A Guide To Redwall Mary Sue
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What To Do If Your
Friend Writes A Mary Sue
~Thou Shalt Not Flame~
Flames are defined as reviews intended to offend and insult the person they are
sent to. Sending flames is cruel and offensive, because nobody likes to be told
how bad their work is, and it wastes the time of both the "flame-ee" and the
originator of the flame. Do not confuse flames with normal constructive
criticism, eg;
Con-crit: "Your ideas are good, but your main character could use a little
work."
Flame: "MARY SUE! This story stinks! I'm telling everyone not to read this!"
etc. You get the idea; you've probably received a few.
If you receive a flame yourself, delete it. Do not be tempted to reply to
whoever sent it, or you will get involved in a huge bottomless cyber-argument
which goes on indefinitely and makes everyone involved look thoroughly childish.
A good tip for this kind of thing is; don't send anything you would hate to get
yourself. Even if the story is so bad you're praying it's a parody, there is no
excuse for flaming.
~Don't be hypocritical~
This means "don't criticise anyone for doing something you do yourself." If you
are telling someone that they have written a Mary Sue, make sure your own
characters are as un-Sueish as possible. If you complain about their spelling
and misspell the main character's name, they will simply laugh and ignore you.
Make sure you have actually read and understood the fic before reviewing. To
quote
this post a while ago on Fanficrants;
"One review I saw that was particularly scathing not only misspelled the name of
an important character, but also complained about a painfully predictable event
happening that DIDN'T happen in the story. This jerk obviously didn't even read
it, simply assumed he knew what was going to happen, and then bitched about it."
Sadly, there really are people that dumb. Scary, ain't it?
~Do not advertise your own work~
There are few things more irritating than opening a review which says, "this
story is bad because of x-y-z. Read my fic Insert Title Here to see it done
better." Basically, these people are saying "I hate your story, but I want you
to read mine and give it a good review anyway, even though there is absolutely
no reason for you to do so." It's okay to gently poke them towards other
people's work which will help them - I've seen some reviews at the Pit
recommending this guide. (Thanks to my devoted fans, and no, I did not ask any
of them to do it.) However, the review page is not an advertising service, and
using it as such makes you look amazingly self-absorbed.
~Notice what's good about the story too~
Authors pay a lot more attention to con-crit if you mix in a compliment here and
there. I would personally not mind getting a review which said something like
"Your character is rather boring, but the plot is promising" or whatever. If
authors never get this kind of criticism, they will never get any better. I'm
not saying lie about liking parts of the story, but do try to find something
good to say about it. Remember; you really do catch more flies with honey than
vinegar (true - never mind sweetness, vinegar isn't sticky enough), and it is
possible to be honest without being insulting. On the other hand, don't send
lying praise to your close friends when they write a lousy story and you
recognise it as terrible. The best thing a friend can do is help another writer
improve.
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Next comes the chapter on how not to write a Mary Sue yourself. "Hi, my name is Sally, I'm thirteen years old, and I'm a Suethor."
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Questions? Comments? Email me at wordsmith101NOSPAM@btopenworld.com (don't forget to delete the NOSPAM first).