Nooby Sues aren't the only Sues welcome. Talk about your Sues from any point in your writing process, be it in rough drafts or a problem you struggle with even now. Also talk about how said Sue changed how you write your stories, and is this Sue alive today?
Also, this thread shall define a Mary Sue as a character who...
- ...is the apple of the narrative's eye.
...has no deep repercussions from their backstories and/or actions.
...doesn't make mistakes. EVAR.
...is treated like the perfect human being (or whatever race they're of).
When I was but a wee lass I loved animals. I loved them so much in fact that I thought it would be the best thing evar if I wrote an entire story about sentient animals! I had it all planned out. There would be dozens of books, Magic Treehouse style, each one short and sweet and depicting great adventures. The best part about it, the most revolutionary idea I had, was that each installation in the series could stand alone so you wouldn't have to read dozens of books to enjoy them. It was perfection, I tell you!
Except for the fact that the main character was a Mary Sue.
Ignoring the other host of problems that plagued my early work (flat characters, characters that were jerks, too many characters (over a dozen), plot holes, etc.), this main character of mine was not only an idealized version of myself, but she was part dragon, part werewolf, part vampire, and I'm pretty sure there was a T-rex somewhere in there. But since the original files are long gone we shall never be sure. Also, being an idealized version of myself, she was never wrong and other characters always spoke highly of her. All. The. Time.
I eventually realized that said character's Sueishness was a really bad thing, so I did what any reasonable ten-year-old would do with a problem: kill it with fire. Lava, to be precise. I had said character just fall in some lava for no good reason. Big problem solved, everything good! Right?
WRONG!
Turns out that the rest of the cast was comprised only of flat characters, who were either uninteresting or flat out jerks. I realized that without my Mary Sue (who I hated now) everything else went to pieces. So instead of doing what any reasonable writer would do (a rewrite) I brought her back to life. Better yet, I made her a goddess while she was dead! Surely the other characters personalities would fall in line after she became a goddess! After all, her epic holiness would inspire them to a. not be jerks and b. stop being flat characters.
It was at that point that I realized how stupid things were getting and decided to quit while my self-esteem was still in tact. I quickly disposed of all copies of said story and regarded it as an old shame that would never see the light of day. Until now.
What did I learn from this Sue? The best medicine for a bad story is a rewrite, NOT killing the problem spots with fire.
So what are your stories?
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