It’s come to my attention that some folks here are not familar with the term “Mary Sue.”
Evreyone has Mary Sue’d at some time in thier writing career. It’s human nature. Mary Sue writing is painfully obvious, and painful reading for anyone outside of your circle of intimate friends (a circle which I am most certainly not in).
You need to be aware of what it is.
You will be a better writer for it when you learn to spot the warning signs and get over it.
You will get over it.
For the love of God. Please take this quiz. I found it funny and enlightening.
http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html
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and i was just talking to Mr. Cleanslate about Tale of New Babbage vol. 3. Writing submission window will open on Memorial Day and close on Labor day (that’s May 27 to Sept. 2 for non USA folks). Stay tuned for more details.
QUIZ: “Jim is a healthy character with a promising career ahead of him.”
And YAY on Volume 3.
i got that too
Yay for Volume three!
I got that as well, though I’m going to go through with a character I created when I was eighteen and see how that plays out.
same here. Nice to know.
I am not really surprised that my other characters are unlike me, though it’s painfully obvious that I’ve neglected them. Well, I sent a couple to another grid, for heaven’s sake. I really should check what they’re doing over there.
What did surprise me is that I am deemed very different from my outworld self. At least most of us have a healthy career ahead of us, including me, which is a relief; who else would pay the bills?
Very good, and rather too accurate in some parts.. the “He’s got my nose” score for me was quite high! Do rather wonder what the result would be if a friend who knows me and Tepic took the test in my stead, bit worrying, maybe? hehehe
i got the healthy character bit too, which ws nice, as i am quite clear to people that Tepic out of NB is definatly my av in sl. Within NB, i try to conform to his set backstory, which does not resemble mine – i am certain my parents were not foxes…. errr….. yes, i’m sure, they were not. Still, good fun, and i have learned what a Mary Sue is!
Got my nose too. Not as bad as I thought as I cringed my way through the first page…
This article is from a while ago (1999), but still very informative about what Mary Sues are, and rather entertaining. And, considering that, according to this, the origin of the Mary Sue-type character can be traced back to Victorian times… any that we have would at least be period-appropriate, if no less annoying. *grin*
Just did this Mary Sue test and the computer came up with these results:
OMG – I can’t believe my test was taken by Emerson Lighthouse! He answered all my questions! The real Emerson Lighthouse. Oh happy, happy day!
Those were pretty much the results I expected.
The most amusing thing I have read all day.
Actually one of my characters scored fairly well on the test, but in taking it I got some great ideas about what he COULD be like. He could be more like ME! *grin*
Tales Volume 3. Awesome. Let’s do it. Ceejay and I and the team have a system worked out, so this one should go even more efficiently than the last one.
I’ll share a link to some writing tips I’ve often shared with people who have honed thier skills through roleplay. While that’s a GREAT way to learn the craft, most roleplay chatlog style writing reinforces some bad habits. #1 on this list is CHRONIC. Really. Try a global search for ‘ing’ on a few roleplays and see if it doesn’t pop out at you.
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2013/03/top-10-sentence-slip-ups.html
Her eyes flashing a preternatural shade of teal, J’un’ie toyed idly with the shimmering charm at her throat. She wore it at all times as a symbol of her lost clan, those who had adopted her as an abandoned werevampshifter destined for extinction and were repaid for their kindness with persecution. Focusing on Ceejay’s coffee cup, she psychically willed the elixir to unspeakable bitterness, just like the jet black bitterness in J’un’ie’s rebellious, wounded heart. They would pay…they ALL would pay, and then finally understand the depths of her searing pain. Standing, she flung the skirt of her leather trenchcoat behind her, shook out her long, flowing red hair, and summoned her cute, weaponized mechabear to follow.
“Come, Floofy,” she said in a dark, smoky voice. “We must fulfill the prophecy of this world with kung-fu.”
O.o
I despise and adore you. However. Never mess with my coffee, or simple, cheery Ceejay will become C’ee’Jai, Keeper of the Keurig, which she has trained by sheer mindpower to fire spent coffee pods directly at your pretty little forehead. C’ee’Jai shall let loose, and you will lose. Never mix those actions up or you shall spontaneously combust, Missa MarySoooooo.
Did I mention that I can phase-shift so that I can never be hit by a coffee pod? Aaaaaaaaand that occasionally I spontaneously combust just for fun and then rise from the ashes like a phoenix? Yeah. I can do those things too.
;-)
FINE! BE THAT WAY!
*flounces off in a huff, deletes all accouts on the internet and immediately comes back under new accounts to spy on you*
By the way, when I flounce, my little lolita dress looks ADORABLE.
*laughs, falls off stool, bites tongue, laughs more, hits head*
*Applies a rare healing potion distilled from the stamens of flowers that bloom only once every thousand years, on the hindquarters of the last living colossal yak.*
((I know I am getting carried away and will stop now. Probably.))
*hands on hips* What are you doing with my noble steed? Do you not know, don’t you realize, can it possibly be that you have never heard of me…
—sparkly lightening effects—
…for I AM the Yak Whisperer.
*climbs a rope ladder, settles on slightly smelly mount, rides off*
((its like crack))
/me isn’t sure if he is happy or disappointed the “sleeping with” part was left out of this hilarious dialogue.
sparkly lightening effects
So you bleached your way out of this one?
And will yu be holding a yak whitening seminar at an Aether Salon in the not-too distant future?
Blast it, Ceejay, you broke Jed . . . again.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to get parts for her?
Be sure to stay tuned for our next thrilling episode: Crouching Trolley, Flouncing Ceejay. (You had to know that one was coming,)
That is equally amusing to Mr. Lighthouse’s remark.
Is it wrong that part of me secretly wants to hear stories about the mechabear called Floofy?
Yes.
Floofy wants to hear stories of YOU!
Coming this fall to Tales of New Babbage, it’s Tne Adventures of Floofy the Wonder Yak.
And yes, I know that I’m going to be burning in literary Hell for that one. I’ll be parked next to Norman Mailer for his writing Ancient Evenings as his final work. (A book so bad that even kinky Pharonic sex couldn’t save it.)
I’ll be burning in Hell (literary or otherwise) for a number of reasons, none the least of which is the fact that I thought Ancient Evenings was a fantastic book. But then, ‘Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state.’
(By the way, it wasn’t Norman Mailer’s last work)
I accidentally referred to it as such, having remembered an old National Lampoon funfetti where the spirit of death was looking for a new vicitim in the literary commnity to visit with an embarrasingly accidental demise and had chosen Mailer on the basis of that particular work.
Heh hehheh huh She said ‘chronic‘ heh huhheh
I am taking the Mary Sue test right now, but had to stop and weep a little at this sentence:
“Constance looses a loved one, only to subsequently bring that loved one back to life.”
So, did the loved one take their freedom and run, or die?
Maybe it was the only way to get away from her…
What? There wasn’t a hacksaw to be had in all of Babbage?
I was going to say earlier that the people who really need to see the truth are those who are the most blind to it.
And the ones who don’t are most likely the ones who immediately think they need to do so.
uh oh.
Not good. Not good at all. At least the last half was okay, but now I am deeply emotionally scarred. Scared too.
Boss did fine, btw…
Oh this is fun!! CeeJay, you and Junie are the best!
Here is what I got for Wiggy:
Wiggy is only a little like you. He is not at all cool; in fact, he
thinks cool is a temperature reading, and when he says “Oh, I just put
on whatever old thing’s lying around,” he means “on the floor, where I
threw it last night – but I turned the underwear inside out first.” He
may have sometimes thought that he was special, or destined for greater
things, but probably dismissed the idea as a fantasy. He’s got no
emotional scars to speak of. And he’s gotten no slack from you.
Odd how it says that Wiggy is only a little like me, then describes what I’m wearing perfectly…
Hah! Wiggy, I got the EXACT same results for Constance (character based off Ceejay).