On Mary Sue Intro

Mary Sue is a character trope more commonly found in fanfiction, although they can also be found in original stories. Here are some comments made about Mary Sue:

Urban Dictionary:

A female character who is so perfect that she is annoying. The name originated in a very short Star Trek story that mocked the sort of female characters who showed up in fanfiction. It usually refers to original female chaacters put into fanfiction but can refer to any character. Mary Sues are characters who are usually extraordinarily gorgeous, amazingly talented, unusually powerful, and exceedingly attractive to whoever the author has a crush on. They often possess ridiculously fancy and pretentious first names -- Angel, Raven, Jewel, Lorelei Bianca Julia Marizza Snape -- and are very, very annoying. 

TV Tropes has a page for her:
Mary Sue on TV Tropes


Wikipedia says:

A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fan fiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. It is generally accepted as a character whose positive aspects overwhelm their other traits until they become one-dimensional. While the label "Mary Sue" itself originates from a parody of this type of character, most characters labelled "Mary Sues" by readers are not intended by authors as such. Male Mary Sues are often dubbed "Gary Stu", "Larry Stu", "Marty Stu", or similar names.
While the term is generally limited to fan-created characters, and its most common usage today occurs within the fan fiction community or in reference to fan fiction, original characters in role-playing games or literary canon are also sometimes criticized as being "Mary Sues" or "canon Sues" if they dominate the spotlight or are too unrealistic or unlikely in other ways. One example of this criticism is Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The thing is that everyone bashes the Mary Sue, but how many people offer to help fix her? I haven't heard of anyone doing so. Therefore, I am going to undertake to fix a Mary Sue.


1.) Appearance
2.) Talents
3.) Personality
4.) Interpersonal Relationships
5.) Names
6.) Universe

To read writing books...

Yes, I do read writing books. Some of them I put aside because I don't particularly like the style, and some I rather enjoy. It amuses me though, because a lot of them talk about the importance of social networking. It scares me because me and social networking are not friends. We aren't even acquaintances. Ok, that's an exaggeration. The truth is, I might have a Tumblr, LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, Twitter, and Facebook account, but I don't actually use them. Not the way a lot of people do. I know that my Tumblr stuff goes to Twitter, and for some reason that makes people think they want to follow me, and I know my LJ and DW are crossposting (or are supposed to be crossposting). Facebook just sits off on it's lonesome now that I've got bored with playing games over there.

The latest book I've been reading, and one I really liked is 'How To Be A Writer In The E-Age And Keep Your Sanity', By Catherine Ryan Hide & Anne R Allen. I recommend this book for people who want to be writers because it's rather awesome. This joins one other book as a default recommendation at the moment, and the other book is "Sometimes The Magic Works, Lessons Of A Writing Life" By Terry Brooks, who numbers as one of my three role models in the publishing industry.

What I get out of these books mostly are ideas of how to do what I'm already doing better, and renewed confidence that I can do this, that I can be a great writer if I push myself hard enough. I just have to keep putting one word after the other until I can see the story for what it is.

I think the most important thing about reading books on writing is that at the end of it, you are the only one who can decide if a book works for you or not. You are the one who has to figure out what to take out of the book, and what to leave because it doesn't work for you.

For me, that means, learning to write an actual blog. Usually this will be about writing. This isn't my diary (really, you don't want to read that,) this is just a way for people to see me evolve and celebrate. Maybe I'll even get brave enough to post something on Twitter soon.