что такое селф инсерт
Что такое селф инсерт
Self Insert is a crazy electronic band that makes hyperactive music for hyperactive people. The band first got notoriety on TikTok and are getting broader recognition. They have many members but only two are confirmed on their website at this time:
When an author or writer puts themselves into a story they have written as a character.
It is not a character in which the audience inserts themselves or can relate to. It has absolutely no relation to the audience or readers. It is specifically referencing the creator’s personal avatar.
Most stories written in second person are not self inserts.
Some creators will hide the fact that they use these characters by changing their names and a few details. Self Insertion characters are frequently not even the main character in a story. Author Steven King has done this in his books on occasion.
Video game avatars that the player creates could be considered a type of self insert character if the player tries to create an approximation of themselves for the game. This is borderline as the player is limited by the creation tools and game’s storyline.
Another borderline example would be creating a Tabletop RPG character. Players are often free to create backstories and design their characters as they see fit, often mirroring themselves as they imagine they would be if they existed in such a world. Though again, the player is limited by game mechanics, the whims of the DM, and the roll of the die.
Self-Insert
Sometimes they just want to belong. Sometimes they want more than to belong. Sometimes they want others to belong to them. And then they’re trouble.
A self-insert, sometimes abbreviated to SI, is an original character meant to represent the author. Other characters that are copies of people other than the author his- or herself (typically people the author knows) are not self-inserts, but should be approached with a similar frame of mind.
Self-inserts can range from being relatively reasonable original characters to being idealized Mary Sue versions of the author. Often, SIs in humorfic are aware of their status as self-inserts.
Self-insert fic is not inherently bad. However, self-insert badfic is common enough that it can be considered a whole badfic genre, with recurring themes and associated patterns in much the same way as typical Suefic or bad slash.
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Self-Inserts and Mary Sues [ ]
Self-inserts are not always Mary Sues, although there is a very heavy stigma against self-inserts because they are a very easy way to make Mary Sues.
Mary Sues are very lazy, and there is nothing lazier than simply taking the real author and ‘upgrading’ all of her traits to make her smarter, better, and more awesome than she otherwise would be. At the same time, self-insert Mary Sues often disregard the actual positive or interesting traits of a real person, preferring more ‘cool’ alternatives. In other words, in the search for what the author wishes she could have, she discards everything she really is.
This is by no means a good thing, but it is also a fairly recognizable stage in writing ability. While Sues of this variety are perfectly fine to make fun of, and the author is to blame, the author doesn’t deserve to be hated or attacked for his/her creation. There are few people in the world who don’t wish to be stronger or better than they are. It’s only maturity and experience that allows writers to move past this stage.
On the flip side, there are plenty of good self-inserts that are well-rounded representations of the individual they are supposed to represent and are legitimate characters in their own right. They, too, should not be mocked for being what they are.
Self-Inserts and Avatars [ ]
Avatars are not self-inserts. A self-insert is a character that is meant to BE the author him/herself, regardless of name changes, different origin, or added powers/abilities. An avatar is merely an author’s representation in the work, whether to promote their ideals or to communicate the author’s message. An avatar may be similar to a self-insert, may have a similar background, or may even be an allegory for an author’s experiences, but is not meant to represent the author directly.
Self-Inserts in Fanfiction [ ]
Self-inserts often cross over the Real World and another continuum. They usually do this one or more of three ways:
Many self-inserts in fanfiction are used in humor fics so that the author can pretend to hang out with their favorite character or characters. This often breaks the Fourth Wall to varying levels. How the characters feel and react to this varies with how out of character they are and how reality-bending the SI is. The reaction of canon characters often ranges the full gamut from slavish obedience and adoration to full-out hate for the SI in question. One very common setting for SIs is the Subreality Cafe where the much abused characters can hang out and have a few drinks. SIs appear in the form of authors.
Several fandoms have their own version of the Subreality Cafe. One of the busiest is for Doctor Who.
Rarer than self-inserts in humor fics are SIs who are in serious (non–canon-breaking) fanfic wherein the SI fully participates in the world.
Means of Crossing Over Universes [ ]
There are four main ways to portray the relationship between the self-insert, the Real World, and a canon. All others are permutations of these four:
Dealing with Self-Inserts in a Mission [ ]
Non–Mary-Sue self-inserts are not to be assassinated. If they respect the canon and bend it only for sensible/truly funny/understandable reasons, they are to be left alone. However, if it is very clear that the character is not a fully realized character but merely a Sue that has taken on the author’s guise, terminate with extreme prejudice.
However, it is possible to encounter a self-insert that is not actually a Sue in a fanfic bad enough to be charged with crimes against canon. These can simply be taken back home through a portal, as they are a legitimate AU version of the real author with a home in an alternate universe of the author’s creation.
Despatch usually handles cases of Trans-Dimensional Snatching and Trans-Dimensional Hopping, but if the snatcher/hopper in question is very, very blatantly a Mary Sue and correcting anachronisms/escorting the self-insert safely back home is not an issue, the mission may be given to the Department of Mary Sues instead.
Self-Inserts in the PPC [ ]
Many agents in the PPC can be considered incarnations of their author counterpart and thus self-inserts. However, anyone who suggests this to some agents might be spending some time in Medical for ‘self-inflicted’ injuries.
Self-Insert Fic
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As the name implies, a Self-Insert Fic is one where the author has made a simulacrum of themselves, commonly called an avatar, in the story’s world as a key character (usually The Protagonist, but any other role that’s vital to the story qualifies). If the author has any sense of subtlety, the resulting character won’t share their name or alias, but it’s still easy to tell who that «new character» is.
The original Mary Sue (she who gives that trope its name) was a Parody Sue of the standard Self-Insert Fic. In the most extreme cases, which are usually but not always quite bad, the insert character gains some degree of godlike power, or retains considerable knowledge of the series in which he’s been inserted, or both, and uses them to adjust things to his or her liking. In rare instances, it might work well, especially if the people in the setting — heroes and villains — react accordingly to the new situation and the character that knows all the stuff he saw in the (anime/game/etc) and the situation changes in ways they can’t anticipate.
However, equally common is the subversion, where the author applies This Loser Is You to themselves and ends up as The Ditz, The Fool, or in extreme cases a Butt-Monkey. Care must be taken to not still make themselves more important than anybody else. The main rule is to never put the character in a high-ranking story position, although they may be the narrator.
The Self-Insert Fic has two primary varieties: the Self as New Character, where the author simply opens the top of the story and drops a copy of themselves right in, with a few smiles thrown their way to acknowledge their presence and a few lines chipped in, and the Self as Existing Character, where the author finds himself forced to take over the life (and sometimes the body) of an existing canon character, without necessarily being restrained to staying «in character» for their new role. See Emergency Impersonation, You Will Be Beethoven, or Possession Sue for different versions of the latter.
Note that self-insertion isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t even mean that you’re a bad writer. Lots of writers do it. After all, there’s nothing wrong with a little Wish-Fulfillment. But if you expect other people to enjoy your story too, you’re going to need to insert all the things that make you a real person, like your flaws. Just as not everybody loves and adores a person in real life, they’re not all going to love and adore them in a fanfic, either. Self-insertion, complete with flaws and realistic reactions from everyone involved, is just as good a way to make an Original Character as any other; besides, if there’s one character you can write without ever making them Out of Character, it’s yourself! What was originally a self-insert can even adapt and evolve into a genuine Original Character, completely different from who you are.
The trouble is that many new writers don’t think about that. They think only about ways in which their Author Avatar can be perfect, can hook up with their favourite character, force their beliefs on others, or ninja-kick their way to being the hero, rather than working on a realistic way they can enter the plot.
Played for Laughs this can become almost a different story entirely, which usually involves an average loser realizing that whatever fictional world may not be the best or safest place for them, and commenting on the implausible things going on.
Self-insertion
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Self-insertion is a practice by authors of writing themselves into their own stories, either explicitly or in thinly-disguised form; in a fannish context this most often means fan writers writing themselves into their favorite source material so that they can interact with canon or its characters. Fan artists also sometimes incorporate themselves into fanart, and in modern fandoms where this is prevalent these self insertions are usually referred to with a play on the word «persona».
Fan writers may write self-inserts as humor (for example, in metafic featuring an author arguing with her characters) or as an in-joke (for example, making an extremely minor character a self-insert that will only be recognized by friends, although this may instead be considered a cameo).
Self-insertion as a literary device has a particularly bad rap in fannish circles, due in large part to its association with Mary Sues; generally speaking all Mary Sues are assumed to be self-inserts and all self-inserts are at least suspected of being Mary Sues.
It can be hard for self-insert enthusiasts to find spaces where they can talk about what they like about self-inserts without being heckled or derided by fellow fans who dislike the genre. Authors who write and publish self-inserts generally have received a higher rate of flames and trolling in their reviews; the early 2000’s SI fic FF7 Experience was reportedly taken down from fanfiction.net due to «people doing knee jerk reactions to seeing a self insert» [1] despite being well-regarded and fondly spoken of even years after it was pulled from public archiving.
Self-Insertion in Canon
Some authors repeatedly insert themselves into stories rather than developing a new character for an unimportant role; for example, Clive Cussler self-inserts in most of his Dirk Pitt novels, usually as someone who gives Pitt a lift or otherwise helps him in some minor way. A cinematic equivalent is the appearance of Stan Lee as himself in Marvel movies.
Some authors also use self-insertion to directly address their readers. Mangaka Hiromu Arakawa who drew and wrote the manga Fullmetal Alchemist always draws herself as a cow with glasses, and in the 4koma omake panels for the series sometimes draws herself interacting with the characters — for example, scolding Edward Elric for reading too much manga and then being punched in the face by him. Fans sometimes draw fanart of Arakawa’s cow persona — her cowsona, one might call it — including showing her interact with her own characters.
Andrew Hussie, the author of Homestuck has frequently used self-insertion in his works. His first instance of self-insertion was in Problem Sleuth and actually prompted by a fan because Problem Sleuth is a quest. Someone sent in, «AH: Become homoerotically interested in your fan.» and Hussie drew himself looking right at the camera with the caption, «Andrew Hussie becomes aroused by fans of MS Paint Adventures. Way to break the 4th wall, numbskull!»
In Homestuck, Hussie’s self-insertion makes him into a full-blown character, which he uses in part to make comments to his fans and on fan culture, appearing several times dressed up in cosplay, in one case complete with smearing grey body paint and quickly-broken troll horns, both a staple of Homestuck cosplayers at American conventions at the time, as many, many fans went to great lengths to cosplay as the grey-skinned orange-horned aliens that debuted in Homestuck’s Act 5 Part 1.
Sometimes Hussie uses his self-insert appearances to affect the plot, but other times he directly addresses the readers. In the panel depicted on the right, showing one of Hussie’s appearances in troll cosplay, the narration goes on to respond to the implied reader’s displeasure with Hussie’s self-insertion by accusing the reader of being entitled and not understanding just how quickly Hussie could use his authorial power to really make things «ridiculous.» Hussie’s narration says, «Do you have any idea how much power I wield over you?? [. ] It would be so easy! I could snap my gray smudgy fingers RIGHT NOW, and make you read all the troll romance exposition segments all over again, BACK TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK.» [3]
Hussie also has a character who self-inserts. Calliope, introduced in Act 6, is an alien who has a trollsona or troll persona. She writes fanfiction about herself and her friends, as well, and views her friends more as characters than people. Hussie intended her as a fairly scathing commentary on his own fans:
@andrewhussie Your stupid exposition character is boring and terrible.
@Unguided how ironic that an obnoxious fan emerges from the fandom to complain about the obnoxious fandom avatar character [4]
Self-Insertion in Fan Art
Although writing oneself into a favorite canon arguably much more common across the board, there’s always been a thriving community of fans who love to visualize themselves interacting with their favorite characters or worlds.
Drawing Someone Else’s Self-Insert
There is a disparity between writing other people’s sonas and drawing other people’s sonas, which could be explained by differences in commission culture between fan authors and fanartists. While self-insertion for writing pretty exclusively deals with the author inserting themselves into their work, self-insert fanart is sometimes done on commission or by request.
The fan artist Pyracantha explains her choices in a piece of art drawn for one of her friends:
Some of my friends are, or were so devoted to the imaginary worlds of their favorite fantasy authors that they wanted to live there, or at least be depicted as living there, so they could live the adventurous life as well as meet their favorite characters in «real life.» This drawing is the result of a commission by a friend who had herself placed in Katherine Kurtz’s «Deryni» world so that she could encounter her much-loved Dr. Rhys Thuryn, a psychic healer. I had to depict her as ailing but of course not dying. This friend/client is often sick with colds and flu since she works in elementary school with germ-laden children, so being healed of the flu is something much to be desired. Psychic healing is a big theme in fantasy fandom and most stories have some variant of it. I have observed that the fantasy fan community has a lot of ill-health and chronic disorders so perhaps that’s behind the strong «healing» element in fantasy.
In 1983, a Dark Shadows fan offered to incorporate a real person into a Dark Shadows portrait.
a Beauty and the Beast (TV) self insertion art for sale
the artist is Nancy Stasulis for the story «Prince in Waiting» in Time Warp #6/7 Volume 1, the fan portrayed is Pat Nussman
Drawing One’s Own Self-Insert
Many fan artists who draw self-insertion do so because it’s comforting and allows them to escape. One fan artist said:
Self-insert is expression. It shows that our love for the fandoms and how much we want to appreciate the characters we have fallen for.
Self-insert is comfort. Sometimes, in life, drawing yourself in the arms of a favorite character boosts up a cheer and makes the artist feel better because it only applies to them.
Self-insert is an escape. When we want to handle something right now in the real world, our imagination can take us away, even for a little bit, before we’re ready to face life. [5]
Another fanartist explains that she draws herself as a self-insert in every fandom she’s in, because:
The reason that I love self-inserts so much is because for the longest time, I didn’t like myself. I was really insecure, I didn’t like my face, I didn’t like my voice, I didn’t like anything about me — I didn’t like my characteristics, I thought I was just a living, breathing waste of space.
Basically, the reason I love self-inserts so much is because when I started to create these self-inserts and create these character designs that were based off of me, and my appearance, and my personality traits. I started to love those things about myself, which was not something that was easy for me to do before. There’s still things that I struggle with, there’s still things about myself that I really don’t like, but it’s easier for me to come to terms with those things whenever I project them onto these self-inserts. [6]
A -sona, also know as an Art Persona, Art OC, or a fandom-specific name, is art of a character, often representing the artist, who is not in canon but whose design is referenced from a fandom. The focus is on character design. and the sona is not made for the purpose of interacting with canon characters. Creating a sona may be part of a challenge or hashtag.
Self-Insertion in Fanfiction
It’s almost impossible to talk about self inserts without mention of the Mary Sue, a term coined in 1973, by Paula Smith to describe original characters, usually female, with a variety of undesirable traits. But in the early days of fanfiction, before «Mary Sue» was coined and became popular, self insertion wasn’t automatically assumed to be a mark of poor writing.
The 1969 Star Trek fanfiction Once Upon a Star Trek was written before «Mary Sue» was coined and before «self insert» was being used by fanfiction writers. Each character was an avatar of one of the fans in the fan club the author belonged to, and all of their self inserts had some relation to canon characters — Spock’s cousin, Sulu’s sister, and so on. The story was written for the club Nimoyan-Spock’s Scribes and published in the club’s newsletter, Spock’s Scribes. In those early days this practice was not looked down upon, especially for lighthearted or surrealistic tales — and indeed, for some people the feeling that self-insertion should only be used for humourous stories persisted at least until the late 90’s. [7]
Even after «Mary Sue» was coined in 1973, self insertion wasn’t yet linked with it for a number of years, nor was «Mary Sue» immediately a popular term.
The 1974 2-part Star Trek fic published in Sol III Enterprise Involuntary (Being an Exercise in Wishful Thinking) by G.M. Carr was well-received: «It’s very unusual, in that it deals with the seldom seen lower echelons of a starship crew, namely, the laundry crewmen — one laundry crewwoman in particular, a little old lady refugee from the 20th century,» one reviewer said, also describing it as «interesting, but a bit lengthy» [9] and «very amusing and well written, and the conclusion in #2 offers some excellent plot twists.» [10]
By the late 90s, however, accusations of Mary-Sue-ism were often directed at anything with an original character, often erroneously. In the 1998 essay Look Out! It’s Mary Sue!, Richard Pugh explains that there are «two types of author projection characters that are mistaken for Mary Sues, and while they can be equally annoying, they aren’t disastrous to the story.» He then goes on:
In A Guide for Writing Sailor Moon Fan Fics, the essay’s author stresses that she’s «never read a self-inclusion fanfic that did work that wasn’t a comedy of some type.» She also notes that self insert fanfiction where the self insertion is done so that the author can write about leading the main characters of Sailor Moon to victory «have not worked out well for the most part.» [13] Reflecting on her own self insert fic, the essay’s author described feeling limited by the genre.
In an addendum to the essay, Helen Szeto adds that «Self-insertion fics have tended to fail when the author has suddenly (and inexplicably) altered the balance of the story» and that «a key point to remember about SI fics is that most people read the fanfiction stories because they want to read about the canon characters, and NOT the intimate details of the author’s lives. [14] Many of Helen Szeto’s comments about self inserts reflect frequently-made complaints about Mary Sues, and in the 2000 essay Self-Insertion and Mary-Sue-ism the author notes that for months, all the essays he read “equated self-insertion with Mary-Sue-ism from the start, which is one reason why I took some time to realize they weren’t the same thing.” [15]
The problem with blatant self-insertion is that in many cases the author uses it because he or she does simply not (yet) have the skill to do anything else. And an author who doesn’t have the imagination to create a character other than a copy of themselves (slightly idealized, of course) will most probably fall into the trap of Mary-Sue-ism, too. It is not that self-insertion is the cause of bad writing, but that both have one possible cause in common.
This also means that an author who knows what he or she is doing can pull off blatant self-insertion without writing a bad story. I have read several highly enjoyable self-insertion tales that were as blatant as all get out but managed to avoid the most annoying Mary-Sue-isms. [16]
A comment on tumblr on the post Was Fanfic Any Different in the Olden Days? described their experience self inserting as very similar to the 1969 Once Upon a Star Trek:
The early 2000’s fanfiction archive Fandominion didn’t allow authorfic, including self inserts of any kind:
More recently, some fans and their communities have embraced self insertion and go looking for recommendations on sites like SpaceBattles, SufficientVelocity, and subreddits like /r/fanfiction, only to get pushback from other fans for liking the genre. For example, in response to one thread seeking out good self inserts:
Some people just never get the urge to read them.
It’s the easiest fanfic genre to get into, and one of the hardest to ‘get right.’ Add to that the preconceived notions and general misconceptions about the genre as a whole, and, well. It’s a tough crowd.
There are a lot of bad SI fics out there. Don’t let them spoil what few gems there are out there. [20]
Examples of this recent uptick in the popularity of self-insertion can be seen in the boom of SI OC fanfiction that originated in the Naruto fandom, or the Modern Girl/Character in Thedas trope in the Dragon Age fandom. Part of the appreciation seems to stem from the self inserts becoming avenues for the reader and writer to explore canon, such as the world building, canon characters, etc. [21] [22] From another thread discussing the quality of self inserts: