Have I Marty Stu'd?

Do Mary Sues have to be nearly perfect? Can you MS a flawed person.

Lead Character is about my age (early 40s if you must know), similar childhood- nothing exceptional, more writing what I know. He hasn't superpowers, not an orphan etc etc. A number of things from his past are mine mashed, hashed and trashed, so as to be unrecognisable, but still with a kernal of truth in them.

Recognised as an expert in his field, but not a job I do, or even thought about doing until I wrote him (Forensic Psychology). However it is a field I know via contact through work - I sometimes read psych assessments as part of the job.

Expertese leads to him being well paid. More so I can not have to worry about him earning enough to push the plot. This leads to him...

... dressing how I would like to, driving a car I'd like. No capes or gadgets, just well cut expensive suits and a almost-classic car.

An adorkable Clueless Chick-Magnet, and a really nice guy who works hard to be charismatic and make people feel good.

Now here's the killer for MS-ness. I started writing what was supposed to be a short erotic story as a form of cathasis, while I was having a nervous breakdown. Things sort of got out of control - I'm almost finished, currently at 105,000 words (about 330 pages). A friend helping me through my problems was listing my character traits, and I realised she was almost describing my fictional character.

Additionally people look up to him, and give him a bye in his Bunny-Ears Lawyer moments.

He has a Meaningful Name but not an awesomemccoolname

HOWEVER - while he solves everyone's problems, he can't solve his own: he runs away from them by looking after his friends. They want to give back but he won't let them in. His character development is about him accepting this. What he is actually doing is hiding his faults and fears by a display of hypercompetence, and is scared of letting others down. At one point he BSOD's and it takes his best mate and a lot of booze to reboot him.

Normal MS tests don't work- there is no magic, fantasy races, mutant powers etc, its 21st century Britain, so the scoring scale is all wrong: many of the questions relate to things that don't exist.

I didn't even read your post. In general, I disagree with the use of the term Mary Sue, because it tends to reduce the notion of a certain type of badly written character to a fairly strictly set of criteria, and scares off amateur writers.

It would be better to ask "What do you think of this character?" in general.

Right now marty stu only means

"A male character I don't like"

Litmut test right now only mean "character traits the creator of the test doesn't like

edited 4th Nov '12 7:42:12 PM by FallenLegend

Ditto this, so bleeping much.

@OP - Don't worry about avoiding what you don't want your character to be. Just give him a realistic motives and personality. If your character has a very clear and plausible identity, that's all you need.

Once again plugging my theory: Mary-Sueism, in so far as it exists, is not a feature of the character, but a feature of the writing. It's about one character distorting the narrative to a ridiculous and annoying degree, so that the story exists to enable and aggrandize them rather than the other way around. Typically, this happens is because the writer is more concerned with vicarious self-gratification than writing a good story.

From what you've said, it's hard to make a judgement, and ultimately it's for you and your audience to decide. Basically I agree with Archereon, forget Sueism, just write a good story.

Although, since a large part of sueism is absorption into the character, if you're worried you could try taking them out of things. Write a scene or two that feature them in no way, involving other characters that don't talk about or allude to them. If that feels natural and interesting that's good. If you keep being tempted to involve them somehow that's a sign that you're too attached and need to give the other characters more attention.

Thanks for your replies guys. Having thought about it I don't think I have. Its just that a male lead is, well, the male lead. Author Avatar possible, but not MS, in that the story does not exist to make him a hero, but rather explore his relationships. Female friends that have read it have enjoyed it, so I think I must be getting something right - They cry at all the right places!

I can write scenes in my head about his friends - they are not integeral to the story, so cant be included - I am actually limiting myself to scenes with only Him or his Love in, otherwise it all becomes Expy.

edited 9th Nov '12 3:06:26 PM by LastHussar