Mary Sue
a term used for a character in a piece of fiction who is really the author’s idealized self-image, often shallow and uninteresting to anyone but the author. Mary Sues dominate any story in which they are included and are most often seen in online fan fiction. The term originated with Paula Smith’s 1974 character from Star Trek fan fiction.
I added a link taking you to a “Mary Sue Litmus Test” to help you determine if you’ve fallen into lazily writing this over-cliched character.
Note: There are many many Mary Sue litmus tests available on the web, some pretty extensive ones at that. I chose this one because it specifically pertained to the creation for characters in original fiction, whereas most include one or more sections of FanFic and/or RPG characters. I figured this would be more helpful to people are writing something intended to be actually published.
Tags: Fanfic, Mary Sue, Mary Sue Litmus Test, Original Fiction
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