How to make sure that you don't end up writing a Self-Insert?
Could I get some pointer as how to NOT write a Self-Insert/Mary Sue?
What I mean: according to Urban Dictionary a Self-Insert is "A story in which the reader inserts himself or herself; this usually occurs within a fanfiction"
Self-Inserted Characters commonly have almost NO personality (In order to asist the reader in inserting their personality onto the Self-Insert character, an example of Self-Inserts include: JRPG Protagonists that don't speak, Kirito,Red from Pokemon, etc.)
My Question: What are some general pointers that I could use in order to help prevent myself from writing a Self-Insert/Mary Sue?
P.S. Yes, it IS possible to unintentionally write Self-Inserts/Mary Sue's.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/26748. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Turn your gaze outward. A writer writes what they see. If your gaze is turned inward, you will write about yourself. If you are brutally honest with yourself, this may be revealing, but since we seldom are brutally honest with ourselves it is more likely to be a fantasy of yourself, or a form of personal wish fulfillment.
With all due respect to the other answers here, technique will not get you out of this. It's a vision thing. Whatever techniques you attempt, if you are looking at yourself you will only see yourself.
The only cure is to turn your gaze seriously and determinedly outwards. Look honestly at others. Try to see them dispassionately. (Seeing yourself dispassionately is fine too, but hard to pull off.) Focus on them and their lives and when you have seen enough to have gained some insight into their lives, write about that.
This is not to say that inward looking writing is not marketable. A fantasy of oneself is appealing (if well told) to other people with similar self-fantasies. Tropes don't get named because they don't work, but because they do.
But if you want to write more honest and objective literature, turn your gaze outward.
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