McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Originality--How important is it?
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: BobForPresident on June 06, 2010, 10:19:51 PM ---I personally don't like the whole "Mary Sue" thing. I think it's a really easy way write off characters without offering a good critique. If you don't know the author, you can't judge if the character's based on them, and when characters are too "perfect", they're often also called archetypes (the wizard, the hero, etc), and they're the basis of modern fiction.
--- End quote ---
Mary Sues are not always author self-inserts.
Shecky:
Yup. "Mary Sue" has come to mean any horribly perfect protagonist - far too good to be true.
arianne:
I agree on the Mary Sue front...it's just hard to feel sympathy for a character who always always always makes it okay. They don't lose a single hair even though they've killed monsters, saved the world, and blah blah blah. What's the point in caring about someone who clearly isn't having any problems?
(Of course, with series characters, you pretty much know they're going to survive, but even so, they lose friends, limbs, get depressed etc, so there are still stakes involved.)
Thanks too to everyone who contributed on the originality bit. I think I can rest easy now, knowing that it isn't THAT big an issue as I thought it was. :)
svb1972:
Or lets say..
You take two really cliched unoriginal ideas.
Like say:
A lost fighting unit.
Pokemon.
Could you make a book that was marketable?
On a flip side for the OP. You just described basically a Urban Fantasy Romance Novel.
snowbank:
--- Quote from: svb1972 on June 07, 2010, 04:15:04 PM ---Or lets say..
You take two really cliched unoriginal ideas.
Like say:
A lost fighting unit.
Pokemon.
Could you make a book that was marketable?
On a flip side for the OP. You just described basically a Urban Fantasy Romance Novel.
--- End quote ---
I thought you just described the Codex Alera in your post. I didn't consider that an Urban Fantasy Romance Novel. Not nearly enough sex, explicit or otherwise.
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