People Generally Suck

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but people generally suck. All too many of them are completely self-absorbed, egotistical brats. They're lazy when it comes to doing real work, but have the amazing ability to do nothing for extensive periods of time. They will burden you with their problems, but will angrily tell you to shut up, grow up, and leave them alone if you ever try to reciprocate.

While this makes life a painful toil for every day, there is one upside to it: you get plenty of free material for your writing.

The poster child for novice writers is the Mary Sue character. This is the person who is perfect in every way, everybody loves, and is usually a representation of what the writer wishes they could be in real life.

Mary Sues make for terrible writing because they are so unrealistic. The Mary Sues themselves are one-dimensional (two at best) and have wit, skills, and abilities that are impossible to have all at once. But what is more unrealistic than the character is the rest of the world. In the world, all other people love, respect, and adore Mary Sue. However, they have no reason to. Mary Sue doesn't do anything but be perfect. That's not good enough for everybody to love unconditionally.

Look at the people around you. Look at real life. That is what grips us, entertains us, interests us. We aren't looking for perfect people. We're looking for real people. And if you want to create real people, you have to remember the rule: people generally suck.