This is in absolutely no way a ploy to spark a flame-war. This is a concerned writer who wants honest opinions.

Original Characters... from the eyes of an outsider or beginner looking in, the term almost sounds like a derogatory curse. A vile stain on all that is fan fiction. Before I go another step, I would like to point out that I am not oblivious to the bane that is "Self-Insert Mary Sues" and the "red and black alicorn OC" phenomenon. I understand the concept, and I grasp why *these* are so universally despised.

What comprised my dilemma, for literally months, was the lack of tangible evidence that not ALL OC stories are looked down upon. My editor and friend had to browbeat me in the face with a rusty morningstar for weeks to convince me that my plans were ok concerning my cast interacting with the cannon cast. However, I still have a couple of plans for my project in the future that tread into less-than-friendly waters as far as OC anger is concerned.

This thread is to address your honest opinions on OC/cannon relations.

An example would be my opinion regarding romance between an OC and a main cast member. If it is done tactlessly and without reason, it is painful to witness.. a lot of self-inserts seem to do this. However, If there is a long, dynamic, tasteful and believable chemistry that occurs over the course of a larger scope of story, Is it all that vile to explore? I don't think so...

I have a very real fear of having to cut entire sections of my project off based simply on avoiding blind hate, and that thought upsets me coming from the normally extraordinary group of people that call themselves Bronies.

Thank you for your time. Perhaps together, we can provide an intelligent resource for those writers that wish to explore this facet of fan literature.

-Cory "Spectre" Yeaman

Does this mean you can tell me how to make my O.C. better?

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Not at all... what is "better"? Or "worse", for that matter? I don't believe I am qualified to pass judgement on anyone's own creations. I am merely stating my observations and attempting to kick-start a discussion to cut through the mist and benefit us all as writers.

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Do you consider Spike a main cast member then? Should he not be shipped? I'm more inclined to think you'd have to find a dragon O.C. for him, rather than pair him with a pony.

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Not quite sure what you're asking with this. I'd be happy to give you my take on where and how OCs die and the things people dislike about them, but for some better-known examples of well-received OCs (I'm not a fan of all of them, mind, but they are well received, and I apologise for not linking right now)

Past Sins
Through the Eyes of Another Pony
Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog
Progress
Three Sisters (admittedly debatable)
School Daze (An OC/Cherilee, even)
The Thesselonica Legacy (have to get around to actually reading that one, myself)
Antipodes (that one too)
Fallout Equestria, any of them
Shipping and Handling

Those are some I can think of off the top of my head.

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Spike would fall under the idea of OC/cannon relationships... and however you choose to pursue that would be your own creative decisions.

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I'd be happy to give you my take on where and how OCs die and the things people dislike about them

This is what I was trying to evoke with this thread... an objective look at OC's so writers like myself and others can build better ones for our own projects.

432626
A fair and well thought out list of observations! Thank you. I must ask though... Slug? Is there an actual story with a slug as the protagonist? That almost sounds amusing in it's ridiculousness, heh heh.

432626 Never seen an OC buffalo story? MAN, I am your WRITER! Alright, you didn't say you wanted to see one... But subconsciously I'm sure you possess an innate desire to see the undone be done. After all, if people didn't have that, we wouldn't have pictures of our planet from outer space!

Seriously though, I've been working on a story for months now involving several important buffalo OC cast members (though the main character is still a pony). If you'd like to check it out... Well, it's not out yet, I'm releasing it sometime in 1-2 weeks if you'd like to watch me. Unless you wanted to take a look at the draft and tell me what you think? You seem an intelligent person who could offer some useful opinions.

In any event, sorry for plugging. I'll adress the main topic at hand now.

432575 In my opinion, authors should avoid having their OCs interact with MAIN characters, but not necessarily all canon ones. This is because it's just so easy to do wrong.

We know, for example, how all the members of the mane six act towards each other. There's at least one episode for each of the 36 possible combinations. That gives authors who use only canon characters a firm, familiar starting ground. We know a lot about these characters. We love them. We're okay with seeing them develop because the author can do it in such a way that we all agree with it, because we have distinct profiles on these characters personalities.

Now, consider OCxmane shipping, for example. It's been said that this is the worst kind, and I agree - I've yet to see a fic do it really well. There always seems to be something missing. Why? Well, clearly, it's because the author makes up what happens completely out of their own head. They have thought processes that they sometimes don't explain in the fic, so it looks like the characters are instantly going from meeting to being friends, then straight to being in love. Because we lack that starting point of character relations that everyone agrees on, authors and readers all interpret how a first meeting would go differently.

Now, OCs interacting with background characters, or even better, characters who guest starred in a single episode or two, those can be interesting. The readers usually don't have such a solid idea of what those characters are like, which gives the author much more leeway. Therefore we accept the alterations that the author will make to these characters as the story goes on more easily.

That's what originally made LyraBon, Soarfire and Scratchtavia so popular - authors have more of an artistic license when dealing with characters who we don't know as much about.

Anyways, that's just my take. I'm not really an expert, but I hope you find my opinions useful!

Alright, this is going to be very off the cuff and therefore raw, so please bear with me. And my standard two disclaimers which are that this is just my take on things and that I believe that any story can be amazing if done right.

So, probably first and foremost: Influence and power

Unless intentionally subverted, basically any piece of fiction you find will be centered around the movers and shakers of that world, or, at least their area and/or sphere of influence.

Mass Effect: You are Shepherd, the first human Specter
Skyrim: You are Dovahkiin, literally the only person capable of killing Alduin
Power Rangers follows the power rangers
Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, the most capable person in her district
Buffy the Vampire Slayer follows The Slayer, a human weapon against the Dark reincarnated from time immemorial
Lord of the Rings follows Gandalf and Aragorn (we all know who they are) on the one and two hobbits on the other (an is both played straight and a subversion as Frodo is very weak and yet is still the lynchpin of the whole thing, making him more imprtant than any others)

If you're writing in the universe set up around such players, don't disrupt that core point. So, on the first, if for whatever reason an OC is better at whatever it is that the cannon character is known for doing, you have crossed that line. That's oversimplified and, frankly, not true, but it's a reasonable way to avoid the mistake. More accurately, if the character and the cannon character are going to interact, then avoid any situation in which the cannon character needs to look up to, or is in awe of, the OC.

I'm going to reference the story The Glass Blower here, which was featured in an interview recently. The story is about a glass blower trying to impress Rarity with his skill and he is, to be blunt, much better at the crafts than Rarity. As an Earth Pony, he's even capable of a certain degree of magic via his art. The key to the story working, in my opinion, is that at no point did the OC ever have power over Rarity (in a way that he was willing to exploit/was aware of anyway.) The entire point of the story was the OC trying to, for lack of a better word, achieve Rarity's level. She was his goal, so her position on that hierarchy was never lost. For those going to correct me there, spoiler territory.

Short form: in my opinion, under no circumstances should an OC ever have even the ability to look down on a Mane Six character within their own sphere. Similarly, a mane character shouldn't look up to any OC within her sphere. Respect's okay, but don't cap the description with 'except for <blank>'. IE: the best Magician in Equestria, except for Twilight.

Edit: Something deliberately keying off that point is a different kettle of fish, mind. An antihero out to reclaim what she feels is hers after being upstaged by Twilight, or losing her spot with Celestia due to Twilight is coming at a different angle, but still a place to be careful in.

Doesn't necessarily apply to characters who are effectively McGuffins, IE: Fancy Pants and Hoity Toity. Also, again, not hard and fast as everything I just said not to do was used well in 'Surprise, Surprise,' though usual kneejerk reaction was something of the point there.

The second big one for me is one of general balance. This goes for all characters, but it's a stumbling block. Characters need strengths and flaws, and they're usually linked, but and I can't stress this enough:

Seriously.

Physical defects are not flaws. Not in a narrative sense. And it's really hard not to use an example from this site because I'm trying to be nice, but for the generic:

My character is blind.
How does she find her way around?
She senses the vibrations in the ground, granting her the ability to...
So... not disabled. In fact, super power. Next.

My character is crippled.
Potential there. How does he get around?
He created a suit of powered armour that grants him...
And again. Super genius AND super strong now. Does he have behavioural problems concerning prejudice to his appearance or a deep-seated loathing for the thing he has become and the implications of it and/or the knowledge that he has ascended above humanity at the cost of it. In effect, an inferiority complex derived from a superiority complex?
...no...? He got used to...
Next.

Moving on so I don't ramble too much...

To take a famous character that does this both ways, I'm going to use Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which I used above. Toph is a deeply flawed character, which is part of why so many of us love her, and she is also blind. The blindness in Toph is not a flaw in and of itself, but it is linked to the flaw she has, but it is also the source of her strength.

Toph's unique ability in the series is to sense vibration in the Earth, and it gives her a natural and insanely powerful insight into the Earth. She is unmatched in her ability to influence it. She cannot be snuck up on and is generally unbeatable. In a very literal sense, she creates a sphere around her in which she is the Master. Being blind both granted her the opportunity and the impetus to develop these skills. In her element, pardon the pun, she is strong and confident.

Flipside: Being master of her domain as stated above, as well as her both isolated and priviledged upbringing have made her somewhat arrogant and pigheaded. And, possibly worse and more likely explaining that too: Toph is a little girl who is afraid of the dark. Ironic, maybe, but the very drive that forced her to master her skill is her fear. Being removed from that mastery of her immediate surroundings scares her. Perceived threats to that mastery (people, generally, even if 'mastery' get broad in this usage) will cause her to lash out (the entire metalbending thing was learned during such an incident) to force her way through. She accepts flying only on sufferance and the few times she was uprooted from her 'sight' caused her to freeze up. In one notable case, refusing to leave a 10-foot wide island being attacked by a sea serpent because she was more afraid of the water.

Feel free to disagree with that assessment, but my point is more than if you can't make such an assessment of a character's strengths and flaws, they're not going to come across as 'real.' "My character is mute" isn't enough for a major player. Background or a one-scene, sure.

For another example of the strength/flaw being linked: Boiled down, 90% of Rarity's character stems from her being a perfectionist. I could expand, but we've already done that.

And, the third one, which is somewhat harder to classify: development. At this stage in the game, we've all had 52 episodes, each 20-odd minutes long, to get to know the characters. For a character to be 'worthy' of being with one of the Mane Six, especially if he/she is the protaganist, more or less requires us to be as invested in the character as we are in the main character he's with.

Again, not hard and fast, and it depends how integral the whole thing is to the plot. There was one story I read recently whose name I forget, which is sad. Long and short: There was a take over Equestria plot via a coup, a make Luna loved by the people again plot under and parallel to that, and then the Six (more or less) each had a subplot, and Rarity's was a romance with an OC, told from her perspective. The character was (my take) built largely as a foil for Rarity, so the rules are a mite looser there.

Well, that went on a while. Again, my take on it but hopefully something in there will be useful to someone.

432816
I'd just like to point at this post, nod, and begin a slow clap.

432816
There should be a compilation of TWG posts consisting of things like this.
I don't have anything to contribute. That post takes the cake.

433045 We have a thread for writing tips, that's just the sort of place for that sort of thing.

I've already written an essay about it in my own blog called "The complete maniacs guide to OCs". Anyway, some of my further thoughts:

Unless you actually ARE a teenager, and even IF you are one, chances are that you've already passed the stage where you write Mary Sues, you already know that shit, and if not, you'll soon learn. That still doesn't make you a good writer tough, there's a long way to go, and you ain't getting there by obsessing over teenage-level mistakes.

I think whats far more problematic than people writing Mary sues is people trying to avoid mary sues and ending up creating incredibly bland, tedious characters. There's nothing inherently WRONG with powerful or colorful characters, in fact, part of the reason hunting for Sues is such a fun activity is cus they are INTERESTING, completely horrible, but at least interesting.

The absolute first thing you need to do when writing an OC is make sure it has a POINT. If you're writing about Ponyville, chances are you don't need to use any OCs, except in really minor roles, cus there's already more than enough players for you to use. To a lesser extent, it holds true for Cloudsdale and Canterlot as well. But if you're writing Hoofington or Manehattan, or even a place you created yourself, you're prolly gonna have to populate it with OCs.

Point of View OCs are useful to get an outsiders point of view on events, which means tht you prolly shouldn't write one meeting the mane 6, cus we already KNOW that shit, and the things we don't know, the mane characters prolly don't know either, so usually there's no need to actually use one, unless you're writing a time or place where the mane 6 would never be.

Powerful OCs should be more about the REACTION of the established characters than about the character itself. And I don't mean "reaction" as in "undying adoration"

The best way to use them would be not to actuall have them show up or say anything for most of the time, since who they are or what they got to say isn't as imporant as the mere face that they exist, am I making sense?

We don't need to know what the alicorn that came from a strange stormcloud looks like, and let's face it, people are prolly not gonna be interested. More interesting perhaps is to know how Luna and Celly react to there suddenly being a third player with unclear motivations around. The OC itself is pretty much IRRELEVANT except as a walking plot-point.

But really, bottom line is the same thing I always say: Mary Sues are defined by their relationship to the story, NOT any outward traits. You can make a bumbling, incompetent Mary Sue, no problem. The difference is that legitimate characters exists to serve the story, while Mary Sues exists to have the story serve THEM.

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433154
Brilliantly put! I don't believe we could attain a more thorough opinion set if we tried, heh heh. Thank you all for contributing to this, and I hope it helps more than just me.

Well, I'm going to be rewriting most of my Flight Camp fic, and the OC Doldrum Whimper was mostly well-received, but reading this I'm wondering if he is balanced or not. Spoilers follow, but it's pretty straightforward a story as it is. I'm outlining the thought processes so everyone can judge for themselves where the errors lie.

The basic key points in designing a story for an OC, I feel, are cause and consequence. Setting up chains of events, personality traits or flaws helps make a character believable.

Major chain one:
-he's strong because he's trained his muscles, and he looks strong for a foal, a real bullhead. Why did he train his muscles?
-he gets bullied a lot in school, and his friend (Peachy Pie, niece of) got him into it. She wanted him to always have something to cheer him up when he let his head hang. Now when he looks down at himself, he sees his big arms and abs, that was the idea. So why does he get bullied?
-he's slow. Reason? Spoiler. Suffice to say he's got zero stamina and sucks at pretty much every sport, with one big exception.

The second chain of events is what puts him on the Gary Stu tightrope.
-he gets into a cloudwrestling competition and it turns out he's good at it. Why? He reacts pretty fast and has good natural movement. Wait, I just said he was slow, how's that possible? He can't run or fly fast, but his reaction time is good and he moves fast on close range. That means he can't sprint or dance around his opponent, but he can block or dodge pretty quickly. He's a good fighter once they close the gap, he just can't get away or chase anyone. He's also a pacifist by nature, but that's besides the point. So how good is he?

-Rainbow Dash can't beat him in cloudwrestling . Red flags going up here, lots of red flags.

The reason Rainbow doesn't outright beat him in one second is eventually revealed to be that he reacts once an attack is launched, not to a threat. He moves once the opponent can't correct their aim anymore. Combine that with the fact that there are rules in the game, not to mention the fact that he's always defending against her and never poses a real threat, and it looks a bit more balanced. He rolls aside once she manages to touch him, so she winds up dancing around him but unable to really finish it...until he gets tired and she just tosses him out of the ring with no real fight left. Besides that: it's just a kid whose personality is a bit like Fluttershy's, so she wouldn't outright brutalise him right from the start.

-But he's still better at something than Rainbow Dash. Isn't there a drawback? Yes, namely that his quick reflexes are due to getting a shock to his system involving a real fight that could have killed him, and would have if he had been any different. The panic response set off some changes in his body that make his instincts stronger, but also leaves him with next to no control over what he does when he freaks out. Rainbow Dash has the same thing (it's supposed to explain why she doesn't think that rationally) but her condition isn't as advanced, so her drawbacks aren't as pronounced and no one knows about it. It's supposed to be a boon in martial arts, but Rainbow Dash isn't a martial artist by nature, it's a side thing to her. That leads to Rainbow having to explain to the kid what it means to grow up the way she grew up, putting some context to her character. It serves the story by shedding some light on things that normally would remain in the background.

-But does everyone like him? Does the main cast of the story fawn over him? Not exactly. The main focus is interaction between Whimper and Scootaloo. The idea behind the story always was that Scootaloo's flight problem would be something trivial (ie fixed easily), while she makes a new friend whose problems aren't trivial. She only makes friends with him after making sure he wouldn't hold her back or be an embarrassment to her, she gets rough with him at several occasions while remaining quite friendly.
As for the adults: yes, they keep showering Whimper with attention and they keep talking about him. The reason for that is that his issues are a lot like some the main characters' childhood issues. Having that character around justifies them talking about said issues as well as the solutions, if any. Also: bullying victims (in my experience) tend to get one of two treatments by adults. The first one is being ignored and told to suck it up or fight back (even though everyone says aggression is bad and solves nothing. Mixed signals, anyone?). The second one is to constantly get atttention and advice that's not only overly generic, but also downright annoying. The natural response to a kid with issues is to sit them down and get them to talk about it, but that doesn't always help and it's certainly not always a pleasant experience for the kid. In fact: getting showered with attention s a surefire way of getting bullied more.
I can't have a story that portrays this with just Scootaloo, since she's by nature defiant. There's no foal characters that can make a proper bullying victim. An OC does the job nicely.

-But did he have to have the backstory with being strong and being an innately good yet uncontrolled fighter? Well, what could have been done without it? If he didn't have an outward appearance of strength, he'd not only act like a victim, he'd still look like a victim. That would mean he gets even more attention from the grownups and...oddly make him more of a Mary Sue. Rainbow Dash would only sympathise the way she sympathises with Fluttershy, and she'd act like just another teacher, sticking up for a kid who should be learning to stick up for himself or leaving him out to dry, possibly teaching him how to fight. Besides that; would Scootaloo make friends with somepony who has absolutely no awesome in him at all? Adding that kind of backstory lets me explore the notion of 'warrior spirit' and what happens when rational thinking takes a backseat to gut response, doubly so when aggression is involved. Him being an innately good but uncontrolled fighter opens up the possibility of learning to control it, as Scootaloo wouldn't be scared of getting hurt. Again: it allows for the story to go where I want it to go.

Sooo...to recap what Owlor said: the OC is there with a good reason. The backstory was added for a good reason. His colour scheme was hideous and will be replaced soon . But there's the reasoning behind everything. If anyone wishes to comment on or mimick such a train of thought, this is just how I do it. It's long and shameless plugging, but it's the only OC I've fully worked out so far, so consider this post for educational purposes rather than publicity. Don't bother reading the story anytime soon, it'll look different in a few days/weeks anyway.

Incidentally, on the topic of visuals: is there a style guide for designing OC's visually in function of their story yet? Because I have some recent experience on the matter that might be of some use.

Whew, marathon post there. Maybe I should be writing fics instead .

Incidentally, on the topic of visuals: is there a style guide for designing OC's visually in function of their story yet? Because I have some recent experience on the matter that might be of some use.

Well, I wrote a short guide to it m'self, but it basically boiled down to "don't use ponycreator for the visual design and don't be afraid to go a little bit crazy..."

But if I where to expand on that:

Generally speaking, you only need three colors: coat-color, mane-color and eye color, and really, most of the time only the first one is necessery, sometimes the second one and the third one only if there's a scene that involves the eyes, like a staring competition or something.

Everybody knows basic color theory, right? If not, a refresher course, take a look at this:

The hues on opposite ends of the wheel is considered to be complimentary color, because of how two complimentary colors conrast, theym ake each other "pop" so to speak, appear brighter.

If you wanna ruin movies for yourself forever, take a look at just how often the orange-teal contrast shows up in movies or movie posters. cus that's a good color scheme to make explosions and caucasian skin stand out, two things that Hollywood seem to like very much....

AAAANYWAY, if you take a look at most ponies, you'll notice that their coat/mane combination keeps to one side of the wheel.
If their coat is a warm color, the mane usually is too. and vice versa, It gives the pony a more coherent look ,cus colors don't fight for attention like they do i they are on opposite ends of the wheel. Eyecolor is usually more on the other side, but generally not full-on complimentary colors, cus you want the eyes to stand out, but complimentary colors pop TOO MUCH and it starts looking a bit eerie...

There's some exceptions to this, however. and that's usually done to make one feature stand out. If RDs coat wasn't cyan and the most visible part of her hair warm colors, her mane wouldn't stand out quite as much. :rainbowkiss

: In my mind at least, it tends to give-off kind of a sassy, cocky, or hot-headed vibe cus again, colors on opposite sides reinforce each other and as such you get kind of an eye-catching combination without having to resort to just belching color over the character.

Even then, tough, notice that it's almost never the true complimentary color, cus that'd stand out TOO MUCH It's either a much lighter/darker version of the complimentary color, or a few swatchesoff to the sides.

... and really, that's prolly the most important part of the lesson right there, MLP is sorta like anime-logic taken to the next level. not only is technicolor hair and eyes the norm, but technicolor "skin" too. As such, it becomes pretty useful to know color theory, cus how the colors work together (or doesn't ) is a better indicator of a Sue than hoe "down to earth" the colors are.

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Good basic rules, Owlor, but if I might add to that, here's how Whimper evolved over several sessions in Inkscape (not just a shameless plug, I promise. If anyone knows another submission of this sort, I'll use that instead.). Note that the finished product is actually absent from the mugshot lineup.

The Evolution of Doldrum Whimper

The first one clearly had the wrong colours, and the above post pretty much sums up what's wrong with them. The intention was to create a character that looks good next to Scootaloo, so I went with the cheap option and used complimentary colours to her orange. That's where the blue skin comes in.

Number two still looks bad, though, and it's not just the missing nostrils (how that happened, I have no idea). When vectoring a pony in Inkscape, look for the button that says 'Saturation' on your colour scheme and dial it down a notch. Pony colours have a tendency to be more pastel, and failing to find and correct this can make a vectored pony look like a bad pony creator image. How much does saturation matter? Check out the line on number three's leg. There's no change aside from saturation.

Lastly, the mane. The triple colours do not mix well with the blue, and a simple check on the colour wheel reveals that colour-wise, that mane is all over the place. A simple dark blue not only makes him more pleasing to the eye, it actually makes his skin look slightly darker (which it isn't, btw, that's a trick of the eye). Secondly, design-wise: I wanted to give him an appearance of being slow. My first instinct was to make his tail a little different (it just looks bad in the first version, so that didn't work). The reasoning was that a slow character would never make a zipline in the cartoon, so having thin strokes or bland lines in the tail would imply a bland zipline or even no lines at all. This does not work, so it was dropped. Instead, the mane style was adjusted to have one spike fall downwards. The idea is that the spike hangs over one eye when he lets his head hang, a reference to Fluttershy. He doesn't look slow anymore, but there's an outward hint of the personality, at least.

That's what I meant by my question: design aspects that show things from the story. Examples from the show:

-one part of the mane falls over the side of the face, in such a way that they can partially hide their face behind it. This is clearly a shy character or one that lacks confidence. Fluttershy does this early in the series and a lot as a foal, but for a male character you'll want either spikey hair or some other way of avoiding looking girly.

-the legs are long and slender. This indicates a fragile build, possibly nobility. See Fleur de Lis, Princess Cadence, filly Fluttershy.

-the torso narrows towards the backside? I'm not sure if this one's too pronounced in the show...compare the profiles of Shining Armour and Fancy Pants to that of Big MacIntosh and draw your own conclusions.

Anyways, those are some design elements that can change depending on the backstory. If you give a character long legs and make them out to act like burly brutes, there's a dissonance. This is where story design and visual design meet, and what might need a guide or two to fesh it out, since...a lot of it is not obvious, leading to mistakes that only look like mistakes in hindsight. Again: this is just to serve as an example, if anyone has a more appropriate one, please post it.

Strange, I just wrote a blog about this...

Granted, that was more of a suggestion for how to avoid the stigmatized black-and-red, but hey.

Alright here's a few actual "do's" and "don'ts"

DO:
-Make sure you have a story to tell that requires your Original Character to be there. If someone already exists in the fandom who could do it, chances are they can do it better.
-Know what your original character would be doing right now if the story hadn't started happening. Everypony of a certain age has a job or a skill they can ply to make money--even if they don't like it. What's your OC's?
-Have other characters around who support him before the story started happening. His parents, a friend or two, a nice coworker. Have them react along with your character to strange stuff happening to him lately.
-Have at least one (if not more) character that HATES your Original Character (or what he represnts) in its entirety. Make sure that hatred tips the balance of power slightly against your OC.
-Make him great at one thing
-Make him good at a few things
-Make him noticeably bad at at least one thing...or more.
-Make him mediocre at everything else.
-Force him to rely on someone else for things he can't do...whether he gets them to do it for him or ask them to train him HE NEEDS HELP.
-Have him lose once...and then have him win later.
-Make him change as the story progresses. He has to learn something otherwise the whole incident was a waste of time. Write a letter to Celestia In Character about your story and what he learned. Hold onto that letter for dear life, for on that letter (NOT your character) the entire story turns.

DON'T
-Write about the idealized "you"...the superhero that can solve any problem and instantly win fans. We all have one of those and we're pretty sure they look like US. Tell us about the real you, the one that screws up and worries about being cool. We like him better anyway.
-Make sex the "reward" of your story...sex is a catalyst to other things, a gateway to deeper commitments, or a great way to spend your Saturday nights. A story doesn't end with sex, it either begins with it or it happens in transition.
-Assume that your character's story is the only one happening right then. Every single character has other stuff to do than put up with your character, so you need to make it worth their while to stick around.
-Assume everyone likes the OC.
-Assume everyone hates the OC...but make this the more likely of the two.
-Tell us about his troubled past...but do tell us about his troubled right the goddamn now. If his troubled past needs to be known, somepony is bound to be curious about it later on.
-Make someone who can do even his one great thing effortlessly...but do make the ensuing struggle interesting.
-Make someone who could just walk away from whatever is going on and not really care...do make sure he has that option, and has considered it. But he NEEDS to see this thing through, and we NEED him to see it through just as much.

Hope this helps

Wanderer D wrote a pretty good blog post on OC ponies and dos and don'ts. It's got several of the authors previously mentioned above. (Eg. Penstroke) link here.

Okay, I don't really consider myself an expert, but my first story, A Friend of the Night was about Luna befriending an OC, which lights off several red lights in most readers, and has gone on to be quite liked anyway, so I'm gonna bring in my thought processes during the creation of that story in an attempt to help out.

First of all, don't create a story just for your OC. Make the OC fill a role in the story. We're all here to dig into and expand upon the universe of Friendship is Magic, and that means most of us are here for the characters we already know--whether fully canon, such as the Mane 6 or mostly fan created, like the background characters. If you're gonna throw an OC into the mix, he or she'd better have a reason. The original idea for what became Friend of the Night was simply to do a short that showed what happened to Celestia and Luna during Discord's invasion, with the ulterior motive of showing that CANTERLOCK Luna really isn't all that different from the fannon Luna that had been previously established. While doing so, I had the idea of "what if Luna HAD made a friend, and she witnessed Discord, well discordify her? I liked the idea, which meant I needed an OC to fill it. Thus Sugar Heart eventually came to be.

Second, don't be so completely obsessed with 'character balance' and the ability-o-meter that you forget your are writing a character. If your character is interesting and realistic enough in its personality, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Then they're overall role in the universe will reflect that. Sugar Heart isn't really anything special in the grand scheme of things. She's an earth pony servant who works in the palace and isn't really noted at having any kind of exceptional skills or qualities, save perhaps one. She was able to note that the Princess she was serving seemed a bit out of sorts and, having the bare beginnings of a liking for her, had the courage to actually strike up a conversation with the Princesses about it. Which, it should be noted, was not done effortlessly. She was actually quite scared out of her proverbial pants to do so.

Third, characterization is, really, more important than ability. As stated Sugar Heart is rather unexceptional ability wise. She's also not in what you would call a high class job. She's a maid, essentially. But she has certain character traits that have made readers like her, traits that made it understandable why Luna'd befriend her in the first place. She talks really fast when scared, has a tendency toward mild sarcasm when in comfortable situations, can laugh at herself, is fairly well grounded, but not really super intelligent or wise, and doesn't step too far out of her social bounds--she's not gonna advise Luna on any sort of political policy, for example. She's just someone who makes a good friend.

I could go on, but those are probably the three best things I can think of, really.

I can't quite decide if I've dodged a bullet or simply plunged myself into a pit of rattlesnakes, but let's run a checklist-

My OC has black hair, grey coat (it wasn't even the first idea I had!) and amber eyes.
He's a (unicorn) student of Celestia 1000 years in the past. In fact, he's her top student, or at least her brightest.
He starts off an antisocial bookworm, and when ordered to make friends (or rather, a girlfriend) by the princess, he suddenly realizes what he's been missing.*
He's physically weak (described as being closer to a mare's size than a stallion) but is considered attractive.
His special talent hasn't been demonstrated yet, but I've implied that it's reading - and learning by extension.

It's like I'm playing on hard mode by trying to execute all of the above. Funny thing is, according to the ratings, I haven't been bashed to death for him yet

The truth is, I didn't originally intend to make a "copy" of Twilight. It just kinda... happened. Although I admit, SOME elements were intentional. He trusts Celestia as much as Twilight does, and the task to study love is identical to Twilight's task to study friendship (in fact, Celestia even tells him in the same words: "There's more to a young pony's life than studying.")

Both these overlaps are very much intentional for plot purposes - he's kind of like a what-if for Twilight:

"What if Twilight embraced friendship and love like Celestia told her to, then had some bad experiences and convinced herself she'd been sabotaged? Worse yet, she became nihilistic and decided to strike back?"

Of course, I haven't actually finished writing it yet, so there's plenty of opportunity to screw it up. But I like to think that what I've just described is significantly more reflection and thought put into an actual Mary Sue.

* That part actually irked me a bit about Twilight early on. The fact she went from "grumpy bitch" to "ideal friend material" felt a tad... off. To me, she didn't develop into it; she was always like that, and the rude nerd we see at the start was just a veil to be lifted.

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The problem with self-inserts is that the author will usually never give the character any real hardship or obstacles, being that it's a fictional representation of him and therefore a manifestation of his own pride and ego, which obviously most people refuse to harm at any cost.

I like to consider myself quite good with OC's in this fandom (I've roleplayed for at least a year now and written a few short stories that I never bothered publishing) so ill make a little list of pointers.

1. Characters are built to serve the story, never the other way around. This is the most common thing that leads to self inserts and mary sues. Even if you think your OC is fairly balanced (IE: A green earth pony with a black and blue mane with an average past) Your story can ruin them, and by extension itself (Who is also an HiE who dates pinkie and fights discord with video games).

2. Alicorns are a big no most of the time. I say most of the time because, just like writing in first person, good stories with an alicorn OC usually would never have been that good if the OC was normal. The same can be said about red & black'ers, HiE's, and OC's with GED syndrome (Generic edgy and dark). There are places for these things, but it's usually safe to bet your story isn't one.

3. Shipping. OC shipping is a bad idea. The only time you should ever ship a cannon character, (Or even fannon, although that's usually fairer game) is if your writing a shipping fic. If your story is, lets say a run of the mill HiE (Which you shouldn't be writing anyway but hey, people like that stuff), you should not have a shipping side plot. The only time OC shipping is okay outside shipping fics is if its believably done (Which is WAY harder to do then you think it is) or if your shiping an OC with an OC, in which case that should NOT be the focus of your story. (Why will be discussed latter)

4. No one cares about your OC. If your OC is the focus of the story, you should NOT start your story off there introduction. No matter what the plot of your story is, no matter how long you plain it to be, your story will have some exposition, especially in the beginning. Your job as a writer is to eliminate as much of this as you can, and then cleverly disguise the rest. For instance, in my soon to be released Sci-Fi story, I had about 800 total words of exposition about weaponry, and ship sizes, and propulsion, and all sorts of stuff. It was as I was writing 200 words about gravity elevators within the spaceships that I realized, no one cares about any of this stuff except for me. So I cut a lot of it out and replaced the lore exposition with something more important, OC characterization. However, if you do absolutely NEED to introduce your OC within the first couple of lines, there are ways to go about it. I'll rip the opening paragraph of my story as a demonstration.

WRONG:
Quiz, a turquoise unicorn mare with a purple and green mane wearing a black raincoat, was waiting outside in the thunder and rain. She was a very secretive pony, and was always prone to analyzing everything around her. For instance, here in Ponyville she was observing the behavior of the towns ponies. They seemed nice and warm, but right now they were all sheltering in the homes away from the rain.

RIGHT:
Quiz waited outside in the thunder and rain, most of her turquoise blue body hidden under a black raincoat. If Ponyville was as active and warm as most ponies said, there was no way to see it now. Most ponies had retreated inside to the warmth and comfort of their homes. A few kind ponies had invited her inside, but she politely declined, saying she was waiting for somepony. Most ponies had just shrugged that off, leaving her once again to her thoughts and observations. That’s what she liked about these cute little hamlet towns. For the first time in far too long, she could avoid telling a lie just to keep a curious pony off her case.

And thats about it. Hope my two cents helps someone.

Thanks for the fantastic post, Kandagger. This actually helps me a lot, and I thought that I already had a fairy good grasp on this OC business. Allow me to add some contributions and remarks of my own.

These are based on the assumption that your OC is a core character, if not the lead of the story.

DO:
-Make sure you have a story to tell that requires your Original Character to be there. If someone already exists in the fandom who could do it, chances are they can do it better.

I would like to add a caveat to this and say that this is more relative to the uniqueness and significance of the character. You can create an OC rock farmer for a slice of life piece. The key thing is to avoid creating a Sue and to avoid violating both canon and common sense.

-Have other characters around who support him before the story started happening. His parents, a friend or two, a nice coworker. Have them react along with your character to strange stuff happening to him lately.

I hate OC's who exist in a vacuum. It's like having a living plot device that won't go away and let more interesting characters run things for them. You can say a lot about your character and your story just by who their friends are and how they react. It's not necessary to include them, but mentioning them in passing on occasion is not a bad idea.

-Have at least one (if not more) character that HATES your Original Character (or what he represnts) in its entirety. Make sure that hatred tips the balance of power slightly against your OC.

I'm going to stop you there. Having characters hate your OC just because your OC supposedly needs to have haters is a forced conflict. OC's don't need haters, but they absolutely cannot abide being universally adored.

-Force him to rely on someone else for things he can't do...whether he gets them to do it for him or ask them to train him HE NEEDS HELP.

I Think that this is a good idea. it makes other characters and their relationships necessary in the story. It also guards against creating a Sue.

-Make him change as the story progresses. He has to learn something otherwise the whole incident was a waste of time. Write a letter to Celestia In Character about your story and what he learned. Hold onto that letter for dear life, for on that letter (NOT your character) the entire story turns.

There's a common phrase for this: character development.

DON'T
-Write about the idealized "you"...the superhero that can solve any problem and instantly win fans. We all have one of those and we're pretty sure they look like US. Tell us about the real you, the one that screws up and worries about being cool. We like him better anyway.

We won't like him better all the time, but it's more interesting to read about.

-Make sex the "reward" of your story...sex is a catalyst to other things, a gateway to deeper commitments, or a great way to spend your Saturday nights. A story doesn't end with sex, it either begins with it or it happens in transition.

I think that you're mostly right. However, in stories about coming of age and such things, then having sex can indeed be the goal.

-Tell us about his troubled past...but do tell us about his troubled right the goddamn now. If his troubled past needs to be known, somepony is bound to be curious about it later on.

Excellent! Don't just heap trouble upon trouble on your OC, especially either all at once or in very quick succession. It comes off as annoying and it feels like a cheap grab for sympathy. When this is combined with a whiny or wangsty protagonist, this becomes unbelievably vexing. Troubled and angsty pasts can be done and done well. The key element is handing them well and not making them dominate the character in the present.

Extra Do's

* Make something mildly unique or interesting about your OC so that they are in some way memorable.
* Come up with a definitive list of traits, talents, and abilities, and stick to it.
* Give the reader solid reasons to care about your OC.
* Sketch out their backstory and character arc in advance.
* Drew up a character sheet.

Extra Dont's

* Throw in conflict just because you can.
* Add romance and or sex gratuitously.
* Make your character so hopelesssly pathetic and prone to failure that they are a Sue of failing.
* Give them anything that violates canon, common sense, and decency.
* Let the story revolve around them.