Chapter 1

The Female Character, Part 1: The Myth of the Mary Sue + Character Appearances

Note: For the sake of simplicity, this guide will only be focusing on heterosexual relationships, but feel free to use it for any pairing J

Ah, yes. The female character – the damsel in distress, the kickass strong independent woman, the shy quiet girl who reads books and drinks tea while all her shallow peers go clubbing and engage in unspeakable activities (read: shopping).

So many authors mess up writing female characters, especially protagonists. This all can be boiled down to two words: Mary Sue.

A Mary Sue is an idealized character – a girl who's unrealistically perfect and without any real flaws. Now, it's a common misconception that all Mary Sues are popular, gorgeous, Barbie-like models who are simultaneously professional athletes, dancers, singers, puppy-caretakers, astronauts and long-lost princesses. This is simply the most obvious kind of Mary Sue, and the kind that people tend to notice right away – the most sinister ones are the anti-sues.

An Anti-Sue is somebody who the author tries to make the opposite of the classic Mary Sue. She's a social outcast! She's never been kissed! She's not like those other girls. You know, the feminine ones. Eeeeeww.

But dig a little deeper, and you'll see that none of these apparent "flaws" actually affect the story in any way. Yeah, she's totally unpopular, but everybody she meets immediately likes her. She doesn't like to dress up or wear makeup, but she's still automatically the prettiest character in the story.

I often see authors replacing flaws with things like "clumsiness" or adorkable awkwardness. Let me make this clear now: they are not flaws if they don't effect the story in a significant way, especially if you keep claiming Mary is super clumsy only to have her take out the big bad guys with a single flip of her rainbow hair. Does she have any real unlikable traits?

Speaking of rainbow hair, I'm sure I'm the only author out there who's had trouble writing appearances. First, I just want to set down some solid rules:

1) Never, fucking never, call eyes "orbs". This reeks of "I'm-trying-to-write-this-character-as-super-sexy-and-mysterious-but-I-honestly-have-no-idea-how". It's amateurish and ridiculous. Would you tell somebody that they have gorgeous orbs in real life?

2) Stick to natural hair colors - for the most part. I'm very flexible with this rule. Generally, it's always safer to give your character brown, red, blonde or black hair, but my advice is to not be scared of giving Mary a crazy shade of pink or whatever. It's not a big deal unless you're saying that it's her natural hair color or coming up with a contrived explanation ("it's part of the RAINBOW HAIR CURSE!") The point is to not substitute appearance for personality. If she does have an unnatural hair color, don't bring it up often.

3) Never describe a character's clothing EXCEPT when it's actually relevant to the plot. No, we don't need to know about those cute fringed thigh-high leather boots or that tie-dyed shirt Mary's wearing. Also, Mary has terrible taste. Describing a character's full outfit every time they're on the scene is boring and pointless. However, if it gives us important details – such as if a character is dressed in tattered rags, or they only have a thin sweater during a roaring blizzard – then by all means, go ahead.

4) You don't have to repeat details over and over again. Let's say Mary has green eyes. No, you do not need to mention this fact every single goddamn time somebody glances at her. We get that Mary's eyes are green, bro.

Example: I noticed Mary was staring at me with her glittering green orbs. I stared right back into those green eyes; they were such a beautiful green shade of green that was just so green it out-greened all the other greens I'd seen in my life.

5) We don't need to know about Mary's breast size. No comment.

And one thing I need to point out: it's okay to create pretty, conventionally feminine female characters. It doesn't make them stupid or incapable; they just kick ass and look good while doing it. It's extremely rare to find a story where the author outright states that the character is pretty or beautiful, instead finding little ways to casually sneak it in – there's no problem with that, but hey, we can have some girls with self-confidence too!

I feel as if some writers feel like making their protagonist pretty is a one-way ticket to Mary-Suedom, but that couldn't be less true. Maybe write about one thing she loves about herself: her eyes, her hair, her skin, whatever. Don't go overboard – you know what I'm talking about – unless that's a big part of your character (e.g. using looks to manipulate others).

Honestly, if I had to boil all these tips down into one rule, it would be that we really don't need to know that much about appearance. It might be hella cliché, but it' true: it's what's underneath that matters. Leaving it up to the imagination is fun! And remember, there are always exceptions to these rules… so go wild J

Coming up next: Mary's backstory!