Fellow frustrated writers, I have a problem.
Ok, honestly I have many problems but lets address one at a time. I have a dread fear of the "Mary Sue" creeping into my characterization.
A "Mary Sue" is a perfect character. They have no flaws and always overcome. They are always the best at everything. Honestly, Super Man reminds me of a "Mary Sue" character. Though I guess he'd be a "Marty Stu" since he's male. There's nothing he can't overcome with a whistle and some solar time. He's massively overpowered which is why I don't find him interesting. Even when he "died" it turned out to be some sort of healing coma. I could go on and on about my issues with him, but that's not what this post is about.
It always seems that a lot of writer's main characters like to fall into two categories. Ether it's a overpowered "Mary Sue", or a severely tortured pinata. I know there have to be challenges to be overcome. There should be growth, and deceit, and broken hearts, and triumph all mixed in the heady cocktail we call fiction. I've read stories where there is no task to overcome, there's simply the journey from A to B. While I liked the characters and the idea behind the story, the story itself bored me.
So how does an author straddle that line between Mary Sue and Torture Pinata? How do you give them challenges to overcome without making them fly? Over a long term series, how do you apply growth and change without leaking over into Mary Sue? What gauge do you use?