A Guide To Redwall Mary Sue
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How Not To Write A Mary Sue
For the sake of this guide, any well-written, Non-Sue original character will be
referred to by me as Sarah Lou from now on. That is, almost Mary Sue, but not
quite.
~The Golden Rule~
The First Commandment of Non-Suedom is very simple;
No creature is perfect.
This covers many of Mary Sue's most annoying traits. If we can apply this rule
to our fanfiction, we're already halfway there. You'll see what I mean as the
chapter continues.
~Looks~
Your character should not look like a rodentine supermodel. Even if she does,
individuals have different ideas of beauty, so she's not going to be "the most
stunning thing I've ever seen" to every single creature she meets. Also, there's
the species barrier to consider. (I'm not against mixed-species in its place,
but this is not The Muppets; try to make it at least vaguely plausible. No pigs
paired with frogs!) I'm not saying make your Sarah Lou ugly. Looks aren't
everything, but your deity of choice knows there are limits. Just give her a few
minor flaws. She can be pretty, but don't overdo it. Unusual features such as
bicoloured eyes are fine, but only one "oddity" per character. Make her look the
way her backstory implies she should look. If she recently escaped from the
slave pens, she may have been beautiful once, and may recover enough to be
nearly as beautiful again, but now she's going to be dangerously thin and have
scars from the whip. If she's a warrior, she will definitely have a whole lot of
scars no matter how good a fighter she is, along with calloused paws from using
her weapon, and she absolutely must have decent muscles. Also, for the love of
candied chestnuts DON'T go overboard in your descriptions of the character. I
don't want a full chapter describing her clothes. It gets very boring. Stick to
one or two sentences.
~Personality~
Again, weaknesses are necessary here. Nobeast is going to be totally pure of
heart and mind. You and I certainly aren't. There is no shame in basing a
character on yourself. Where else do authors get inspiration? Brian Jacques
based Gonff on himself as a child, and Hermione Granger is based on JK Rowling
herself. If you do this, though, make sure she has your flaws as well as your
strengths. Pick something which may cause problems in the story. She can't keep
secrets, and so gives away the plan. She flies into rages at the drop of a hat
and says things which could break up friendships. Anything! Just don't use
anything which is only going to be used as an excuse for angst, or which isn't
really a flaw, eg the old "being too nice" thing. See Chapter Eight. Make her
personality fit in with influences in her backstory. Ex-slaves will not,
contrary to popular Suvian belief, be angst machines. They will either be
withdrawn, always planning revenge and barely speaking to anybeast, or paranoid,
twitchy and suspicious of others. If your character is a "good vermin", explain
why. A tragic past would push a vermin further into evil, not make them reform.
Think of a reasonable explanation.
In short, make sure your character has an interesting personality, not just a
boring Cardboard Cut-Out Hero(ine).
~Abilities~
By all means make your character a talented warrior, or a beautiful singer. But
balance out their talents with things they CAN'T do. And I mean important
things. Nobeast cares if Mary Sue can't play guitar to save her life, because
that would not hinder her much unless it's one really bizarre story. Use
something which is a real problem in part of the adventure. For example, if
she's an expert healer she cannot bear to kill, which is a big, big problem when
fighting for your life. If she's an amazingly good warrior, she's terrified
of water and the story is set on an island. (Cruel? Yes, but interesting.) You
get the idea. Make sure you mix these into the story carefully and make
them important, or Sarah Lou will still seem to be a Mary Sue. Physical
disabilities like blindness and deafness are too often used for sympathy
milking, so be careful with them. If in doubt, steer clear.
~Storyline~
If you have an interesting story, all but the worst of Mary Sues can be
forgiven. Look at Cinderella and Snow White - rampant Suedom when looked at
cruelly, but the stories have endured for hundreds of years. Bad storylines
aggravate badly written characters, so be careful. Do not directly copy the
storyline of one of the original Redwall books. If we wanted that, we'd read the
original Redwall books. If you must use it, add your own twists to the plot.
Base a plotline off a different book series, or a film, if you like, but change
it enough that others who have read the book or seen the film in question will
not accuse you of plagiarism.
On a related note, the books are set in medieval Britain. If you use a species
for your character which was not around in medieval Britain, you had better have
a good backstory which explains how he/she got to Mossflower. No, mink are not
native to Britain, they were introduced in the 1920's. Lynx and wolverines are
not native to Britain either. Do your research. Use these species if you want,
but think before you do. How would Mossflower's animals react to them,
since Mossflower seems to have a serious racism, or rather speciesism, problem?
How would they act differently to Mossflower's native creatures? I'd like to see
Native American raccoons or mink, or tribal African meerkats crossdressing and
doing the hula - no, wait, that's Disney. But I'd like to watch them sing "Digga
Tunnah". Surely that's more interesting than
making them act exactly like funny-looking weasels? (Yes, I have a thing for the
Jerbilrats and the Walking Stone.)
~Miscellaneous help~
As pointed out above, badly written stories make Mary Sue characters worse. Even
if your character is well written, if you haven't spellchecked very few people
are going to wade through the bad spelling to find out how good your character
is.
If someone tells you that your character is a Mary Sue, do not yell at them for
insulting your character. Even if they flamed you, do not flame them back. It
makes you look immature, and if you're that protective of a fictional character,
you have serious issues. Try to decide if the person has a point, see if you can
improve the character, and consider seeking counselling if you do think you're
overprotective of your creations.
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I'm going to cover Human Sues separately - in fact, in the very next chapter. They are pretty much a terrifying phenomenon on their own, and would take up too much room in this chapter.
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Questions? Comments? Email me at wordsmith101NOSPAM@btopenworld.com (don't forget to delete the NOSPAM first).