Chapter Three: Avoiding Mary Sue

For writers, "Mary Sue" is a character cliche and a failure to write an original female character.  

The origin of this term comes from a fanfic of Star Trek by Paula Smith that was published in her fanzine Menagerie #2. The main character of the story was named Mary Sue. She was meant to be satire representing similar characters in Star Trek fanfictions. However, this character type can show up anywhere. Traits that characterize this are generally female protagonists who seem normal at first but are ridiculously good at everything they do in the story and tend to have a romance with a canonical adult in the universe.

The term "Mary Sue" has now evolved in meaning. It is now commonly used to describe a poorly developed character that is a "self-insertion" of the author into the story. However, many authors say that the fear of creating a "Mary Sue" is debilitating to writers. The paranoia of creating a "Mary Sue" is one of the sources of a lack of relatable female characters in writing, according to Smith. 

The term is mostly predominate in the world of fanfiction. One of my lost fanfiction works on The Chronicles of Narnia was actually where I first heard the term. My character was too typical, according to the critique. So, ever since then I have had a fear that my characters were underdeveloped and too much like me. 

Now, with writing a full-fledged book I focused on making sure that the main character is relatable but also unique with her own flaws and annoyances. I didn't want her to always succeed, and you see that in the first chapter of the book where she fails her crew miserably. (Can't go into too much detail!) I want this character to be relatable, but I want her to be unique. And thus the eternal struggle. 

Will the everyday reader care? No. Most readers are not even aware of the term "Mary Sue." Oddly enough, most readers enjoy a "Mary Sue" character. It's the critics that will freely use this term to lessen the value of a character. Can "Mary Sues" be boring and overdone? Yes. The important thing is to make sure that your characters are relatable yet complex. Don't rush and create a character that is just you with just a different name.

While I will always insert a bit of myself in the characters, I usually make them what I'm not or what I wish I could be. I often think of struggles that I may never go through and make my characters go through them. It is ok for an author to insert a bit of themselves into their characters. It's the best way of making them relatable to readers. 

So, to my fellow writers of books, short stories, fanfictions, or whatever, never get discouraged when someone says your characters are too "Mary Sue." Learn from it and keep going. Writing is a journey and a constant learning experience. Just remember that not everyone will like what you write, and that's ok. 

And yes, the main character in my book is a huge Star Wars fan with a love for Poe Damron, but that's beside the point. ;D