Subject: I'm a "borderline Sue"...
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Posted on: 2011-12-17 08:45:00 UTC

I get a 22. But that's only if I don't pick the answers that reflect the fact that the character I'm testing is myself--you know, same name, same taste in books, same career, that kind of thing. I gained some points for childhood trauma and being really good at school, looking younger than I am and being good at understanding animals. I wonder if I gained points for owning cats, or if it had to be an unusual pet?

If I added all the stuff that involved the character's similarity to me, it'd probably score Uber-Sue.

It does make me think though. A true self-insert--a real person, written into a story, rather than an idealized version of the author--would still score as a Sue, even though if they hadn't been based on the writer, they would be a pretty realistic character.

And then there's my own "borderline Sue" status, even though I'm a pretty average everyday kind of person. I think, maybe, it just comes from the way a real person is quite detailed and complex--more so than a fictional character. When you write a fictional character, you don't add every single detail about them, just the ones that are relevant. So, if I were a fictional character, the fact that I look younger than I am or won the school spelling bee mightn't even be mentioned, because it wouldn't be relevant. But, since I'm not, I know all those little details, and some of them are Suvian traits.

Maybe part of writing a Sue is just giving the character too many traits, period. You give her a beautiful face even though her beauty isn't driving the story; you give her powers she never really uses; you make people love her even though it wouldn't matter to the plot whether they did. The character gets cluttered with traits that she doesn't need to have and that don't need to be mentioned.

Everything you write about a character should drive the story. For the Sue, that's the other way around--the story is just there to show off the Sue.

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