Mary Sue and the art of pacing · 9:07pm Nov 20th, 2013
So, this is something I've been thinking about for awhile, and I thought maybe someone else could benefit from it. The best use I could think of for these blogs was writing advice, and that is what this is. Here we go; my thoughts on how to avoid Mary Sue, through proper use of pacing a story.
This all started for me when I realized something about Mary Sues. Namely, that they are cool. I mean, seriously. Who WOULDN'T want to be able to do everything Mary Sue can? It would be great! Fly, shoot laser beams, have thousands of people fall in love with you, bend reality to your whim, yeah!
This thought was immediately contradicted by another; the fact that they are actually really boring and unsatisfying to read. This dichotomy, the facts of life not matching what my brain was saying, started me looking at the differences in different stories. The devil, as it so often turns out, is in the details.
If you read about Mary Sue, or Garry Stu, (but not Peggy Sue), you will find many varying definitions of what makes one. Some say it has to do with how the plot bends around them. Some reference pulling characters into their orbit. Some say that they are overpowered, some say they're tragic.
The thing is, though, that all of these things are actually valid plot points and character attributes. Being able to fly? Rainbow Dash. Shoot lasers? Cyclops. Have thousands of people love you? Elvis Presley. Bend reality to your whim? Scion. (Or Zion, if you will.) I've read many well-written stories with many characters who have extremely powerful abilities, and on the whole, I tend to enjoy them.
This is important. Just about anything a Mary Sue is can be valid plot point. There is no inherently wrong plot. For 'Those Of Us', it's: Tropes Are Good. So, what is the difference? How do you write a character that is exceptional, but still keep them from ending up a Sue?
Pacing. The reason Sue's arise is because amateur authors jump directly from start to finish, without running the arduous race in the middle. Do you want to write a story about a pony doing something so spectacularly awesome that it can't be viewed without a welding mask? Great! But the details, the journey, have to come before the payoff, or everything you write will be empty of emotion and void of meaning.
I'm still struggling to get pacing down myself and I don't have any rules for how much of what anything needs. But here are a few things I try to think about before I write something into my story.
Did I talk about it before? A little bit of foreshadowing can go a long way. If you put a few references to something in beforehand, it can change an ass-pull plot point into a piece of subtle brilliance.
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Are there reasons for what is happening? They don't need to be reasons the audience can see RIGHT NOW, and they don't even have to be particularly good reasons, but they do have to be there. Remember, a story is about the characters doing things. They should do things for reasons, and unless the plot requires it, tell the audience. If you don't, they might as well not exist.
Have I spent long enough/too long explaining things? Remember, the audience can only read your story, not your mind. If you don't lay things out, in black and white, they won't be able to follow what's going on no matter how awesome it is. This is extremely subjective. Explaining everything can insult the intelligence of your readers, while not explaining enough leaves them lost and confused. There is a happy medium you have to hit, and I'm still trying to walk that line. Some people prefer more. I prefer less, although not as little as some.
Anyways, thinking about these sorts of things has helped my writing. Hopefully it will help yours, too.
*slow clap*
I seem to have found this a splendid read.
Jolly good show old chap
Well done, and well said! Pacing is everything. There's a reason why Rocky movies don't have Rocky knocking the opponent on his arse in the first scene. The build up is one of the best parts of the story, so we should all strive to include our audience IN that build up. How many stories have we all come across where the character goes away for years and comes back awesome? As far as I'm concerned that story is now about the aftermath of a far more interesting story. The training, the learning, that's half the fun!
One thing I'd like to add to help others intrigued with writing, is come up with an outline for your story before you write it. Include notes on what you want to happen, and the big climatic scenes and include hints of what's going to happen as you read. Knowing where it is you want to take the story at it's end is the best way to know how to pace it.
1526173 Outlines can be good, and I've used them to great effect at least once. However, I tend to get caught up in worldbuilding. The point of writing is to write a story, so if the outline is distracting you from that, it's more trouble than it's worth.
At least, that was my reasoning when I started my most recent story with no outline whatsoever.
Public Reader has told me that he is enjoying it, and it seems to be turning out so far, so...you should outline if it helps you, and just write if it doesn't.
1526917
I hear that a fair amount. I honestly think outlines become better with practice (as does anything else). At first I hated using them too. Now, my outlines do more than help set the pacing for me, they also help when I hit writer's block on a scene.
"I can't think of anything to do here, but I have all kinds of ideas for that fight scene later. I'll do that first and think of this later."
When I'm actually writing the story, I almost never even glance at my outlines, It's mostly there for when I hit snags in continuity, plans, and a reminder of ideas about things I wanted to happen. But the biggest and best function of outline creation is that it forces you to brain storm ideas before you put them into context AND think about pacing the whole time you're choosing which scenes should go where.
There should never be a time when your outline limits you're writing, because you're free to adjust it whenever and however you like. It also helps you to notice when your story focus is drifting off from it's purpose which is another issue I see a lot around.
Rant rant rant. Sorry, tangent, I'ma go now >.>
1526934 Hey, tangents are fine. I mean, discussion is awesome, right?
I agree with what you've said. My plots and pacing do tend to benefit from outlines quite a bit. What I hit, though, was where I was more interested in writing the outline, and I kept procrastinating on the story. At that point, I was like: "I need to get out there, and DO SOMETHING! Even if it sucks!" Because if you don't write, you really can't call yourself a writer. And, quite honestly, a fifty-thousand word mistake still improves your writing experience by fifty-thousand words. I mean, sure it's not the best I can do, but at least I'm doing something with my time instead of putting it off for tomorrow like I usually do! And even if it's not the best I can do, it's good enough for some people to enjoy. Sorry, now I'm ranting.
I'm still coming to terms with how my own creativity works, but I do think that writing outlines can help. I just need to discipline myself to also write the actual story, as well.
1526971
Oh yeah, I've been there. Too much outline not enough actual story. Not to mention it's just as easy to hit writer's block when making the outline as it is to hit it while writing the story.
I use my outline like story notes though. More often than not I just don't have 5 hours to get a good writing session going, I have like half an hour, but my brain's been on my story all day. That's when the outline comes in handy because I can just toss notes of what's been roaming around in my mind, and come back to it when I do have time. My memory can be atrocious so it's a good way to keep note of good ideas I don't have time to divulge on.
1527174 Yeah, even for this story, which I am not outlining, I have a notes page.
I'm trying to hit a balance between too much/not enough still, so I could probably bear to have more, but....yeah.
I'm the same, my brain will throw up random ideas through the day, and I need to grab them if I want to remember them later.