How to Do a Mary Sue

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Title:	How to Do a Mary Sue
Creator:	Liz S.
Date(s):	1983
Medium:	print
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How to Do a Mary Sue is a 6-page 1983 essay by Liz S. in Contraband #1.

The topic was Mary Sue, something that the author states upfront is a "concept which delights me."

From a flyer: "A short survey of some common varieties, (with examples), and guidelines on how to do one yourself, if you insist"

The essay is unique as it is written in an early acafan style.

This essay has an related fic by the same author called Bonds of Affection.

Some Topics Discussed

• media fans are stated as mostly women
• women don't see fun, imaginative characters so they need to write them themselves
• while there are a few literary, complicated women characters, they tend to be "fiendishly complex and not very nice," "a variegated can of worms," "pretty and domestic," "more complex and often nastier," and in the end, often just sidekicks; they were often not very satisfying. "What we needed were gutsy, SIMPLE characters, easy to identify with, and straightforward enough for inexperienced writers with limited aims, sordid imaginations, and finite of amount of time" -- this last part written with a bit of tongue-in-cheek
• Mary Sues are a starting point for more mature writing
• there is A LOT of literary and philosophical discussion about psychology, plot, ego, and desire
• for science fiction media fans, 19601970s were very important: "The 60's brought us broadening social awareness, feminism, Star Trek, Star Trek fandom, and Mary Sue."
• the 1960's were a time when feminism was gathering momentum and "femfen were feeling and acknowledging the need for character/role models in science fiction" -- and this is where Star Trek was important
• fandom and being a fan is not a new idea, but Star Trek was the first "loosely organized" fanfic fandom
• the Mary Sues in Star Trek and in Star Wars are different: the ones in Star Wars go to a lot more "sleazy bars," sleep around more, and have celebrated complicated morals
• a run-down (and brainy) of Mary Sue characteristics, and of plots

Excerpts

Science fiction media fandom, as has been observed before, consists largely of women. This, alas, is not true of the media products themselves. Good drama/art involves you -- makes you feel as though/wish you were actually a part of the action. And leaves you wanting more. Seeing bright, imaginative people, we (media femfen), feel the urge to prolong the fun. We want to write our own stories. More -- we want to write stories in which we actually are an integral part of the action.

Hiatus.

For a long time, short of surrendering our gender (which was not the idea at all!), there were no handy role models upon which to project ourselves. The material which had originally sparked our interest was woefully short of the right kind of female characters. We were going to have to invent women to put into the stories we wanted to write: women we would not feel ashamed of or embarrassed to identify with. Women whose adventures would be just as exciting as those their male counterparts enjoyed/endured.

The need for Mary Sue was being felt.

It is unfortunate but true that the majority of women in earlier science fiction in general, and in movies, video and stage productions in particular , were poorly characteristic. They were flat in every direction but one. If you stuck purely to science fiction, you were likely to discover that all the early women character ever did was scream attractively and try not to fall out of her lingerie. Even this wasn't for her own benefit. -- it was all for Him.

Not very much point in writing this sort of stuff if you happen to be female yourself.

Star Trek was readily available. It was remarkable advanced for American television of its day. It was (struggling to be) progressive. For those of use where weren't active do-oers... it didn't require much energy or daring to absorb. Also, Star Trek gave rise to one of the (if not THE) first large, relatively organized, do-it-yourself-in-writing media fandoms. Before Star Trek, media fandom was a pretty nebulous and inchoate phenomenon. In those days, fanfic was not a widespread occurrence, in the form we know it now.

"Fanfic" (a subset of "all fannish pursuits") is not the same, by definition or connotation, as professional work. The word "professional" implies several things: the author's attitude toward his craft: the quality of work produced: and that the author gets paid for (or even makes a living from!) writing. I realize that these words have been used differently, but at the moment, I am referring NOT to whether the author gets PAID for the finished product, (which is why I am avoiding the word "amateur" as an alternative to "fan"), but rather to the typical QUALITY of the work. Fanfic, by connotation at least, is characteristically written at a poor to intermediate level: it is generally derivative involving characters framed by a universe not originally of the author's own devising. It is also typically produced for private consumption or the benefit of a limited group of people, and therefore inherently non-commercial, but that is incidental. When I use the word "professional" I mean that the level of writing is generally at least competent. I am fully aware that this is not always the case in the Real World, and that writers of both kinds can frequently be found on the wrong end of the cash flow.

We had been looking (not always consciously) for a universe which would contain both actual role models, and/or a social structure with ready-made niches into which our own, as-yet unsophisticated identity-symbol-characters could fit. Star Trek! Bigawd! There were women in it! Women scientists , women doctors, women archeologists, women rulers, WOMEN IN STARFLEET. Oh, WOW. There were even women in (and near) Command. Star Trek was far from perfet -- but it sure was an improvement over what had gone before.

Yes, I am making fun of the type, but I assure you, I have a lot of respect for what Mary Sue represents... Mary Sue stands for an essential stage of development. She is not a figure to be scorned merely for the fact of her existence. Some people skip right over the Mary Sue stage of writing, but she has been discovered, used, profited from, and discarded by generations of new fan writers. With any luck, she will continue to be rediscovered, studied, and set aside for as long as fen continue to become authors and grow in the practice of their chosen art.

Reactions and Reviews

[Liz S.]'s "How to do a Mary Sue" has some very interesting ideas on why we women fanfic writers often start out by writing the Mary Sue stereotype. The article then goes on to a fairly detailed description of both the Mary Sue character, in her several variations, and the kinds of plots in which she usually finds herself. My enjoyment of the article was marred only by the tiny and hard to read print - the only incidence of this problem in the whole zine. I needed a ruler to read the darned article.