How to Avoid Writing a Mary Sue Fiction Character
No More Too Perfect, Save the World, Unbelievable Characters
Beginning fiction writers often have trouble creating believable characters. Some seem to create fiction as an extension, or escape, from their own boring life.
A Mary Sue character is injected into a story so that the writer may live vicariously through them. They are usually perfect, beautiful, and directly responsible for the story's happy ending. Mary Sue characters get the most handsome male character, are friends with all the rest, and never messes up.
Top Tips to Avoid Writing a Mary Sue Character
Fiction characters are supposed to represent real people within the world you create. Readers need to be able to identify with your characters, sympathize with them, and really get to know them.
If your character is a Mary Sue, readers might simply come to resent them. No one likes a perfect person who can do no wrong.
The best way to avoid writing a Mary Sue character is to keep yourself out of it. See your fiction characters as real people and not puppets in your made-up world.
What Can You Do If Your Character is a Mary Sue?
The first step in fixing your Mary Sue character is admitting that you have one. If the character in your fiction writing is intended to be you, it might be hard to change her. However, it is essential for quality fiction.
Give your Mary Sue character a flaw. This flaw can be physical, but even a woman with a wart on her nose will get annoying if she still gets the hot guy, saves the world, and gets a great deal on the cutest pink skirt.
Personality flaws will push your Mary Sue character into the realm of believability. Everyone has personality flaws, and your characters should too.
How to Justify Keeping Your Mary Sue Fiction Character
If your sole intention in creating a Mary Sue fiction character is to give your own ego a boost, leave her alone. After all, this is what Mary Sue characters are created for.
Writing fiction in which a representation of you does no wrong can be very uplifting. However, you should consider that writing strong fiction with believable characters will probably help your ego more in the long run.
Mary Sue characters are not human. They do not exist in the real world. If your fiction is going to be believable, it should be populated with realistic, sympathetic characters. You should avoid writing a Mary Sue fiction character if you want a quality piece of fiction writing.
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- Beginning fiction writers often have trouble creating believable characters.
- A Mary Sue character is injected into a story so that the writer may live vicariously through them.
2 Comments
Post a CommentThe term "Mary Sue" is taken from a character created by Paula Smith in 1974 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale," published in her fanzine Menagerie #2. The character in question was Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet - only fifteen and a half years old"). Smith's story poked fun at what she considered to be the unrealistic and adolescent wish-fantasy characters appearing in Star Trek fan fiction of the period. Such characters were, in general, original (non-canon) and female adolescents who had romantic liaisons with established canon adult characters. They also possessed unrealistic, unlikely, and often exotic skills and traits above and beyond those that would have been expected of any character in that particular series or of a conventional author surrogate. Later, the "Mary Sue" concept was expanded to include any author surrogate or overly idealized character who plays a major role in a plot, in original fiction as well as fan fiction.
This is the general term for an overly perfect character. Whoever picked it probably meant to pick a name that was common, hence the term 'Mary Sue.'