Writing with Brad

How Not To Mary Sue

Posted on 22. Sep, 2009 by brad in Writing | Twitter: @ |

For those of you who don’t know a Mary Sue character is any character who can do it all and saves the day every time.  It doesn’t matter if you’re writing fanfic or serious original  novels the worst mistake you can make is let any single character Mary Sue their way along in your story.  If you need an example of a Mary Sue, think Wesley Crusher.

Creating Mary Sues or even a Mary Stu isn’t always a purposeful thing, they sort of creep up on you.  They find their way into your story (and as often as not taking off their clothes for no apparent reason) as a means  of limiting the number of characters you use.  When something needs done it is often easiest to give the job to a primary character.

A problem however exists when you get to the end of the story and your character can disarm a bomb blindfolded; cook a meal that puts any five star restaurant chef to shame; is an expert in vintage audio equipment and will debate you all day long whether you should listen to Dark Side of The Moon from Thiel or McIntosh Speakers if you are using a Marantz monoblock amplifier; can midwife a nanny goat while lecturing on Stargate Worm Hole physics; fix the warp core reactor just in time to save the ship and the episode; come home from a fabulous dinner party with all the notables of Barsoom and complete her dissertation concerning the misunderstanding of Ancient Sith Sexual habits; last but not least Mary Sue will rock her man’s existence and afterward finish herself off so he can watch.  Her amazing abilities will also never cause jealousy or for other characters to make nasty spiteful comments about her. Her stunning beauty makes you fall head over heels for her without regard to age, species, or sexual orientation (yours or hers).

If you have never written a Mary Sue, then you haven’t written enough to call yourself a writer.  The coralary to that statement is if you won’t take steps to eliminate Mary Sues from your work you have no right to call yourself an author.  While it isn’t easy to fix Mary Sue once your work is completed there are steps you can take to minimize their creation.

• Never give a character the ability to do something without a reason behind it.   It isn’t good enough that you know the reason, it needs to make its way into the story.
• If your character gets an ability, they should get a corresponding disadvantage.  Super powers shouldn’t be available without a super burden.
• If they are pretty/handsome someone will hate them.
• The smarter they are the more people will hate them and the more likely an equally smart antagonist will try and sabotage their life.  Never assume they will be fair about it either.  Your enemy won’t necessarily play games with you by twisting your heartstrings, they’ll fuck with your head by turning your spouse and prize winning miniature dog gay.
• Always give your characters a chance to fail.  We know they won’t but the reader needs to believe they can fail, and fail in a big way.

Please feel free to ad your own suggestions.

Tags: author, Barsoom, Character, Entertainment/Culture, Fan fiction, Mary Sue, Mary Sues, star restaurant chef, vintage audio equipment, Wesley Crusher, writer