Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 16: The Anti-Mary Sue Episode
Sep 13, 2009
Debut author John Brown discusses avoiding self-insertion in writing, known as the 'Mary Sue' concept. The hosts explore crafting unique character voices, developing distinct characters, and creating the 'Anti-Mary Sue' character by drawing inspiration from diverse individuals.
17:43
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Quick takeaways
- Creating characters with distinct attributes helps avoid self-insertion and the Mary Sue phenomenon.
- To maintain character individuality, writers should immerse themselves in various perspectives and set rules for character traits.
Deep dives
Understanding Mary Sue Characters
A Mary Sue character is when an author inserts themselves into the book as a character, usually blatantly not necessarily by name. It's considered an insult when someone points out a Mary Sue character in a work, suggesting that the author is fulfilling their wishes through this character by making them all-powerful and omnipotent. To avoid this, authors should create characters with different viewpoints and attributes to prevent them from all sounding the same or resembling the author.
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