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   

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Snicker...especially when reading your las lines here.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I think we could have some fun with this, and it might not be as easy as it sounds. It's a little like singing off key, on purpose. :D

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

You rang? I have long argued that not only is Mary sue a stage of writer's development but she's also canon for MFU, ie: the Innocent is one of the points in MFU's three corner structure.

Look here (http://st-crispins.livejournal.com/63268.html) for an extended discussion. If you'd like I can put it here as a post.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Definitely feel free to post it here. I think we should examine this more closely. Thanks!

[rachaeljurassic.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun.

I have written female characters in other fandoms who have aspects of me in them but they also tend to be desperately flawed (which of course I am not!). That probably tells you something.....

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know how we can possibly help it, inserting a bit of ourselves into the story or the characters. Certainly our POV comes into play, regardless of how well we try to disguise it. A musician's performance, if it's any good, is fueled by emotion and an actor reaches into his/her experiences in order to make a character fully human. It only follows that we we write we will do the same thing. Otherwise it is a little empty, I think.

[rachaeljurassic.livejournal.com]

I agree...and it's fun.

I think you are right that it is a natural development, particularly near the beginning.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Fun is the operative word here ;) So, I hope this means we'll see something from you in the Mary Sue Slept Here challenge. I just decided to call it that, so the whole thing is serendipitous.

[rachaeljurassic.livejournal.com]

I'll give it a shot - just don't make the deadline too short - I'm rubbish with deadlines. I'm still thinking through a Tuesday pic fic that was posted in November!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I think we'll just let it be an ongoing thing, with the tag Mary Sue. We shouldn't pressure ourselves on this one ;)

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Writers always do but the question is, in *which* character does one insert one's self. At the early stage, the writer invents a separate character and then inhabits the entire psychic space. The readers resent this character because there is no 'room' for them to climb in. Mary sue is entirely the writer and while fun for the writer, not much fun for the reader.

A more mature, sophisticated writer divides herself up and puts pieces of herself in *all* the characters, even the villains, careful to leave space for the readers to climb into all the characters with her.

[renn.livejournal.com]

*claps hands together gleefully* Ooh! What fun!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Glad you think so :D Mary Sue amidst a gleeful company, it's all good.

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

I went through a real Mary Sue crisis the last time this subject was discussed and it very nearly made me give up writing fan fiction. I've just read the 'guide to Mary Sue' or whatever it's called and am now panicking again . . . .

I'm just wondering if this is the reason why some people won't read or write stories that involve long-term partners/wives. As I've said before on a few occasions, introducing life partners seemed such a natural thing to me, because that is the natural path that most people in RL take.

However, to exorcise that particular demon, a stab at deliberately writing a Mary Sue would be awful fun, in fact I have to admit I have written one already, hidden away from prying eyes of course, which features not just one, but four Mary Sues!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

And it is all about the fun of doing it. I think if it's deliberate, the inclusion of the Mary Sue element will actually be a little more difficult. Still, the fun is in there. I look forward to your entry.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not quite sure about this at all. I don't think I ever hit the Mary Sue aspect in my writing as I've written only one female AU character, and other than a few things...being Irish, speaking Irish, and having red hair...uh oh...and a musician. (all not really important to the character herself) That's all of what's 'me' in her character. I was careful not to do that. As Cindy said,it's about putting a little bit of yourself in all your characters, and that's what I suppose I do. Granted some characters can be somewhat formulaic, such as some of the characters in NCIS, and even UNCLE, so I don't think there's too much of me in those sort of characterization.

This whole Mary Sue concept is interesting, but will have to think about it more...