How to Spot Mary Sue in Your Writing

Photo credit: Graham Blackall on Flickr
If you've been a writer for any amount of time, I'm sure you've heard of the infamous Mary Sue and her brother Gary (or Larry) Stu. It's an evil name in the writing world as heinous as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named that makes every writer tremble in fear. 

Ok, so maybe not quite, but Mary Sue is a conniving little character that likes to slip into the unsuspecting writer's work, and if you aren't careful, you may fall victim to her sneaky ways as well. 


For those of you who don't know, according to Wikipedia (who had the best definition I could find), Mary Sue is "a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. It is generally accepted as a character whose positive aspects overwhelm their other traits until they become one-dimensional." As I've already posted in the past about character flaws and mistakes, I'm going to focus on the wish-fulfillment/self-insertion bit. 


As new writers often haven't developed their Mary Sue radar yet, they tend to find Mary Sues cropping up in their writing most often. And it's not difficult to understand why it's so easy to accidentally write a Mary Sue into your work—as writers, we spend a lot of time trying to create new characters and get to know them, and sometimes as we get to know them, we start to realize that they remind us of...well...ourselves. What's worse, sometimes writers don't realize they've created a Mary Sue until halfway through the first draft (or even after the first draft is completed). 


Good news is there are warning signs that can tip you off to the possibility of a Mary Sue hiding in your writing that are relatively easy to recognize so that you can stop the invasion before it's too late. 


The Warning Signs: 


  • You agree with everything your MC says, thinks and does. Always agreeing with your protagonist is a HUGE red flag. That's not to say that you shouldn't be able to justify their actions (you should), but if you don't disagree with your protagonist every once in a while, chances are you've been writing a character that's a tad too reminiscent of you. 
  • You share the same strengths and flaws. Writing is often about balance, and there's nothing wrong with a writer sharing a couple strengths or flaws with their characters—that's natural, even. But if you're a perfectionist and a compulsive liar with a sharp tongue and quick wit and your protagonist is a quick-witted compulsive liar who also happens to be a perfectionist, then I hate to break it to you, but you may have just written yourself into your novel. 
  • You share the same strengths and your protagonist doesn't have any flaws. Please see point two and this post

My point is this: as writers we spend a lot of time in our character's heads—we live and breathe our stories until our characters feel as real as our family members and closest friends, but we are not our characters. The moment you start to suspect that you may have fictionalized yourself, chances are you probably have.


If you're a writer, have you ever written a Mary Sue or Gary Stu into your writing? What steps did you take to fix it?

20 comments:

Daniel Swensen said...

Don't forget the fascinating eyes of some unusual color... often a big red Mary Sue flag.


I used to have a huge problem with this, so I just started making protagonists that are as unlike me as humanly possible. :)

Chihuahua Zero said...

Have you seen the TV Tropes definition of Mary Sue?


Another definition of Mary Sue (since the term is so wide in scale) involves a character that unrealistically dominates the story. As in, there's no challenge for her.

Ava Jae said...

Ah yes...I think I've talked before about the eye-obsession issue. Many of us just love those eyes...


I also found that writing protagonists that are as unlike me as I can manage is a great way to fight off the Mary Sues. As an added bonus, they tend to be pretty interesting to write, as writing Mary Sues can get boring pretty quickly.

Ava Jae said...

There are definitely a lot of definitions for Mary Sue as it tends to cover a wide variety of character issues. I haven't seen the TV Tropes definition, but I understand what you mean by the dominating-story type. There's a reason even Superman has kryptonite...

EB_Black said...

I haven't written a Mary Sue, but sometimes I struggle with the opposite. Writing characters with flaws that make people hate them. Ugh, I hate when that happens. I'm trying to fix one right now. She's nothing like me, but I don't hate her, but I've already had one beta reader tell me she does hate my main character. So difficult!

Angel King said...

OMG, save me from violet eyes!

Ava Jae said...

That's interesting. I can't say I've experienced that myself, but like anything else, character flaws need to be balanced with positive traits so they don't become overwhelming. On the other hand, I wouldn't worry too much about someone disliking your character unless you started getting consistent feedback from many beta readers who all said the same thing.

Ava Jae said...

lol, the violet eyes?

Hildred Billings said...

Related to one of your points, but a great tell is when you give your characters flaws but...they're not a problem - in fact, they're meant to make the character endearing. I always think of most of the Mary-Sues I know off the top of my head (Bella from Twilight and Usagi from Sailor Moon). They're both super super clumsy but it's ~adorable~ and in no way actually detracts from their character and just gets annoying. Ugh.

And kinda unrelated, but there is the fun of writing yourself in as a cameo. ;) (As long as it's not overdone, ofc.)

Margaret Alexander said...

So much win in this post. I swear I heard "Edward Cullen" in the back of my head when you described a Gary Stu. Perfectionist? Why, yes, I am. My character? Erm...she's kinda too busy to worry about nit-picky details. But when she makes a mistake she just brushes it off and tries another strategy. Meanwhile, I have a panic attack. Compulsive liar? Not compulsive, but she can lie well when she has to. I can't lie for the death of me. I get all giggly and sweaty. It's gross. Quick witted? Why, yes, she is. It takes me about 30 minutes to think of a comeback. Do I pass??

I have to agree with EB_Black, it's sometimes more difficult not to write characters that are too flawed. But as long as they're on their way to redeeming (or destroying) themselves, I say that still makes them realistic. What's important is to give them room to develop.

Vicki Orians said...

It is really easy to write a Mary Sue. I think that's why I've heard people say you should never write someone who's too much like you.

James Anderson said...

I think all writers fall prey every now and again to writing themselves into their manuscripts. All characters are derived from an author's experience. We are all flawed, and if a balance of our positive traits and flaws are struck then the character that is like us is as 3 dimensional as we are. It becomes a problem however when, as the Wikipedia definition point, our character becomes a vehicle of the authors wish fulfillment. Adding in traits that we wish we had, or adding in only our positives and none of our negatives. That is when the character becomes unrealistic and too good to be true.

Ava Jae said...

That's a good expansion of the points--flaws are useless if they aren't at least somewhat of a problem. The clumsiness one is a "flaw" I've seen a couple times, and while it's not necessarily an issue if it's paired with other real flaws, if that's the only flaw...more times than not, it barely counts.


Also, I've never written myself in as a cameo, but I have to admit it sounds kind of fun.

Ava Jae said...

To be honest, I wasn't thinking of any specific characters when I wrote this post, but I think it's funny that you're the second person to mention a Twilight character. As for whether or not your character passes, only you really know just how similar you are to your MC. :)


I think you hit the nail on the head with your last sentence--not every character necessarily has to change over the course of a story, but the ones who do truly become much more dynamic, realistic and (IMO) interesting.

Ava Jae said...

It's ridiculously easy to write a Mary Sue. But in my experience, anyway, I've found that it's infinitely more interesting to write characters who are entirely different from you--so it's a win-win if you do.

Ava Jae said...

I agree that wish-fulfillment is the main issue when it comes to writing characters that are too similar to us. The other problem, similar to the one you mentioned, is when you include your negative traits, but soften them so they're not really a problem (similar to what Hildred mentioned below with the clumsiness "flaw").

Kara said...

Can I ask a question? What if the unusual eye colour is directly related to the plot, not just because they are fascinating. Do you still think that's too Mary-sue like?

Robin Red said...

I created a world where most civilized people are honest with each other, and it's like I imprinted my philosophies on them. After some revisions, the protagonist of my WIP is no longer a Mary-Sue. Giving her a power-hungry trait that puts her in danger definitely added a darker dimension to her character.

Robin Red said...

Double-posting! When I rarely create a male protagonist, he is never brutishly strong and buff and terribly handsome nor is he the "life of the party", because I'm not buff and terribly handsome-- but I am the life of the party ;) Oddly enough, I might try that archetype. Making all of my male protagonists so emotional or angsty, it's a bad pattern. Maybe I need to try the stereotypical manly-man hero, knowing I'll end up subconsciously giving him the flaws I gave to my noodle-heroes (that's what I'm calling them now) and creating a great, three-dimensional character.

Robin Red said...

I have done this before. Cameos are a secret passion ^_^

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