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Date Posted: Fri, Apr 16 2004, 19:30:48
Author: Wandering Namek
Subject: Re: Question: What makes Mary Sue so annoying?
In reply to: Godgifu 's message, "Question: What makes Mary Sue so annoying?" on Wed, Apr 14 2004, 23:21:33

My main reason for disliking Suvians and all their suspecies is they alienate the reader. Instead of being surrounded by the story, you're looking/listening through a window while Sue has her fun. Isn't a story supposed to draw the reader in so they forget they're not just reading words on a page?

It's one of the main reasons I'm writing Blending In from Tonk's perspective(third person limited POV). It's about all I really can write from and I WANT you inside his head. That way you're experiencing the world as he does. Too many stories about a blind char are told from "outside". No, I want you to know EXACTLY how he perceives the world around him(although you have the advantage of taking the limited sensory input Tonk gets and translate it into a visual image for yourself). You only know what he knows and I show you bits of his past on a need to know basis. *Shrugs* He's had his stupid moments - some resulting in hilarity and others just make you gawk at him in a 'that was stupid' manner.

Too many Sue authors give their character's whole past away in the first few paragraphs. Woe-diggers about how her father molested her as a child and gave her horrible scars. Or about the tragic loss of her family to a fire. Why not leave some areas open for the reader's imagination? Or slip a little tidbit in here. Give your readers a puzzle to put together. If the char's past is really important you can always write a separate story to explain their past and how they became what they are.

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