How To Avoid Creating Mary Sue/Anti Sue Character
Mary Sue, the overly perfect and exaggerated character, and Anti Sue, the overly imperfect and flawed character. The two types of characters you want to avoid. Here’s how.
As explained in the subtitle, Mary Sue characters are characters that are perfect, without weaknesses, and have exaggerated characteristics or unlimited power. Anti Sue characters are the opposite, they are over flawed, have a overly tragic past, no friends, and are often portrayed as extremely depressed. If you want to write a story, you don’t want to use these hated stereotypes. But avoiding them is pretty simple, you just need to make sure your character has a balance of good traits and bad traits. So lets look at some things that may be indicators that your character is a Mary Sue or Anti Sue
Similarities to you
Now it’s not bad to loosely base a character off of yourself, but if you’re making them look how you want to look, giving them the life you want to have, the wardrobe you wish you’d be able to wear, ect, then this is a red flag, because chances are that this glorified version of yourself is too perfect. If you are basing a character off of yourself, read over your character outline carefully and make sure that there’s the golden balance of quirks and flaws.
Unnatural Qualities
If you are writing a fantasy novel, then it’s okay for your character to have unnatural qualities, but only if it is related to their connection to magic. For example, if you give your character pink eyes, perhaps it’s because they are a vampire and all vampires in your story have pink eyes. But if you are writing a realistic fiction, giving your characters pink eyes, elf-like ears, magical abilities, ect, then you need to rethink your genre or the characteristic you’ve given your character. Realistic fiction needs to stay in the realm of realism. The key thing to remember is that even though it’s a fictitious story, it’s to take place in the real world. In contrast, if your character has many flawed traits or negative traits, this is a sign that they are an anti-sue.
Love Triangles
In a romance novel, there’s nothing wrong with a little love triangle, two people fighting for the heart of your character. But if your intention is not to write a romance novel, and you have several people who are in love with or deeply attracted to your character, you need to rethink this. Is mentioning this important to the story? If not, then you shouldn’t mention several people being attracted to your character. It makes them seem irresistible, which is an overly perfect trait. In contrast, if your character is hated by a majority of those around them, without any particular reason, then this is an indicator that your character could be an anti-sue. It’s okay to have some enemies, but without a good reason, they should have friends, not just enemies.
Family Past
Think very carefully when determining the details about your character’s family. Was your character an orphan, runaway, stolen/switched at birth, or raised by someone other than their own parents? This can be a trait of either a Mary Sue or Anti Sue. But, not if you do it correctly. If your character does have one of these pasts, it needs to have a meaning to your story. It needs to be a part of why they are the person they are, and have changed them or bring change in some way. This must, however, be done correctly to work well. For example, if your character is overly depressed because they were an orphan, this is more of an anti-sue trait than a good backstory. In contrast, if your character is a runaway but this makes them glorified and too cocky and confident, this can be a Mary Sue trait.
The same goes for their family in the current time of the story. Do their family treasure them as the favorite child, spoil them, or give them the perfect life? Then that might be a bit too perfect. All family has drama, so if your character is the favorite, this should spark conflict. In contrast, if the family hates the character, abuses only the character, or other types of mistreatment, there should be a good reason that, again, moves the plot or changes the character in a developmental way, or it’s seen as an anti-sue quality.
God Modding
God modding is when a character dies and comes back to life again. In some fantasy contexts, this is acceptable, with good reason and explanation, but it shouldn’t happen more than once, because that’s when a story becomes unrealistic. Spefically if your character comes back to life dying trying to save another character. In a realistic fiction setting, god modding should never happen. Now, if your character is in a coma and then miraculously comes out of it, that’s different than acknowledging that they are dead and then somehow finding a way to bring themselves back to life, or if a different character brings them back to life.
Medical History
This category is more for identifying the anti-sues, but if your character has a complete clean bill of health, that’s a good indicator of a Mary Sue. Your character should have some sort of medical flaw, even if it occurs during the story, like a cut or laceration. If your character has some serious medical problem that is miraculously cured with no good explanation or reason, this can also be another indication. In contrast, if your character has some tragic, incurable disease, various mental illnesses and/or medical ailments, then this is a good indication that the character is an anti sue.
And that’s it! Those are all the key points, if I went through every single indicator we could be here for hours. The important thing to remember is that your character needs a balance of good and bad. If you’re still unsure, have someone else read over your character outline, or start writing and ask specifically about the character(s) when someone reads your story so you can get feedback about whether or not your character needs reparation.