How To Write Abduction Scenes
Some tips to help you
An earlier version of this story was published on my website at ianworrallauthor.com
Some crime stories in fiction will have an abduction scene or more than one, the following will give you some tips on how to write one.
First, as always, whose point of view are you going to be writing the scene in, the abductor’s or abductee’s? Let’s start with the point of view of the abductor.
What’s the motivation of the abductor? It could be a jealous ex of the victim who can’t stand that what was once considered theirs is now with someone else. In other words, the “if I can’t have her no one can” mentality.
Another motive could possibly be for financial gain, the criminal wants a ransom. The child or spouse of a rich businessperson or celebrity could be abducted to extort the ransom from them. This is also done sometimes with employees of large companies.
There is also what’s known as a tiger kidnapping. What happens in these instances is the victim is forced into doing something for the criminals such as an employee leaving a filing cabinet unlocked that could enable criminals to gain access to employee payroll files.
For other forms of kidnapping you can use in your stories go here — https://www.osac.gov/Content/Report/ec9e4092-cbf6-4fb7-b301-15f4ae161d01
To get to the actual abduction writing, you will need to determine how the criminal will gain control of the victim. This can be done in a blitz style attack where the victim is physically overwhelmed before they have a chance to respond.
The criminal could also slip a drug into the drink of the victim or subdue them with a weapon, a gun or a knife.
A fourth way is for the criminal use a threat against a person’s family, such as showing a parent a picture of their children and demanding they do what the criminal wants to avoid their children being harmed.
From the victim’s point of view, it’s likely a given they will be terrified and likely angry at being the victim of a crime. This is where the rule of show don’t tell comes in. Think of times when you were scared or angry, what were the feelings like in your body? Oftentimes, in high stress situations our fine and complex motor skills go out the window.
Describe the heart racing when the character wakes up bound and gagged in a strange room. The person will possibly be wondering why they’ve been kidnapped, or depending on the circumstances, they might know exactly why.
At this time, the victim might also renew a relationship with God and start praying, something like, “If you let me out of this, I’ll be a good Christian forever.”
Also keep in mind the level of training that the character who’s been kidnapped has. A civilian teenager will have a different level of training and therefore a different reaction than would a military person who’s been trained to deal with stress.
Hopefully this helps, have a great day.