OC reviews And Tips (Closed)

Tip 2 // Marysues And Their Counterparts

Yep. I'm doing it. I'm writing a tip about all things Marysue, Garystu and their opposites.

Marysues

According to urban dictionary, this is the definition of a Marysue

Okay so this certainly isn't wrong, but not all Marysues are like this. It varies from universe to universe, but the common traits are that they are the strongest out of all the characters, all the characters love them except one that is there to act as a love rival, and they're normally incredibly attractive without realising it. They're loved by most people, and if someone doesn't love them, then they're jealous.

Now I'm not going to attack any characters for being a Marysue since all of us started off designing characters probably with a Marysue. I know I certainly did, and I've adapted her to make a functioning, well rounded character. Starting off with designing a character that happens to be a Marysue just for fun is fine, it's when you start putting your characters out to the world that something needs to be done or you'll get attacked for it.

You should always give your character flaws, and if you look over you characters traits and they seem overwhelmingly positive, then you should probably do something about it.

Here are some common Marysue traits and negative attributes to those traits which should be able to fit into your character nicely if you're looking for ways to make your character less Marysue:
-Brave - a lot of Marysue characters are shown to be brave and selfless, so you could make your character headstrong. This means that they act without thinking and it often causes a lot of problems that the character causes.
-Attractive - I'm not saying that you shouldn't design attractive characters, but you should give characters some kind of physical flaw if you want to make your main character incredibly pretty. Such as slightly crooked teeth, some achne, birthmarks. Now these are natural things that are nothing to be ashamed of, but very rarely do you see physically perfect people. This could also be counteracted with negative personality traits.
-Self-conscious - for some reason, people think that having a perfect character be self conscious will balance them out, it won't, it will seem out of place because it's unlikely for someone that perfect and pretty to be unaware of all the positive attention they're getting. If they're self-conscious, give them traits to be self-conscious about.
-Overly kind and nice - some Marysues seem to be perfectly kind and never do anything wrong, so maybe have them come across as bittersweet. Like there's an underlying tone of negativity when they talk.
-Strength - Marysues are incredibly strong whether it's because they won the genetic lottery or they're just that determined, but when people are that strong they begin to get cocky, and well reckless. Having your character be reckless could cause problems and conflict and the more conflict there is, the more there is to write about.

When writing a new character, definitely avoid putting too many positive traits together or writing a character that has traits that clash. A lot of people want their character to be whatever they want them to be, so they give them too many personality traits that clash with one another and don't make sense. An example of this is I've seen characters described as both quiet and loud. Trying to make your character perfect and everything at once is going to make a text book Marysue. Avoid this.

In short, don't make your character I humanly pretty or strong and make sure they have a balanced personality. The more realistic a character, the more likely the reader will like them.

However, giving your character one or two Marysue traits doesn't make your character a Marysue. Completely avoiding these traits can cause something much worse in my eyes, an anti-sue.

Anti-sues
The definition of Anti-sue according urban dictionary

Honestly, in my opinion, Anti-sues are worse than Marysues because at least Marysues are somewhat amusing.

Anti-sues mainly exist because people heard about Marysues before writing a character and got paranoid about writing one, so they do the complete opposite and make them the most lonely, angsty, misunderstood character physically possible.

These characters normally don't have any kind of peak in their story, and if they do, they fall so damn hard afterwards.

Once again, you need to balance the character out. Give them positive traits and let some positive things happen to them. If only completely negative things happen to your character and your character is only ever negative, then people will get bored and sick of your characters actions.

Balance is key in writing a character, you want aspects from both of these characters since they're polar opposites on the spectrum of character personalities, and they're the extremes of each. Neither of them what you want to go for.

Positive and negative traits are what you find in real people so you have to aim for that in your characters. Your amazing superhero protagonist is going to do something bad at some point in their life, and the horrible villain is going to have at least one somewhat decent trait. Nothing in the world in black and white, especially people's personalities, so make sure you apply that to your characters as well.

*These tips are things I've thought of after spending nearly five years on this site and been reading nearly my whole life. If you disagree with anything I've said, that is completely fine and you obviously don't have to follow anything I've said*