tvtropes.org describes the Mary Sue term to be difficult to pin down. tvtropes.org goes on to say that there is limited agreement with what traits belong to a Mary Sue. Personally, I always understood the Mary Sue to encompass all or some of the traits associated with a flat and unappealing heroine.
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| (Not naming any names here) |
Author Wish fulfilment is one of the traits mentioned by tvtropes and is one of the first to be associated with a Mary Sue. This is most commonly found in fan fiction but as Twilight has shown us, it doesn't belong exclusively to this genre.
You shouldn't use your character as a self esteem booster by making her who you've always wanted to be by putting her into situations (especially romantic ones) you've always wanted to find yourself in. You have to let your character be her own person. To do that, you have to recognize that she will have flaws and that's ok. When you create a well developed character, readers will like her in spite of those flaws and sometimes even because of them.
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| Author Stephenie Meyer |
"I'm so plain....why does every vampire, werewolf, CEO and college boy want me!?" said every Mary Sue.
To me, this is the most annoying characteristic of all and it shows up time and again. The character describes herself as being so unremarkable that no boy will ever love her but to everyone else (except perhaps the reader), she is the most fantastic person they've ever met. James' Anastasia Steele of 50 Shades of Grey cannot handle the fact that someone so rich and handsome as Christian Grey could ever truly love her. In Meyer's Twilight, Bella Swan sees herself as so clumsy and awkward, she can't believe that both Jacob Black and Edward Cullen are madly in love with her. Frankly, the readers can't believe it either.
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| Me after reading Breaking Dawn |
The saying, "Other people will love you once you love yourself" applies to fictional people as well. Not to say that there can't be well developed, likeable characters who hate themselves but that a character who is so obviously idealized yet so openly self deprecating is such an intense contradiction that she makes no sense at all and suspension of disbelief is lost. This causes the character to come across as shallow, not to mention transparent. The author and their voice is clearly seen behind the veil of the character.
A well rounded character should be a different person from the author and from all other characters, both inside the story and within fiction in general.
I could not agree more. Both series had characters so flat they should have been sporting training bras ;)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, both series had lead females that were unlikeable. They were dull, boring, kinda ditzy and lame. If Bella were real, she'd have been the target of every high school bully in a 10 km radius. As for Anastasia...there is a difference between a person who is submissive and one who has a spine of jelly...submissive is having power but relinquishing it to the partner voluntarily...that woman was lucky to have enough power to get herself across the floor. Same could be said for Bella...I think the authors should have shoved some Energizer batteries in both characters.
I agree! Both characters would have been more interesting if they had a spine. Characters who are constantly being shoved around are boring.
DeleteI'm really glad you posted this, because I think this is something we all try to avoid, but still end up doing. I think part of the problem is how we're often told to start writing about what we know. What's a better way to do that than to make yourself the main character? We then, like you said, proceed to put them in situations we'd love to be in ourselves. I know I am guilty of doing that. I'm hoping this'll help me break that habit.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly guilty of it as well and am trying hard to avoid doing it. I'm hoping that spotting it in other works can kind of help me avoid it in my own.
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