Writers support discussion

Well, I guess see my marry sue tips from the other tips page for this :)

I hate them, but sadly, they're easy to create.

Well, in hopes to avoid creating a mary sue character I collected some tips:

Ma•ry•Sue |marē soō|
A character who is idealistic, lacking flaws, an overidealized self-insertion of the player, unrealistic, or characterized by several cliched and archetypical traits, including physical appearance, nomenclature, history, and personality.

You don't need to follow everything, or anything at all, but this is what I
collected:

How to avoid Mary Sue:
•Character History: start with the most interesting thing about your character - the reason you want to write about this person in the first place - then work backwards. It will be relatively boring causes and effects of that one interesting thing. Come up with both negative and positive experiences your character has had traits she has developed because of the event, rather than just listing a bunch of awesome but unrelated abilities or character quirks.
• IMPORTANT: Your character must fit within the established world. Don't create a special character to your personal liking and just plunk her inside a story; you must cultivate her out of the world you're writing. Ask yourself, "What would be a plausible character already living in this world, and how can I make her interesting and exciting to read about?"
• Don’t give your character skills that aren't important to the story.
• Don’t make your character better at everything
• Don’t have your character learn skills overnight
•Let your characters get hot, sweaty, dirty, messy and pasty if the situation calls for it. A person should not have a 'light sheen' of sweat after running a marathon. Watch some sports (triathlon coverage is good) and see what people really look like after exertion. Also: Be aware of what scars actually look like, especially in regards to the medical attention they receive. A lack of timely or competent medical attention causes ugly, colored scars.
•Remember, when describing a character: do we really need to know that her eyes are emerald green?
• Make sure your character is physically capable of performing her skills. Also: Always be aware of your character's physical limitations. A character should not be 'just fine' after a days-long trek through the desert
• Pick one tragedy to befall your character in the past and build on that
• Your character screws something up; don't just wave it off.
• In general, don't do things just for your character that you aren't willing to do for the other characters.

This is a really great discussion!

I'm glad you think so :)

Thanks :)

Eve wrote: "Well, in hopes to avoid creating a mary sue character I collected some tips:

Ma•ry•Sue |marē soō|
A character who is idealistic, lacking flaws, an overidealized self-insertion of the player, u..."

Thank you!