Don't Go in There!

By Margaret Lucke

Mary pulls into her driveway at midnight, after an evening out having fun with friends. For an instant she thinks she sees a light flickering through the dining room window, but when she blinks and looks again, the room appears dark. A strong wind is tossing the trees in the yard. Common sense tells her the flicker must have been a glint from the streetlight as a gust blows a leafy branch out of the way.

She gets out of the car and goes to the front door. The porch lamp is out. She thought she turned it on before she left, but common sense tells her she must have forgotten.

She starts to put the key in the lock, but then notices that the door is already open, just a crack. That's odd. Mary lives alone, so it's not as if someone else arrived home before her and neglected to make sure the door was latched.

Common sense tells her something is wrong.

After all, a series of burglaries has plagued the neighborhood. Mary's ex has vowed to do her harm. And there's the creepy new employee at her office, who keeps staring at her and followed her home the other day.

Mary opens the door wider but hesitates on the threshold. Maybe there's a shuffling noise, or maybe there's suspicious silence.

At this point, the author of this novel faces a dilemma. Mary is the heroine of the story, and the author wants readers to root for her. Should he let Mary show courage and go into the house to investigate what's happening? Or should Mary keep displaying common sense, get back in her car, take out her phone and call 911?

The author chooses courage and sends Mary into the house. That way, he gets a scene with nail-biting suspense. And it's important to have Mary go inside so a crucial plot point can occur. Surely readers will be on Mary's side, applauding her for her bravery and resourcefulness.

What neither the author nor Mary can hear is the chorus of readers imploring her, "Don't go in there, you nitwit!"

We've all read some version of that story.

True courage is an admirable quality, a great one for the protagonist of a mystery or thriller to have. The problem is that the line between courage and foolhardiness is slippery and blurry, and it's easy for a character to cross over it without the author's noticing. Every writer of crime fiction has been there -- trying to set up an exciting challenge that our hero or heroine must confront, and to sell our readers the idea that she's responding in a believable way that makes sense for the character and for the story.

If it's best for Mary to go back to her car or over the next-door neighbors' house and call the police, that's fine. Common sense in a fictional character is not to be disdained. As a popular social media meme puts it, "Common sense is so rare it should be considered a superpower." And who doesn't love a hero with a superpower?

Comments

[Michael A. Black]

It sounds like Mary's got more than her share of dangerous situations. I wouldn't want to be in her shoes without a strong dose of common sense.

[Margie Bunting]

I couldn't agree more! I'm one of those yelling at characters who are TSTE (too stupid to exist).

[Ellen Kirschman]

Provocative post. In my first two mysteries, some readers complained that my protagonist, Dr. Dot Meyerhoff, opted for courage over commonsense. Others thought she was brave, spunky and loved that she put herself in danger to help her clients. After considering the feedback I decided to leave the physically risky stuff to other characters and let Dot help them deal with the consequences. The feedback (from respected sources) is that this works way better, You'll have to wait until 2017 to see for yourself.

[Margaret Lucke]

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I've read plenty of stories, and maybe written one or two, where the protagonist abandoned common sense at least briefly. Yet we'll have nothing dull mysteries if our characters always keep away from trouble.

[Ann]

This is such an excellent point --> "...the line between courage and foolhardiness is slippery and blurry, and it's easy for a character to cross over it without the author's noticing."
Critique groups and beta-readers are often helpful in alerting authors as to when the line has been crossed. As you noted, Peggy, we all want to build suspense, but we don't want readers thinking our characters are "too stupid to live" (unless the character is the victim and is indeed "too stupid to live!).