Hello all.I'm trying to complete the rewrite of Sterkarm Tryst, and I've had to ask for an extension on the deadline. I now have until February 2nd.
I'm enjoying the rewrite, as I always do - but I've got to get the head down, no messing about.
So, instead of a new blog, here's something I came across...The Mary Sue Test.
I found the link to it in the Kindle edition of the book, Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders, by Susanne Alleyn - a sort of aid to writers of historical fiction, which is as amusing as it is informative.
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| Medieval Underpants - Alleyn |
What's a 'Mary Sue?'
Well, to quote Wikipedia (which Susanne Alleyn, I'm glad to say, tells us is 'our friend'):
The term "Mary Sue" comes from the name of a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale"[ published in her fanzine Menagerie #2. The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old"), and satirized unrealistic Star Trek fan fiction. Such characters were generally female adolescents who had romantic liaisons with established canonical adult characters, or in some cases were the younger relatives or protégées of those characters. By 1976 Menagerie's editors stated that they disliked such characters, saying:
Mary Sue stories—the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever get a commission at such a tender age. Usually characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling. This character can also be found burrowing her way into the good graces/heart/mind of one of the Big Three [Kirk, Spock, and McCoy], if not all three at once. She saves the day by her wit and ability, and, if we are lucky, has the good grace to die at the end, being grieved by the entire ship."Mary Sue" today has changed from its original meaning and now carries a generalized, although not universal, connotation of wish-fulfillment and is commonly associated with self-insertion. True self-insertion is a literal and generally undisguised representation of the author; most characters described as "Mary Sues" are not, though they are often called "proxies" for the author. The negative connotation comes from this "wish-fulfillment" implication: the "Mary Sue" is judged as a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting.
Mr. Spock
Although, originally, the term applied exclusively to Sci-Fi and Fantasy characters, Alleyn warns writers of historical fantasy against Mary-Sue-ism. For instance, don't create a female character who lives in Tudor England but is really a poorly disguised expression of the author's wish to wear a fab-u-lous dress-up costume, without engaging with the reality of women's lives in the 16th Century. A character who is, in every way, except for her clothes, a 21st Century product of Western culture.
The Mary-Sue test itself is here -
I've amused myself in odd moments by running a few of my characters through it - including Per and Andrea from the Sterkarm novels - and am relieved to report that neither came out as Mary-Sues. (And I was honest, honest!)
