I Think I May Have Created a Monster

Mary Sue, sometimes shortened simply to Sue, is a pejorative term used to describe a fictional character who plays a major role in the plot and is particularly characterized by overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".
"Mary Sues" can be either male or female, but male characters are often dubbed "Marty Stu", "Gary Stu", or similar names.[1] While the label "Mary Sue" itself originates from a parody of this type of character, most characters labeled "Mary Sues" by readers are not intended by authors as such.

So spake the great Wikipedia. I was reading the descriptions of various Mary Sue characteristics on Tropes.com the other day when I was struck with a horrible realization. I have written a Mary Sue.

I swear, it was entirely unintentional. Then again, it usually is. At the age of fifteen I began to write a story.

• Of course, it was fantasy set in a Medieval-ish world and the main character was fifteen years old.


• Beautiful, smart, a powerful magic user, and actually hundreds of years old.


• No one could beat her in a fight or argument.


• She always knew what to do in any situation.


• Always cheerful even though her Past haunted her.


• Of course, she was a master sword fighter.


• Supermodel looks. Exotic, supermodel looks. Purple eyes with gold and green in them, namely.


• Even though the story was technically about three girls new to their magical powers everything turned out to be about HER.

Oh, yeah, her name was Vanessa. Drakesin. That she chose the name herself probably says something about the character/author/me.

Any event that occurred in the story she could deal with her right hand tied bed her back (she was probably ambidextrous, too) and without breaking a sweat. The only reason any other characters got any action was because Vanessa had to go off on convoluted quests for vague reasons. Her quests usually ended up being more important.

Fifteen is just too young to have a Tragic Past, so while she looked (and effectively was) fifteen she was actually a powerful enchantress centuries and centuries old. In the past she had saved the world on multiple occasions. People even talk about her previous incarnations. Usually she was around, grinning smugly in the background when they discussed this.

Her actual strength and power was poorly defined as: anything-that-needs-doing-or-that-the-author-ever-wanted-to-do. And do it better than anyone else. Little teacher's pet.

It has been several years since I created this evil and I have rewritten her story several times. However, the vestiages of her Mary Sue-ness still lingers. I recognized her in almost every Mary Sue catagory listed online. I do think the character has improved, however. She is no longer omnipotent, for one, and she is often wrong about things. Other characters get equal amounts of spotlight. I think Vanessa has stopped being my exclusive favorite.

I was reading through the story just recently and realized how much my writing skills have improved. The characters actually feel like real people sometimes. I also realized that several of the best characters reflect certain aspects of my own personality.

I'm not talking bravery, intelligence, or that sort of thing, either. The most obvious example is the character Selina whoe is constant Silly Mode. The kind when you're with your friends and you do very silly things to make each other laugh. It's so funny everyone does sillier and sillier things. Selina acts like that, only she is being serious. And she never stops. Ever.

Also, Vanessa's last name is Jackson now. Vanessa Jackson. Much better. She still has Mary Sue eyes. I quote myself:
"She had these amazing eyes, something like hazel, but with purple instead of blue and amber sprinkled at the edges. "
That won't make the final cut. We'll take it down to hazel, shall we? I didn't even realize that was still in there until I checked just now. I had been writing under the assumption that her eyes were hazel for a while now.

I blame Eragon. I was writing before I read it, but after I did it caused delusions. If this guy could write this epic book at the age of fifteen, then so could I. If Eragon could do everything, so could my character.
Hurm. I think the author is about my age now. Maybe older. His latest book proves that he still can't write. Darn good thing my parents weren't publishers. His were. Thus, got published. And, apparently, decided he didn't need to learn anything else about writing.