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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41136
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Self-projection into one's stories is an inevitability. Whose lens affects your outlook on life, and thus the worldbuilding/tone of your novel? That's right, yours. Who is the only person you have direct experience of the thoughts of? Once again, you.

As such, you shouldn't be surprised or beat yourself up over the fact your characters take on some, or even many of your traits. The question is not whether or not you share traits with your characters, but your intent behind it; believe me, it bleeds through.

If you're writing to have an escapist power-trip fantasy with people you think you'd like, then you're writing a mary sue, and it'll be obvious to even a slightly discerning reader (even the ones simple enough to think powerful/skilled characters alone are mary sues).

If you're writing to tell a story with layered, flawed characters to explore a theme through arcs and exploration, well, it'll show. It doesn't matter how incestuous the character soup is, if pretty much every character inherits something from their creator; as long as they are distinct enough to stand out and explore what needs to be explored, then you should be fine.

Mary-sue call-out culture has wracked poor folks like you with fear, and frankly, that isn't cool. I wrote an essay on this topic (it might be a tad rambling in hindsight) that can be found here:

[https://storiesfromsekai.com/2018/06/17/critical-essay-the-checklist-effect-how-the-mary-sue-label-killed-creativity/](https://storiesfromsekai.com/2018/06/17/critical-essay-the-checklist-effect-how-the-mary-sue-label-killed-creativity/)

Original score: 21