Homepage › Tutorials › Writing › How to Avoid Creating a Mary Sue

How to Avoid Creating a Mary Sue

What is a Mary Sue? One of the main fears of a writer is creating a Mary Sue.A Mary Sue is a character, most commonly seen in fan-fiction, who is highly favored by the author.

A stereotypical Mary Sue also lacks notable flaws, has an uncommon name or an unusual spelling of a common name, and has some sort of relationship with the established canon character(s).

However, avoiding creating a Mary Sue character is easy if you keep a few things in mind.

The Name

A common hallmark of a Mary Sue character is an unusual name, or an uncommon spelling of a more common name. Also, in the case of an author surrogate, a name similar to yours, your nickname, or the name you wish you had.

Many resources exist for finding the meaning of names and tracking their popularity over time. A good resource for finding names is BabyNames. This website has names organized by first letter or popularity by year. The "advanced search" option allows you to search for names by gender, meaning, origin, and number of syllables.

Another website for finding the popularity of names is the SSA baby names rankings. This website has the top 1,000 names for every year since 1880 up until 2009. Figure out how old your character is, calculate their birth year, and go to the website.

The Character's Appearance

A Mary Sue character's appearance can go one of two ways.

Example of scenario one (usually found in an author surrogate or self-insert character): This character's hair is the same shade of brown as yours. Her eyes are the same shade of hazel, and her skin is the exact same tone. Are you two twins or what?

Example of scenario two (usually found in the wish-fulfillment character): This character's eyes are purple, with some blue flecks. Her hair is long, fiery red, and curled into perfect little ringlets. Her skin is silky-smooth and flawless. Wait, isn't this what YOU wish you looked like?

A good way to avoid this rut of Mary Sue-ness is to take physical qualities from your friends and blend them together.

Say one of your friends has dimples, and another has long, thin fingers that you like. You can use this to form the basis of your character's appearance.

Character Flaws

Another common thing in a Mary Sue is a notable lack of flaws. Just a word of kind advice, having scars and being clumsy are NOT flaws! At least not enough.

For example, I've been working on a character for a story of mine. I based her off of Gloria from Green Day's album 21st Century Breakdown. I made her a pyromaniac and a sociopath due to, what she calls, "The Incident."

Personality disorders, phobias, manias, selfishness, being conceited, and things of that nature are good flaws.

Remember, with just keeping a few things in mind, you can create a wonderful character with notable flaws, a normal appearance, and someone that people can relate to.

Other Resources

Queentakesjack's character map. How to properly use a character map and create a character using one.

The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test. Test your character to see if she is a Mary Sue or not. Works for original, fan-fic, and RPGs.

December 27th, 2010 at 04:05pm, sore thumb;

Latest tutorials

Homepage › Tutorials › Writing › How to Avoid Creating a Mary Sue