<«Writer's Arena»>

[---------------]

oh

 

yea that's kinda Mary Sue...ish?

 

ok then! Ima continue working on my fanfics, bye!

[Deustodo]

Well, I don't think so, since he is a male. But only if he was a lesbian. Wait, can males be lesbians? *Have deep thoughts about the most important question in the entire human existence*

[Sploda]

@Deustodo

The answer can be found somewhere within a bakery on dreary lane.

[DL]

@@man - I called you @man, cause I was too lazy to type at.

 

Also, you CAN just reject the n00bs/

[Deustodo]

@Deustodo

The answer can be found somewhere within a bakery on dreary lane.

Nope... It is something deeper than that. And I know the answere is not 42.

[DL]

It's 42xPi-Chuck Norris to the square root of Soviet Russia.

[Deustodo]

Nope, its something like: canibalism + ethic + woman's right - male world + the existence of religion - the intelligence of the human kind + the number of conflicts solved without anyone get killed . (Sun's heat + Pokemon's logic - Chibi's logic - writer's logic) . (Vampire's respect - Twilight) + 42.

 

Or we can simple reduce that to the this: C + E + WR - Mw + R - IH + Z . (SH + PL - CL - WL) . (Vr - T) + 42.

For T < 0

 

And I don't know the answer for that.

[Naimo]

I thought Mary Sues were the characters that have no deep personality' date=' no deep contrast characters, and are seemingly 'perfect'. Although we see them as boring.

[/quote']

 

Yes that's what it is.

 

I think it's called Mary Sue because she was the first Mary Sue. Correct me if I'm wrong...

 

Lecture time from Wikipedia!:

 

The term "Mary Sue" is taken from a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale," published in her fanzine Menagerie #2. The character in question was Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old"). Smith's story poked fun at unrealistic and adolescent wish-fantasy characters in Star Trek fan fiction.

 

Then my character is not a Mary Sue' date=' because he has a personallity, and he is considered a bastard by 90% of the people and dolphins in the world.

[/quote']

 

Actually, you should run your character by the Mary Sue Litmus Test. I did that with two of my characters, and I was amazed to find that Garnet was bordering Mary-Sue, but when I did it with Hyena, rather unsurprisingly she wasn't a Mary-Sue at all

[DL]

...

 

That makes that formula genius.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Min-chan! ^-^

 

*glomps*

[Naimo]

O...K... *glomps you back* why the sudden OMG?

[DL]

I... don't know.

 

 

Also, now we have the ACTUAL story behind Mary Sues... awesomez.

[Naimo]

heh, Wikipedia pays off ;) and anyway, its kinda unsurprising the term originated from Star Trek ... really, modern day fanfiction has to thank Star Trek imo, caus without its uprising, fanfiction wouldnt really exist...

[DL]

Yep, although I never watched Star Trek, so IDK how good it is, but I think a lot of sci-fi fans liked it.

 

And it DID inspire the new generation.

[Naimo]

True, and it was through Star Trek fanfiction that stuff like slash and Mary-Sue originated

[Deustodo]

Well, I did the test, kind of, and got 35, but I know how to balance it out, and my the test is just for a kind of Fiction. Mine is different.

[Naimo]

I see; I ran Hyena by two different tests, and I got the same result from both; not a Mary-Sue. I'm probably going to try a third test as well.

Btw, guide should be up soon =)

 

Guide is done:

[spoiler=Mary-Sue]

Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu

 

What is a Mary-Sue?

Mary-Sue is the term used to describe a female character (Gary-Stu would be used to describe males) who is so perfect she is unrealistic. As a result, Mary-Sues are often frowned upon and criticised by readers. An example of a Mary-Sue would be this:

 

Whitney was the most perfect girl in the world. Her body was ideal, the perfect figure, made even more perfect by wearing just a bikini. Her fair hair was always glossy, and her sparkling blue eyes and perfect white smile were the most captivating facial feature, never failing to attract all men that saw her. She was the most liked student in the entire school. She was the best fighter the world had ever produced, and she could knock out ten men at a time with her bare hands.

 

You get the idea, it’s too unrealistic, and I’ve had to do everything to stop myself from throwing up at the horrid Mary-Sue that I just typed.

 

How to avoid Mary-Sues

 

1. Plan your character carefully

The reality is that nobody is perfect; if no-one in the real world is perfect, then why should your characters be? Personality is very important in avoiding Mary-Sues, as there is no set good or evil. Everybody has a bit of both in them. This is what a Mary-Sue profile might look like:

 

Whitney is a kind, gentle, naïve girl. She would never hurt a fly, and believes in giving people second chances. She is easily submissive, yet she excels in everything she does. She can easily pick up skills, and is the very best at being social.

 

Do you see my point? Everything is too perfect, and therefore gives a very unrealistic character. Now here is one of my characters, Garnet. This is her personality:

 

Only one word exists in Garnet's vocabulary and that's money. She loves money so much she takes every opportunity to rip people off, and even if she has to part with 1p she will be furiously cursing in her mind despite the lovely smile on her face. She's slippery and very careful with wording. Although she doesn't seem to care for anyone, deep down she does care for people she like and tries to help them in a very indirect way so they don't expose her good side.

 

I have highlighted her bad qualities in blue, and her good qualities in red. Do you see how balanced she is? Yes, she likes to rip people off, but at the same time she cares for people. That shows a balance of good and bad qualities. However, not all qualities have to be clearly good or bad. This is a part of B-Lizzard’s personality:

 

The most prominent feature about B-Lizzard is how noble she is; she believes in nobility and fairness.

 

Yes, nobleness and fairness are good qualities to have, but think about it; would B-Lizzard be likely to fight an enemy who is severely injured if she’s not? No, she would not, therefore, this makes her balanced already, and that was just one part of her personality.

 

2. Go for a range of personalities

There’s an endless range of personalities to choose from! You don’t have to necessarily go for the same ones all the time – if everyone had a largely kind personality, then it will become quite dull. As an enthusiastic RPer, all of my characters are different. There’s the cunning Gypsie…

 

She is a sly character who has a strong sense of intelligence and independance, and is all about herself. She has her own goals, most of which aren't clear at first but clear in hindsight, so if she teams up with people, that is a sign she's up to something. She doesn't have much empathy, she rarely shows her emotions, and she never seems to become attached to anyone, hence the reason why many feel she is very cold blooded.

 

Now compare Gypsie to Hyena…

 

Many people regard Hyena as loony, insane, eccentric and mentally ill. Hyena is all of those points, except for the last one; in truth, she is actually very clever and smart, but it is incredibly difficult to realise that. She is difficult to get along with, as she consistently breaks into laughter at just about anything; also, she tends to walk on her hands and knees like an actual hyena during peacetimes, and she can roll her eyes simulatenously in different directions. She also uses her more flexible body to semi-wrap herself around people, and she does do a lot of grinning. When she's not grinning or laughing, she pouts.

 

Do you see the stark contrast between those two characters? There’s the sly, evil girl, and the insane yet highly intelligent girl. In fact, I do recommend writing in an insane character; I had a lot of fun RPing as Hyena, mainly because nobody could predict what she would do next.

 

3. Fears, phobias and allergies

A Mary-Sue would have absolutely no phobias, fears or allergies. Realistically, not everyone has a phobia or an allergy, but everybody has a fear of some kind. For example, Garnet’s afraid of being disabled, and having her freedom taken away. Giving characters at least one fear, and possibly an allergy or a phobia, makes them more believable, and it can also be interesting to work with, especially if it’s an irrational fear/allergy/phobia.

 

4. If all else fails, run your characters by a Mary-Sue Litmus Test

If you Google “Mary Sue Litmus Test” (minus the “”), Google will find masses of these tests. These tests are designed to check whether your character is a Mary-Sue or not. Before you start rambling about how unreliable these tests can be, I’ve just tried three completely separate tests with Hyena, and all three concluded with the same result; Hyena is NOT a Mary-Sue.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Posting Your Fanfic: The Do's and Don'ts]

Posting Your Fanfic: The Do’s and Don’ts

So, you’ve been slaving away for the past few days/weeks/months/year to work on your fanfic, and at last, you’re ready to post. However, you have to be careful when posting; you don’t want to post your fanfic to the wrong place, and suffer the consequences (believe me, they won’t be nice). So I’ve compiled a list of do’s and don’ts.

 

Do

•  Do a thorough research of the place you are posting to – take YCM as our example. YCM doesn’t tolerate slash fiction, so posting a Tristan/Joey story would provoke nothing but hateful comments.
  
• If in doubt, don’t post – you don’t have to post it there, the internet’s endless! You can post it anywhere else! DeviantART’s a good place for posting anything really, as long as you give the appropriate warnings.
  
•  If it is not the right place, post it somewhere else – it’s not the end of the world if you can’t post it on YCM. Go somewhere else to post it; deviantART, a blog, Livejournal, or fanfiction.com would be sensible places to do so.
  
•  Know your genre – every fanfic falls under a specific genre. I have compiled a separate list, which is under the Don’t section.
  
•  Do take in constructive criticism – fairly straightforward, I don’t need to explain this to you.
  

 

Don’t

• Don’t be an arse about it – OK, we all make mistakes from time to time. If people start hating you because you posted the fanfic in the wrong place, then just remove it, or get it locked. It is ill-advised to start arguments, because at the end of the day, you’re the one who made the mistake, and you’re going to suffer for it. A perfect example is Amy Kaiba’s fanfic; the content provoked a lot of anger and what happened? An argument ensured, eventually forcing the owner to request for it to be locked.
  
•  Don’t break general fanfiction etiquette – this applies more to RPF – Real Person Fanfiction. The general rule is; you can write away to your heart’s content, but NEVER send any of your work to the person (or people) in question, especially if it’s a work of slash. Recently, several communities I’m in on Livejournal have had this discussion about people finding out via other people sending work to them, and from what I gather, fans do frown upon this sort of thing happening, and some of them were genuinely angered by it.
  

 

List of general genres

This can be easily split into three types; type of story, romantic element, and length of story.

Type of story

Acid/Crack - This is a story where the content is so surreal it's like the writer has been on crack. Commonly tagged as Acid!fic/Crack!fic

Angst - this is where the character is trapped in their own world of sorrow and darkness.

AU - short for Alternative Universe. This is basically when universe the characters are set in has been altered - e.g. Sirius Black never died in Harry Potter

Canon - this is a story that has not had the storyline modified in any way, so it is keeping true to the original fandom - e.g. a story about Harry Potter that follows the novel's storyline

Crossover - Used to refer to a fic where two fandoms are crossed over - e.g. Harry Potter and QI crossover

Fluffy - a story which has no angst whatsoever, and is generally light-hearted romance

One-shot - sometimes refered to as Standalone or SA. This is a story that has been uploaded in its entirety, therefore not a long running story

POV - short for Point of View. This is when the story is written through a character's view.

Songfic - a story which is based on a song.

 

Romantic Element

Gen - short for General, it is a story where there is no romantic plot

Het - short for Heterosexual, this is a story where there is a heterosexual pairing(s)

Slash - a story involving a gay relationship. Female counterpart is Femslash. Equivalent to yaoi.

Femslash - the counterpart of Slash, used for a story involving a lesbian relationship. Equivalent to yuri.

Length of story

Dribble - a story with roughly 50 words

Drabble - a story with roughly 100 words

Droubble - a story with roughly 200 words

Ficlet - a short fanfic that is longer than a Droubble, but still too short to be considered a proper fic. These are usually roughly around 1000 words long.

 

[Deustodo]

Magnet, then would you mind to check my Fiction to see wich gender does it fit?

[Naimo]

Sure, except tbh the only thing you should worry about is whether it's slash or not - if it is, never post it here. Ever.

[Deustodo]

I'm not worried about that. Slash is a thing only Darklink401 would be able to make.

[Naimo]

*cough* and me - since January, I have been very appreciative of slash, and I have read stuff that I can't repeat here but they were very good ;)

[Deustodo]

I still can't stand that kind of fiction. Just can't. anyway, the link for my fiction is in my sig.

[Naimo]

OK - btw, is your fic meant to be a House fic with you and several other YCMers in?

 

I used to hate slash as well - for the first four years of my career, I just hated it, but when Jason Manford brought it up on 8 out of 10 Cats: Digital Special around January, then I started getting into it, and I can't believe how the hell I managed to hate slash. I guess it's a pretty fangirly thing, slash, just like fanfiction is (90% of all fanfiction writers are female, according to the latest statistics)

[Deustodo]

No, House just appears in the beggining. And the names and some personallitys are taken from here, but nothing too directly.

[Naimo]

OK; I'd say it's ever so slightly RPF - real person fanfic - except it's not using celebrities. I'm tempted to call it a crossover, but since you're not really crossing over YCM with House, then it can't really be a crossover. Definately not a droubble or ficlet. Any romantic plot at all, or is it completely neutral?

[Deustodo]

You had read it all already? Wow... anyway. I still don't know if it is neutral. The first part of the Fiction will end in chapter 15, and I still have to write the 3rd part. While I still don't know if I make a Question & Answer Chapter between the 15 and 16 one.