Learn Your Mary Sues and Gary Stus

Just because you saw it on Twitter doesn't make it so.

That statement is even truer today than it was a month ago.

So, to set the record straight on what (or who) is a Mary Sue, take a look at these posts:

Men On Twitter Once Again Have No Idea What A Mary Sue Is.

It’s a Day That Ends in Y, so a Man Is Being Gross About Female Characters on the Internet.

And just so you know, the Mary Sue phenomenon isn't just about female characters, as the first article correctly explains, but can also be male author/director's wish-fulfillment, a la Luke Skywalker. A male Mary Sue is called Gary Stu. 

Mary Sue's are prevalent in stories written by author's who never progressed beyond those very first stories, when all we know is ourselves and the meager experience our pre-pubescent lives have had. We want more. For writers who haven't gotten the more they wished for, Mary Sue tends to come out in the story.

It takes a mature writer to NOT create a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu. It takes a mature man to value strength and competence in women, rather than being intimidated by that.

Speaking of intimidation by confident and competent women: WTF Fox News? Oh, wait...I answered the question WTF right there. It's Faux News...never mind. But seriously? What kind of ball-less, incompetent, weak and useless man is intimidated by...SHORT HAIR? This kind. Wow. So sad it's funny. Or so funny it's sad. Mostly, it's just messed up that anyone would watch that channel or pay such a moron money to say stupid things on television.

I wish I could write this sort of nonsense in my stories. But try it, see what happens. Intelligent readers would say, "That's too far...no sane person could suspend disbelief enough to think someone would actually say/do that."

And yet here we are.

Here I Am. Again.

Things were pretty ugly on Facebook leading up to the 2016 election. Revelations about Facebook algorythms, data mismanagement, and the explosion of misinformation led me to leave that social media platform. Fast-forward to 2022 and the muskification of Twitter and I've left that platform too.

What's an author (on a lengthy hiatus, but an author nonetheless) to do? Publishers and agents insist on a social media presence. As I've described in a previous post, in the world of publishing today, the cart of "fame" (or at least notortiety) has to come first, before the horse of actually producing something worthy of said fame. But I digress...

It's been a long and complicated past few years. I'll get to that in another post. In the meantime, this--my blog--and my website are it for social media. I can cull through the news, dig deeper than the ill-researched posts and sound-bites found elsewhere. I can synthesize and evaluate legitimate news and parse out the noise from the fact. You know...apply critical thinking, that sorely rare bit of intellectual capacity that humans have been granted, but mostly turned their backs on.

And while pondering that, I came across another member of my tribe. Michael Krivich, author of Perceptions, Observations, & Musings of an Old Man. Look over his blog. It's worth a few minutes of your day. Tear yourself away from the inanity dominating the world of information, and read some thoughtful, insightful commentary on the world we live in.

A few of my favorites:

Stop Taking the Bait and Falling for False Dillemma Fallacies

Why I Am Afraid to Tell You Who I Am. You Might Not Like It, And It's All I Have

What Does Make America Great, Again--Mean Exactly? 

Stop Pretending Your Racism Is Patriotic

Has WWIII Begun? Time to Reactivate Your Critical Thinking Skills

And so many more excellent pieces. Have a read. 

Oh, and this, too. Because...he's not wrong.

Then, check in here periodically. Hopefully, I'll be more regular in my posts as I get back into a routine that includes writing so I can finish the final book in the Chupacabra Trilogy and the long-awaited "Rattling of Bones."