For those of you who aren’t familiar with what a Mary Sue is, it’s essentially a female character that is too perfect. A character that is always morally correct no matter what, has all the male protagonists drooling themselves over her even though she would describe herself as plain, and is special without having to try.
In other words, she’s boring.
So why do so many writers write Mary Sues? Even ones that claim they hate them?
I have a few theories:
The writer is trying to live vicariously through their character. Most of us want to be special. Unfortunately, a lot of us lack the bravery or skill required to become a compelling protagonist. In order for us to be unique, something supernatural in nature would have to occur like a radioactive spider biting us. Many of us have problems with ourselves so we’re tempted to fix them when we create an ink-and-paper twin. However, flaws are essentially what makes a person a person so by removing them writers create a character that is as flat as cardboard.
They want readers to like their character. If the reader despises the main protagonist, it is likely they will stop reading the story. Sadly, many writers think that the best way of avoiding this is by creating a character that has zero flaws other than superficial ones like clumsiness or being “too nice.” Truth is, a person’s foibles can make them more endearing and relatable.
It’s easier than coming up with a real person. Creating a person from scratch is hard. Especially if that person doesn’t share the same background, race, or religion that you do. It’s easy to become intimidated at the prospect of being inside the head of such a person and dictating all that they do and say. It’s even more daunting granted how delicate some peoples’ sensibilities are these days and how eager they are to take offense by any perceived misrepresentation. The writer doesn’t want to step on people’s toes and so they stick to what they know, with a few choice alterations, of course.
Or, in some cases, it’s just laziness. They don’t want to have to go through the pains of creating someone more three-dimensional because it’s time consuming and requires a lot of planning.
So how does a writer avoid writing Mary Sues?
Fear not, fledgling writers.
I have a few suggestions.
Find out in the next blog post.
The Crooked Pen 
For the longest time, I was guilty of writing Mary Sues. It’s why I never finished anything because at the end I hated the character I created. She/he was not real. I stopped writing and had to take a break (I wrote a lot of sad sappy poetry) so I could re-find that writer I was…And I did. Now, I am happy. I am better. Are my characters sometimes based on myself or people around me? Yes, but then they aren’t. They change and form into someone completely different.
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I think everyone is guilty of creating a Mary Sue in the beginning. It takes a lot of time and experience to craft a good character. There’s no shame in having a rough go of it at first. I bet you’re a lot better at it now though!
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It does. Blood, sweat and tears to create a character. Again, if you can absolutely despise the character you created, it’s a success.
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I think people might write mary sue characters and base them on themselves is because they want to be perfect and for people to like them. They feel like there’s something missing and if their not perfect then no one will ever be interested in having them as a friend, partner etc.
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