One thing that I have trouble with as a writer— and let’s be honest, as a human being— is wanting to be someone else. I think I’ve mentioned before how I suffer from anxiety and so on? I try not to talk about it here too much partly because that’s not what this space is about and partly because it’s a little too personal. For as open as I am about myself, there is still a part of me that’s kept for my nearest and dearest, what can I say?
Anyhow.
It’s one of the things that first drew me to stories, in general. The ability to read a book and, at least in my own mind, become someone else for a little while. And of course, I have always loved stories with strong female characters in them because then, while I read that book or watched that movie or whatever, I could pretend that I was strong and brave and clever, just like Hermione or Alnosha or even the girls in Sailor Moon. They weren’t necessarily perfect, but they possessed characteristics I didn’t see in myself growing up, and that sort of attitude stays with me.

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According to Wikipedia: A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. Often, this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment.[1] They can usually perform better at tasks than should be possible given the amount of training or experience.
It’s usually used as a derogatory term, and you definitely don’t want to have one in your story! You probably see where I’m heading.
I don’t actively seek out Mary Sue characters when I read (or watch a show) just so that I can identify with them and pretend that I have a perfect, idealized life, but when I do come across a character whose eyes I can see through I don’t automatically reject them. I also look for a broader explanation. Just because a character doesn’t have a skill at the beginning of the story, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a related skill they can adapt or a basic understanding of how the skill works without having any practice at it. There are any number of things that can be going on in the life of a character, including legitimate giftedness.
Now I have written a couple of female characters, Sarah being the first to take center stage. Every one of my characters does indeed have a little bit of myself in them, I can’t lie to you. Sarah got probably a little more of my own self-doubt and social awkwardness than should have slipped by the edits, but I’ll have to live with that. I’m fairly sure that’s not what Wikipedia means by ‘author self-insertion’ and it’s absolutely not any sort of ‘wish fulfillment.’ If anything, it put on display a part of myself I’d much rather hide from the world. If any character in the Los Gatos universe is a Mary Sue, it’s Sarah’s dead grandmother, Lady Basically-not-appearing-in-this-book. I do wish I was that outgoing and friendly and comfortable in my own skin. Not to mention I kind of did envision my perfect backyard when I wrote about her garden.
But then I hear that basically, every female character is a Mary Sue unless they’re terrible characters. Hermione is one. Rey from Star Wars is one. So my question, I guess, is why is every female character that discovers a gift or a skill or a talent some sort of terrible, throw-away, trope character? It makes no sense to me, but I’m going to take any such accusations as a compliment. I feel like Sarah and Doc and May are all in excellent company. Right up there with Rey and Hermione.