OCs... Yay or Neigh?

So, if most of you noticed, I wrote a story featuring an OC of mine a while back. To be honest, I knew it sucked. So I deleted it. But when I looked at the other 'questionable' stories on this site, I realized it could've been worse.

But afterwards, I got to thinking: What can an OC do without looking cliche? Even if the OC is an all around normal pony, it seems wrong when they interact with any canon pony. If its a romantic interest, a rival, or event a key character in the plot, it seems like OCs and canon characters don't mix. But contrary wise, I've seen others pull it off.

So here's my question to anyone reading this: What separates a good OC story from a bad OC story?

Comments

[Aslfrasle]

While it can be difficult for OC's to interact with a canon character if you think it's better for your story then go ahead, so long as your grammar isn't horrible and your plot isn't full of holes I'm sure you'll do fine.

I think the major separation between good and bad OC stories is the classic dilemma of the Mary Sue/Gary Stu. If you end up writing a story where the OC's life is perfect and he/she seems to be flawless and without fault, people will probably take notice and disapprove. You need to make them normal with just as many good and bad points as you and all other normal people have. A good way to think about it is to see your OC as a literal representation of you as a pony. They have all of your strengths and good points, though they also have all of your faults and shortcomings. This isn't actually a bad thing as a person who is flawed reminds us of how we ourselves are flawed and seeing them overcome their problems encourages us to fix and improve our own, while someone who is perfect and flawless just angers and alienates other by causing them to wonder why he gets to be so perfect while we have some many problems to deal with.

Sorry if this is kind of long, whenever I get an idea while typing I can't seem to stop myself... Anyway, I hope this helps with all of your future OC stories.