Happy New Year, everyone.
Apologies for not blogging, but here is post three on Fanfiction. We're
entering dangerous waters now.
Source:
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/59/212677871_451eda44c6.jpg
Matt
Anderson has read my HTTYD fanfiction, and he asked me why I didn't
introduce an OC -- an original character-- into the HTTYD universe, or make the
story more accessible to readers who weren't familiar with the movie or the
show's villains. He even wrote a blog post about context, how such knowledge can
make or break a fanfiction if the audience becomes privy to the information.
I had a perfectly logical
explanation for why I didn't include an OC until diving into Norse and Germanic
mythology and using obscure deities: I didn't want to create a Mary Sue. I
didn't want to put an idealized version of myself, or any unnecessary
character, into a world filled with imperfect characters and fun banter. In my
view, HTTYD was already filled with enough interesting characters that I wanted
to chronicle, and to put them through the wringer.
For those who don't know, the Mary Sue as described by TV Tropes is "a
character that is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits,
and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature." The male
version is called Marty or Gary Stu, though the term Mary Sue was coined in
response to female authors inserting female characters into the Star Trek fandom,
usually avatars of their female selves.
Source:
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1020/873797895_8084d78cab.jpg
As you can imagine, Mary and Gary
don't have a good reputation, and they exist in every established fandom. Shows
like NCIS and The Big Bang Theory have made reference to
inserting oneself into an established canon, all for the sake of entering that
particular world and escaping reality. In essence, the female or male author
bares his real self, and expects that in this fictional world that everyone
will like him or her.
One fact about Mary Sue characters:
they don't last long in anyone's mind, even the author's. I learned it the hard
way, by drawing bad hero comics in elementary school, and then switching to
Harry Potter fanfiction that has (mercifully) vanished; my bad hero comics had
me flying around, being the only survivor of a disaster, and defeating the
strangely gun-shaped bad guys. Around the same time this happened, I lost my
elementary school friends after inserting them as the rest of a hero team that
I concocted, though I'm not sure if the events were related.
Did I learn from my early storytelling
mistakes? Heck no! I inserted a character like myself AGAIN, this time into the
animated Teen Titans fandom, though at least I had the sense to make her
imperfect and not liked by everyone. Even so, I never finished her stories
because they weren't fulfilling enough, not when I knew myself better than
anyone else did, and there were no surprises for me when digging for hidden
depths. I borrowed plot lines from Japanese anime and the Teen Titans comics,
without seeing what I could do on my own. Thus, when I returned to the realm of
fanfiction fall 2011, I vowed to use no OCs, since canon seemed to have enough
character fodder and not enough plot resolution for my liking. When I did
decide to break that rule, I went into Norse mythology as mentioned before and
helped myself to the more obscure gods.
Image source: http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4108/5186407183_ea3c1ee740.jpg
One year later, however, I remember
one other important thing; all Mary Sues are OCs, but not all OCs are Mary
Sues. This is an important truth for fanfiction writers, and even for those
pursuing original fiction, because original characters are just that: original
characters. Going back to Hitchups,
the OCs there range from foreign Viking warriors to Timberjack dragons to
mermaids, and even then AvannaK relies heavily on mythology to support
her narrative. LuciferDragon's fanfiction series about the
Boogieman family depicts a very brash and imperfect spirit of Halloween, who
while dealing with serial killer revenants and the devil, gets varying
reactions from her partner, child and coworkers.
Matt, when I
discussed benefits of the Mary Sue with him, brought up the good points of
having such a character:
"Well, for one, familiarity
breeds understanding. If the character is you, you understand them entirely.
You know their deal and what they want. For two, the character wins all the
time. It gets us into the mindset of continuing a character through their story
as the hero. But if we learn that these characters can evolve, have flaws . . .
yet still win, we can have a golden combination."
Most writers advocate writing what
you know, and for the most part we know ourselves the best, our favorite food,
if we sleep with the lights off, and what books we'll keep by our beds. We also
have less trouble when facing the infamous writer's block.
There is another reason, however,
why new writers should practice with the Mary Sue, within or outside of
fanfiction, because the Mary Sue inspires us to keep writing. The comic below
illustrates that reason perfectly:
Source:
http://assets.amuniversal.com/86fa06e05e2f012ee3bf00163e41dd5b
Roger Fox's novel, about himself as
a James Bond agent that attracts all the ladies' eyes, is terrible. I would
recommend reading the rest of the hilarious storyline and thus his novel, but
essentially Roger pens adventure and romance he would like to have, and he
chronicles these exploits in a weekend. If he had decided to follow Matt's
advice, to make his alter ego less perfect and endure a stronger narrative arc,
then he could have been a prolific writer.
Embrace your inner Mary Sue if
you're a beginning writer; don't be afraid to put yourself on the written page,
even with your physical or personality traits changed. Just be aware that Mary
Sues don't have to be your only OCs. Be willing to write about grumpy
blacksmiths or crazy cat lovers, or even the police officer helping the good
guys out.
