source.
Tips to Avoid Making Mary-Sues
In this piece of writing, I
will be giving you some tips on how to avoid Mary-Sues. I will be using
some of my own characters as examples in here too.
Just one thing
before I get started though, having only one thing apply to a character
doesn't always make them an instant Mary-Sue (except for point 3 because
no one is perfect).
1. Tragic Pasts
Tragic pasts are
extremely common, you can pick up a lot of books and see that the main
character has some kind of bad happening in their past. Some examples of
tragic pasts can be orphaned in a car/plane crash, beaten, raped,
stolen, enslaved, having alcoholic/drug addict parents, etcetera. There
isn't anything to say that a character can't have a good past though,
many people grow up in happy homes.
Now, Mary-Sues are likely to have
at least more than one of those tragic happenings. They also tend to
keep angsting about it too, making other characters take pity on them.
I must admit that I have characters that have tragic pasts, but I don't make them angst about it all the time.
Example:
My character Li. When he was six years old his whole village was burnt
down because people like him in the village hadn't been given up to
Trackers. Everyone but him died because he managed to find a place to
hide (it's sounding fairly Mary-Suish isn't it?). He doesn't like to
really explain it to others though, and he says later on in the story:
"I got over it a long time ago." I won't use it as an excuse for him to
do whatever he wants and get away with it.
2. Amnesia
Boy
is this one common. The character usually wakes up, probably in a
strange place, not remembering a thing about themselves except for their
names and their ages (maybe not even that). Over time, their memories
return, or are given back, and they find out that they are a secret
princess or something similar.
I have (sadly) done this in the past.
It does actually get annoying after a while because they keep having
flashbacks. I, personally, am going to avoid this situation from now on.
(I am not going to mention that character here, they are old and too
embarrassing to think about.)
I'm sure that someone could actually write a good story where the main character has amnesia, but that person is not me.
3. Perfect in Every Way
I
am not kidding about this one. Mary-Sues are usually perfect in every
way; they have perfect bodies, perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect
personalities... And, if they do have any flaws, they are usually so
small that they don't matter. Perfection isn't good, if someone is
perfect, they have no room to grow. Of course, since they are perfect in
every way, every character falls in love with them.
I can't think of
any characters of mine that are like this, although, the character I
mentioned before in the amnesia section may fit into this one too.
4. Unusual colours
By
'unusual colours' I mean eyes or hair that are naturally a weird shade
of pink. Sometimes, the colours change depending on their mood. Usually,
people who have these weird colours for eyes and hair stand out from
the norm because absolutely no one else is like them. Also, a common
trait is heterochromia, but instead of one brown eye and one blue eye,
they have one violet eye and one pink eye. I do have characters with
unusual coloured eyes, but they aren't humans.
Example: Haku, Li
and Jiang have deep purple, emerald green, and topaz orange eyes
respectively. Those aren't unusual colours for their kind.
More
examples: I have two characters that are re-dos of old ones, Flora and
Shafiq. They both have red eyes, but so does everyone else, they aren't
human even though they look like humans.
5. Half Everything
Don't
have a character who is half demon, half human, half dragon, half
angel, etc, etc. For one thing, someone who has both angel blood and
demon blood shouldn't be able to exist unless they wanted to implode,
for another; it doesn't add up to one. If it worked like that, five
hundred different people would be created or something.
If you want
them to be more than half of one thing and half of another, do some
maths and get the fractions right so it all adds up to one. Failing
that, say 'part this' and 'part that'.
The most things I've put into
one person is three things, making them half, quarter and quarter. See? ½
+ ¼ + ¼ = 1, it gets harder the more things you put in though.
Also,
don't put complete opposites into one person. A being who is half demon
and half angel would cancel itself out. It's sort of like (sorry, more
maths) +1 – 1 = 0, nothing is made. How does an angel fall in love with a
demon anyway? (Sorry, I really needed to point that one out.)
Example:
In my current story, Jiang is half eastern elf, half southern elf (yes,
there is a difference between them), east = wood, south = fire. He is
fine because in Wu Xing (the five elements – it's Chinese) fire and wood
are next to each other. There is one pairing that absolutely won't
work, fire and water, if they are full blooded northern and southern
people that is. The parents won't get along at all for one, they
wouldn't have kids in the first place. The only way people from the
north and the south would ever be able to have children together is if
they managed to figure out a way to complement each other, like the
other nations managed to do. If two people, one northener, one
southener, managed to get over their differences and started to
complement each other instead of fight, it would be possible for them to
have children because they aren't great good and great evil getting
together. They're just opposites, and sometimes they can attract. It's
just something to think about.
6. All Powerful
Don't
give one character a billion and one magical powers. It takes away
weaknesses (this one kind of links back to the 'Perfect in Every Way'
section) and, eventually, you start forgetting about the powers that
they possess. Unless there is a reason, don't give them godlike
abilities.
Common powers that get stuffed into one person are: earth,
fire, water, air, telepathy, telekinesis, transformation, time travel,
future sight, teleportation... I think you get the picture. It may be
cool to give your characters awesome powers like these, but having all
of these powers shouldn't be physically possible.
I have fallen prey
to this one before, and I did start to forget about the powers my
character(s) already had. They were overly powerful and didn't seem to
have any weaknesses at all.
Right now, I still have powerful characters but they have their weaknesses.
Example:
Haku can control five elements, heal, calm the dead and transform into a
dog. She may sound powerful at the moment, but since she is from the
north, she is severely weakened by hot, dry environments – such as
deserts, and dehydration. Also, since fire and earth are her natural
opposites, she finds it extremely difficult to control those elements.
Anyone can transform too, people turning into dogs are really common,
and even then, Haku has great difficulty changing back. She can heal
people, but uses her own energy to do so, and absolutely anyone can use
the spells she uses to calm the dead. There are weaknesses for each of
the elements too, if someone who controls fire is drenched with water,
all they create is steam. If people who control water are dehydrated or
can't use the water in the air because there is none, that's their
weakness. Wood people are at a disadvantage if they are in an
environment that doesn't support plant life well. Anyone who controls
metal can't use their power if there isn't metal around, and even then,
if there are magnetic substances are in the area, certain metals can be
extremely difficult to move. Earth people have some trouble with mud and
sand, qi constantly has to be put into these substances so energy is
drained quickly. Also, (I was inspired by Avatar for this one) if they
are restrained, they cannot use any of the elements.
It is extremely important to make sure that each ability has an equal weakness.
7. Clothing
The
style of clothing used in the story usually depends on the time, place
and genre. For example, a steampunk story would allow things like
corsets, but miniskirts would not be something you'd expect as steampunk
is futuristic Victorian era costume.
Skimpy clothing in a Victorian
era story is not a good idea, and neither are pants on a woman, it would
be frowned upon because the fashion was long dresses, as much skin as
possible was covered up. If your story is set in the 1920's (a flapper
for example)or the 1960's then it would be fine to have mini skirts.
It's best to do the research and learn about the clothing of the time and place.
Clothing
preference also depends upon the skin tone of a person; anyone with
pale skin who is prone to sunburn would cover up whereas people with
darker skin tones would tend to expose a bit more skin. It's good to
look at people in real life, how many people a day do you see wandering
around in a mini skirt and a corset? I don't see many people like that,
in summer, people usually wear a pair of shorts and a tank top or a
t-shirt.
Research can actually be fun. I love to look up different
types of clothing and learn about them. If it is fanfiction that you are
writing, look at the types of clothing in the fandom, there are a lot
of things you can do.
8. Weird Marks/Tattoos and Scars
I
must admit, it can be cool to give your characters tattoos and strange
birthmarks. They should have a reason for being there. Birthmarks aren't
unusual, but usually they are just splodges of a darker skin colour
somewhere on the body, if they must have an odd shaped birthmark, have a
really good reason for it.
Example: Haku has a birthmark on her
right shoulder in the shape of the Chinese character for love, the
reason she has it is because it tells people that she is part of the
healing family.
Tattoos are a bit different, sometimes they can
have reasons as to why they are there, but other times, they are just
decorations. Some things can be inappropriate though, a sweet girl
won't have a skull tattooed onto her arm, but a rebel probably would.
Age is also a factor; people under eighteen aren't likely to have any
tattoos whatsoever. Magical tattoos, however, could probably be on
someone younger than eighteen, but again, give a good reason for them
being there.
Example: Haku has her name tattooed on her left arm
near her armpit marking that she has actually been captured by the south
before. Jiang has a tattoo on the back of his left shoulder, it's the
Chinese character for 'tiger' and it hurts every time he thinks about
killing his friends while in his half-tiger form – no he doesn't
actually have tiger blood, it's a magical form.
Obviously, a
person won't have scars unless they've been hurt badly in the past. Not
all wounds make scars though; deep ones are more likely to form scars.
Stitches can as well, but it would depend on the placement, the skin and
how it healed. Bad burns are almost certainly going to make a scar.
Example: Li was burnt when he was six because burning wood fell on his back
9. Names
Unless there is an extremely
good reason, never ever give a character ten names. Usually, they only
need one name; the one that others know them by. Also, do research, if
your story is set somewhere in particular, use names from that region.
Obviously, Japanese people will have Japanese names. English is probably
the exception, we use Hebrew, French, Latin, etc. names, but not
usually Asian or African names unless someone from the family is from
somewhere in Asia or Africa.
There are also different ways that names
can be arranged. In western countries, the order of names is 1st, 2nd,
last. In countries like China and Japan, the last name goes before the
first name, which can make it fairly confusing sometimes.
Example:
(There is probably only one of these in any of my stories) Feng Jiang,
he is a noble, which is why he has two names, and his last name is
placed before his first name since the story is based on eastern
cultures.
10. Romance
Unless you are writing a
romance novel, not every character has to fall in love with yours
(sometimes, not even then). No one instantly falls in love with someone,
they develop crushes a lot of the time, but they don't often act on
these crushes. There are also things that may keep someone falling in
love with another person: (a) the other character is already in a strong
relationship, (b) the other character is gay and your character is of
the opposite sex, (c) the villain may see the character as
beautiful/handsome, but they are still enemies and the relationship
won't work.
In real life there may be one person who looks really
beautiful and is probably talented in everything, but they have horrible
personalities which will put a lot of people off. Also, in real life,
people won't respect you much is you have lots of different
relationships, you'll be called names because of it.
There doesn't
always have to be a love interest either, pairing your character up
isn't really necessary. It is also hard to do if you have never been in a
real relationship.
I'm no authority on love, but I do know that no
single person is able to walk into a room and make everyone look at
them, instantly make them fall head-over-heels in love with them and
confess their undying love, it just never happens.
Give your
character one main love interest (yes, main, because they are likely to
have crushes and maybe even short relationships too, but no really
serious relationships with one or two other people). Either that or
don't bother with a love interest at all, it may be easier that way.
So there you have it, a list of tips on how to avoid making a Mary-Sue. I hope this helps.
