Ask An Author: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue character?

Each week, a new author will serve as your Camp Counselor, answering your writing questions.  Christa Desir, our first counselor, writes contemporary fiction for young adults, and has volunteered as a rape victim activist for more than ten years. Her second book ,  Bleed Like Me , will be out this fall. 

How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue character? — ShatterStar

Well, this is very easy for me because I’m deeply flawed. And everyone I know is deeply flawed. I am attracted to people who mess up over and over again. (This also is a character flaw of mine). And I have no interest in writing likable characters; I am interested in writing real characters.

The kind of books I write, the kind of books I’m drawn to have deeply broken characters. My jumping-off point is always looking at what the emotional landscape of a character is, seeing what’s wrong with them, wondering what is the worst thing they’ve ever done, wondering what is the thing they would never tell anyone. When you ask these questions, you cannot end up with Mary Sue characters. Even if you don’t include these things in your book, they are questions that are valuable to ask.

The other thing that helps is to build a life for every person in your book. Even the janitor who just comes by to yell at the main character for sneaking back into school after hours. What’s this janitor’s home life like? What’s it like for him to have to sweep up after kids? Is he taking care of someone at home? What is the most recent thing that pissed him off? This is how we build stories for people; this is how we make them real.

Next week’s Camp Counselor is Liz Coley, author of YA psychological thriller Pretty Girl-13. Ask her your questions here!