A Guide to the Beginning Fan Work Author

The Problems with a Mary Sue

So. 

Your character is the prettiest, most popular girl in school. All the boys love her. All the girls want to be her friend. She amazingly nice but scary if you make her mad. Your favorite anime character loves her and your least favorite is the her archenemy who everyone hates. She can fight, sing, dance, draw, she's smart, and did I mention she's beautiful? Well, she is! 

She's the most perfect person in the whole school and deserves the best of everyone. People she hurts deserve it and people she helps worship the ground she walks on! She's wonderful, she's amazing, she's absolutely perfect!

Too perfect.

In fact, she's so perfect, she makes readers want their rip their hair out!

Congratulations, you have a Mary Sue. 

Mary Sues are the bane of fan works and original works. They are so impossibly powerful and have no flaws people can relate to. Want a real life example? How about Kirito from Sword Art Online? Greatest fighter in the show, genius hacker to the point he can turn an AI into an in-game item within the span of a few moments, and all the girls want him. All of them. 

He's about as relatable as a plastic spoon. Same with any other Mary Sue. 

They want realistic personality. If a character is cheerful, you can guess that they've had it pretty good, right? Well, not always. This cheerfulness can be a mask for how hard life has been for them or it can be a sign of strength as they have learned to move past the pain of their history. Personality is affected by the past. We are not the same people we were when we were toddlers.

People want a character with problems, flaws, strengths, and strength. Some genuinely want a terrible person, in fact. However, they want some realism to it. No one likes a jerk with no reason behind it. 

See Draco from Harry Potter or Max from Camp Camp. Both are products of bad upbringing. Draco was raised with prejudice towards muggleborn wizards and witches by his racist parents and followed Voldemort out of sheer fear for his life. Max is spiteful because of a lack of parental figures, leading him to be bitter towards the world and towards his counselor, David. He can't understand why David is so cheerful when the world is so cruel and Max detests him, out of a sense of jealousy and an inability to understand him. Draco acts based on the way his parents taught him and Max acts on a sense of nihilism due to how unfair his home life is. This gives them a sense of realism because they have problems people relate to.

Maybe you don't want a cold, bitter character with a terrible upbringing. Maybe you want something a little more lighthearted! 

How about a sweet boy with two loving parents. He's average in school and generally well liked by his peers. But everyone has a dark secret or problem they want to hide. It's a fact of life. What can our good kid from the suburbs have that he wants to hide? What is a problem that a boy his age may struggle with?

He may struggle with self image. People like him, but he doesn't like himself. He wishes he was taller, stronger, better looking, and smarter. He is so centered on what he is not and what he doesn't have, he neglects the best parts of himself. He has good friends who love him for him, parents who think the world of him, and peers who genuinely think he's a good guy. What if he fixates so much on his appearance and his intelligence, he does things that are unhealthy to try and improve his image? He pushes himself to work out more and more, eats less, and berates himself when he doesn't get the results he wants.

This character can be a person that people with eating disorders can relate to and empathize with. Seeing him recover can push them on to recover! 

 How about someone with a bad home life? How about a girl who doesn't have a good relationship with her dad and her mom is missing from the picture. He tries to look out for her but his methods clash with her. He becomes controlling and assertive and she becomes more and more rebellious. She fails school, hangs out with bad people who give her a sense of acceptance, and hurts others because she becomes bitter. 

Her dad in turn becomes more aggressive in his attempts to try and prevent his daughter from falling into a bad crowd. Unfortunately, he pushes too hard and she runs away from home. Now its up to him to find her and bring her home. After a lot of searching and fighting, they eventually reconcile.

A terrible upbringing can be a beautiful redemption story but be very careful not to make it so hopelessly bleak that it feels nothing can realistically get better. A lot of Mary Sue writers will try to give their character the worst background and situations possible in an attempt to make them look like less of a Mary Sue. This is called an Anti Sue. 

Anti Sues are incredibly prevalent in the Creepypasta community. Some of the biggest characters are Anti Sues, see Natalie from Clockwork. Natalie lived a life of terrible abuse, was sabotaged by a classmate, hated and harrassed by her peers, and sent to a mental institute following a breakdown. She was literally hated by everyone and given an obsessive amount of physical power by her "mental drugs." 

I understand that making a character have such a tragic childhood will make her turning to violent crimes seem justifiable but to have a character overpower trained, armed security guards, escape a mental institution with armed security, take serious amounts of damage without need of medical attention, and overpowers all of her family is incredibly unbelievable. Apparently being fused with 'mental drugs" will do that to you. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with the author or if people like the story! The author had a good idea of a killer obsessed with the concept of time and her design was very was nice. They just executed it very poorly. They could have done so much better if they had gone for a sense of ambiance and subtlety, rather than shock value and gore. I will discuss the problem a lot of Creepypasta killer stories and Anti Sues face when writers make tragic backstories for them.  

When writing a character with physical prowess, be sure you show that they aren't some martial arts prodigy. Show they trained for it, they worked for their strength, and give the readers a sense that this character is dedicated to fighting. Even prodigies need to train, regardless of talent. Some people do have natural talent and can do things straight off the bat but its boring to have a character show up to a fight with no training and kick the strongest fighter's butt with little too no training. 

If you want a strong character, have them work for their strength. Nothing comes without sacrifice, be it physical or emotional. An assassin with a lot of strength will sacrifice empathy and emotional vulnerability in favor for the skill to eliminate targets effectively. They will not be able to care for others due to how dangerous and cruel their work is; its too risky for others and if the assassin allows themselves to feel for someone else, they risk feeling guilt for their crimes and fear that they will lose the one they've grown to love. 

It's all about balance. What does a character go through to get what they want? How does that affect them mentally and/or physically? What flaws do they have that can cause them problems

Flaws are an incredibly important aspect and all lot of Mary sue writers have their character be everything they want to be. However, a flaw can show something someone can grow past. A nice character may struggle with naivety and that leads to them being taken advantage of and them getting hurt by others. This can allow a nice character to grow distrustful, a trait that clashes with their kind disposition. They struggle between wanting to help others and not wanting to be hurt again. 

What about a cruel character? They have seen some dark things in the world and they've grown spiteful and bitter toward others. When someone shows them kindness, they expect this person wants something in return. They resist people and hate them. But what happens when someone shows them kindness and doesn't want anything in return? How do they react when this person continues to show them kindness over and over, despite them constantly fighting and snapping at them. This will give them a sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, there are good people out there. They learn to be vulnerable with this person who's been so patient and develop a deep bond with them. 

It's up to you to balance out the character and help them grow.