30 Days - day 8

[graculus]

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Unless you're not writing anything with plot, I would have thought it would be difficult to completely avoid writing OCs of some description.

And to my mind, the main way to avoid them being Mary Sues (or Gary Stus, for that matter) is to make sure they're not perfect. After all, if your new SGC member knows more languages than Daniel, can fight better than Teal'c and wire up alien technology with Windows 95 better than Sam, chances are you've failed in your mission... ;)

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

It all depends on the OC.

I have one OC that's not really a Mary Sue, but she's a really good scientist and excels in her field. She's also been overlooked by her peers. Her main role was to be secondary character who helped move part of the story along. She wasn't meant to be a major character or play a major part.

Another OC I had that I dearly love was Gus from my Conspiracy Series (may I get finish it someday). I needed a mercenary who could work undercover, so he had to be good at what he did. He had a team he worked with, and they worked well together. I think I was able to keep him from being a Marty Sue because he wasn't perfect. He had high cholesterol from eating too many doughnuts, stuff like that. :) He was just plain fun to write.

I don't like perfect characters, but I do love characters when they're competent in their field. If they're a good basketball player, then it's not gonna work if they're tripping over their shoestrings on the court. *g* Now, a botanist with hay fever could be fun...

They need failings just like real people. They need bad habits and people need to call them on them. They need to have issues, phobias, neuroses, psychoses, maybe a touch of OCD even. *g* They need to have little quirks unique to them.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

They need failings just like real people. They need bad habits and people need to call them on them. They need to have issues, phobias, neuroses, psychoses, maybe a touch of OCD even. *g* They need to have little quirks unique to them.

All true - and I think another very important thing is, whatever their flaws, other characters see them as flaws (or simply lacks, so to speak - it's not a flaw to not speak French or fly a plane or do karate, but a character who lacks that ability when it's needed in the story is less likely to be a Sue/Stu). Sues tend to have "flaws" like "I'm too bold" or "I'm too confident" or "I tend to just jump in and do things" and ... it always works out that they save the day. Real flaws are recognized by the other characters - the OC isn't idolized by them, and they don't become the one everyone (including all the professionals) look to to save them.