The Pick-An-Episode Challenge

[panyasan]

Found this interesting bit about Mary Sue:

A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. While the label "Mary Sue" itself originates from a parody of this type of character, most characters labeled "Mary Sues" by readers are not intended by authors as such. Male Mary Sues are often dubbed "Gary Stu", "Larry Stu", "Marty Stu", or similar names.

While the term is generally limited to fan-created characters, and its most common usage today occurs within the fan fiction community or in reference to fan fiction, original characters in role-playing games or literary canon are also sometimes criticized as being "Mary Sues" or "canon Sues" if they dominate the spotlight or are too unrealistic or unlikely in other ways. One example of this criticism is Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The term "Mary Sue" is from the name of a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale"[1]:15 published in her fanzine Menagerie The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old"), and satirized unrealistic and adolescent wish-fantasy characters in Star Trek fan fiction. Such characters were generally original (non-canon) and female adolescents who had romantic liaisons with established canon adult characters, or in some cases were the younger relatives or protégés of those characters. By 1976 Menagerie's editors stated that they disliked

Mary Sue stories—the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever get a commission at such a tender age. Usually characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling. This character can also be found burrowing her way into the good graces/heart/mind of one of the Big Three [Kirk, Spock, and McCoy], if not all three at once. She saves the day by her wit and ability, and, if we are lucky, has the good grace to die at the end, being grieved by the entire ship.

Today "Mary Sue" carries a connotation of wish-fulfillment and is commonly associated with self-insertion (the writing of oneself into a fictional story). True self-insertion is a literal and generally undisguised representation of the author; most characters described as "Mary Sues" are not, though they are often called "proxies"[4] for the author. The negative connotation comes from this "wish-fulfillment" implication: the "Mary Sue" is judged a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting.

[panyasan]

On topic again: I like the idea about picking an episode. I thought about working through the episodes, starting with season one, episode one, but just picking an episode problably works much better.

It problably doesn't what we write: drabbles, poems, short/long stories, missing scene, as long as it has something to do with the episode?
I wrote one story about the episode Carpenter Street, because the person I wrote it for, wondered if such a boring episode could make a story. I ended up with a time-loop story in Spain and still had scenes out from Carpenter Street.

So you never know were our imagination leads us with the episode of E2. Looking forward to reading what others make of it.

[Silverbullet]

Would Archer fit in to the Gary Stu catagory? He seemed able to do anything and knew eerything. He could be shot in to open space with out an EV suit and survive with just a little frost on him. Or maybe it was just that those around him were so weak and ignornt.

SB

[WarpGirl]

Let's start another thread for the "Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu" phenominon. I'll go do it. Here it is...viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1919

[Cogito]

So I started sketching out an E2 story, but what's this I end up with? Angst? ANGST?

No no no, I don't DO angst. Oh dear!

[Distracted]

So, ginamr, are you in? We want to know what episode to do in July.

[putaro]

So I started sketching out an E2 story, but what's this I end up with? Angst? ANGST?

No no no, I don't DO angst. Oh dear!

Embrace the angst!

[Cogito]

So, ginamr, are you in? We want to know what episode to do in July.

I may have misunderstood, but I thought Ginamr already said that the July challenge episode would be E2:

Since we're in the middle of June, I can just make this July's challenge and give everyone an extra couple weeks. So to be clear: the July challenge will run from now until July 31.

This month's episode is: E2.

[Distracted]

Oops. Sorry. You're right. I missed that. Thanks.

[Kotik]

So I started sketching out an E2 story, but what's this I end up with? Angst? ANGST?

No no no, I don't DO angst. Oh dear!

Embrace the angst!

I'm out

[WarpGirl]

Can't wait Cogito! Hey Kotik don't judge angst by it's cover, all angst is not created equal. Didn't you just write something that proves that?

[Cogito]

I haven't seen one of these challenges before. How do they usually work? I mean, do you writer types just all submit your stories as normal and hope the judge[s] spot them, or is there some secret process behind the scenes?

[Distracted]

Challenges don't usually have judges. I'm not sure what's happening with this one but I've already voiced my opinion about why I think we shouldn't have a "judging". For previous challenges we just submitted the story as usual and asked the poster to add the name of the challenge to the genre listing at the beginning, like this:

A Wonderful Story
By fanficwriter
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama, "Pick-An-Episode Challenge"
Disclaimer: Not. Mine.

Body of Story. Yada, yada.

End

[Kotik]

I agree, "judging" it would be a very bad idea. fan fiction isn't some of this ridiculous synchronized swimming stuff, where you have technical rules to follow, so the judging would purely be based on the "judges" (dis)liking of a story and hence the marks would not only be all over the place, it would also have the potential to hurt some of the squeamish. I personally have no prob if someone slates my work, but others might not be so laid back about it.

Judging -> -> BAD

[ginamr]

Did I make a bad choice for this month's episode? I picked this one mainly because it has so many possibilities. I feel like I've disappointed all T'n'Ters on this one...