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.

I am no professional photographer, but I love taking pictures.  For the longest time I have wanted a “real” camera to snap some shots with.  No point in shoot, but a cool on with one of those twisty things out the front –

It may be possible to guess that I know nothing about buying a camera, which is the main reason  I haven’t gotten one.  However, when I went to India this past October, I decided that as soon as I had the money I just had to get me one.  I tried going to various brand sites and looking at the specs for their models, but I think it might have actually been more helpful if they were written in French.  I was overwhelmed by the complicated jargon about lenses and ISO and viewfinders.  ¹  I have given up the search about six times since October, and within ten minutes of each attempt.

I have found my godsend.  Digital SLR Guide dot Com.  It assumes you’re an idiot and explains everything in plain simple English and walks you through every step of figuring out what camera is right for you, starting with “what kind of photographer are you” because, as it turns out, that matters.  See, it’s already helping me.

Then after you figure it out if you want to take pictures of every detail of your kids drool or cars going by, it allows you to compare cameras by a number of different ways: cost, size, speed, features, you name it.  Then it walks you through all that.  The first place I went, of course, was by cost, and personally, I appreciate the website for not judging me for it.

What I like best about the site, is the guy has a clear love for cameras and spends a lot of time making sure his sites is the most helpful it can be.  There’s something about enthusiasm on top of knowledge that is really appealing.  Not to mention, the site allows you to read as much or as little as you need to make a pretty informed decision (even on accessories and lenses) and when you think you’re ready, the website walks you right up to the buying process, including it’s own store. 

I haven’t had a chance to read the entire site, but from what I have read, I have already learned a lot from, so if you have any interest in graduating from “point-and-shoot” to a “real” camera, check it out.

ACT I

Math class is boring as hell.  There are only 10 different numbers that you can put together in various combinations, but there are 26 letters that you can assemble to make much more interesting ones.  You fall asleep in History class because, frankly, the stories in your head are a lot more interesting then the one you’re reading about in a textbook.  Something deep inside of you tells you that you are destined for something else, but common sense says “shut the hell up.”   So, after scratching a many idea onto diner napkins, a few people that hold a certain amount of sway in your book say “Hey, you can write!”  To which you reply with a grunt of some sort, nah, but then for some reason you find yourself enrolled in a Screenwriting course of some fashion.

The man lecturing you is a burly man, with mucho body hair, and has a down to earth yet holier than thou aura about him.  You feel the need to both reject every thing he says to you while simultaneously soaking it up.  He prattles on about the elusive “Three Act Structure.”  This is something you must know if you are to ever write a successful screenplay and as he continues on about innercaves and midpoints and elixirs, you think obviously, this does not apply to me, for I am a natural talent not bound by silly mortal rules.

Then you find yourself stuck on page thirty two.  So fine, you pick up a book on screenwriting and once again this three act structure dealio comes up.  It’s worded slightly different, but you aren’t fooled, you’re a cunning one you are, and it’s most certainly another theory on the the Three Act Structure and to be perfectly honest, it makes no more sense to you than when your writing guru was trying to explain it to you a week ago. Being the persistant hero that you are, you continue reading various books and watching “Hero Journey” movie examples like Star Wars and The Matrix.

Just before you are about to give up and go back to your old ways of writing in circles, this structure stuff clicks.  You’re not sure why, but it does.  You suddenly understand what that Vogler guy mean by “elixir” and what “Saving the Cat” is all about.  You can’t explain it, but now you have all this power floating around in your head, and you are going to use it for good.

ACT II

For all your hard work, you finally get to coast.  Planning out stories has never been easier.  You know where the story starts and where it has to end up.  It’s awesome.  It’s like a weight has been lifted off of you.  As you flex your muscles, you are able to see the Hero’s Journey in every movie you watch. ¹  You can now construct and deconstruct at the same time!  Life was never better and you start to think wow, I’m really going to make it as a screenwriter.

Then one day, this three acts thing hit you like a ton of bricks and you can’t get out from underneath it.  You start to ask why did you bring this curse upon yourself?  You start to long for the days where you could just write a script — or at least watch a movie — without having to think about what step you’re at.  You have an awesome first act written but for some reason you can’t figure out how to set up Act II so that you can go into the innermost of the innermost caves. ²What will be the sword?  What will be the ultimate Elixir? You don’t know, and honestly, you have no idea how caves and boons have to do with your romance comedy.  

You go back to your burly lecturer and ask him to solve your problems.  Well, he can’t.  Only you can.  He says you must learn and then you must forget.  What the…  He’s cryptic and annoying.  So you take your stack of paper and go back to your laptop.

But you plow through. Then the next three attempts at story you’ve hand in are rigid and formulaic.  Just like you expected.

What is a screenwriter to do?  You win some, and you lose some.  You may be able to write a text book satisfactory story but you seem to have lost all sense of originality.

So you say, screw you three act structure! You betrayed me with your false promises and now I’m going back to how I was.  But you can’t. Something is missing.  You try to write but there’s always a sense of longing that you can’t get past.  And the montage music just won’t shut up.

But then a glimmer of hope…

Act III

You pick up one of the screenwriting books that you have been using as a table leveler for the last several weeks.  It brings back good memories of discipline and structure.  You smile to yourself as you flip through the pages.  And realize, Three Act Structure is not the enemy, neither is the Hero’s Journey.

As it turns out you had the message all wrong. Three Act Structure is a only a tool.  When examining a draft (or writing one) you look at it and think hm, something is missing and that’s where the Structure is comes in.  Allow me to explain.  It dawns on you that in the middle of your script, there needs to be a change of some sort.  A big kick in the nuts.  Otherwise what are you building too?  You always want your story to be taking new and unexpected turns, and halfway through seems to be a good a place as any.  So what’s the best middle of your story?  Take a step back.  Look at your story as a whole.  Where is the story most likely to end up?  Take your cue from there, because as Michael Hauge asked in his Screenplay Mastery seminar, “How do you know if you’re halfway done with a marathon if you don’t even know where the finish line is?”

Story structure isn’t a template, it’s a guide.  Use it as a tool to help you when you’re stuck or to get the ball rolling, but don’t rely on it solely to tell your story.  Ultimately your instinct is what’s going to make the best story possible, but there’s nothing wrong with asking for help along the way.

So there, you return to your world, having it changed forever… and hopefully for the better.

The End. Roll Credits.

If you are interested in learning a bit more about the Three Act Structure and/or The Hero’s Journey, there are so many talented people with their own takes on the idea(s).  Browse and see which one is most accessible to you.  And if you don’t like any of them 100%, that’s fine, do what I do, and mix and match.  ³

Joseph Campbell started it all with his book Hero with a Thousand Faces.  Though, when he wrote this, cinema wasn’t around yet, but it’s where most of the other story-tellers get their ideas from.

Chris Vogler took Cambell’s book an rand with it and adapted the Hero’s Journey in The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.

Syd Field has THE go-to book on screenwriting.  Screenplay is one of the first and still most widely used book on the craft.

Blake Campbell has an interesting and accessible take on the Hero’s Journey in his book Save the Cat (and followup book Save the Cat Goes to the Movies).  This book takes out a lot of pretension and puts the How-To book in Laymen’s terms, which I find helpful to newcomers.

These days good advice isn’t just limited to the dead tree variety.   John August and Alex Epstein both have incredibly helpful and informative blogs about screenwriting, most of which are inspired by reader’s personal questions.  Epstein has also written two books Crafty Screenwriting and Crafty TV Writing.

Last but not least, Michael Hauge is worth checking out if he is ever conducting a seminar near you.  He also has authored a couple books and has videos of his presentations available at his website.

_________

I started using the Celtx program in late 2005, I would guess, but I could be overshooting that a bit.  Back then, it was still very much in Beta and nothing but a glorified typewriter, but I have stuck with it and after it’s long awaited 1.0 release, the program has really come into its own as a sophisticated piece of screenwriting software and pre-production tool.  I stumbled across it when I got fed up with using the temperamental Microsoft Word but didn’t have enough money (I didn’t have any money, really) to go out and buy something like Final Draft.  Luckily, there is a group of unsung heroes out on the web that believe in Open Source Software, and that’s how I came to find Celtx. Yes, it is completely, and will always be, free.  I am not  going to do a full review here, maybe one day, but I do recommend the download.  Like I said, it free, and the interface is so simple that you will have yourself writing a screenplay, stageplay or anything in seconds after launching the program.¹  Not only is it great for writing, but the ladies and gents of Celtx have really worked hard to make it a complete pre-production planning tool as well.  It has script breakdown capabilities, calenders for planning, a storyboarding function and so much more.  If you got a few minutes I recommend the download to see what it has going on.

Also, another thing that the developers at Celtx have done is started releasing short films about filmmaking.  They have a channel over at Blip.tv  where they have started releasing quick little shorts titled “Motion Sketches” and I’ll give them credit, they relay a lot of easy to digest information in short amount of time.  I’ve only had time to look through a couple, but if you have any interest in filmmaking or how cinema is evolving, I would check them out.  The current one is about the role of the producer but their first episode is about how the definition of Cinema has changed over the last several years due to what is referred to as the “digital age.” 

I watched the first episode last night entitled “So this is Cinema?,” where the host, Mike Jones (who I will talk about later) starts off by telling us that Cinema is so much bigger than sitting in a big dark room. There is an old way of thinking that a writer writes and a director directs and a cinematographer… cinematograph-erises… but there is room for us writers to be better if we are educated about post production and if editors were educated about pre-production, and so on.  According to this sketch, 21st Century Cinema is about empowerment and being self-sufficient.  Software has started to be bundled together so that any filmmaker, at any level in their career, can start thinking about all the processes instead of just the one stage they’re on now and worry about the next step when they come to it… only Mike says it much better.  If you have five minutes check out the first Celtx episode here.  And if you have more time, visit the channel.

MIke Jones, who is heavily involved with Celtx development down here in Australia, also happens to be a friend and mentor of mine.  I am going to let you in on a little secret about Mike; he knows everything.  I am not lying here or exaggerating, ask him how to do anything and he can tell you.  It’s really shocking.  That aside, he is also a fellow geek, and has some great insights on cinema that you might not get from the more wanky variety of filmmakers  – what it is, where it came from, where it’s going, etc.  On his website he has written articles about Cinema as a Spatial artform, an audio AND visual artform and how the old way of “film” is dead.  Though he’s a little bit more in love with the digital age than I and I have some differing opinions on the validity of gaming and cell phones as legitimate forms of cinema delivery, his opinions are worth reading and I promise you you’ll learn something new with every article read. 

I will be adding Mike’s blog to my links as well, something I should have done sooner.

As for Wii Fit, it’s a disaster. I didn’t make my goal, so I have started a new one and of course have not exercised since. Sigh.