Is Your Character Brave or TSTL (Too Stupid to Live)?

We’ve all seen it on TV or in a mystery/suspense novel. We may have even done it. You know — cue the dark music with a serial killer on the loose…the heroine hears a noise in the basement, opens the door, and the dark stairwell lures her down the steps… all the while you’re yelling, “Don’t go down the stairs!”

The thing is, authors want to show that their character is brave. I get that. I really do. But that’s not the way to do it, trust me—I know. Before I was published, I entered my first book in a prestigious writing contest that offered feedback. My heroine knew she had a stalker, had even just received a threatening note from him, but she still parked her car and walked a quarter mile in the dark to her mailbox where she was attacked before she made it back to the house. One of the judges wrote in the margin: TSTL—she knew there was a probability her stalker was out there and she stupidly put herself in danger. It was a painful lesson, but it drove home the point.

Granted, there are times when the author needs that heroine to go down those basement steps when everyone is yelling for her to slam the door and run. The thing is, you have to give your character a VERY good reason to go against all that is sane. She could be a police officer responding to a call, but even police officers wait for backup. Most of the time.

It’s all in the way you set it up.

If you want your character do something that seems insane, give him a reason the reader will understand and even urge him to hurry and do—like saving a baby or adult or even a pet. People run into burning buildings all the time to save someone, so just make sure the reason they act against their own best interest is compelling and maybe the only option open.

Here are a few scenarios I’ve seen:

• The heroine gets angry with the hero and runs out of his presences into the dark even though she’s just learned she’s being stalked.
• After being afraid of heights through the whole book, the hero can suddenly climb a fire escape and jump from building to building.
• The heroine goes to a bad part of the city to find her brother even though she knows there’s a gang war going on.
• In a historical, the heroine needs water to finish a meal and in spite of being warned not to go to the creek alone, thinks this one time won’t hurt.

So how to fix it:

In each of the cases, a slight variation could make what the character did reasonable.

• What if instead of getting angry with the hero, he’s hurt, and she has to go for help or he’ll die?
• Instead of having the hero be afraid of heights the whole book, have him slowly overcome his fear so that when he has to climb the fire escape and jump from building to building, he still has to overcome his fear, but because he’s been making headway with it, he bravely tries.
• Instead of the heroine going into the city alone, the hero can accompany her, but they get separated, and she has to face the gang members alone, but at least she didn’t go into it alone.
• Instead of needing water to finish a meal, set the story up so that a medical need requires the water—like a baby being born or someone has been wounded and the water is needed to cleanse the wound—that will make going to the creek understandable and the character a hero.

Readers will suspend disbelief or temporarily allow themselves to believe something is true even though it seems impossible as long as the author lays the foundation for the impossibility. It’s up to the author to set up the action in the story so that when your character does something brave, the reader doesn’t wonder if he’s too stupid to live.

Ok, TKZers, what would make you run into a burning building that’s only smoking so far.