Website review: Write Characters, Not Mary Sues | B...
RockStories discovered this in Writing
•17 reviews since Jul 14, 2007
writing
•bethanyharvey.com/blog/posts/2007/07/write-ch...
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RockStories discovered 13 months ago- Bethany Harvey describes herself as an aspiring author, but she gives advice and dishes up insights like a pro. Anyone writing fiction should take the time to read this piece...and then start digging through the archives.
- fikcio rated 11 months ago
- Most of these decalogues bore the fuck out of me. This litany is no exception:
- Let your protagonist be ugly.
- Give other characters their own lives.
- Let your protagonist fuck up.
- Don't overdo the angst.
- Your protagonist's skills should be believable.
- Don't shelter the characters you like.
- Most of these decalogues bore the fuck out of me. This litany is no exception:
- Darque rated 11 months ago
- Interesting to note that, following this author's advice, we wouldn't have Harry Potter, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt, Lara Croft...
But the author still has a good point. As a Storyteller, I've had players come to me with a million bad ideas for characters. The angst-filled, tragic past that produces a brooding hero; the brilliant, perfectly mannered, fencing librarian; all Mary Sue and Gary Stu variations. I liked characters with flaws and normalities - horrible mistakes that they just couldn't bring themselves to live up to, shockingly mundane family lives, whatever it took to get the player to think of the character as a real person, even if the person happens to be undead.
Just don't assume that a "Mary Sue" book can't be interesting, even a great read - there's a reason cliches live long enough to become cliches, and that's because, more often than not, they work. - Interesting to note that, following this author's advice, we wouldn't have Harry Potter, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt, Lara Croft...
- Mayamoi rated 11 months ago
- This is perhaps the best advice I've seen on writing. It shows you how to avoid what I believe is one of the easiest ditches a writer can fall into.
- philigran rated 11 months ago
- This isn't a tip, this isn't even advice. If your story is a Mary Sue story, you simply have nothing to say. And you probably should give up writing.
- sp0ntane0us rated 12 months ago
- Good writing tips.
- jaloka rated 12 months ago
- This advice could be used in the development of whole plots, as well. Mary Sue novel.
- askjosh rated 12 months ago
- [Writing]the miss Perfect character, is rubbish.
- siteinsights rated 12 months ago
- Great advice... Worth a read to any aspiring writer.
