Mary-Sue: Who is She?

How Not to Write Like Your Character is a Sue

After reading Part 1 many, many times, I decided that another part would be helpful in that extra step. In Part 1, I described what a Mary-Sue/Marty-Sue etc. are, what they are not, and how to develop a proper character, in addition some of the reasons why some Suethors would create them (more or less on accident). This second part will go into more detail and give you tips on what not to write in your story that will tip your readers off that your characters might be underdeveloped, even if the character will be developed.

Mary-Sues don’t have specific physical, behavior, cliché traits, but in combination to impossible physics laws in the universe, along with underdeveloped personality especially with other characters, they come out to be boring and annoying to readers. Unlike Part 1, I failed to mention that it also depends on how the writer writes the story itself that their beloved characters can become a Mary-Sue.   Basically, if the narration isn’t developed, your characters will seem underdeveloped.  Mary-Sueish.

Scary, I know. Your own style of writing that you have been developing for as long as you have been writing, can fail you in this aspect. Don’t worry, your style of writing develops on its own, but with a few conscious changes, it will develop into something new, and hopefully something that will bring your characters and story to life. After some time and practice, it will come out more naturally.

Title

Every story has to have a title and it is an unlocked gateway that your reader will decide whether to enter or not.  You want them to enter; you want them to read your story.  The title tends to be a good indicator whether or not the story and your characters are well-developed.  A long title that gives away the story or has a pairing in it is usually my first sign to just skip it.  Why bother?  I know what it’s about, and if you gave it away that fast, it was probably written just as fast filled with clichés with the same theme and plot as so many other stories I’ve read.  Plus, if you put the pairing in the title, instead of the summary, that tells me you have a disregard for the writing rules.  Has anyone ever read an actual book with “Jane X John” next to the actual title?  Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet doesn’t count because his title actually fits his story and it doesn’t give away the tragic tale at all.

Title decorations with hearts, squiggles and such, I personally don’t really mind it if the site rules don’t care about it; although I still agree that it would be better if there weren‘t any decorations, but if there is an excessive amount of it, it is annoying.  For example, if there are five hearts in a row, or between the words of the title, then I assume that it’s a sappy clichéd romance story that I would hate.

If the title is read as text talk, there had better be a darn good reason for it!  When the title isn’t capitalized correctly, or not capitalized at all, I get peeved, but if it’s not even spelled out correctly without abbreviations, then I wouldn’t bother.  If the story takes place in cyber-world, or if the character uses her phone a lot and it’s important, then I could understand, and that‘s what summaries are for.  

The biggest pet peeve I have are stories that are written in English, but have titles solely in another language, especially in a language that uses symbols; Japanese and Russian are quite popular.  Unless it’s a phrase, written using English lettering, that just about anyone knows, then I guess it’s okay, but if it’s written in kanji, kanfu, or uses symbols from other cultures that I can’t recognize, let alone read, what’s the point?  Telling us that you researched your title in another language and this is what was pooped out?  Remember that gateway I was talking about?  If I can’t understand the title, I have no idea what I will get into, and I would rather not take that chance and waste time when there are more decent stories with decent titles.  If you like the title in that other language so much put it in the author notes, just not in the title.  If the story is written in English and the title is in another language using English lettering, like romanji Japanese, Spanish, etc. and the phrase in that specific language is important in the story, then that’s fine.