I have a problem! Okay, in my script, one scene calls for a thirteen year old female to murder a man who has knocked her older brother unconscience (s/p) and is about to kill him. The man doesn't know that she's there and she's behind him. I was really excited about this scene, until I came upon two very big issues- One) How exactly *does* a thirteen year old girl kill a man who's in his late twenties, is about 6'4 and is almost 140 hevier than her? and Two) Would it be too much of a shock for the audience to have an adolescent become a murdered? I've written this girl to be a very likable character and she gets kidnapped in the end, so I need to make her a character easy to feel sympathy for and I'm afraid that making her a murdered will ruin that. Any ideas? Thanks so much in advance!

This is one case where THE TRUTH could become fiction. There was a NEWS story recently of a very young person, 13 or younger who was at home alone in a big house when a burglar(drug addict)broke in.

The teen was unwittingly caught in a part of the house away from their cell phone and computer. They hid crouched in a closet IN FEAR for their life, even while the burglar ransacked the remainder of the house.

The surprise came when the burglar, hearing a noise. investigated and opened the closet door and got CLOCKED with a golf club or a baseball bat off the skull.

Unconxsious and neutralized, the teen was then able to scramble the authorities to the house before the burglar awakened. As far as I know this REALLY happened. The story was on FOX.COM and entitled: "Home Alone"
IT WOULDN'T TAKE MUCH TO KILL SOMEONE WITH A GOLF CLUB.
HOPE THIS HELPS.
GOOD LUCK!
WRITE ON!

"It's never too late to become what you might have been."
- George Eliot

Or you could just have the kid know where the family gun is, and shoot the dude.

I've heard another true-life story about a young girl who shot two home-invaders. She was a clay shooting champion since she was nine, so it wasn't difficult for her to easily kill them with her father's gun.

Regardless of how she does it, I don't think she will seem like an unsympathetic character - the audience won't think of her as "criminal" or "murderer" if she is defending herself, or someone else, from being murdered.