Subject: Oh jeez, let me think...
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Posted on: 2017-03-03 03:33:00 UTC

I'd just finished the second-to-last Sisters Grimm book and went wandering around the internet trying to find out if the last had been published already or not... and that was when I first stumbled across fanfiction. Someone had written an entire novel's worth of a story featuring the characters a few years in the future, and Sabrina became an amnesiac in a contrived coincidence, grew fairy wings, was hunted and on the run from Fairy society, married Puck and became a princess, and True Love's Kiss brought all her memories back and then she remembered she hated him and there was Drama. I loved every moment of it. (Unfortunately, I don't remember the fic's name because I'd love to go kill revisit it.) That was probably my first encounter with a Sue.

The first time I really learned what a Sue was, though, would probably be when I came across the term while reading reviews for a Fifth Marauder story, and I resolved to never, ever, ever make the same mistakes. That... turned out about as well as can be expected. At least I was actively trying to avoid writing a Sue, so I think my story wasn't too terrible for a first attempt at writing?

It was about two years after starting my badfic series that I found the PPC, really got a feel for what did and didn't make a good story, and finally killed my old shame.

So for me, it was less of an "aha!" moment and more of a gradual realization of what made a Mary Sue.

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