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30 Days Of Fan Fiction: Day 8
8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
I enjoy writing OCs, and I don't write Mary Sues. It's not actually that hard.
My OCs are either minor characters or they're the only characters as I explore some other part of the universe, and they're fun to write. I think the Mary Sue accusation comes up when an original female character is romantically linked to a canon character, or even is just in the spotlight whether or not she's improbably beautiful and talented.
I was going to introduce a major OFC back when I started writing fanfic (a rebel very much lacking in stunning looks) but when I saw Mary Sue accusations about various fics flying about on a mailing list, I replaced her with a canon character. It actually worked out well because she took the story in an interesting new direction.
All the same, the whole Mary Sue thing annoys me greatly. I've read a fair few real ones, but not all OFCs are MSs by any means even though I've actually seen exactly that accusation made. Recently I heard that someone who wrote an original story about an older woman who was a survivor of a bad marriage got her work on AO3 tagged with "Mary Sue". [Edit] I've been told there may have been a little justification for that one.
Enough already.
Rest of the questions
9 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favourite pairings to write?
10 – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11 – Do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favourite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14 – Ratings: how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15 – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
16 – Summaries: do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 – Titles: are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 – Where do you get the most inspiration or ideas for your fics?
19 – When you have plot ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 – Do you ever get ideas from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why? If not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 – Have you ever participated in a fest, ficathon, or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favourite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a beta horror story or dream story?
25 – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 – What is the oddest (or most fun) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27 – Where is your favourite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29 – What is your current project or projects?
30 – Do you have a favourite fic you've written? What makes it your favourite? And don't forget to give us a link!
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I think I've read that one, except that it isn't original fic, it's a Sherlock fic. There is one scene in in it where the protagonist gets an extremely sensuous massage from Sherlock, and spends quite a lot of time detailing the attractions of his hands and his voice, that struck me very much as a wish-fulfilment fantasy. There's certainly a strand to the meaning of "Mary Sue" which is "an authorial self-insert who gets into a privileged - often sexual - relationship with the hero", so I didn't feel the use of the term was as COMPLETELY and UTTERLY unjustified as the author did.
I do think it's rude to tag someone's work as "Mary Sue", though, no matter how well a character may meet one's particular definition of one.
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I don't know the author. She posted to a DreamWidth comm and was supported by lots of commenters who agreed the character wasn't a Mary Sue. From her description of the fic I guessed it was original work and also not something that appealed to me.
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And I don't think you need be worried about comparing yourself to anyone else. FWIW you make me feel somewhat inadequate.
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LOL!!! Perhaps it's like rocks-scissors-paper. A makes B feel inadequate, B makes C feel inadequate, and C's awesomeness totally overwhelms A.
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