Grammar girl here, today guest writer Bonnie Trangas is going to tell us about a writing

problem called the Mary Sue.

All writers have likely heard the advice, right what you know.

And we all know ourselves pretty well, but it might not be such a great idea to base

a character on yourself if you're writing fiction.

In this episode we'll discuss a writing problem known as the Mary Sue.

If a critic calls your character a Mary Sue, that's not good.

This term originated funnily enough in 1974 with the original Star Trek TV series.

Captain Kirk would often have a relationship with a woman who is beautiful and exotic

and who lacked any realistic character flaws.

These ubiquitous, flat female characters in Star Trek episodes started to bother a

fan fiction writer named Paula Smith, so she wrote a parody of this unrealistic woman,

naming her character Mary Sue.

A Mary Sue, then, is a character who, according to the TV tropes website, quote, serves as

an idealized version of the author, mainly for the purpose of wish fulfillment, unquote.

We all wish we were flawless, good looking, smart and capable, so it's natural to make

our characters this way.

Besides, it's hard to come up with a completely new character who looks, acts and sounds realistic.

There's no wonder that writers, knowingly or not, model characters after themselves.

Sure, we've all had odd experiences we'd love to share with the world and who wouldn't

be thrilled to read about that quirky mannerism we have.

Well, it turns out we're not so interesting after all.

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