T H E 'M A R Y
- S U E'
L I
T M U S - T
E S T
Is your lead Character Really
YOU poorly disguised?
This test is based on the (original) Mary Sue Litmus Test by Melissa
Wilson.
Who
is "Mary Sue"?
"Mary Sue" is the term used for a character
who is either:
1.
A thinly-veiled fictional version of the author
herself
2. An original character who is the protagonist
of the story
Not
all "Mary Sues" are cardinal sins. If
a good writer commits "Mary Sue", it
can still be an entertaining, well-written story
despite the above classifications. An example
of this is:
The
episode "Superstar" of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer
However,
on the whole, "Mary Sue" stories are
written by new writers whose first idea for a
story follow a pattern of self-insertion (acting
out their personal fantasy vicariously through
an original character), and their "Mary Sue"
characters suffer from the following characteristics:
1. She's perfect. Literally. Everyone likes her,
she can fix the warp core with a bobby pin and
a smile regardless of whether or not she's an
engineer, she's got an excellent singing voice,
and she's psychic too...
2. She's got violet eyes, martial arts training that
makes Trinity from The Matrix look like Elmer
Fudd, hair down to there, and is usually sleeping
with or the daughter of someone we all know and
love.
3. She's maverick, headstrong, stubborn, always wins
in the end, and always shows "them"
how her way is better.
Regarding
gender:
-- Mary
Sue is not an exclusively female phenomenon. Harry
Stu tends to be cocky, maverick, and has all the
girls swooning while the men admire him for his
courage, daring, cunning, swashbuckling, computer
hacking, and romantic abilities.
Afraid YOUR original
character might be a Mary Sue?
Take the 'The Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Mary Sue
Litmus Test:
Take
the Test!
More fun with Mary Sue!
Take
the Original Mary Sue Litmus Test
by Melissa "Merlin Missy" Wilson missy@reimer.com
The Mary Sue Univeral Test
The Writer's Mary Sue Test
The Original Fiction Mary Sue Test
