Life stranger than fiction

[annathepiper]

Apparently, I should never write a novel with me as a character, because I'm my own Mary Sue and too damned weird for fiction. This test is more true than it knows. ;)

Mary Sue Your score was 65 in Unbelievability!

You are your author's Mary Sue, and if a fiction writer wrote about a character like you, they would be doing something very wrong. You're unreal. There's something about you which words cannot describe- well, OK, they can, but not in a way that you seem at all plausible. You are completely unique, special, and, most of all, improbable. The chances of you being the way you are are about the same as the chances of your computer screen exploding right now. It could happen, but it would come as a big surprise. A novel with you as a character wouldn't even make it past the publishers. It would be rejected immediately because nobody would ever believe you could exist. You and your life are the stuff that daytime talk shows are made of. If you ever want to publish the story of your own life, make sure it's an autobiography, because you're too damn weird for fiction.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 83% on Implausibility

Link: The Are You a Plausible Character? Test written by coldrose on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Comments

[avalonmissy.livejournal.com]

Guess I'm pretty average. I'm not suprised.

[annathepiper]

Hey, if it meant a book with you in it would sell... ;)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

That's about what I scored, too. Bummer.

[me-fein.livejournal.com]

I got this one, too! Makes me think of Ron Weasley, actually....LOL

I'll settle for average if only it gets me published!!! ;)

[annathepiper]

*snicker* Reminds me of what spazzkat, in an effort to make encouraging noises at me about the whole writing thing, told me about how I might be the next J.K. Rowling.

Me, I say--considering what the average SF/F writer gets paid, I'll be happy if I can pay some bills with it. Never mind the huge fleet of money trucks now commanded by Ms. Rowling and her heirs for the next three or four generations. ;)

[me-fein.livejournal.com]

:) Funny you mention her...just got done reading the article on USAtoday.com about her life-recap. How she was a struggling divorcee, hoping that she'd be able to live off the first book. LMAO Makes me want to stab something.

Probably myself for not pushing myself to write more.

May I ask what drives you to be able to edit on a daily basis? I'm 1/4 of a way through and I have made my deadline to be Sept - but I'm finding this copying (and barely creating) terribly boring.

[annathepiper]

Well, right now I'm not actually editing--since Faerie Blood is as done as I'm going to let it be unless Luna tells me no, at which point I will evaluate whether I need a fifth draft.

But what actually drives me to the editing is simple--wanting to get the book into a state where I think it's fit to be seen by publishers and agents. Very close to the same motive that drives the writing, wanting to get it DONE.

Granted, it was harder to push myself through the editing, way harder than it has been to write brand new words so far. I think the biggest hurdle was trying to ignore the whining in my brain going "but, but, I WROTE THIS STORY ALREADY, I don't want to deal with it anymore!"

For what it's worth, I also found that having a project to switch out to in the middle of editing if I had to was helpful. So I'd edit a chapter of Faerie Blood, then go write a chapter of Lament. Once Lament's first draft is done, I expect I'll be doing the same thing with it and whatever book I start working on next (probably one of the SF novels). That way even if the editing drives me batshit, I'll have some other writing-related thing to do on a daily basis.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

This seems peculiarly accurate:

An Imaginary Friend

Your score was 51 in Unbelievability!

You are your author's imaginary friend, but you're not really the type of character fiction writers should aim for.

You're more than a little out of the ordinary. You might have had some really crazy experiences, or have an unusual talent or two. Maybe you were even born with a tail. Whatever it is that makes you unique, it does the job well, because there are very few people like you on this planet.

A novel with you as a character would be a guilty pleasure to read. It would be considered intellectual junk food, of course, but damn fun to read nonetheless. Even if many people didn't want to pay actual money to read about you and your exploits, surely it would be checked out from the library at least... once every couple of months.

:)

[annathepiper]

Hee! That's a good 'un. :)

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

That's what I got, too. I blame it all on seeing my dead aunt, yup!

[kitchengrrl.livejournal.com]

Mary Sue? I R confused.

In other news, I am also an imaginary friend. While it doesn't surprise me in general, it does surprise me given the quiz answers. I thought I was going to come out as Captain Normal. Yar.

[annathepiper]

"Mary Sue" is the term given to a character in a story who's very clearly an avatar for the author. Usually I hear it used for characters in fanfic, and the term actually comes out of the early days of Star Trek fanfiction. A "Mary Sue" is a character who's disgustingly perfect, who is often more powerful/talented/intelligent than all of the canon characters and who solves all their problems for them, and who generally has all characters of the appropriate gender falling in love with her. The male equivalent is called "Gary Stu".

Web pages and quizzes abound as to how to tell whether your character is in fact a Mary Sue. Some of the traditional pointers are things like does the character have a name very similar to yours? Does she have the same profession? Does she have unusually colored hair or eyes (purple eyes are a BIG Mary Sue tipoff)? Has she struggled to rise above a hard/tragic past? Are people falling in love with her for no apparent reason? That kind of thing.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I think the best definition of a Mary Sue I've ever read was "a character who usurps the place of another character for no apparent reason"; so in Star Trek, Scotty would come to her for engineering advice, and Kirk for strategy, and she'd probably beat Spock at chess.

[annathepiper]

And all three of them would fall in love with her!

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

Fanfic-wise, yeah! That's a great definition/warning sign. ;) Original fiction, they can be harder to spot, I think. My current absolute fave Mary Sue is Anna Pigeon, National Park Ranger Who Keeps Running Into Dead People, in the mystery series by Nevada Barr. Who herself was working as a national park ranger when she started writing the books. Heh. ;)

[annathepiper]

Ah, I've read one of those! Didn't really click with me, so I haven't come back to read any others. But I've seen bunches of those books, so they must be doing well.

And hey, what can I say, Kendis is a Mary Sue for me even if she's not the same color I am. BUT! I prefer to think of it as "writing what I know". ;)

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

I was an instant addict, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I was working at Theodore Roosevelt National Park at the time. Then while I was working at Rocky Mountain, I found that my cabin-mate and my boss (both law enforcement rangers) were both eerily similar to the fictional Anna Pigeon.

[annathepiper]

Heh! I can see that being a big amusing motivator to read 'em, yes.

So you'd recommend the series at large? I think I read something like the second one--I can't remember the title. But I seem to recollect some sort of icy lake type of cover art. And I don't have a copy of that book anymore. I don't think it made enough of an impact on me to remain a keeper.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

That'd be _A Superior Death_ .. it wasn't one of my favorites of the series (which is up to either 12 or 13 books now, I forget which!). A little too much Mrs. Robinson. Although, oddly, that was probably the book that indirectly got me started reading the series, since one of my fellow rangers at THRO had worked at the same NP that Nevada Barr did where A Superior Death is set (Isle Royale), and that fellow ranger is the one that told me about the books.

My favorites are Blind Descent and Liberty Falling... although I have to admit that re-reading Liberty Falling after 9/11 was a great deal creepier.

[annathepiper]

A Superior Death--that's it, thanks for the reminder. :) Maybe I'll give the series another glance at some point, once I get back into buying new books! (Stupid tight budget.) Thanks for the info.

[me-fein.livejournal.com]

That's great. I will definitely have to try that quiz once I'm home. :) I have this fear that I am totally a Mary Sue and my fiction abounds with them - all little slivers of me, but not necessarily in the good way, mind ya. LOL

[annathepiper]

I half-suspect that if one is aware of the dangers of Mary-Sueness in her writing, one is less likely to fall into the trap! I had to work a bit to get rid of some of the more obvious Mary-Sueisms with Kendis in Faerie Blood, to be sure. I expect it's rather like "show, don't tell"--one of those things that you always have to watch out for, and that can even trap veteran writers.

[seimaisin.livejournal.com]

I am apparently a perfectly ordinary, believable person - as a fictional character, I would be boring enough to drive students to Cliffs Notes. Heh.

[annathepiper]

Eeeeek! Harsh. :) I wonder what the entire scope of results on this thing is.

[ravyngyngvar.livejournal.com]

Seems like my result, too. The headline is "An Inspiration," and 26 points in Unbelievability.

[annathepiper]

Hey, "An Inspiration" sounds like a GOOD thing. :)

[cats-haven.livejournal.com]

Well, I scored Childhood friend on this one. Rather average as far as characters go, though sometimes I wonder when I look over the profiles of some of my characters. At least as book I might actually sell. heh

[annathepiper]

The part that amuses me about this test is that "Imaginary Friend" actually seems to rank as more implausible than "Mary Sue", based on other folks' results. ;)

[cats-haven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seems like it to me, as well. I guess the meme creator figures Mary Sues have some realism to them while Imaginary friends aren't real at all.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on the imaginary friend. I never had one that I can remember, but my little sister had one named Donkey, and they made up their own languages (Grass, Tree) and everything that ever happened to *me* always happened to Donkey, only a hundred times more intensely- either better or worse, depending on whether it was a good or a bad thing. That part was highly irritating (to me)! ;)

[cats-haven.livejournal.com]

Oi-vey! I bet it did get rather irritating at times. Makes you wonder what she really thought of you at times. Eh?

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

These days it's all good, but back then I just wanted to kick her. ;) 3, 4, 5 - year olds can be like that to their older siblings. Whee!

[annathepiper]

Heh, I can see it now.

"Mommy, I scraped my knee!"

"Mommy, Donkey scraped all four knees and a hoof!"

Repeat ad infinitum. Eesh. :)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

The quiz asserts that I'm plausible. Who knew? I'm skeptical about the survey design. The manifest fact of my existence should in no way diminish my implausibility!

[annathepiper]

If it makes you feel any better, I think you're totally implausible! ;)