Rumer Godden is a master of using different tenses for different threads of a narrative (In "China Court", a family history as well as a history of the house that family lived in, she used the present tense in flashbacks to the past, the past tense for the present and sometimes she'd shift to the future tense when she was describing rooms in the house and the events that took place in them, almost as if it were being described from the POV of the house observing the family activities), but I'll admit, it can take a little getting used to.

My basic definition of a Mary Sue is a character that is basically worshiped by the other characters with little or no reason (except for maybe the random bad guy but no one likes him/her anyways). 

Mary Sue can do no wrong.  She has a lesson to teach everyone.  She understands everything because she has "been there" due to her "Tragic Past."

That's a very good way to define this literary enfant terrible in a very precise nutshell.

Hee, great work with this show in it's first season, and I hope you can continue the same great work next season.

Someone make a sheet for Butters, it'd be a hoot!

Seems like when I post a reply, it takes a few seconds for it to go through. Probably has to do with the number of people on the board posting at any given time.

I tend to try coming up with an idea for the beginning and the ending, with a few ideas for major plot points along the way... but if I try doing more than that, the plot just feels too mechanical for me. I try letting my characters tell their own story... Only trouble is, this could explain why the supporting male character who can shapeshift into a 30-foot dragon keeps trying to take over my current story. Not even deciding to give this guy his own novel to star in could keep him in check! :: Laughs::

Sorry, just had bad issues with that test...though, I think Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita should take it. I have a feeling Anita would fail...badly. I think one more book and she'll transcend into Demi-goddom. 

I deliberately ran Merry Gentry through one of those Mary Sue litmus tests and she got the highest score imaginable. Yiggh. Didn't surprise me in the least, since she's such a horrendous character anyway. I can't help hoping there's some salvagable plot buried in all that smut; the real problem with that series is the fact that the writing is so lazy. A more capable writer, or at least one who doesn't seem to be suffering from creative burnout, could probably make something out of the premise, other than a clothesline to hang sex scenes on.

That said, I believe it is possible to create a character that would, on a cursory inspection, fail to pass a Mary Sue litmus test, and yet be a good, well-developed character, depending on the quality of the author's writing and the care they take while creating that character. I have one character whom I've used in several fanfictions, an RPG and some original fiction, who narrowly passed the test, yet he's a generally well-received character. Sure, he has the cliche tragic past (or TWAGIC PAST!!!!111, in fan-kiddie speak): he was left to die at birth by his mother (a prostitute), was rescued by a poor but generally happy family who later had to give him up to a state-controlled children's home (the setting was a world where only licensed people could have children and unlicensed kids were taken into state custody and farmed out to people who met the licensing requirements, but couldn't have kids of their own for whatever reason), where he was later adopted by a wealthy couple who pretty much treated him like a trophy child -- but the guy pretty much let all that slide off him like water off a duck's back. Unlike Mary Sue (or her male counterpart Gary Stu), he didn't angst over it or try to use it as an excuse for people to pity him. His attitude was, "Yeah, sh** happened to me, but hey, I'm still useful to th' ladies... or th' gents who swing that way."