Neil wrote:
On the other hand, one of the problems with regular fanfic is the way it is instantly overcrowded by default. It is hard to give equal space to all the regulars (for one thing, you probably need a pretty long story to give each one a chance to shine at some point). Even harder with just one original character, let alone two or more.
This is one of the attractions of pre-stories and PGPs, you can select the characters you want to include and forget the rest. For amateur writers, it's much easier to write interestingly for two or three characters than for six.
(I think I pulled it off with Hunter, which has more originals than
regulars.
And I challenge anyone to prove that even one of the ocf's counts as a
Mary Sue.)
I think male authors are less at risk of being accused of writing OFCs as Mary-Sues. Bloody sex discrimination...
Tavia
"tavia@btinternet.com" tavia@btinternet.com wrote:
Neil wrote:
On the other hand, one of the problems with regular fanfic is the way it is instantly overcrowded by default. It is hard to give equal space to all the regulars (for one thing, you probably need a pretty long story to give each one a chance to shine at some point). Even harder with just one original character, let alone two or more.
This is one of the attractions of pre-stories and PGPs, you can select the characters you want to include and forget the rest. For amateur writers, it's much easier to write interestingly for two or three characters than for six.
(I think I pulled it off with Hunter, which has more originals than
regulars.
And I challenge anyone to prove that even one of the ocf's counts as a
Mary Sue.)
I think male authors are less at risk of being accused of writing OFCs as Mary-Sues. Bloody sex discrimination...
Tavia
I think in part one also tends to think of stories which 'suit' one or two given characters rather than the whole group (of whichever period)
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On Mon, Feb 12, 2001 at 07:17:00PM -0000, Tavia Chalcraft wrote:
Neil wrote:
(I think I pulled it off with Hunter, which has more originals than regulars. And I challenge anyone to prove that even one of the ocf's counts as a Mary Sue.)
I think male authors are less at risk of being accused of writing OFCs as Mary-Sues. Bloody sex discrimination...
True. Very true. And the more I think about it, the more sexist it seems. Because if a guy writes a story where there's a guy who's brave, handsome, knows 20 languages, is a crack shot, rescues Our Heros, has one of the femmes fall in love with him, will he be accused of writing a Marky Sam (the male version of Mary Sue)? No, he'll just be accused of borrowing the character of James Bond...
What does this say about our expectations of males and females? Insidious sexism!
Kathryn Andersen -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Avon: I shall tell our fearless leader. Vila: What's the matter with him? Jenna: What do you think? (Blake's 7: Redemption [B1])
Kathryn Andersen wrote:
I think male authors are less at risk of being accused of writing OFCs as Mary-Sues. Bloody sex discrimination...
True. Very true. And the more I think about it, the more sexist it seems. Because if a guy writes a story where there's a guy who's brave, handsome, knows 20 languages, is a crack shot, rescues Our Heros, has one of the femmes fall in love with him, will he be accused of writing a Marky Sam (the male version of Mary Sue)? No, he'll just be accused of borrowing the character of James Bond...
But James Bond is generally accepted to be a male wish-fulfillment character; Marky Sue by default.
Speaking as somebody who _loathes_ Mary Sues (though I may have a narrower definition of them than some people) I certainly don't see all OCFs as Mary Sues, and I like properly developed OCs.
Mistral
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Tavia Chalcraft