I think only partly. (r) -- La Femme Nikita Fan Fiction Message Board

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Date Posted: Tuesday, February 01, 10:02:41pm
Author: JayBee
Subject: I think only partly. (r)
In reply to: Rox 's message, "It is an experience "thing"" on Tuesday, February 01, 08:49:28pm

I see a much larger proportion of younger "new" writers using Mary Sues than I do older "new" writers, so I believe it also has a great deal to do with emotional maturity and stages of personal development.

People who are less emotionally mature, especially teens who are going through a stage in life where they often feel powerless and "held back" by an environment where they can't yet exert full control over their lives, might tend to engage in a great deal of fantasizing about being perfect, powerful people who magically get everything they want. If they write fanfic, they are likely to express that fantasy through a Mary Sue.

As most of them become adults, those fantasies diminish in frequency. While one can still see it in adult writers, it's not nearly so ubiquitous. I've seen quite a few newcomers to fanfiction manage to avoid Mary Sues from the very start, even if their early writing is otherwise very "beginnerish".

In any event, as you point out, it is usually -- and mercifully -- a stage that people pass through.

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