That was very good.

I am not going to elaborate very much, since I´m paying a ton of money to get on the computer here, but I think this essay was excellent. When I get back to my house and am not being timed on the computer, I will read more of your work.

Happy New Year!

Your essay is very well thought-out.. I was wondering if you could read my story and tell me if any of my characters seem too Mary-Sue-ish or any cliches? thanks a bunch.

Hey, there!

Good 'un there. I appreciate the pointer to it.

My own character (Mattie Wayne) I admit has some Sue-ish points. I've tried not to make her too much of one, even though she does have her father's 'Save the world' attitude (and with what's coming up, I don't blame her) and his money. However, she does very little 'fop' with it, instead investing it.

I've also made a point to show that she's not the most beautiful, sexy and talented. She's got flaws and a dark side. Still, she does need to have a curve thrown at her again.

You should do a short essay to add her to the "angsty sue" thing. If you look it up on wikipedia it should be fairly easy.

Hahaha... there was an interesting parody of Ginny Weasley on a lot of what you have in this essay could be found on this story. They really 'Sued' her up, seriously, however the point of my bringing that up was to say that your opinions are mirrored by a lot of writers and their views on Mary Sues.

Sometimes, it's an unconscious decision to warp a normal character into a Mary Sue, some authors don't even know they're doing it, and will protest till their skin turns green.

Anyway good essay, gave me a good laugh.

Very nice, very funny. Useful advice, since I want to work on characterization after making the depressing observation that all my main characters are essentially carbon copies of each other. I want to avoid Mary-Sues if at all possible.

Right on, Right on. You make excellent points when it comes to leveling out a character (physical training/no social life-extremely social/hardly any academics maybe) I thought I knew a real life Mary Sue...turns out she isn't really street smart (hows that for balance?). The jive went right over her head. She is still very smart in EVERY school subject. even here at college. Plays tennis and works out. Very social...but doesn't really think long and deep about philosophical problems or have spastic creative dumb thougths like trying to build a stairway to heaven out of beer cans...I guess real people do even out.

LOL but don't forget, some Mary sues also include the whole 'angsty' look around them with a tragic past and their so beautiful but has no idea about it. what about gary stus?

I really like this essay, except for this part:

*A beautiful (or clever) girl probably doesn't fight people herself, she has her boyfriend(s) handle that for her because she feels she is too important to risk.*

It assumes that one dimension of the character negates another, which simply isn't true.

Like I say, though, I really like the rest.

Great!You have just inspired me to start writing.I loved it.

Read some of my work, and review it, so I'll know if some people like it!

I TOTALLY agree. The other day in ff I was in the fairytale section and I readthis story with a big time Mary-Sue and I wanted to throw-up.Thanks for the advice if I get the chance I'll use it.

Eh. Mary Sue essays are more boring and more common than Mary Sues themselves. Anyway, you could have summed up all this with the only true reason to dislike so-called Mary Sues: perfect characters are boring. Your arguments are based on something else: as a fan of whatever original work is being Mary Sueized, you have already identified with certain characters. That makes all this meaningless.

Cool dude! I try not to make Mary Sues, but my stories are so angsty they don't tend to pop up often anyway. (I have about two hundred and three stories not on this site, because everyoe says they're depressing.) You just gave me a great idea too, to do a mary-sue bashing parody... (evil grin) Oh, great, I'm rambling again. Nice 2 meet u...

-SapphireIris

*bangboombash*

that is officially the first time i have fallen out of a chair laughing.

good job.