So You Want To/Avoid Writing a Mary Sue: Difference between revisions
So You Want To/Avoid Writing a Mary Sue (view source)
Revision as of 04:01, 15 February 2016
, 8 years agoit's "kill your darlings", and it's about cutting out scenes or plot elements that you are overly attached to, not whether to let bad things happen to your character
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(it's "kill your darlings", and it's about cutting out scenes or plot elements that you are overly attached to, not whether to let bad things happen to your character) |
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* Do not always let your character's perceptions and judgments correlate with reality. You as a writer will know what's going to happen, but your character does not. Letting her always 'sense' something's true nature, always guess correctly, or somehow know things she shouldn't, means that you're practically allowing your character to break the fourth wall and have a peek at the script. A character is meant to be a person in her own world, not a player-character armed with a cheat-sheet.
** One exception is when you're writing a highly cynical character suspect a secretly evil character - they will expect the worst of everybody, but remember that cynicism is a character flaw and their suspicions turning out right is just a coincidence.
* Do not give your character special treatment. She should suffer the trials and tribulations of life just like everyone else in the story. Giving her [[Plot Armor]] or using an [[Ass Pull]] to shield your character only demonstrates you're just playing favorites. If you honestly can't bear the idea of bad things happening to your character (or have them happen realistically), then you need to learn to not be so emotionally involved
** However, be aware that having your character die only at the ''end'' in [[Author's Saving Throw|an attempt to appease]] those who might find her [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|too perfect to accept and appeal to their "cynicism" thereby]] skews straight into [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]], itself an eye-rolling [[Common Mary Sue Traits|Common Mary Sue Trait]].
* A number of [[Common Mary Sue Traits]] could be used properly if they are defining elements of the character. [[Friend to All Living Things]], for instance could be done as a take on the [[The Beast Master]]. What makes them [[Mary Sue]] tropes is when they aren't important to the character.
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