A (mostly) lighthearted rant book by me. Join me in reveling and reviling every terrible cliche and odd writing cliche known to wattpad.
This book may include rants about:
-wattpad
-cliches
-bad characters
-bad stories
...
Otherwise known as the bane of any readers existence.
_________________ Mary Sue Mary Sue | Mar-ay Su noun 1. fictional character depicted as perfect, unrealistically lacking in her flaws or weaknesses. "her red heart eyes and sixteen love interests should have immediately clued me into the fact that the character was a Mary Sue." Synonyms: Gary Stu, Marty Stu, Larry Stu, Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Ravenway Origin: Paula Smith's 1973, "A Trekkie's Tale" _________________
This bîtçh.
The one we all hate and the one every writer is guilty of.
Now, I don't want anyone to get it twisted. The Mary Sue is an odd and cringe-worthy phenomenon, but it's not unexplainable.
I feel like sometimes people are too hard on the authors who write these characters.
Understand, most Mary Sues are usually product of at least one of several factors. Youth, inexperience, self-consciousness, and/or lack of writing skill.
You see, most Mary Sues are flimsy self-insert characters, shoved into a flimsy plot without rhyme or reason and that's exactly the problem. They're an idolized, perfect, glowing example of the human (or more often not human) specimen. Because that's what the author desires.
And that's okay.
There's nothing inherently wrong with that. We all want to be liked. We all want to be important and attractive and spectacular. And, I can safely say that almost all of us imagine ourselves in our favorite stories sometimes. It's honestly embarrassing how often I skip into fantasized daydreams about my favorite shows or how I'd interact with my favorite characters or about being "special." Again, embarrassing. But, it's the human condition. We're wired to want what we don't have.
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If you come across someone writing a Mary Sue, I encourage you not to bully them or make fun of their character.
Saying "your OC is a Mary Sue and (s)he sucks" is. not. productive.
It's not a constructive criticism. It'd be like me saying, "your writing terrible and cheesy."
Like...? Okay? But how do I fix that.
When you come across this I instead advise you to be more constructive and specifics.
Exs:
"Hey, I like your story, but the design of your character is really busy and unrealistic even in the confines of her own story."
