This week: The Trouble With Mary Sue Edited by: NaNoKit  
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It is natural to identify with one of your characters. The danger rests in the detail...
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about Mary Sues and Gary Stus.
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I read quite an enjoyable story recently (or, at over 200,000 words it was more of a novel, really). It had some interesting ideas. A pleasant pace. Well-flowing dialogue. A good cast of supporting characters. Trouble was, the more I got into the story, the more irritated I became with the main character. That’s not something you want as a reader, and it’s certainly not what you hope for as an author!
If I remember correctly, the main character is 15 years old when the story begins, and 17 years old when it ends. She discovers that she was kidnapped as a baby and sold off to the people she believed to be her parents. Her real parents are wealthy, but not very good people, and her brother is the guy who’s been bullying her for years. This issue is resolved by her telling off her birth parents and brother over a cup of tea, from which point onward they’re happily bonding.
She does a lot of telling off adults, putting them in their place, and is excellent at outsmarting them in general. She gets away with this because, as the reader is reminded almost constantly through other characters, she is very intelligent, probably the most intelligent girl of her generation. It doesn’t matter that she is only a teenager, she knows better than the experts and even calls a panel of judges to heel at one point. Our girl can do no wrong. Ever. She is the perfect heroine.
Now, I am not one to be mean about someone else’s work. That’s why I refuse to ‘name and shame’. There was, as I said above, a lot to enjoy about the piece. If there hadn’t been, I would have stopped reading it. It would have been excellent had the main character not been, as some would call it, such a Mary Sue.
A Mary Sue is a usually young-ish, usually female character who can do no wrong. If she has any weaknesses at all, they are endearing ones, like being somewhat shy and clumsy. Their stories read as though the author has inserted an idealised version of themselves into the adventure, fulfilling all of their fantasies in the process. The male version of a Mary Sue character is called Gary Stu.
I daydream. A lot. In those daydreams I tend to be an idealised version of myself – smarter, slimmer, far more beautiful, way more skilled in all sorts of cool stuff – and I go on wonderful adventures. It’s always been this way, ever since I was a child. So, I get wanting to live vicariously through your characters, but you’ve got to be careful. You don’t want to end up with a character that feels irritating and unrealistic to others. Not if you’re planning on sharing your story. If you are its main audience then hey, go for it!
Some Mary Sues actually end up published. Some even become bestsellers. Twilight’s Bella Swan is an excellent example of a Mary Sue yet, somehow, the author has managed to make her relatable to such a wide audience that many a reader fell in love with Edward and/or Jacob through her. I often found myself disagreeing with her, and thought Edward to be a creepy stalker, but there is no doubt that Stephenie Meyer has created some popular characters.
As with so many things in the world of writing, and life in general, there is a balance to be found here. It is certainly not uncommon to place something of your personality and your hopes and dreams into a character. If you find yourself doing this, there is no need to be concerned. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it. Just make certain that because of this bond between you and the character you don’t allow them to become a near-saint, always right, always great at everything, because people aren’t like that! Every person is a mixture of good and bad, right and wrong, with their own skills and talents and flaws and mistakes. It is that complexity of character that makes people interesting.
That’s the sad thing about Mary Sues and Gary Stus. In not being permitted to be flawed, they become boring, and a boring main character is not going to establish them, or you, in the hearts and minds of readers…
NaNoKit
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Action/Adventure: June 02, 2021 Issue [#10800]
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