Chapter 18: All It Takes is Imagination

Many of us who claim to be fiction writers can also claim to have an active (or over-active) imagination. There are always exceptions, but for the most part that is the case.

For me personally, ideas come in waves. They start with some imaginative twinge, or some random inspiration. I won't have anything for a month or so, then suddenly there are ten different ideas bounding around in my head. I am once again entering a season filled with new ideas. I love mulling them over and just enjoying the story as it unfolds in my mind.

All this talk of imagination has really got me thinking about something. If you spend much time involved in writing than you know some people view the imagination in a rather funny light, it’s almost placed in a box of sort. It’s venerated for it’s power, but it’s also condemned for what many consider improper use.

Perhaps you're wondering what I'm talking about, perhaps you've already ascertained where I‘m going with this. However one would think, because of my vague opening, that such a presumption would be impossible to ascertain correctly. I can assure you that was my intention. I wanted to give your imagination some time to mull it over, before I pulled back the curtain and revealed where I am going with this.

I want to rant about Mary Sue or Marty Stu (or Gary Sue), depending on gender, and origin of reference. Now I know what you're thinking. What the heck are you talking about? Who, or what is a Mary Sue?

A Mary Sue is the process of an author writing themselves into a story. Not just writing themselves into the story mind you, using their writing as a platform for “wish-fulfillment”. Basically taking the heroic aspects of a character and projecting it onto themselves. This creates a couple of issues, the first being it can be quite egotistical. Secondly it can be classified as wishful thinking, that you as an author are only creating an outlet for your own over-inflated self worth.

Now I say all of this with an addendum, a good author can Mary Sue themselves and disguise it so well that most people can’t discover it. A shallow Mary Sue will usually lack any real development. They will possess something that gives them a completely unfair advantage, and will pretty much always do the things we all wish we ourselves could do.

I have heard all of those comments and more when I have been privy to discussions on this topic. I have heard many people slam Christopher Paolini on this one. They call him egotistical for blatantly “Mary Sueing” Eragon, saying it was based on himself, and they have called him crazy for going so far as to write with a quill. Do I think either of those approximations are true? Honestly, I don't. Writing is very challenging, wanting to create a certain type of atmosphere is sometimes best done by putting yourself as close as possible to the atmosphere you are trying to write. This is actually nothing more than intelligent writing. It helps make it a little bit more real for you the writer, which will translate out into the story, making it more real for the reader.

The area that really makes me angry is how writers are viewed for even Mary Sueing in the first place. It's like you're required to imagine a world, build it from the ground up, populate it with limitless races, fill those races with events of endless combinations, and keep yourself out of it completely. How many of you when you were little, imagined that you were a Jedi Knight? Or you were wielding a sword that turned blue when it was near Orcs? How many of you condemn someone for writing a story, and basing the main character on that very same heart of imagination as a key theme??? Its impossible for me to not plant myself in a story, because at the end of it that is what it’s all about. It's about transporting your mind to a place where your imagination can thrive, and really enjoy itself.

So in all seriousness, why be upset at someone for basing a character on themselves? Is it because we are selfish and want to hold all the imaginative cards for ourselves. Maybe it's hard to allow yourself to go to the place where you're the one walking the hero's journey, if you know it was intended for someone else all along.

I don’t really know why people get condemned for projecting themselves on their stories. I think if it’s an issue of over/underwriting a character, than character development is the way to resolve it. If you want a hero that is able to defeat every obstacle he faces you’ll have little interest in your story (unless your superman).

Anyways, that's my rant for this week. I consider myself an exception to this because I don't Mary Sue myself. It helps having a female protagonist for one, but mainly because I take it to an even higher level. I try to hide a small trace of myself in every character I write. That way, my readers get to know me just a little bit better each time they read one of my stories.

In Overshadowed news we are plugging right along. I'm getting hyped to start revealing a little bit more about the story every once in awhile. I'm going to be building an awesome website soon with plenty of cool stuff to help get you excited for Overshadowed. You're gonna want to check it out, then you're gonna want to tell everyone you know about it. Overshadowed is coming, and it’s going to be huge.

As you can tell, I'm getting excited. You can't blame me though, I've been working on this book for a very long time. Getting so close to the end is so exciting

Well that's all for this week, drop me a line and let me know what you think.

'Til next time.