![]() ![]() “At the time, I was going through a rough period professionally and found myself escaping into little daydreams more often, I think as a form of mental self-preservation. “Honestly, when I first wrote a reader insert story, I wasn't very familiar with fanfic and had never written it before,” she tells Teen Vogue. ![]() For Erin, who writes for BTS, the stories she put together were built from daydreams during a tough time. ![]() They serve as sites of escapism for author and reader alike, a way for them to flex their creative muscles while diving into a new world with characters they already like. #Fanfic writer Offline#Reader inserts can be a way for fans to see themselves and their experiences in scenarios that they don’t have access to in their offline lives. Even the corresponding term – “ Gary Stu”– isn’t said with the same disdain as “Mary Sue” is. After all, cishet men have put themselves and their fantasies into the narratives they’ve created for centuries with limited backlash. It’s only relatively recently that cultural critics, fan studies scholars, and fans on the ground have made it clear that a lot of the pushback against “Mary Sues” in fan fiction and in media (Bella Swan, anyone?) is largely fueled by misogyny. They were beloved by the creators that wrote them… but not so much the readers that came across those stories. The “Mary Sue,” a character archetype named by Star Trek zine writer Paula Smith back in 1973, came to represent a specific class of character that was slotted clumsily into the existing canon and gained the spotlight that canon characters had. Decades ago, writers wrote original characters into their stories as partners, friends, or best friends of the characters the author adored. (I had favourite characters before that I could relate to in some ways, but, for example, both characters of my current main ship could not be more different to myself, both in background and in personality.Reader inserts aren’t anything new to fandom or to fiction outside of that, and you could argue that in some form, they’re part of all fiction - writers often work in aspects of their lives (identities, careers, locations) into their writing. I'm also the kind of person who doesn't "identify" with characters I like them because I find them interesting and entertaining, not because they are like me or I identify with them in any personal way. I'm always trying to put myself in the character's head as much as possible, to write them in a way that's believable and consistent for who they are, despite what I would do/think/feel in their situation. I'm sure there are certain details and pieces here and there in my stories that are inevitably influenced by who I am as a person (and by who I am not)-and I guess the way each writer interprets the characters is also determined by it too, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little bit.īut I only write canon characters, and characterization is one of the things that matter the most to me. ![]()
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