Designing Your Character & Other Handy Things 2

Mary Sue Traits

We want our heroes to be better than us.

That's why we read "escapist" fiction like adventure stories, superhero comics, and epic fantasy. We love to see larger-than-life characters having incredible adventures and performing superhuman feats of heroism. They always save the day, always make the right choice, and always do the right thing.

Why do we love it?

Because it's fun, that's why.

So of course, when you sit down to write your novel, you want your protagonist to be just as heroic as your own favorite fictional characters. He'll be pure of heart. He'll have special powers nobody else has, and he'll use them to fight evil. He'll be handsome and funny and amazing and whatever he does, and everybody will love him because he's just so dang cool. Right?

Well, no. Congratulations: you've just created a Mary Sue.

Wait, What's a Mary Sue?
This is what happens when a hero is too heroic—to pure, too powerful, too overwhelmingly good.

A Mary Sue is an over-idealized and seemingly-flawless fictional character, one often recognized as either a self-insertion character for the author, or a vessel for wish fulfillment.

These characters are often physically beautiful, exceptionally skilled, and universally admired—but only within the confines of the story.

Readers, on the other hand, usually hate these characters, and with good reason. They're bland, "snowflake-y," and pretty insufferable to read about or listen to.

In fact, the label of "Mary Sue" is often used synonymously with "bad character," even if the original definition was a little more specific than that.

It's hard for writers to be hard on our characters, to tell them no or make them suffer or give them flaws. Like proud, doting mothers, we want them to be our perfect children who can do no wrong. We want them to be successful. We want to spoil them, and we want readers to love them. Heck, we might even want them to inherent some of our own qualities. But unfortunately, this type of attitude often leads to the creation of a Mary Sue.


What Does a Mary Sue Look Like?

A "Mary Sue" is either a female or male (sometimes called a "Gary Stu") character who embodies the perfect hero/heroine. Often, she is an idealized version of the author herself. Mary Sues are usually beautiful, talented, have few or no flaws, and are loved by everyone.

The problem is, all this is bestowed upon them without them having to "earn" it. They are effortlessly beautiful; they have special abilities or prodigy-like skills they don't have to work to develop; other characters want to be their friends or lovers or lavish them with admiration without them doing anything to deserve it. Not only is this unrealistic, but it serves to irritate the reader and often turn her against the Mary Sue.

As for examples of Mary Sues, it's been argued that characters like Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Rey, Superman, Eragon, Bella Swan, and Edward Cullen fall into this character type.

How to Tell if You've Written a Mary Sue

Now, the definition of a "proper" Mary Sue has expanded, changed, split, and morphed a great deal since the concept was first introduced. Because of this, arguments over whether certain characters are Mary Sues or not can still start trashfire arguments on fan forums all over the internet.

It's important to note that no one of these qualities alone maketh a Mary Sue, nor do all Mary Sue characters possess all of these qualities. The unhappy medium is somewhere in the middle there, and it'll take your authorial intuition to figure out the answer for yourself.

Mary Sue Signs and Solutions

Sometimes–especially if you're new to writing stories–you might create a Mary Sue without realizing it. But with a little bit of work you can re-shape your character into one with much more depth and realism.

Below are warning signs of a Mary Sue and how to fix them. Note that if your character fits one or two of these categories, that doesn't mean they're a Mary Sue. The real trouble comes when your character fits a bunch or all of these categories. So don't panic if your character has a special talent or is a chosen one!

1. Beautiful, Yet Plain

A Mary Sue usually sees herself as plain or average, but really she's beautiful or even gorgeous. Guys don't fail to take notice, and her friends and family reassure her of her beauty even as she laments about how plain she is. Often, she'll have a special hair or eye color to make her more unique, or exotic features.This is one of the most universally agreed-upon traits that define this type of character. Mary Sues are stunning—no matter who they are or what happens to them over the course of the story, they always look and smell like a vase of roses.

Their physical attractiveness will often be one of the first things we learn about the character, and will be described as though it's a personality trait and not a physical quality. Secondary characters will comment constantly on a Mary Sue's beauty, either out of lust or jealousy, but no matter what, the large majority of the people in her life will admire her for how she looks.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having physically attractive characters in your story. That's why Hollywood is full of beautiful people—we like our heroes pretty.

What makes a Mary Sue a Mary Sue is that her looks are downright impossible—or at least, highly unlikely. A Mary Sue might be an "unkempt beauty" who always looks great despite the wear-and-tear of adventuring.

Or she might possess physical traits that seem out of place: perfect teeth and skin in a famine-stricken kingdom, for instance. A fall that would seriously injure another character only leaves a Mary Sue with superficial scratches or scars that, against all odds, only make him more attractive.

Solution: Try to avoid words/phrases that describe characters as beautiful/handsome unless it's important to their character or the story. Also, if it's not important don't give your heroine gold or violet eyes in an attempt to make her more unique. Not only do these colors not exist in real life, but I feel like it screams trying to hard to make the hero "special."

Now, when you're describing a love interest through the eyes of the character who loves them, it's fine to be more biased about looks because of course when you love someone you're going to be attracted to them! But don't go crazy with it. Try to avoid creating a cast of supermodels.

2. Talented

A Mary Sue is extremely talented, often in more than one area. She doesn't have to work at her skill, it just comes to her naturally.

This doesn't mean that you can't give your hero a talent. It's good for heroes to have a strength, and in real life people usually have something they're really good at. But it's usually one thing, and they have to work very hard at it. Often, there are others who are better at it than they are.

Try to limit your hero's talent to one thing, make him work for the skill, and consider not making him best person in the world at it. Also, offset his talent by showing other areas in which he struggles. For example, he may be good with a sword but can't shoot a bow to save his life.