Thank you so much. This was a wonderful read.

you know your bussiness! Thank you for writing this down. This will be helpfull if one day I decide to write instead of just thinking of it.

While this guide is obviously geared toward Lord of the Rings fanfiction, I believe that it contains a lot of useful tips that might aid fanfiction authors of any fandom. It informed and offered good criticism without the sort of sarcastic informality that others might adopt while disparaging poor writing. I think that's extremely important when writing these sorts of things, and so would recommend it for anyone to refer to, new writer or not.

This is good for writing in general. Thanks for making this!

This was an enjoyably read. It was interesting, well written and, dare I say, funny.

I thank you for your helpful, detailed and yet suitably distanced evaluation of the Sue-phenomenon, this is a checklist I myself, as an aspiring writer, will go through with my characters to avoid the curse of Mary/Gary.
I would, however, add one more point: I, personally, am no fan of OCs in general, and therefore prefer stories which focus only on the canon characters. Therefore, it annoys me greatly that, here on , not all writers seem to find it necessary to actually label their stories as containing an OC, so that I may filter them out from the get go, instead of having to scroll through pages upon pages of Mary Sue stories. The opposite, though not in my case, may be true as well; readers missing out on good stories simply because they put down "OC" as Character (A).
To aid both factions, OC-enthusiasts or not, I would like to implore all LotR authors to label their stories accordingly, if possible. (Since I do not have an account and only read fanfiction, I honestly have no idea of the inner workings of this and would like to apologise in advance if I have been mistaken at any point of my rant. Thank you.)

Sheesh, that was helpful! :D Thank you for writing this! I almost have the urge to ask you for help! :P But I won't, because I'm sure you've been asked many times and have other things to do. Thank you again for writing this!

I digress that point six can be done well - Lapsus Memoriae is a prime example of a well rounded oc that can be pulled off with this kind of character arc. Check it out! The author is Reality Warp.

Even though part 2 has just started, you'll be hooked. Trust me.

I have actually never encountered a Mary-Sue fic. Mainly because I avoid fanfics that scream 10th walker or OC/Canon character. My first experience was awful, and I have since avoid many OC on, rather than a 10th walker, has ANYONE thought of an 8th walker fanfic?

Omg this is fantastic

YEAH! Thank you, this fic sooo needed to be written. I actually also judged a few of my OCs while I was at it and found that they met all of the requirements NOT to be a Mary-Sue... So I was happy. XD

Thanks for giving us this great discourse; it was put in an awesome style and made us feel that you cared enough to help us in our writing. Mary-Sues and Gary-Stu's may be out there, but there is no excuse for them to say: "I didn't know."

Kudos, and thanks again, it was an amusing read for me, as I feel exactly the same.

Your essay reminded me of grandfather. But before you get upset or offended, allow me to explain a bit.
my grandfather is an English professor who has written various essays on numerous topics. Your writing style reminded me of his. With the variation in your vocabulary, the wit (sometimes dry), and the ability to explain somewhat of a difficult topic in simple terms.
so now you should know that when I say that your essay reminded of my grandfather, I am paying of of the highest compliments I can.
again, thank you for the essay

I just want to say thank you for putting this guide together. It has been very helpful. :)

Batman is a gary tsu and who cares ? I think Mary-Sue is a sexist term.

Good read!

I have to say that sometimes, writers want their "original character" to be so different, that they end up making "her" act extremely b*tchy. I understand that writers create their original character as flawed, to make her more realistic, but sometimes it just goes overboard.
As for the concept of the original character having more than one love interest, well, it is quite annoying to me. The love triangle plot is way overused and tiresome, in my opinion. It makes us human females seem fickle.