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Mary-Sue Challenge (2009-3)

If you've ever read a story with a Mary-Sue, you know what to do here. Set during the time period covered in either HBP or DH, your challenge is to write a story spoofing the concept of Mary-Sue. Exchange students; Muggle technology at Hogwarts; Goth original characters with outlandish names inexplicably hooking up with the main characters; they're all yours to play with.

Plot-wise we're not too bothered. But we're going to try something new: go to the List of Titles and pick one. The only requirement for plot is that it should fit the title.

But we're not looking for just any Mary-Sue, oh no; we're looking for spoofs of the highest order, parodies of such magnitude that our sides should split within the first paragraph. So, here are your guidelines.

1.   One way or another, show how the exaggerated attributes of the Mary-Sue don't fit into the established world.
2.   Include at least three of the following fanfic clichÃ©s:
    a.   Author insertion (Bonus points for writing Sovran into it as well.)
    b.   Implausible parentage (Bonus points for including the phrase "Harry... I am your father.")
    c.   Suddenly fix Harry's eyes
    d.   Make the two leads Head Boy and Girl and stash them in a shared Head Student dorm
    e.   Ginny skipped ahead a year
    f.   Harry/Ginny bonded (Bonus points for creative typographical conventions for "thinkspeak".)
    g.   An OFC (Original Female Character) scoring 40 or more on the Mary-Sue Litmus Test
    h.   A MAHOOOSIVE inheritance for Harry, including at least two major global landmarks... and Potter Manor
    i.   Recurring confusion within the story as to the gender of Blaise Zabini (Bonus points for making it "none".)
    j.   Multiple variations of Ginny's real name, at least one of which should be "Cyril"
3.   Include at least one of the following clichÃ©d archetypes:
    a.   Super! Harry
    b.   Elemental! Ginny
    c.   Dark! Ron
    d.   Makeover! Hermione
    e.   Leather Trousers! Draco (Bonus points for bringing him down to earth with a thud. Automatic loss for any story mentioning the word "ferret".)
4.   Break at least three rules from the Evil Overlord list (or one of its spinoffs); list which rules at the end. Alternatively,
5.   Find at least three fanfic clichÃ©s of your own and use them in the story; in each case, have a character remark upon them with some variation of "Oh god, not another..."

Rules:

1.   All general submission rules apply. Huge stories over 10,000 words are discouraged but not prohibited. R-rated stories are allowed but discouraged. Judges are not required to read stories over 10,000 words or any R-rated stories.
2.   All entries must be submitted under Mary-Sue Challenge (2009-3) sub-category under SIYE Challenge and be submitted by midnight, Tuesday, June 30, 2009.
3.   Multiple chapters are allowed as long as all the requirements are in the chapter(s) that are submitted by the deadline.
4.   The categories for judging are Best Overall, Best Comedy, Most Insane, and Most Profound Social Commentary.

This is a rather looser challenge than usual... a bit of an experiment. Let's see what you can make of it. If you have any questions or comments, just post in the comment thread or contact me.

/Torak

Torak on 2009.05.31 - 07:20PM ()

Comments

Amour came out of the woodwork on 2009.05.31 - 11:45PM to say:

Wow. I love this challenge already. Let's see if I can get something in, shall we? Can you explain what #4 means, however? Evil Overlord list?

Ginny_Hermione came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 12:02AM to say:

I think I have to join this challenge. :p " Can you explain what #4 means, however? Evil Overlord list? " yeah, I didn't get that either, Amour.

sanidad came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 12:12AM to say:

For those unfamiliar with the Evil Overlord list, try: http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html

shadoweddark came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 01:11AM to say:

Oh this seems fun. I think I'll actually enter this one.

sapphire200182 came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 01:14AM to say:

Social commentary on Mary Sue authors? Brilliant. Just... brilliant.

All right lads, this is a do-and-be-flamed mission. Who's up for it?

On a more serious note, can one do multiple parodies on multiple chapters? I'm thinking of a Story Title with my own title, followed by various chapters with titles picked from the list.

tangle elfwand came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 04:15AM to say:

Yay, I guessed it. I really, really wanna try it, but it will probably end up horribly unfunny. But it's worth a short: I already have few cliches in my mind.

Torak came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 05:13AM to say:

Multiple titles for multiple chapters? A great idea - go for it!

Kezzabear came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 07:25AM to say:

It looks ... intriguing ...

Amour came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 07:54AM to say:

Mary sues can be canon characters, too, right? Like, I can Mary sue Ginny a bit? Even though I love her dearly!

Torak came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 08:01AM to say:

Of course!

ginny_lola came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 01:06PM to say:

I am so doing this one....just what I need -- I love spoof =p

Dragyn came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 02:02PM to say:

Bwahahaha, I may have to take part in my first Challenge here :D

LunatikPandora came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 06:46PM to say:

this is amazing. i might attempt it. :D

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.01 - 07:30PM to say:

Vindication! I can finally show the world that I am not Spenser! He only scored a nine on the litmus test, by the way. The only problem may be that no one will really like Eric. I'm that grumpy (picture Alastor Moody). Hmm...I've used a few of the cliches, but not all, and there is so much potential here. Ah, bring on the coffee (for me) and the tranquilizers (for my family)! Oh, and I may slip i Loony (my daughter Jennifer--nicknamed for her favorite character) as well. Mischief--thy name is Torak!

Valandar came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.02 - 01:05AM to say:

One word: BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! By the way, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/FanFics has a great list of FanFic tropes that could be parodied, as well! :D

Valandar came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.02 - 01:11AM to say:

Erm... I got the URL wrong. THIS is the list of Fanfic Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FanficTropes

Comet Moon came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.03 - 01:18AM to say:

Ummmm, What's wrong with any of the plots. Most are my favorites. ( ; Ja ne Jim

Torak came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.03 - 04:35AM to say:

Hmm?

St Margarets came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.03 - 07:42AM to say:

Help! I can't find the Mary-Sue Challenge on the drop-down menu. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Torak came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.03 - 07:56AM to say:

It doesn't seem to be showing up. I tried to move your fic into it, but I couldn't make it work either; I've checked the admin tab, and it's definitely there, it just doesn't show up in the menu. I'll make some enquiries.

St Margarets came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.03 - 08:04AM to say:

Thanks, Torak! That's what I get for being first. (Cue joke about premature story posting) *g*

Walbunk came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.04 - 05:47AM to say:

This challenge just sounds ridiculously hysterical, especially when coupled with the Evil Overlord lists... :-D

Walbunk came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.04 - 05:50AM to say:

Oh, and as a response to 2b... the line from Star Wars is "No... I am your father." just fyi...

Milarqui came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.05 - 07:58AM to say:

I hope that the story I wrote for the challenge meets up with the expectatives of the jury...

Perspicacity came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.05 - 04:00PM to say:

I'm in--just penned the first draft and am letting my alpha site folks tear into it. The story is, dare I say it, "awesome." (I know this because my self-insert received a "Medal of Awesome.")

I hope it's okay to have taken a plot bunny of nonjon's and run with it.

Kezzabear came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.06 - 09:57AM to say:

I have narrowed my title choices down to 13 ... I have chosen my cliches ... let the spoofing BEGIN! mwah-ha-ha!

seaswimmer came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.07 - 03:58PM to say:

The awful thing is that a couple of times now I've started reading a story and thought "Oh, this is a really good challenge entry" only to realise that it's not an entry at all. Oops! I'm almost tempted to enter, I have cliched prose (including author's note) in abundance in my mind - but no time, no plot (ok, not entirely necessary in this story I suppose, all it needs is a bit of snogging) & absolutely no html knowledge. Oh well...

LilyLady came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.07 - 07:02PM to say:

"Set during the time period of..." meaning either Harry's sixth or seventh year, canon disregarded, right?

Perspicacity came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.07 - 07:17PM to say:

I would imagine so, LilyLady.

Mine's a time-travel story with the first scene 300 years in the future; the second, the showdown at the DOM; the third, set during HBP. I'm hoping this satisfies the "set during" requirement. (If not, c'est la vie; it was a fun story to write even if it doesn't get to play with the big kids).

LilyLady came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.07 - 07:26PM to say:

Aw crap sorry about that...I don't know why it repeated...I MEANT to ask, the second time: At the end of rule 4, it says "alternatively" - does that mean we must include either 4 OR 5, but don't have to include both?

seaswimmer came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.08 - 01:10PM to say:

Excellent, someone's doing time travel: another of my favourite cliches has been snapped up. Just one to go now...

Sir Ollivander came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.10 - 09:58PM to say:

LilyLady - "Set during the time period covered in either HBP or DH." Think of the books rather than the years.

Sir Ollivander came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.10 - 10:03PM to say:

LilyLady - yes, either 4 OR 5. You don't have to do both.

Torak came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.13 - 10:12PM to say:

Perspicacity - One of my favourite hobbies is playing with the loopholes in the challenges. So there are a couple of deliberate ones there specifically so you can sneak little things like that in. :-) Walbunk - It's not so much the accurate lines that matter, it's the lines that have become ingrained in the general consciousness. So it's not "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'" - it's "Play it again, Sam."

Kezzabear came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.14 - 07:09AM to say:

Damn ... I didn't manage to sneak cowabunga in there ... Oh well. I felt the need for speed, that should make up for it *smirk*

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.21 - 10:52AM to say:

Due to the great response I've received regarding Marvin, I added just a bit to the ending of the parody story (the story within the story). For those of you who have already read mine, take a moment to see who the new guest star is. I wonder if Luna's owl tried to eat him.

joojiepoo came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.23 - 11:15PM to say:

I think that I may just want to buy whoever thought of this challenge an island*. I love it! Love it, love it, love it! This thing is right up my alley. I'm going to have fun! However, I fee that if I'm to properly parody Mary-Sue stories, I reserve the right to write like a person who would include a Mary-Sue in a story. Oooh, this is going to be fun! *You are reminded that the size of said island is not of any real significance and that, yes, a pea-sized model of an island is just as impressive as a real one floating in the middle of the Arctic Sea.

LilyLady came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.29 - 01:12AM to say:

So just to make sure I'm reading this right - the story has to be SUBMITTED by midnight on Tuesday - not necessarily validated, as long as it's submitted by then, right? I've had a ton of personal crap happening and had to put off writing for awhile and I'm afraid I won't get it in in time now, so I want to make sure I'm correct on this!

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.30 - 11:11AM to say:

LilyLady et al--The official stance is that the stories need to be validated by midnight. With that said, Sir Ollivander does not stand there at his computer with a stopwatch, ready to cut the later arrivals off at the knee at the stroke of midnight. The archivists, as well as some of the senior staff, will be monitorring submissions through the evening to ensure anything in good condition does get validated. We're not from the government--we're here to help you.

Kezzabear came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.30 - 09:00PM to say:

I think I got all the requirements in the portion I posted before midnight. Question - can you keep submitting chapters or do you have to stop and wait for judging to finish?

Dragyn came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.30 - 11:10PM to say:

My story is only half done. *sigh* I guess Ill post it later. Out of curiosity, what's the policy on categorizing a story for a Challenge posted after said Challenge. Can we use the category anyway? It obviously wouldnt be part of the competition...

Spenser Hemmingway came out of the woodwork on 2009.06.30 - 11:44PM to say:

You can, of course, continue to submit chapters...but the system is set up where only those validated before midnight will be considered as part of the Challenge. I will not say that a partial story is out, as I've actually fallen in love with more than a few first chapters. Completed Submissions has not been listed among the requirements as far as I've ever heard. Still, it could not help but have an influence on the judging, if the truth were told.

Milarqui came out of the woodwork on 2009.07.15 - 03:40PM to say:

Waiting for you guys to tell us poor writers how well we did according t you, judges.