Yep, ask me for a discussion and you get one. Or, you know, mention wanting to discuss something I have an opinion on.
There's something else. You're writing online. In a free market where pretty much anyone can read your story if they can find it. So realize this: it is your story. And it really, really doesn't matter if someone says they're not going to read something if it has het scenes. Write what you want to write. Run it through your betas to make sure of spelling and sense (and of course try not to contradict yourself without a reason for it such as "neener neener this was a secret and don't even TRY to tell me I'm ret-conning!").
Technically, Min IS your Mary Sue. He's won the heart of the semi-nasty but cool man who bought him and that man REALLY doesn't even know him. He's the one around whom this story has to revolve. The Andorian slave who's been made different. Not completey Andorian, and not doomed to die an early death. Smart as a whip and fighting to become a sane adult. It is perfectly fine for him to have had a woman lover. The story could also have worked with a Mistress rather than a master, but would YOU be able to write a woman strong enough for this without her being a bitch?
Jenna, here, you've already written in the traditional female role. Rescuing the man from his dire straights and being blamed however semi-irrationally by him for what he's been through. He's not without reason, but he's not right. In the real world, men with that kind of attitude become abusive, manipulative boyfriends and they destroy the trust of any woman who thinks she can help them. Ah, sorry. I've been through this in my real life. That's the hard part about real life versus fiction. It also makes me pretty hard to impress for fanfic writers. Fortunately, I'm only one person and it's not your job to impress me. This is something you choose to do either for fun or for purging your own demons.
I've seen some people try to cleverly disguise their Mary-Sues. One Buffy fanfic writer put out this well-written but vile story wherein Xander dies and gets resurrected as a Crow and all of Buffy's decisions were influenced by The First except for the decisions that the writer gave to Xander and mean ol' Spike was all evil even with the soul (after all, Xander died because Buffy chose to save Spike over him in this story). And Faith loved him and got verbally bitch-slapped for having been a bitch but then went off with him into the sunset after he thoroughly defeated the First Evil and stripped Buffy of her Slayer powers....
The writer couldn't understand why everyone who read it said it was a Mary Sue.
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Date: 2009-04-26 08:22 am (UTC)There's something else. You're writing online. In a free market where pretty much anyone can read your story if they can find it. So realize this: it is your story. And it really, really doesn't matter if someone says they're not going to read something if it has het scenes. Write what you want to write. Run it through your betas to make sure of spelling and sense (and of course try not to contradict yourself without a reason for it such as "neener neener this was a secret and don't even TRY to tell me I'm ret-conning!").
Technically, Min IS your Mary Sue. He's won the heart of the semi-nasty but cool man who bought him and that man REALLY doesn't even know him. He's the one around whom this story has to revolve. The Andorian slave who's been made different. Not completey Andorian, and not doomed to die an early death. Smart as a whip and fighting to become a sane adult. It is perfectly fine for him to have had a woman lover. The story could also have worked with a Mistress rather than a master, but would YOU be able to write a woman strong enough for this without her being a bitch?
Jenna, here, you've already written in the traditional female role. Rescuing the man from his dire straights and being blamed however semi-irrationally by him for what he's been through. He's not without reason, but he's not right. In the real world, men with that kind of attitude become abusive, manipulative boyfriends and they destroy the trust of any woman who thinks she can help them. Ah, sorry. I've been through this in my real life. That's the hard part about real life versus fiction. It also makes me pretty hard to impress for fanfic writers. Fortunately, I'm only one person and it's not your job to impress me. This is something you choose to do either for fun or for purging your own demons.
I've seen some people try to cleverly disguise their Mary-Sues. One Buffy fanfic writer put out this well-written but vile story wherein Xander dies and gets resurrected as a Crow and all of Buffy's decisions were influenced by The First except for the decisions that the writer gave to Xander and mean ol' Spike was all evil even with the soul (after all, Xander died because Buffy chose to save Spike over him in this story). And Faith loved him and got verbally bitch-slapped for having been a bitch but then went off with him into the sunset after he thoroughly defeated the First Evil and stripped Buffy of her Slayer powers....
The writer couldn't understand why everyone who read it said it was a Mary Sue.