Mary Sue Test

>>7818173
It's not as laughable as I expected it to be. A mary sue basically is an author's wish fulfilling self-insert and this checklist reflects that.

I used a character who's essentially me and only got a score of 18 with 12 of the points coming from the physical resemblance alone.

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>>7818173
I suppose it helps when your character's motives, desires, age, physical features and basically everything about them but their gender is literally not talked about.

Everyone's always telling her how ugly she is. That's gotta be the #1 'not a Mary Sue' criterion.

>>7818525
Nah, only if she's actually ugly. There are Mary Sues where everyone bullies them all the time because they are just jealous of how awesome they are.

>>7818173
pretty accurate if you're writing fantasy or something shitty like that

>Most people cannot pronounce "Richard" unless they're linguistically gifted or Welsh. Alternatively, "Richard" has apostrophes in it.
>or Welsh
I lol'd

>Richard is only a little like you. He isn't really very cool: he blends into crowds, he hangs out on the fringes at parties, and wearing shades after dark makes him run into things. There's never been anything special about him that he could see; boy, is he in for a surprise. He's got no emotional scars to speak of. And he's gotten no slack from you.

>In general, you care deeply about Richard, but you're smart enough to let him stand on his own, without burdening him with your personal fantasies or propping him up with idealization and over-dramatization. Richard is a healthy character with a promising career ahead of him.

Seems about right to me, would show it to some friends who are guilty of inadvertently writing Mary Sue. It's a pretty exhaustive test.

It's useful if you are a full blown retard

Don't you have to be writing some sort of shitty genre fiction for Mary Sues to even be an issue? I just... if you're a competent writer you should be critically enough aware of your own work to not need someone tell you what you're doing. Or for Mary Sues to not apply in the first place.

>Michel Houellebecq isn't a character: he's you, or you as you'd like to be. He may be popular, or he may not, but no matter what he's impossible to ignore; he stands out... just the way you always wanted to. He may have sometimes thought that he was special, or destined for greater things, but probably dismissed the idea as a fantasy. He's come in for his share of hurt, but gotten off with minor damage. And you've been sparing with the free handouts: whatever he gains, he's worked for.

>You may have let yourself get a little too close to Michel Houellebecq. Maybe he's you as you wish you were, or maybe you're just afraid no one will like him and are trying to give him a free ride. Have some confidence in your writing! Michel Houellebecq is a good character. Give him room to be himself before you stifle him.

Map and the Territory a shit
Hollaback on suicide watch

tests like these are often pretty good except for the huge blind spot that is their failure to account for irony.

Jack Gladney or Humbert Humbert might well qualify as a mary sue by these standards

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>>7818173
I don't know let's give this a try