Screw you, Mary Sue (and Gary Stu too!)

We want our characters to be likeable, or at least relatable. In some cases, we even want them to be desireable.

My main character has a boyfriend who's amazing. He's gorgeous, athletic, kind, and intelligent. While I was creating him, though, I had this fear that I was creating a Gary Stu, the male equivalent of a Mary Sue.

I'll be DAMNED before I create a Mary Sue/Gary Stu!

So what to do? That's easy - give the guy some faults.

Which faults, though? I don't want him to seem like a jerk, but at the same time I don't want the guy to be boring, and there's nothing duller than someone who's a special snowflake, dazzling all in their path.

To best serve the story, I gave him these faults - arrogant, over-sensitive, argumenative, and vengeful. It took a bit to find these faults, though, and sometimes pouring through lists of adjectives doesn't do the trick. The negative traits have to balance out the positive ones.

One way to get an idea of how to flesh out a character is to look at something like the zodiac personality charts. They often list the good and the bad of each sign, and chances are, if you read through them you can think of a few people that these traits describe.

More signs and traits are listed here:

http://nuclear.ucdavis.edu/~rpicha/personal/astrology/index.html

Sometimes, though, you're still getting to know your character. You don't know him or her very well, so you want to look around for personality types.

I'm a pretty visual person, so this site appealed to me:

http://www.learningchocolate.com/category/people

It lists categories of people with clip art, which might help you visualize your character (or you might just like the pictures):

The key thing is to think of how the faults will enhance the story. For example, Evan (Mr. Awesome Boyfriend) glares at a group of students who mock his Greek accent. Later, he feels rejected by Jonah (my main character) so he seethes while watching Jonah with a male friend, who Evan mistakenly things is Johah's boyfriend. Why is this important? It shows that Evan isn't used to criticism or rejection, and that he is very interested in Jonah. So why isn't he used to criticism or rejection? Is it because he's so amazing? Nope. He's got an...unusual background. (plot twist alert!) Anyway, his faults serve a purpose.

What about Jonah? Well, he's courageous, funny, intelligent, and yeah, good-looking. He's also impatient, tempermental, and impulsive. Tempermental might be due to the fact that he was attacked about a year ago and was sent to the hospital. Impulsive and impatient makes him feel real to me, because I can relate and some quick decisions on his part will help push the story along at a few critical points.

You might not want to think of your characters as less than perfect, but think of it this way: Which characters stand out through the test of time? The whiny Holden Caulfield, the violent Alex DeLarge, the gluttonous Ignatius J. Reilly...the imperfects. Mary Sues and Gary Stus might stand out too, but not in a good way.

The solution? Sit your character down and tell him what's wrong with him/her. Just don't be surprised if he/she smirks or roll his/her eyes at you (such a brat, right?).