The Mary Sue Litmus Test

Is your character a 'Mary Sue?'  Find out!  I found these quizzes online and while I wouldn't say they're 100% accurate, they'll definitely help you refine your characters.  Most can be applied to both original & fanfic characters, although they are geared more toward fantasy/paranormal fiction.  Some of the stuff is pretty obvious (is your character named after you, does he/she consider her exceptional beauty to be a curse, etc.), but other questions really surprised me.  Who knew that being abused as a child contributed to Mary-Sue-ism?  While I never really considered any of my characters to be 'Mary Sues,' these quizzes definitely made me take a harder look at them.  I even made some changes to my MC based on some of these tests, and I think the whole story is better for it.


http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm

http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html

http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html

There are lots of other tests like this out there, but I like these the best because they don't require me to do any math.  I click yes or no and it tells me at the end how saccharine and predictable my character is.  Enjoy!