Is that character TSTL?
She’s too stupid to live. Have you ever read a book or watched a movie or TV program and thought that? I have. Heaven help me, I hope I never hear that about my characters.
There are horror and mystery flicks where you can’t help but scream at the screen things like, “Don’t go in there! Don’t open that door, stupid! Are you nuts? Don’t separate—stay together. You don’t have a gun, you aren’t combat trained, so why the hell are you sneaking around looking in places you shouldn’t be? How dumb can you get?”
Sound familiar? Okay, you might not do it, but I do that all the time. Not surprising that Dear Hubby gets exasperated with me at times. It’s also no wonder that I don’t go out to the movies often.
If I’m reading a good mystery and the smart, sassy, strong, female character suddenly pulls a TSTL move, I want to throw the book at the wall. Now you know why I have a couple of non-writing readers go over my books. They are the ones who tell me if my character does something in the TSTL range. My critiquing partners will too but sometimes they miss a TSTL moment because they are looking at other glaring mistakes.
Posted on October 12, 2009, in Writer, Writing and tagged Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
Doggonedmysteries 
I’ve done that all my life. As a kid, the books considered appropriate for little girls were full of stupid little girls who never noticed they were being followed, and who always had to be rescued, by anything that was male and handy, such as a nearby hedgehog. When I was about ten I found out there was a publisher of said idiotic books in Chicago. I put on my best clothes, marched down there and gave the very amused editor a piece of my mind. She gave me tea.
As for screaming and yelling that came later with the advent of Captain Kirk who drove me up a wall. My dad loved to get me to watch with him because I reduced him to tears of laughter I’d get so angry at Kirk.
Thank goodness I am not alone! I too yell at the TV when the hero/heroine wanders off into dangerous situations. I don’t have to worry about JW stopping me because he rarely watches TV.:)
The other thing I can never understand is why said hero always rushes upstairs when being chased!
I too am guilty of yelling at the dum chick in the movies. It bugs my boyfriend a little bit but hey I am entitled lol. I also wonder if some of the characters I write about are part of that group. I have not had anything published but I have looked into a couple of contest but I think I keep putting it off for fear of rejection. Since you are a fellow writer would you like to go over the story I most treasure and give me an honest opinion. This is a first because no one has read it but my parents and my cousin. If not that is cool too.
A local writer friend and I e-mail discussed this about a year ago. I even saved the e-mails. Want to read them?
Dave–it depends on how many you are talking about. Would this be something we’d have more fun with at the conference? (Printed out and read while we are having our usual gab fest.)
SM–If you want me to read your work you must have the hide of a rhinocerous because (unlike family and friends) I will not pull punches.
The first time I had a published writer read my stuff I thought she’d opened a vein and bled on the manuscript. I was horrified and close to tears. However, she taught me more in that single critique than I’d ever learned before.
Once I got over the initial shock, I paid attention to everything she’d marked up and the improvement to that book amazed me. (That book got me my agent and was my 24 very nice rejections manuscript.) It will probably never be published. I put it down as an educational experience.
GA–Running upstairs is something I also never understood. Sometiems the TSTL make you want to smack them upside the head.
Elena–I love it!!! She gave you tea! LOL You must’ve been one heck of a pistol as a kid. As for ST I could never understand why anyone would wear a red shirt around Kirk…
I am a very tough person and would rather have the honest opinion than a sugarcoated response that I will never learn from. I want to get better and someday become a published writer because I have such a passion for writing. If I am not that good I want to know then I can give up the thoughts and continue to just write for myself instead. Plus I will not waste my time on the book that I am writing and refocus my attentions else where. So yep bring it on, that is if you want to. Plus what are friends for even blogger friends 😎
Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Send me an E-mail with the work in the body of the letter. It is going to take some time because I’m doing a major re-write of my own so don’t get impatient.
It is a short one only about 5 pages. Take all the time you need what email do I send it to.
Thank you so much for doing this for a budding writer.
It’s not that long. I’ll ship it to you tonight.
The root behind it was I had just read a Linda Fairstein book and wondered why women–especially very intelligent and educated women like her Alex Cooper and Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan–would go to the abandoned warehouse at midnight to meet the killer and not tell a single damn soul they were going.