How To Get Rid Of Mary Sue

I wanted to write an article about Mary Sues and how to repair them.

There's a topic I'd like to address today that I feel is pretty important. At one point or another in all our writing careers we are guilty of this cliched faux pa but I've found that the term has become more derogatory than it ought to be seen as.

Of course I'm talking about Mary Sue's and their masculine counterparts Gary Stu's.

To be honest up until a few months ago I had never even heard of the term! I spent a lot of time researching them and found many, many articles about how to identify a Mary Sue character but never really many to help create original characters from these bases. Now for those of you who have no idea what a Mary Sue is here is Wikipedia's Definition (Note: I chose Wikipedia's definition because it seemed the most concise):

"A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author and/or reader."

Around the internet there are quizzes that a writer can take to help them identify Mary Sue characters but I feel that there are just so very many traits that just about any character, from Huck Finn to Harry Potter, could be considered a Mary Sue. I found in my research there are 3 particular traits that define this type of character.

First of all Mary Sue has a horrible past that is either hunting her, haunts her or is a part of her. These I typically call Bleeding Heart Tales.

Second, Mary Sue is a lot like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.

That brings me to my final trait. Mary Sue is an optimist and for good reason..she always wins. Be it saving the world, solving a riddle, or getting the guy...Mary Sue ALWAYS wins.

So--now that we have our criteria let's start to look further into these traits to better understand why they appear in our characters.

Bleeding Heart Tales

BHTs are so easy to fall into! No really! Think back on a few of the characters you've created...how many of those characters have a backstory that would break your heart? A parent dies? Both parents die? Abandoned? The "last of their kind"? Or even some great cataclysmic herald of their birth leaving them to be raised by grandparents, surrogate parents or even wolves?

The question: Why do we write Bleeding Heart Tales?
The answer: We love stories where the main character comes from heartache and through hard work, a little luck, and good friends they triumph. Case in point Harry Potter. His parents died when he was a baby, he's raised in a hostile environment but eventually finds good friends and a place where he can be accepted.

A not-so famous example I'm going to give though is a character of my own I'll call Betty. I've had Betty almost 8 years now, she is one of my first original characters and while I have grown she's grown with me but unfortunately she's never grown out of her BHT.

Betty's mother was killed when she was just 6 by a radical group following her mother and father. Still just age six Betty's father took her to live with her grandmother, abandoning her there without another word. They wouldn't see each other for 10 more years and finally reunited her father is killed--on her birthday no less.

Writing it out myself I realize what a BHT I've written but Betty has grown beyond the Mary Sue image (I've made sure of that!).

Sometimes a back story doesn't need tragedy at all! It's absolutely fine to have a character who came from a "normal", stable household with their mom and dad (or mom and mom or dad and dad) in place and maybe even a sibling or two. Leave some of the tragedy for the story ahead that the reader has to dive into to absorb on impact in time with your character.

Practically Absolutely Perfect, In Every Way

This is something that Betty thankfully was saved from in the very beginning. Mary Sue's are notorious for appearing 'perfect' in every aspect of the word. They are always the smartest, the fastest, the prettiest and the sexiest. They seemingly can do no wrong!

WRONG! Dear GOD wrong! There is nothing interesting about being perfect...in my experience simply TRYING to write an absolutely 'perfect' character made me so bored I stopped halfway through.

There is something about the flaws of a character that make them appear more realistic both in the world you're creating on the page, as well as to the reader observing them. A haughty thief who gets caught in a heist is much more interesting than the adorable bandit who slips away with a wheelbarrow full of gold by simply grinning at the guards.

Some good classic flaws are Pride (oh I KNOW I'm better than you), Sexism (anything he/she can do, I can do better), Cowardice (screw you guys I'm goin' home), and any one of the 6 other deadly sins since I already mentioned Pride. (The other sins are: Greed, Envy, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, and Sloth). These are classic embodiments of human beings and they remind us that our hero is not infallible and could very well lose their lives due to such a flaw.

Don't be afraid to give your character flaws but on the same coin don't bury your character in them either. The last thing we need is another angsty teenage 'hero/heroine' who is angry at the world, lusts after the love interest while eating KFC by the bucket and running away from the villain when problems arise. It's a thin line to walk but it can be done!

Mary Sue Always Wins...ALWAYS

So here we are at the root of the problem! While everyone roots for the hero or heroine to defeat their mortal enemy there's a certain way to go about it. The lead character can't just storm in, guns-a-blazing, and somehow manage to take out all the goons and bodyguards (without receiving a scratch by the way) to have an epic last stand with their enemy.

Half the fun of the fight is writing the build up. The dramatic approach to the hideout. The decision of a stealthy entry versus an all out assault. The surprises that catch our hero off guard and the possibility of capture are all great suspense tools. To simply ignore them because Mary Sue is too pretty (and can easily charm all the guards to not only let her by but also follow her into battle) seems like a cheap cop out.

Now this idea is not only used in massive, epic battles but in everyday situations.

It is impossible for someone to win all the time. Ask anyone! There are going to be bad days and there are going to be good days no matter what you do. However in the Mary Sue realm everyday is a lucky day. She finds exactly who she needs who happens to know exactly what she needs and where to find it, or wouldn't you know it--they happen to have that very-rare-hard-to-find item on hand! That'd be like someone coming into my place of work and offering me a few million dollars so I never have to work again. Common sense tells us immediately the likelihood of this is so microscopic it ought not exist at all.

At last--the solution: Really, the best way to rid yourself of the ultimate 'I-Win' is to prepare yourself. I find it helpful to use an outline of my plot. You don't have to limit yourself to the standard A, B, C set up. I often use a very free form version detailing scenes that strike me as interesting. This is also a great way to pace your story, offering up twists and plot devices where it's appropriate. When it comes to a particular scene that you aren't sure about write the scene, then stop and think about it. Would this situation occur in real life? Is it time-period/fantasy realm appropriate? How likely is it that my readers are going to believe this?

Well my friends, we have outlined common traits in Mary Sue characters and even offered up a few simple solutions to fix them. However now we get a little more serious...

Mary Sues, while sometimes annoying in literature, are not bad.

Now someone out there is thinking 'Oh but you just spent all that time telling me how to fix Mary Sues'. Yes, that's true, because they are a cheap cop out and dumb down a writer's talent. It is inevitable to create a character in our own likeness. After all we write what we know and when creating someone we tend to fall back on ourselves as our guide.

This in itself isn't bad until you start to look at yourself how you wish you could be, rather than seeing yourself as you are. This is how Mary Sues are born! So it's alright to write yourself into a story--if you can remember yourself as you truly are, flaws and all.

I hope this little article has been of some use and I know I sure enjoyed writing it!

Author's Note

Please tell me if this is helpful at all?