Luna Rose's Actually Useful Mary Sue Litmus Test by MissLunaRose, literature
Literature
Luna Rose's Actually Useful Mary Sue Litmus Test
Reposted from my blog
"Dear Miss Luna Rose,
I’m worried that my character is a Mary Sue. She has dyed purple hair and pretty blue eyes. She witnessed her dad’s murder at age 7 and it left her with some issues. She’s also bad at dancing and sometimes her anger flares up and she does things she regrets. Is she a Mary Sue?"
—Concerned writer #472
I get questions like this all the time. And I never can tell them a “yes” or “no.”
Why not? Because
I can’t possibly tell from a short description, andthis misunderstands what it means to be a Mary Sue.Honestly, I blame litmus tests.
What’
11 Tips for Writing an Autobiographical Story by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
11 Tips for Writing an Autobiographical Story
11 Tips for Writing an Autobiographical Story
Chapter 2 “Genres” – Section 7 “Autobiographical"
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
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"It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to write, nothing to infer. But our wiser years still run back to the despised recollections of childhood, and always we are fishing up some wonderful article out of that pond; until, by and by, we begin to suspect that the biography of the one foolish person we know is, in reality, nothing less than the miniature paraphrase of the hundred volume
9 Tips for Understanding Originality in Stories by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
9 Tips for Understanding Originality in Stories
9 Tips for Understanding Originality in Stories
Chapter 8 “From Story to Art” – Section 7 “Originality"Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
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“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.”
-Voltaire
One topic that I’ve wanted to discuss for a while now is on originality. The difficulty, I’ve found, is that the subject is rather nebulous and deeply personal to artists. Everyone has a slightly different definition in
6 Tips for Creating Character Motivation by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Creating Character Motivation
6 Tips for Creating Character Motivation
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 12 “Motivation”
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“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”
-Plato
I've found that character motivation seems to categorize people into two groups—those for who it comes naturally and those who need to put conscious effort into it. Some people get it without even thinking about what they're doing, while others need to make a plan. Neither group is necessarily better at writing than the other, it's just
12 Tips for Writing Historical Fiction by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
12 Tips for Writing Historical Fiction
12 Tips for Writing Historical Fiction
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
Chapter 2 “Genres” – Section 6 “Historical Fiction”
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"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
I do not believe in much of a hard line between history and historical fiction. The reason for my belief is that as soon as you begin to fill in the blanks for events and motivations outside of the historical record, you have already altered the hi
10 Tips on Writing Stories for Young People by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
10 Tips on Writing Stories for Young People
10 Tips on Writing Stories for Young People
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0Chapter 2 “Genres” – Section 6 “YA/Children”
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“Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. […] They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth.”
-E.B. White
A long time ago, I watched an episode of the Cosby Show. In the episode, the protagonist's third grade daughter decided not to go back to school, saying she would just teach second grade when she g
9 Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
9 Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block
9 Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block
Anybody Can Write a Novel Version 2.0
Chapter 1 “Beginning to Write” – Section 3 “Writer's Block”
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“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
—Mark Twain
Sometimes we find ourselves at a point in writing where there is simply no motivation. Our muse or creative spirit simply does not motivate us like it normally does. And the trouble is that these moments can las
6 Tips for Creating an Antivillain by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Creating an Antivillain
6 Tips for Creating an Anti-villain
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 3.2 “Anti-villains”
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Adrian Veidt:
“I know I've struggled across the backs of murdered innocents to save humanity … but someone had to take the weight of that awful necessary crime [...]”
Jon Osterman:
“[..] I understand, without condoning … or condemning.”
“Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
The final character type in the circle of heroes, anti-heroes, and villains is the anti-villain. This is the antagonis
8 Tips for Creating a Villain by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Creating a Villain
8 Tips for Creating a Villain
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 3.1 “Villains”
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"The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by.
Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am.
Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason. Why:
Lest I revenge. Myself upon myself?
Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O no, alas, I rather hate myself
For hateful deeds committed by mys
7 Tips for Creating an Antihero by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Tips for Creating an Antihero
7 Tips for Creating an Antihero
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 2.2 “Antiheroes
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"I'm drawn to the classic antihero, the guy who's probably made a bunch of mistakes and really has the capacity to go either way. That's the most interesting type of character for me to watch, to see what decisions they'll make. There's a lot of gray area there for a writer to explore."
-Kurt Sutter
One of the most trending and most debated archetypes in modern storytelling is the antihero. As with most fictional conventions, people have different opinions