Search and Destroy: Mary Sue

No story can go on for long without a main character. So at some point every writer has to create a protagonist. Or, if you’re into the current trend, an anti-hero. At this point it doesn’t really matter. Because I’m about to introduce you to your biggest enemy. Your worst nightmare.

The Mary Sue.

She’s a female character (for most of the time but not always) with unusual name and eye/hair color, beautiful, charming, managing to woo everybody in the radius of 100 feet.
Yes, I’m exagerating. But only a little.

The fact is. Everybody, every writer in his or hers career wrote a character that was a Mary Sue. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Afterall, the best way to learn is to make mistakes.

My first Mary Sue, or to be more specific, one that I actually written down was a vampire Slayer. Yes. As in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Only she was literally a Vampire Slayer. A Slayer that was turned into a Vampire. Her name was Sylia and she was from Eastern Europe. She had an amazing voice that could charm anyone. And she had a cross tatooed on her wrist. And she was a DayWalker.

I was seventeen.

I tell you this, and risk total humiliation, because I want to show you how this works. At the time of her creation, I considered Sylia to be extremely original. I was sure nobody came up with such a cool and witty character. Only to discover, 5 months later, A Mary Sue litmus test. Which showed me just how much original Sylia was. (for original characters check here)

But it was good. It made me realize that the main character of the story, be it an original fiction or a fanfic, cannot be too beautiful, too smart, too perfect.
Perfect means boring. And no reader will indentify with a perfect character. No reader will like a boring, perfect character.

Now. Mary Sue is a bigger problem in longer stories. Where you have time and various opportunities to show how the character deals with different problems and situations. Where you can describe what kind of interactions the character has with others.
So basically, the longer the story the bigger the risk of spawning a Mary Sue.

I suppose at this point, especially if you read the articles in the links I provided, some of you might be scared shitless of writing anything. Because you’d rather not write a Mary Sue and become a target for all the potential readers that might call you on that.
Don’t worry. If that was the case nobody would be writing anything.

So how to make sure your character isn’t a Mary Sue?

First and foremost make sure (s)he’s not perfect. Character flaws allow for the character to develop in the duration of your story. Which at the same time shows to the readers that your character can actually learn and improve. Proves that your character is human (or a vampire or a demon or an alien, whatever you like).

If your character saves the world, make sure they have help. And that they actually need help.

If Tolkien’s Gandalf was more powerful and wiser he would realise that he could use the big birds to fly that damn ring to Mordor and drop it into the mountain.
But that would make for a very short book and not very good movie, don’t you think?

Other traits that will save your character from being called a Mary Sue?

A phobia. A certain type of social awkwardness. A physical flaw. Personality flaw like being easily irritated, reckless not especially bright.

See? There is a lot of way to ensure your character doesn’t end up on the wrong side of Mary Sue line. It just takes a bit of work and consideration.

My advice:
Don’t second-guess yourself during the process of creating a character. Write down everything you know about the character. Then leave it for a day or two and then return adn edit any or all signs of Mary Sue-ish characteristics.