Ok, so i went to do the challenge, got everything typed up nice and neat, only to find that i can't find your email to email it! I really want to see how i did, so if you could get me somewhere to send it? Please?
XlinzX

Once again, brilliant! I find myself agreeing with you almost the entire time. People really do abuse characters and their Mary Sue-ness.
Update soon!
XlinzX

Firstly, i think you are simply brilliant in putting this up here! I think more people need to realize what they are doing to the fanfiction community by posting stories written Mary Sue style.
I just had to say that the translation of the 'story' was absolutely hilarious! I understand your pain in writing the first part, but translating it must have been fun!
Off to finish reading and getting more tips!
XlinzX

Wow, this is old but I'm reviewing it anyways :].

That was actually really helpful for me; I've been wanting to write an OC fic but procrastinating because I don't want my character to be a total Mary Sue. This definitely gave me some good ideas for how to make it unique.

Thanks for writing down what most of us are thinking when we read those "omg dracos so effin secxii" stories.

I think my IQ dropped a few points after reading the sample fics... They were so difficult to read. And I thank you for posting this, this needs to be read by everyone.

Dearest Mary Sue Hunter,
Excuse me for a second... let me get this straight.
You are a Fanfic writer, correct? And you are, to the best of my knowledge, not a famous writer or a blockbuster hit or anything like that? I mean, you can admit that you're no J.K. Rowling... right??

If the above statements are true about you, which I'm fairly sure they are, then WHY THE HECK are you telling everyone else how to write? I can totally understand constructive criticism. I actually really appreciate it. It shows modest intelligence.

What I can't stand is flames. And what I find 100% repulsive is actually POSTING "Mary Sues" (whatever that is, but I know it pretty much just means what you think is a bad story?), the stories that some people might've worked really **, and criticizing them for anyone else to see. You are the epitome of armchair critic, and you know what? I HATE armchair critics.

Flame me, go ahead. Talk big, call yourself a do-gooder, say you're for the best of any writer. Talk about helping them. You go ahead and make an idiot of yourself, but consider the fact that some people are not gifted with writing talents. Apparently, you are one of those people who lack that gift. Does that mean that they should not write anymore, or should allow themselves to be subjected to the empty and cruel words of others? Well, you're still writing, tragically enough, so I guess not.

Which means, I must conclude, that you are A) an idiot and B) a big head. And also, talking about how you place yourself in the line of fire nobly is pure - I'm not allowed to swear, so I can't write it, but it begins with an S and ends with a T. And I'll even put a "bull" before that.

You really ought to stop criticizing others and look at your own writing. Improve on THAT, and nobody gets offended but yourself by yourself.

I mean, think about what you're doing. All you're proving is that you can't write, and to save yourself from this oh-so-tragic realization, you are saying that others can't.

And now I'm going to make a request of you, "Mary Sue Hunter". I'm going to ask you to read the FanFic "Love to Gabi from Chad", an HSM Fic, and tell me how I could improve it.

Why do I want you to do this? Because I could sure use a couple good laughs.

Yours in Disdain,
-Pachyderm

Right. Erm, first of all, I'd like to apologize profusely for my last review, seeing as I just looked at it again... and it was incredibly childish. Thank you for your advice on reviewing without flaming!

Right, so, your story kept me rolling... literally. I think I broke my keyboard. :)

One thing I'd like to point out though, is that there are a few stories that portray a Draco/Ginny ship realistically, such as A Tale of Two Matchmakers by kerichi. You probably knew that, but I thought I should tell ya. Oh, and, being a ridiculous stickler for grammar, you may want to go over a few of your chapters, because there were a few of the common "teh" esque typos. Thought you ought to know!

Love your writing, keep it up!

"Don’t use Sabrina or a name that sounds like it" Why the hell not?? o.O
And giving a character an unusual name doesn't automatically make the character a Mary Sue. As long as it's not completely ridiculous, and fits the character's background, it's perfectly fine. Just try to imagine Draco with a common name like David. Completely ridiculous, don't you think? A name has to fit, if it's common or not should depend on the character's heritage.
"Draco Malfoy is very, VERY proud of his Slytherin-ness". That's not entirely true. Draco is mostly proud of being a Pureblood, and he's all about getting connected with the right people. Some of these people might be in Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. He was very willing to be friends with Harry when they first met, and if Harry had accepted his offer, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have cared that he Harry got sorted into Gryffindor. I don't know, let's say that the next Minister of Magic's daughter is in Hufflepuff. I do believe Draco would date her, or be friends with her, if he had the chance, don't you?
"If you can’t write a summary, then you probably can’t write a story either". I have to disagree. only allows you to write a very brief summary, and when you've spent so long on a story, it's hard to say what your story is about in just a few words. It doesn't mean your story is bad, or that you haven't put all your heart in it.

holy **! you are a mary sue!

your web page! HA you've been caught.

you talk big for a 16 year old, but none of it's true.

example.." Alan Rickman! *That accent makes my knees wobble!*
you have a list of all the guys that you love, and you gush about them..
you are so funny, you stupid little gril! Ha!

you are not a mary sue hunter.. you only pretend to be.

go seek help from the real ones.

Well i agree with most of what you said, there is one line that i think you need to rewrite. "If you can’t write a summary, then you probably can’t write a story either" Writting a story and writting a summary are two different arts almost. To be able to condense enough of a story into a few lines is not always an easy thing to do. When i had stories up (and hope to soon again) I often had trouble writting the summary but that didn't mean by story was neccessarily bad.

You want to give enough information that the passing reader is interested in the story but not too much that reading the story becomes redundent. But as I said, if you have more then one saga, it's hard to condense it down to a couple of lines. It doesn't mean you can't write a story if you can't write a summary. Of course, a better summary will attract more readers, I'm not denying that. I am just saying that i think it is unreasonable to say that "If your summary sucks, then your entire story probably does as well"

^_^ I do hope that you come out with more chapters of this, you should show the Sue/Stu who is an insanely powerful witch or wizard for no reason at all with no training, the Sue/Stu who has an uber special magic artifact or item, and the Sue/Stu who is Sirius/Voldemort/Another Canon's child or Harry Potter's long lost sister and the like.

One comment on your analysis. I think that Ron does cuss some, he occassionally says "bloody h-" which is swearing to me.

The flame wars you mentioned have also been happening to me because of my reviews. I just got a private message from an author who told me to "stop breathing down his friend's neck". This author blocked me before I could even contact him and defend myself.

I will continue to recommend these guidelines to other authors. While you focus on Harry Potter, your advice is applicable in any genre out there. Authors always are abusing canon characters for their own means and writing in Sues and Stus to "snog" with their favorite character of whatever series.

I wish you lots of luck in continuing writing and I hope that this fic and all your constructive reviews make an impact.

PS: I died laughing at your translations.

Heh, it's three in the morning here, but I can't seem to stop reading this.

I very much know what it feels like to get the useless reviews that you mentioned. I've gotten so bogged down with "good, continue" reviews that I barely can tell if people are actually reading my stories or merely telling me that they are still breathing. As I said before, I tried to give constructive reviews to the fics I read, it's just so sad that newbie writers want to over energetic fluff reviews than something that might actually help them.

Thank you very very much for writing this. It's very honest and accurate, and I can feel your struggle with trying to politely tell someone that their story is less than perfect. Just yesterday I spent an hour working on a review to someone only to have the person block me without a word, which I'm assuming is because I pointed out weakness and suggested how to fix them. It truly is shameful how people cannot take the slightest bit of critism. But I'll be sure to recommend anyone I see struggling with Sue/Stuness to this fic of yours, because it really does highlight the major issues. I'm not sure if you cover it in future chapters or not (I'll check later), but I also see a lot of authors breaking the rules of the universe to make their characters have advantages they shouldn't have. Once more, thanks again for spending the time to type this out, I really wish that more people would take you and your work seriously. I can tell you are not out to flame or hurt anyone, but only honestly critique fics. I do the same, I just wish that more people would appreciate it instead of instantly becoming defensive at the first non-positive comment.

I love how you're getting idiotic flames from people who can't write... it's hilareous!

This is really great - you're helping others improve their stories without attacking them. I know that my first few fanfics - probably even my stories now - are Mary Sues. I'm working on a few original stories and trying to make characters NOT MarySues. I think it's just the easy way out sometimes ...
Thanks heaps for this advice.
~Ais