Writing Tips and Reviews

Avoiding Bad Writing

Here's something I said in a chat that I think is useful.

"I believe anything can be good as long as it's done in a way that makes sense. Like with Mary Sues, they don't make sense because they're supposed to the be that one special snowflake who defies the laws of a world. The world bends around them. Not the other way around. No flaws can be done in a way that's not Mary Sue and so is being over powered.

A character can be overpowered and if there's a perfectly logical reason, it's fine. Robots could be said to have no flaws, but there's also a perfectly logical reason. I believe when a creator makes something "just because" but doesn't try to make sense out of it, that's when people fail.

You can add what you think is cool, but when it contradicts previous information it has no effect, then it's useless and not having it would make no difference. For example, a person I know made a character who smokes, drinks and does self harm, now this can be made into a story line. Many people add it to a character because of depression, or other reasons to further their development. Instead, the creator used it "because it's cool" (and they think self harm is funny) and added it to an invincible and immortal Mary Sue. Thus making it completely useless and played like a funny quirk the character has or a running joke. Which sends a bad message that is okay to make fun of things like that.

Things need to make sense in the established world. That's what I think would prevent a story from being bad."