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farlaToday I see there's A Pokemon MarySue Guide in the category.
I don't like sues, yes. But I also don't like when people get into the mindset that the only thing wrong with a story is a sue, and so if they write something against sues, it's automatically good. The pokemon category is happily lacking in the infestations of poorly done sue bashing stories that exist in some other categories I've seen.
Anyway, the Guide is about what you'd expect from the fandom. To say nothing of the content, the raw writing is cringeworthy. It opens with:
A Mary-Sue Pokemon Guide
How To Avoid Them and Examples
By: Lori Flora
This guide is to help people avoid writing Pokemon Mary-Sues, as demonstrated by the SilverStars: Legend of Time Fic.
There's something subtly off here, you may notice. Also note the major warning sign of the writer refering to a single specific story by name.
Continuing, one next sees:
What is a Mary Sue?
A Mary-Sue is basically a self-insertion of the author into his/her favorite show. That isn’t much of a problem if a Mary-Sue doesn’t develop so many annoying characteristics.
How to Avoid Mary-Sues:
Rule Number One: The character can be as strong as hell, but it needs to have equal consequences. This was not seen so far in the SilverStars fic. The OC is bitchy, and seems a bit like a fucked-up Mary-Sue, or an Angst-Mary-Sue.
Rule Number Two: Do not describe what she looks like on the first page, and don’t make up and new Pokemon unless absolutely necessary, and even then, don’t make him/her see so exotic. Again, I saw this in ‘Meeting Place’, a good example. The so-called ‘Creature, seems to have way too much of an angsty past, and the other three OC’s seem Mary-Sue-ish too. Also, there is so far no relation to Pokemon.
How to Recognize a Mary-Sue
What's wrong with this, dear reader? Oh, where to begin.
To start with writing again. The author first starts off in a Q&A format. But next she makes a statement/subheader instead of continuing the format, and ends this with the noble colon which is then missing in the third subheader, which lacks any form of punctuation.
Ten seconds of editing could correct this, dear readers. It is never a good sign when anyone writing a writing guide thinks they can slap something together and post.
Further evidence for this being slapped together is that there are, it appears, only two rules in avoiding a sue. And those two rules are an illegible jumble (What does being strong as hell have to do with being bitchy have to do with being an angst sue? What does having an angsty past have to do with describing the character on the first page?).
Next we see the advice is...requiring the creation of new swear words for its proper description. This is avoidance advice - listing the things someone's not supposed to do and saying that's enough. This just leads to people avoiding the particulars and then refusing any criticism on the matter. To top it off, the actual content of the advice seems to be random phrases gleaned from a dozen or so comments about mary sues without any real understanding - they're not always all-powerful, or bitchy, or avatars, or...
Just because all bitchy powerful overdescribed angsty author avatars are sues does not mean all sues are bitchy powerful overdescribed angsty author avatars.
Amazingly, it only gets worse. The author lists seven ways to recognize a sue – and I swear, she just pulled them off some old Star Trek mary sue essay. (I don't even need to go into how stupid it is for there to be two rules to avoiding sues yet seven ways of recognizing sues, right?) They're the utterly cliché ones too – saying that the character becomes the main character, is perfect, falls in love with the author's favorite character, etc. I've seen these exact ones elsewhere before. They're inaccurate, they're too specific (in that their wording doesn't cover things properly or doesn't encompass the whole idea) while being too general. It's an amazing skill. Shakespeare wrote a homage to it in one of his plays if I remember correctly.
Oh, did I mention that she does the 'this means the character's a sue except when it doesn't' thing? Because she does.
She quickly becomes a main Character, if not already the main character.
(Now, some OC’s may be the main character, but hey, some aren’t always a Mary-Sue. So calm down, so long as they have their own flaws, they will be fine...But some even with flaws still end up as bitchy sues.)
Then – after listing two garbled things she calls rules and seven points she ripped from some other guide to mary sues, she – rather than go into depth or write anything useful – gives the most detailed section of her entire guide: mary sue endings, which takes up about a page of her two-page guide.
The most sickeningly ironic thing is that it's all about the characters mourning the sue's tragic death…you know, that thing that doesn't happen? Yeah, that. The thing that's actually pretty rare in a lot of the younger fandoms, for that matter. And in this the author goes through pointless reiterations of what's actually a very simple thing: the sue dies and is mourned by the cast. But the author feels the need to change trivial details about the scene and write it three times.
To avoid Mary-Sue endings, do not make it seem like this:
Ending One:
Basically: The Main Character will sob, as MS (Mary-Sue) lies on her deathbed, pale almost dead. He chokes back his tears, as takes MS’s hands into his.
“Oh, my love, my Mary-Sue, I have never told you how I felt about you. And now it’s too late.” He whispers. “Why’d you do it, Mary-Sue, why? Why did you have to sacrifice yourself? Please, please don’t die!” Main Character cries, and with that, he soaks the covers with tears.
Ending Two:
Two A:
"Noooo, please no, not Mary Sue! Don't leave me, don't leave me!"
Best Friend/Sidekick pulls the hysterical Mr. Main Character off Mary Sues dead body and there is a brief struggle before Mr. Main Character collapses in uncontrollable grief.
Two B:
Mr. Main Character looked at Mary Sue, tears he didn't know he still had slipping from his eyes. "I'll never forget you, Mary Sue, never." he whispered.
Or...
Mr. Main Character felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Best Friend/Sidekick looking at him with an expression both sad and grave. "She's not gonna make it, is she Main Character?" he asked. Stroking her hand, Mr. Main Character nods, unable to speak. Just then Mary Sue seems to sigh and breathes no more.
Yes. The only thing the author actually writes coherently, gives examples of and spends time on is the thing that least applies to pokemon in the entire general ripped off guide.
Oh, but it gets better, my dear readers. Check out her profile. You see the part where she hasn't, technically, written any fanfiction yet? Despite being so awesome she can write a guide explaining how to write? How about the fact the stories on her favorites list scream 'mary sue' loud enough to cause deafness with prolonged exposure? And don't let the final bit of nauseating irony escape you: although she's posted this in the pokemon category, none of her favorite stories and authors are in the category. In other words, the fandoms she's actually active in and the fandom she decided to dispense her advice in have nothing to do with each other.
I don't like sues, yes. But I also don't like when people get into the mindset that the only thing wrong with a story is a sue, and so if they write something against sues, it's automatically good. The pokemon category is happily lacking in the infestations of poorly done sue bashing stories that exist in some other categories I've seen.
Anyway, the Guide is about what you'd expect from the fandom. To say nothing of the content, the raw writing is cringeworthy. It opens with:
A Mary-Sue Pokemon Guide
How To Avoid Them and Examples
By: Lori Flora
This guide is to help people avoid writing Pokemon Mary-Sues, as demonstrated by the SilverStars: Legend of Time Fic.
There's something subtly off here, you may notice. Also note the major warning sign of the writer refering to a single specific story by name.
Continuing, one next sees:
What is a Mary Sue?
A Mary-Sue is basically a self-insertion of the author into his/her favorite show. That isn’t much of a problem if a Mary-Sue doesn’t develop so many annoying characteristics.
How to Avoid Mary-Sues:
Rule Number One: The character can be as strong as hell, but it needs to have equal consequences. This was not seen so far in the SilverStars fic. The OC is bitchy, and seems a bit like a fucked-up Mary-Sue, or an Angst-Mary-Sue.
Rule Number Two: Do not describe what she looks like on the first page, and don’t make up and new Pokemon unless absolutely necessary, and even then, don’t make him/her see so exotic. Again, I saw this in ‘Meeting Place’, a good example. The so-called ‘Creature, seems to have way too much of an angsty past, and the other three OC’s seem Mary-Sue-ish too. Also, there is so far no relation to Pokemon.
How to Recognize a Mary-Sue
What's wrong with this, dear reader? Oh, where to begin.
To start with writing again. The author first starts off in a Q&A format. But next she makes a statement/subheader instead of continuing the format, and ends this with the noble colon which is then missing in the third subheader, which lacks any form of punctuation.
Ten seconds of editing could correct this, dear readers. It is never a good sign when anyone writing a writing guide thinks they can slap something together and post.
Further evidence for this being slapped together is that there are, it appears, only two rules in avoiding a sue. And those two rules are an illegible jumble (What does being strong as hell have to do with being bitchy have to do with being an angst sue? What does having an angsty past have to do with describing the character on the first page?).
Next we see the advice is...requiring the creation of new swear words for its proper description. This is avoidance advice - listing the things someone's not supposed to do and saying that's enough. This just leads to people avoiding the particulars and then refusing any criticism on the matter. To top it off, the actual content of the advice seems to be random phrases gleaned from a dozen or so comments about mary sues without any real understanding - they're not always all-powerful, or bitchy, or avatars, or...
Just because all bitchy powerful overdescribed angsty author avatars are sues does not mean all sues are bitchy powerful overdescribed angsty author avatars.
Amazingly, it only gets worse. The author lists seven ways to recognize a sue – and I swear, she just pulled them off some old Star Trek mary sue essay. (I don't even need to go into how stupid it is for there to be two rules to avoiding sues yet seven ways of recognizing sues, right?) They're the utterly cliché ones too – saying that the character becomes the main character, is perfect, falls in love with the author's favorite character, etc. I've seen these exact ones elsewhere before. They're inaccurate, they're too specific (in that their wording doesn't cover things properly or doesn't encompass the whole idea) while being too general. It's an amazing skill. Shakespeare wrote a homage to it in one of his plays if I remember correctly.
Oh, did I mention that she does the 'this means the character's a sue except when it doesn't' thing? Because she does.
She quickly becomes a main Character, if not already the main character.
(Now, some OC’s may be the main character, but hey, some aren’t always a Mary-Sue. So calm down, so long as they have their own flaws, they will be fine...But some even with flaws still end up as bitchy sues.)
Then – after listing two garbled things she calls rules and seven points she ripped from some other guide to mary sues, she – rather than go into depth or write anything useful – gives the most detailed section of her entire guide: mary sue endings, which takes up about a page of her two-page guide.
The most sickeningly ironic thing is that it's all about the characters mourning the sue's tragic death…you know, that thing that doesn't happen? Yeah, that. The thing that's actually pretty rare in a lot of the younger fandoms, for that matter. And in this the author goes through pointless reiterations of what's actually a very simple thing: the sue dies and is mourned by the cast. But the author feels the need to change trivial details about the scene and write it three times.
To avoid Mary-Sue endings, do not make it seem like this:
Ending One:
Basically: The Main Character will sob, as MS (Mary-Sue) lies on her deathbed, pale almost dead. He chokes back his tears, as takes MS’s hands into his.
“Oh, my love, my Mary-Sue, I have never told you how I felt about you. And now it’s too late.” He whispers. “Why’d you do it, Mary-Sue, why? Why did you have to sacrifice yourself? Please, please don’t die!” Main Character cries, and with that, he soaks the covers with tears.
Ending Two:
Two A:
"Noooo, please no, not Mary Sue! Don't leave me, don't leave me!"
Best Friend/Sidekick pulls the hysterical Mr. Main Character off Mary Sues dead body and there is a brief struggle before Mr. Main Character collapses in uncontrollable grief.
Two B:
Mr. Main Character looked at Mary Sue, tears he didn't know he still had slipping from his eyes. "I'll never forget you, Mary Sue, never." he whispered.
Or...
Mr. Main Character felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Best Friend/Sidekick looking at him with an expression both sad and grave. "She's not gonna make it, is she Main Character?" he asked. Stroking her hand, Mr. Main Character nods, unable to speak. Just then Mary Sue seems to sigh and breathes no more.
Yes. The only thing the author actually writes coherently, gives examples of and spends time on is the thing that least applies to pokemon in the entire general ripped off guide.
Oh, but it gets better, my dear readers. Check out her profile. You see the part where she hasn't, technically, written any fanfiction yet? Despite being so awesome she can write a guide explaining how to write? How about the fact the stories on her favorites list scream 'mary sue' loud enough to cause deafness with prolonged exposure? And don't let the final bit of nauseating irony escape you: although she's posted this in the pokemon category, none of her favorite stories and authors are in the category. In other words, the fandoms she's actually active in and the fandom she decided to dispense her advice in have nothing to do with each other.
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What can I say...
Date: 2005-05-24 04:18 am (UTC)Most likely she heard from somewhere that the Pokemon section has its problems and decides to play the role of writing goddess only to forget to show us all her true evidence but graces us with "facts" that can't really amount to jack. (I'm also not gonna buy the I have another account filled with stories bit either)
What the hell?!?
Date: 2005-05-25 02:08 pm (UTC)This makes me sad to be a human being. I'd rather be a cat now, thank you very much...
Someone should tell her just what went wrong. Actually, several someones should. Lynch mob! (runs off to get her blowtorch)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 03:55 pm (UTC)