More thoughts on 'I'm awesome', this time with added Mary Sue
I don't know if some of those early posts on 'I'm awesome' took any impetus from the 'aspersions of Mary Sue as bullying' discussions that were running around on DW a few weeks earlier (scroll through here for a lot of links on it), but I perceive the two as tied together.
A quick definition: characters presumed by the readers on more or less evidence to be a stand-in for the author are sometimes called self-inserts. Whether or not they're well written (some are), they get maligned as Mary Sue. There seems to be a question of whether self-inserts are a stage in writing progression, and whether they're automatically bad writing. I suspect that the need to put yourself or a first-hand avatar in the story with skills and wit and agency bears into the matter of self-esteem, and expression of self-worth, and valuation of personal skills. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with imagining yourself with skills and talents, loyal friends and rapier wit.
You have to conceive your goals before you can make your plans. The act of writing them out lets you see what they look like on the page and gives you a better chance of deciding what you'd really like to aim for. For that matter, writing a story counts as working on a skill-set in and of itself, and it's a damn sight cheaper than four years of college (or as some of my relatives did, 4+n years of college by way of five changed majors).
Also, and this is ancillary, but it's a piece of crap bit of illogic I've loathed since a vid show years ago: 'That sucks!' is *not* a universal law. It's a personal opinion stated as fact, but that does not make it a universal fact. These stories with Mary Sues do have at least one fan: the author who took the time and effort to write it. Just because it may not be up to someone else's 'standards' doesn't mean the writer didn't try to write a good story. They may have concentrated more on the story than the story-telling tools, and they probably do need a beta, but hell, we all did when we were starting out. I certainly did. I've come a long way in twelve or thirteen years of writing and I'm not the only writer I know who winces at some of the earlier works.
And now I'm rambling, so I think my 'I'm awesome' post will have to wait until tomorrow. Night, all. Original post on Dreamwidth | Leave a comment on DW | Read
comments on DW
A quick definition: characters presumed by the readers on more or less evidence to be a stand-in for the author are sometimes called self-inserts. Whether or not they're well written (some are), they get maligned as Mary Sue. There seems to be a question of whether self-inserts are a stage in writing progression, and whether they're automatically bad writing. I suspect that the need to put yourself or a first-hand avatar in the story with skills and wit and agency bears into the matter of self-esteem, and expression of self-worth, and valuation of personal skills. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with imagining yourself with skills and talents, loyal friends and rapier wit.
You have to conceive your goals before you can make your plans. The act of writing them out lets you see what they look like on the page and gives you a better chance of deciding what you'd really like to aim for. For that matter, writing a story counts as working on a skill-set in and of itself, and it's a damn sight cheaper than four years of college (or as some of my relatives did, 4+n years of college by way of five changed majors).
Also, and this is ancillary, but it's a piece of crap bit of illogic I've loathed since a vid show years ago: 'That sucks!' is *not* a universal law. It's a personal opinion stated as fact, but that does not make it a universal fact. These stories with Mary Sues do have at least one fan: the author who took the time and effort to write it. Just because it may not be up to someone else's 'standards' doesn't mean the writer didn't try to write a good story. They may have concentrated more on the story than the story-telling tools, and they probably do need a beta, but hell, we all did when we were starting out. I certainly did. I've come a long way in twelve or thirteen years of writing and I'm not the only writer I know who winces at some of the earlier works.
And now I'm rambling, so I think my 'I'm awesome' post will have to wait until tomorrow. Night, all. Original post on Dreamwidth | Leave a comment on DW | Read
comments on DW