Zaporoche~ an Illya backstory ~ chapter 7

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

link to chapter 6: http://section7mfu.livejournal.com/227504.html
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Illya was in awe of the hardiness of these people, they were the Cossacks of old who survived the persecution of the Bolsheviks and the onslaught of the Nazis and at times now even their own government. When the war was over, Stalin didn't need Cossacks' patriotism anymore. The Soviet Government returned to their anti-Cossack practices, destroying what was left of the Cossack communities little by little.

( Read more... )

( Link to Chapter 8~ the conclusion )

Zaoroche~an Illya backstory~chapter 7

[mlaw]

 link to chapter 6: http://section7mfu.livejournal.com/227504.html
__________________________________________________





Illya was in awe of the hardiness of these people, they were the Cossacks of old who survived the persecution of the Bolsheviks and the onslaught of the Nazis and at times now even their own government. When the war was over, Stalin didn't need Cossacks' patriotism anymore. The Soviet Government returned to their anti-Cossack practices, destroying what was left of the Cossack communities little by little.

( Read more... )

Mary Sue Slept Here

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about the concept of Mary Sue.  She is the much maligned self-gratifying character who shows up in fiction as a portrait (perhaps) of the writer, a wistfully near perfect creation who commands attention both of the reader and other characters within the story.
I am not an expert on Mary Sue, and will admit that my first story would  probably qualify, although it was a tad tongue in cheek.  I was ignorant of Mary Sue, but perhaps in that ignorance portrayed exactly how easy it is to follow her lead.
So, with that in mind I am thinking that it might be fun to follow this to a glaringly obvious call for some blatant Mary Sue fiction.  I had mentioned to mrua7 that we might even use some old pictures of ourselves to illustrate these stories.  That's up to you, and at present I don't have a date in mind for when we might begin to post these.  Perhaps we don't need a specific date, just the tag 'Mary Sue'.
Any thoughts?  I've listed some articles, and I believest_crispins ran something related to this a while back, so perhaps she will chime in on the topic and refresh our memories. 
Think about it: you can write a story where you are the embodiment of the perfect heroine... a super woman.  Napoleon's lips kissing yours, Illya's hands encircling your waist... 
What do you say?


Wikipedia  
TV Tropes 
Official Mary Sue Manual   

Mary Sue as a Stage

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Because Glenna asked:

It always amuses me when the topic of Mary Sue comes up. Sometimes, the discussion can drip with vitriol and turn into flame wars. To me, after teaching writers in various venues for over 30 years, there's a pretty simple answer: Mary Sue (originally coined, BTW, by my good friend and publisher, Paula Smith)is a stage of development in writing. Everyone --- repeat *everyone* ---goes through it, just at different times. Years ago, before the internet, before anyone could publish anything in public and thereby embarrass themselves needlessly, this developmental stage was accomplished in relative privacy (a very good thing, BTW).

If you start writing stories in the preteen years as I did (I think I started even before that) you can write your Mary Sues to your heart's content, write characters based on yourself and your friends, and get it all out of your system. And if your parents keep you off the internet, no one need witness you taking your first baby steps into writing except your squeeing buddies, your parents and a supportive teacher or two.

If you don't start writing until later, you'll still have to go through a Mary Sue period at whatever age you start. Granted, after 25, it can be a little embarassing, but hopefully, because by now you're also mentally mature, it will pass quickly. (And don't tell me, oh experienced writer, you *never* did. You *did*, believe me, you just didn't know it or it went by pretty fast.) If you're older, your approach may be more sophisticated, but your main character will still be a sort of biographical stand-in for yourself until you work out your issues and make the shift/jump to writing *the other."

You won't stop writing about yourself --- pieces of a writer's self will be ---and should be, actually --- found in all his or her characters. But you'll learn to expand the psychic space within a character to widen beyond your own self, which allows your readers to climb in beside you as well.

So, like Piaget outlined for children's physical/mental development, writers go through stages as well. The problem is, that unlike real life children, writers can get stuck at stages. Some writers write for years and *never* move out of the Mary Sue stage. I'm not sure why. I'd chalk it up to lack of talent, motivation, self awareness, or simply a failure of imagination.

I wish folks, though, would accept the fact that Mary Sue is just a part, a phase, of every writer's development. Perhaps, we would be kinder and more understanding of each other when she appears.