You know I would have something to say about this, me of the flagellation-read-the-bad-fic-and-take-the-consequences-for-my-sanity masochistic urges. But once upon a time, I was a new writer, too. I wrote plenty of Mary Sue-ish characters. Here are some of the highlights to chart my steady improvement in this category:
Elizabeth Something-Something, a mutant girl with orange eyes whose mother took in a runaway Remy Lebeau. It was dreadful, it was cliched, and Rogue showed up as her college roommate at the end, but I repeate myself, don't I? Better that she say under the shit pile.
Twice now, I've written stories featuring OTHER PEOPLE'S Mary Sues. One was X-Men related, with a twin sister for Rogue who, not surprisingly, was like better by Raven, able to control her powers, was liked better by Gambit, and wore a costume alike in design but different in ONE color from Rogues. Also, her hair stripe was silver, not white, WHICH TOTALLY MAKES HER TEH ORIGINAL. The other was a modest improvement whereby I incorporated MIchelle's role-play Matrix character into a story I never finished where Trinity got bonked on the head and woke up ten years later to find herself the same age and Neo married to this other girl. I say 'improvement' because the girl wasn't perfect, but it's not much better because it still fell prey to all the MAtrix fanfic cliches, whereby Trinity was pregnant, Morpheus used the same lines over and over and over because he has no other script, apparently, and the real world WASN'T REAL AFTER ALL! OMG! At least I can claim that the people whose mary sues I wrote thought I was a good writer, but yeah, wtf mate?
Libra (she had other names), captian of [name ship] from a Matrix mailing list. In her first incarnation, as Lynx or something, she was tough as nails and crazy as shit. I think she had a lightsabre (oh for uber geekiness of 1999!). In her next incarnation, as Libra, I got into serious fights with this one list person who ALSO had a Mary Sue, this one a villain not ingeniously named "The Adversary." Libra was crazier still, but she was easily wounded as she tended to over-extend herself. I though I scored major cool points for having her break her leg in the fight and jerk it back into place. Majorly lame. Just anoter 'oh, if you make her soooo cool people will have to like her.' wrong.
One story I wrote back in the Mary Sue days was totally about an OC, also Matrix related, whereby a guy who thought he was the One found out he wasn't and had to live with disappointment after being so sure. Like a Mary Sue, he had powers beyond those of mortal men, but I tried to make it seem like his powers weren't that great and were no more impressive than the parlor tricks pulled off by non-superhuman people/programs in the Matrix. I don't think it worked, and I did want pity for him, but not from a main character. His story ended with him pitying Neo--being the One blows, yo--so I think it was okay, but I'm probably wrong.
Since then I've used OCs sparingly, a reactionary response to my Mary Sue days and my increasing awareness and hatred of them. Most OCs are there to serve a function rather than a fantasy--in large casts of characters, they are the supporting players, in smaller casts, they are sought out for a purpose and absorbed or rebuffed. Generally, I don't like stories that feature OCs as the central character and the world built up around them. Writing about Joe Schmoe who happens to be an exorcist (to put this in language you'll appreciate, Miss Ivy) is fantastic, but are people looking for some hot Chastine (I hate you for telling me this exists, I hate you, I hate you) action going to care what the rest of the world is doing in that universe? Almost never.
Preaching to the converted, not the choir...
Elizabeth Something-Something, a mutant girl with orange eyes whose mother took in a runaway Remy Lebeau. It was dreadful, it was cliched, and Rogue showed up as her college roommate at the end, but I repeate myself, don't I? Better that she say under the shit pile.
Twice now, I've written stories featuring OTHER PEOPLE'S Mary Sues. One was X-Men related, with a twin sister for Rogue who, not surprisingly, was like better by Raven, able to control her powers, was liked better by Gambit, and wore a costume alike in design but different in ONE color from Rogues. Also, her hair stripe was silver, not white, WHICH TOTALLY MAKES HER TEH ORIGINAL. The other was a modest improvement whereby I incorporated MIchelle's role-play Matrix character into a story I never finished where Trinity got bonked on the head and woke up ten years later to find herself the same age and Neo married to this other girl. I say 'improvement' because the girl wasn't perfect, but it's not much better because it still fell prey to all the MAtrix fanfic cliches, whereby Trinity was pregnant, Morpheus used the same lines over and over and over because he has no other script, apparently, and the real world WASN'T REAL AFTER ALL! OMG! At least I can claim that the people whose mary sues I wrote thought I was a good writer, but yeah, wtf mate?
Libra (she had other names), captian of [name ship] from a Matrix mailing list. In her first incarnation, as Lynx or something, she was tough as nails and crazy as shit. I think she had a lightsabre (oh for uber geekiness of 1999!). In her next incarnation, as Libra, I got into serious fights with this one list person who ALSO had a Mary Sue, this one a villain not ingeniously named "The Adversary." Libra was crazier still, but she was easily wounded as she tended to over-extend herself. I though I scored major cool points for having her break her leg in the fight and jerk it back into place. Majorly lame. Just anoter 'oh, if you make her soooo cool people will have to like her.' wrong.
One story I wrote back in the Mary Sue days was totally about an OC, also Matrix related, whereby a guy who thought he was the One found out he wasn't and had to live with disappointment after being so sure. Like a Mary Sue, he had powers beyond those of mortal men, but I tried to make it seem like his powers weren't that great and were no more impressive than the parlor tricks pulled off by non-superhuman people/programs in the Matrix. I don't think it worked, and I did want pity for him, but not from a main character. His story ended with him pitying Neo--being the One blows, yo--so I think it was okay, but I'm probably wrong.
Since then I've used OCs sparingly, a reactionary response to my Mary Sue days and my increasing awareness and hatred of them. Most OCs are there to serve a function rather than a fantasy--in large casts of characters, they are the supporting players, in smaller casts, they are sought out for a purpose and absorbed or rebuffed. Generally, I don't like stories that feature OCs as the central character and the world built up around them. Writing about Joe Schmoe who happens to be an exorcist (to put this in language you'll appreciate, Miss Ivy) is fantastic, but are people looking for some hot Chastine (I hate you for telling me this exists, I hate you, I hate you) action going to care what the rest of the world is doing in that universe? Almost never.