10 Ways to Un-Sue Your Sue

[dwg.livejournal.com]

limyaael writes fantasy rants about...well, everything. She brings up some thought-provoking things along the way, and the latest rant about "ten ways of making all-powerful, unique protagonists tolerable" has me giggling like crazy because I keep thinking about how this relates to Merita

In particular, point 6:

Limit the number of encomiums they receive. An encomium is a formal expression of praise. It may be as blatant as a character dwelling rapturously on the protagonist’s beauty for four pages (why, hello yet again, Elizabeth Haydon’s Rhapsody), or as “subtle” as the protagonist overhearing a conversation in which the people involved talk about how good and brave and darling she is. This is exactly what it sounds like, a chance to exalt the protagonist to the heavens without fearing that she will sound conceited for thinking about her own good qualities.

How many do you get?

One allowed a book. Two if the other characters are thinking to themselves out of the protagonist’s direct hearing, and never actually tell her how wonderful they think she is.

Yes, that’s an arbitrary number. I’m feeling arbitrary today.

I understand that, sometimes, there really is no other way to get the information about this character across to the audience, and if you’ve got a really self-depreciating or depressed narrator, their own self-esteem is skewed. But the best way to get around this is—ready for it?--show the reader your narrator’s good qualities, and flaws, in action, rather than having other characters whisper about how much they wish they were as beautiful as she is, or as smart, or as brave. At least, if you show us this hero acting like a hero, then we’ll be readier to believe in the encomiums than we will if you just have someone start babbling out of the blue.

I'm doubly amused because I finally found my copy of Danse Macabre in the re-shuffling of the study and was flipping through both the Augustine and Requiem Monologues of Why Anita Is So Damned Great.

Comments

[catskin.livejournal.com]

We need an official LKH Crazy Tracker. Like they have those colour-coded national security warning things. Yellow is mild crazy, orange is scary crazy and red is batshit crazy.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

We could use the Sesame Street colour system (http://www.geekandproud.net/terror/)!

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Yes! Perfect.