Thread: Advice for Aspiring Authors - An Old Rant Revived

I don't know any more about Spike's current activities than you do, Kurai. Sorry!

For the length it should actually be 3-5 pages. If you think it is to much then 2 pages. One page is pretty short just incase you don't know.

Blackjack said I should post this, so here goes. Hope it helps someone, or entertains at the very least ^^.

TOP TEN SIGNS A CHARACTER IS A MARY-SUE

10. TeH ATHOR tips LyKe disss wiff teh Ch47sp33k OMFG LOL!11111eleventyone

9. The character uses the name of a canon character, when anyone with half a brain knows that said character wouldn't do half the things Canon!Sue is doing. We wonder which closet the author has locked up the real character in.

8. Regardless of what fandom the OC is from, she dresses in Hot Topic inspired clothing. Constantly.

7. The author never fails to describe aforementioned clothing. In blinding paragraphs of D00M that make you want to spork your eyes out.

6. Mary is ALWAYS bee-a-YOO-tee-ful because ugly people are all gross and stuff!

5. Overused descriptions such as 'curves in all the right places', 'full lips', and '32D cup'. (Sadly, I saw a Hermione!Sue with all those descriptions...)

4. She steals the hearts of every man within her sights. Yes, every last one. Run Karasu. Run Jakotsu. IF YOU TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR HOMOSEXUALITY, YOU WILL RUN!

3. Oh-so-speshul powers of l33tness. Yes, you nature-controlling, fire-breathing, wandless-magic-using Sues, you know who you are.

2. Does not do anything wrong. Insists on taking responsibility regardless. Much wangsting ensues.

1. Shacks up with the author's favvie canon man, even if said man in GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY (*Saw Jakotsu paired with Sue, was eternally scarred*). They do not even attempt to set the romance up in a half-way convincing fashion that could render it an OC romance instead of a Mary Sue romance. Such is beyond their primitive logic.

***

So, er, yayness? Go forth, my children, and never 'Sue again!

hey, I've heard one reason script format is belittled so much is because, most the time, they're very crappy, undetailed, lazy, etc., however, it's possible to pull off a script correctly. Would my fic, Pocket Monsters Chronicles, be a good example of this?

Umm...I'm not sure this is the correct thread for that. ^^;; You may want to start your own thread.

well, I'm mentioning it here because the first post on the forums said to avoid scripts, but I think it should be pointed out to people that not 'all' scripts are bad. If anyone confirmed that mine is a good example to go by this, then, you know, authors who considered doing script could see how to do it well.

Just came across Serebii and found this interesting little tidbit:

About Mary-Sues: Pokemon can be Mary-Sues. Canon characters *cough*PIKACHU*cough* can be Mary-Sues. They are everywhere. They are in your stories (especially trainer fics). In your one-shots. In your house. Check for Sueism before you write, not after you're done 12 chapters and your char is already hopeless. Also: poor May and Brendan are mercilessly Sue-ified. If you have to give them a new character, please make them INTERESTING... ;_;

One of the ways I try to avoid Sueishness and to add interest is to give someone flaws. The Seven Deadly Sins really help if you can't decide on something. In case you don't know, they're Pride, Lust, Anger, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, and Greed. If you want to add one good feature to your bad guys, the Seven Virtues are Faith, Hope, Charity, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, and Prudence - remember that your bad guys need good points too.

While I do agree that a well-balanced character should have flaws, I kinda think that the Seven Deadly Sins is a bit too far. I mean, there are some characters that are better off not having these traits (like the pure-hearted little boy/girl that everyone loves). As for villians, well... even they should have their moments.

What do you think?

Flawed characters give the story conflict. While a character might not be completely evil, he or she could have a trait that is similar to one or more of the seven deadly sins. A greedy person with a conscience, for example: would he or she violate any laws to get what he (or she) wants, or would they listen to their inner voice? Or say you have an optimistic character, full of hope, but who also has a short temper (anger) and thinks that justice shouldn't have to wait--for any reason.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any problems with Pokemon battles (making them one-sided, etc).

Well, towards the end of chapter 4 of my fic, I used this:
http://javascript.internet.com/games/dice-roller.html

I thought that since my battles are often seen as one-sided and mediorce, the above link would help with when to make secondary moves happen (paralysis from Thunder) and how often a move should hit (One hit KO moves = AWFUL accuracy).

However, it's been brought to me that it's a pretty awful idea since it makes the battles appear more unrealistic and one-sided than they already were. I mean, I've got the idea from RPG threads, and it seemed to stand out. There were some vital points (like too many rolls would be in favor of one character or the other), but still...

Should I save this dice system for emergencies (when I get REALLY stuck in a battle) or should I just dump it altogether?

I am almost tempted to rewrite Silver Shadow now, guys. :/ You know. . .my weird Trainerfic from.. .like. . .three years ago?

I need to prove a point:

Trainerfics are not always bad. They can be WORSE.

Originally Posted by Psi Yamaneko

Trainerfics are not always bad. They can be WORSE.

Trainer fics are a much bigger story type than most people think, they don't just have to be anime like beat-the-next-gym battling fics. I mean, think of human trainers in real life: You have those that do classes at the local gym and then you have those who train runners for the Olympics. I for one who love to see more fics about breeders and people who train pokemon as more of a paying job type thing...
The same goes for journey fics, there are so many places in the pokemon world that are off the beaten path that if one wished it they could do a whole fic without going to any of the towns\cities in the game. The anime and game always gave me the feeling that there was a whole other side to the pokemon world out there, beyond the major places humans built, which a adventure seeker could get to...

i find the trainer fics really irritating >.> maybe thats just me though ^^;

I got into a bit of a disagreement with a fanfic writer over this...

Basically, the problem is this. A writer starts his fic by noting that The Entire World Changed Overnight for reasons that are not explained, and police are chasing down trainers and making them go to high school. Most of the cast is going around whining about how their dreams have been destroyed by all of this, and through cooincidences enforced by the genre, Misty and Drew are shunted off to the high school in Pallet so they can be with everyone else.

I believe that radically messing with the setting like this is bad storytelling, and the extreme stretches of plausibility are a bad thing (plus the OCs with random Japanese-style names probably shouldn't be jumping to being everyone's friends so fast). The writer counters that:

First of all, we are talking about a freaking fictional world where cute little animals can create fire and electricity and such at will and are sent out of tiny little pokeballs to beat each other up. That is something that cannot happen. Secondly, this is fanFICTION, accent on the fiction. We write these
because they are things that cannot and will not happen in the series.

Which way do you suggest authors go? Certainly most shipper stories counts as "outside the realm" of things the original would show, but where would you suggest this stops and bad storytelling begins? I mean, if I wrote a story where Sakura of the Eevee sisters and Daisy the blonde swimmer are mecha pilots saving the world from a thinly-veiled version of Godzilla (for the most absurd example I can come up with at the moment), I think I'd try to, if not make it plausible, do a lampshade hanging or a hand wave, or something.

I'll give a llink to the story I'm talking about on request, but I really just want to broach the topic. How far is too far?

I have a suggestion, how about not wrighting in a blinding pink font?

take it with a grain of salt i guess

That too.