The Dreaded Mary Sue
Funny enough, this phrase was coined in a fan-fiction. And if you don’t know what fan-fiction is, I think you are better off, but it’s just as the name suggests. It’s stories people write off of established books, movies, games, etc. Fanfiction has no bounds, but it’s also very scary, so tread carefully. A lot of fanfiction is just unhinged, to say the least, but there are a few gems. But back to the topic at hand. The Mary Sue is a slippery slope that I feel like has its reaches in far more than we realize.
Mary Sue
The Mary Sue is defined as a flat character that is just for lack of a better word perfect. They achieve what they want with no set back and no growth.
They have close ties to wish fulfillment characters. Because if you’re writing a character that is supposed to be you and is the perfect version of you then how could anything possibly bad happen.
One of the things that makes the character the way they are is lack of internal conflict. We as writers love what we do and we love our character but there comes a point when we have to step back and look at things objectively. Analyze your characters as individuals and if you ended up like that old vine and say “oh I do that.” or “oh yeah, I struggle with that too.” Then well you need to look at your stakes and how your characters grow. If you’re throwing soft balls at…
