{"id":4118,"date":"2018-10-12T16:10:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/?p=4118"},"modified":"2018-10-12T16:10:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:10:55","slug":"when-a-character-seems-tstl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/when-a-character-seems-tstl\/","title":{"rendered":"When A Character Seems TSTL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>TSTL is a term used in the mystery reading\/writing community for Too Stupid To Live. These are the characters in books and on big or small screens who seem to be smart but then make ridiculous mistakes that totally undermine their credibility. It’s the person who’s fully aware that a serial killer is on the loose who walks into their house and doesn’t turn on any lights. Readers or viewers howl in disbelief, press the pause button, or toss the book across the room.<\/p>\n

I was recently watching an excellent British crime series that features some very strong woman detectives, and was very disappointed with a sudden plot twist.<\/p>\n

The capable, resourceful, dedicated, and fiercely intelligent woman detective got a call and rushed off to meet someone, refusing to take anyone with her.\u00a0 She also didn’t say where she was going or why.\u00a0 The source she was meeting was closely connected to more than one murder and was possibly going to supply crucial information the detective’s whole team had been unable to get.<\/p>\n

So what happens?\u00a0 We see her in conversation at a restaurant but don’t see who it is (though we can guess), and she excuses herself to make a call to her chief to let him know she’s on to “something big.”\u00a0 Okay, informing her superior is believable, and so is wanting some prvacy, but she doesn’t just step outside of the restaurant.<\/p>\n

She crosses the street.<\/p>\n

And walks down a dark alley.<\/p>\n

With her back turned to passersby and traffic.<\/p>\n

So of course she’s attacked before revealing what she knows.\u00a0 The ambulance can’t get there quickly enough.\u00a0 She dies.<\/p>\n

This was infuriating.\u00a0 There was no reason at all for her to behave the way she did, from start to finish, and it contradicted her character arc over four+ seasons.\u00a0 Yes, she was impulsive, but never stupid.<\/p>\n

Another term in the mystery world that applies here is “femjep.”\u00a0 That’s when writers of whatever kind put a woman in ridiculous jeopardy.\u00a0 It serves the plot, but it’s both retrograde and foolish.\u00a0 Here, it was especially infuriating because you felt the writers wanted an unhappy ending to the season, and so they wrenched the character way out of whack.<\/p>\n

Lev Raphael loves crime fiction and is the author of the acclaimed Nick Hoffman mysteries<\/a>.\u00a0 He teaches online creative writing workshops at writewithoutborders.com.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TSTL is a term used in the mystery reading\/writing community for Too Stupid To Live. These are the characters in books and on big or small screens who seem to be smart but then make ridiculous mistakes that totally undermine their credibility. It’s the person who’s fully aware that a serial killer is on the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566],"tags":[219,1572,314,1567,1569,1570,123,1573,583,122,501,1568,1571],"class_list":["post-4118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-femjep-2","tag-crime-fiction","tag-female-detectives","tag-femjep","tag-msyteries","tag-mystery-fiction","tag-mystery-movies","tag-mystery-series","tag-nick-hofffman-mystery-series","tag-nick-hoffman-mysteries","tag-suspense","tag-thrillers","tag-tstl","tag-women-detectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4157,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions\/4157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}