of kidnapping are :
• They require that person to achieve something
• The person has important information
• For ransom, to get something from another character
• For bait, to lure another character
Also, raise the stakes. This may seem trivial, but trust me, it helps. The readers won't care about the kidnapping if the stakes aren't high enough. Maybe the mcs will get lots of money or crucial information if they manage to kidnap someone. Or alternately, maybe something bad will happen if the mcs don't rescue the victim from their kidnappers on time.
2. How it took place
Did the kidnappers have a messy plan - needing to break into a place, fight, and physically drag the victim out of there, which will make the kidnapping known to practically everyone, or did they have an elaborate plan where they drug the victim and smuggle them out through the sewers, so that nobody knew about the kidnapping until a few days have passed? How the kidnappers organize their kidnapping plan will say a lot about their personality and efficiency.
3. How the kidnappers treat the victim
Another important aspect that will also help in the characterizations of the kidnappers is to decide how they will treat the victim. Antagonists will probably torture them - and might even finish it by killing them even after they give in. Protagonists might be more awkward, giving their prisoner food, and checking them once in a while.
But yk what? Screw bad guy and good guy norms. Why not spice it up? Make your antagonists terribble kidnappers, unconsciously striking small talk with the prisoners (yes, like Ming Hua and Ghazan to Mako and Bolin from tlok), while your protagonists ruthless and not hesitating to torture them.
4. How the victim acts
Think about how the prisoner will react to being kidnapped. Will they cower in fear, or make snarky comments and not care about the situation? And during the interrogation, if there's any, will they immediately give in to save themselves or remain strong and keep their mouth shut? Will they try to escape at all, or simply accept their fate?
Or even better, they'll outsmart their kidnappers by pretending to strike a deal with them, only to betray that deal later (my personal favorite oml).
5. Reaction of friends and families
There are three possibilities on how friends and families will react to the victims being kidnapped :
1. They'll become distraught, willing to do anything to get the victim back, even if it means they'll play dirty. If you choose this option, there are more options to write about :
• They'll work together and become an even better team to rescue the victim.
• They'll let their emotions take over and start blaming one another, causing fights and the team to fall apart, which will make a rescue mission difficult.
• They'll strike a deal with another group of villains and work together to save the victim.
2. They won't even notice that the victim is missing, making the whole thing even sadder. A perfect example of this is the kidnapping of Klaus in TUA - none of his siblings noticed when he went missing, not even after he literally time traveled back and forth. Not to mention that when they heard that their brother had been kidnapped, their first thought was Five, not Klaus.
3. Even worse, they might know that the victim had been kidnapped, but they won't do anything about it - either because they don't care enough, or they prioritized their current missions over rescuing the victim. This one never fails to make me cry :"
Of course, you don't have to stick to one of these - you can always create a mixture of all three. Maybe most people won't notice the victim's disappearance, and those who did won't bother to do anything, but their closest friend was willing to do anything to rescue them.
