Self Inserts

[farla]

I was mulling over self-inserts and I think I figured it out. One of the things that bothers me about self-inserts, mary sues, etc, is that you can point to them and say they’re one, and everyone else can look and agree, but the definition is hard. What exactly makes a self-insert fail? Why are they the evil of all evils? This is compounded by the problem that theoretically, even a bad writer should be able to make a three-dimensional character if they base it on themselves. Yet it makes the character worse. And why is this? Well… Because self-inserts often aren’t. I’ve noticed that making characters outspoken and confident is very, very easy to do. I deliberately try to avoid this when I write now. Because the author is just writing instead of being in the situation, it doesn’t occur to them how intimidating it really is. It’s very easy to have your character insult the villain; it’s not so easy for someone to really do. So a self-insert is usually really just the surface features of an author (looks, musical taste, fashion sense, likes) without any personality. The author then assumes that because it’s them, it has a personality. They see themselves as accomplishing this, so they automatically give it greater depth. Because this is the author, it's hard for them to fail. They can't make real mistakes. The author knows how the story's going to turn out, so the avatar also knows. The self-insert makes random guesses and assumptions that are then correct. The avatar's impression of other characters, even if utterly, utterly wrong, is shown correct within the story. When the avatar does make a mistake, it falls flat. Sometimes when I'm reading these stories, I can almost feel the author gritting their teeth, writing in a quick failure, and then going back to the main storyline. It doesn't flow naturally. And it's usually glossed over and repeatedly justified. Yeah, your trainer lost a battle. After defeating five pokemon with their brand-new starter who was already injured at the start, they just barely lost to the last one. Great job trying to de-sue your character there. It's hard enough to let them fail. Giving them negative traits? Never. If the author has an annoying tendency to babble, they probably don't recognize that about themselves, and they're all the more likely to react violently badly if a reviewer points out this problem in their avatar. If they're afraid of spiders, they don't treat it as a silly, wimpy trait – they say it was huge and hideous, then have all the other characters rush over to comfort their avatar because hey, spiders are scary! Or they may not want to admit their weaknesses and so just erase them entirely. And even if the character does react in ways somewhat similar to the author (that’s asking a lot) and the rest of the world isn't biased (that's asking even more) the author doesn’t bother writing down their thoughts, or what they see, or any of it. Again, it’s supposed to be them. I’m a very introspective person, and even I don’t pause before every action to think about the exact root of my decision. Most people are less introspective. I speak from experience on this. In order to make someone admit why they’re doing something, I need to corner and interrogate them for at least ten minutes. I've literally done this. They don’t even know themselves, let alone know how to explain it. If the author is writing about someone else, then they have to think about why a character is doing something. And that they can write down afterward. With a self-insert, the author doesn’t know. They also assume that, just as they would do an action, the reader would as well, so there’s no need to explain it. And that is why self-inserts are flat and lack personality. I try reverse self-inserting. When I write about a not-me-in-any-way character, I regularly pause to think about what I would do in the situation and why. Then I try to decide if the particular character’s personality would change this and what the change would do. So, what do you think? Right? Wrong? Ridiculously simpleminded?

Comments

Re: Insert myself, become invincible

[farla.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I'll post an informal essay on mary sues soon. I think I've figured them out too.