So I designed a character for the book I am working on (work.php?id=96194 is the first chapter)and, according to some, she is a Mary Sue.
So, physically, she is very pretty, but she is really skinny when the norm for girls of her rank in her time (medievalish book so I use things like marrying young and such) is to be closer to the chubby side. Anyways, besides that, she is very good with swords, prefers to fight with knifes (which she is better at because she is kind of short), and is good with horses and such.
Now, sounds Mary Sue in that description? That is actually kind of what I wanted. The more character development I do with her, the less perfect she is. Basically, her entire family was killed in front of when she was really little, so she does have some PTS. Mainly for that reason, she is pretty cold to most people, and - even though she is friendly with a few - she never really lets herself get close to others and never opens up. On top of those things, there are several scenes such as:
"Now that leaving was staring her right in the face, she felt less and less like she could go back to her old life. She had come to this place nothing more than a clumsy child who couldn’t so much as walk without tripping over her own feet. The only thing she had to rely on then was her mind.
Sure, she may now seem like the person she should be, but she was far from it. She had spent hours and hours training with her uncle just so she stopped tripping over her own feet. Hours more were added to that to hold a sword properly. She had had to devise her own fighting style to make up for her size. She had practiced with her bow until her fingers were bloody and raw from pulling back on the bowstring so much. The only physical thing about her that she was born with was her looks. Everything else from the way she moved to her to her lean muscles were born from endless amounts of hard work and training."
These occur periodically, and the further it goes in the story, the harder she has to try and work. Do you all think that balances out the outer perfection she shows off? Or am I the only one that doesn't think that she is a Mary Sue?
If you do think she is a Mary Sue, can you please give me some advice on how to fix that?
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