I really hate the term OC. · 3:28pm Aug 31st, 2014
So I've been working on Broken Accords, struggling with Project Horizons, and a thought entered my mind. What is an OC? This came following someone asking me to join a podcast about 'Good' OC and 'Bad' OC's and I was at a bit of a loss. Original character is what the acronym means, but the way FimFic uses it boggles me. FimFic seems to treat the term as a character created wholly from the author's mind. Fair enough. I can get behind that. But then I get into trouble when I try to think about what is not an OC. Especially when people talk about OC's being inherently bad.
I can't do it. Because Twilight Sparkle, the mare from the show herself, is an OC. She was originally created from the mind of her creator for the first episode. Not only that, but every Twilight Sparkle that appears in the show written by a different author are themselves OC's. They're very similar, slightly different takes on the character, but that's just it. Different. The only person who can lay claim to the first Twilight Sparkle is Lauren Faust. All following episodes is each writer's take on Twilight Sparkle. Some do it brilliantly. "Let's analytically look for clues to solve the mystery of who ate the cake" and some not so much. "She's evil!"
So since all characters are OC's respective of the work they were written in, what is a "Non-OC" character? More importantly, why are Non-OC, or canon characters "good" while OC characters or stories with OC's are "Bad". Well it seems to me that a canon character is an OC that attempts to emulate the expectations we have for characters in the show. If the character emulates well, we identify it with the show. If the character emulates poorly, we say that the character is written poorly, or explore the possibility that this is a deconstruction, or satire, or just something else unexplainable. And since everyone has a different barometer for a well done emulation, you get critics disagreeing on each story. What really amuses me are people who say Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, and Derpy are non-oc when we have been given virtually no characterization for them. None. They are OC characters crafted in the mind of their writers.
But why are OC's bad? This attitude boggles my mind. Is it because they're inherently poorly written? I can't believe that. I've written both OC and canon character stories and I have better writing skills now than I did then. Maybe newer writers are tempted to write poor OC's, but that's hardly an excuse to reject all OC's as bad. Instruction is far more productive than derision. Is it that OC's are poorly defined? Again, that can't be it either. I see many stories featured in FimFic where one character is 'you', one of the laziest and most invasive writing techniques around.
I think it's because when we have a canon character, we have an idea to compare against. This story has a Twilight Sparkle tag: I can assume the character will behave the following ways. If it doesn't, I have a road map helping me establish if this character is good, bad, or other. I can easily compare and contrast it to the norm in my head. Some writers use this to great effect. The Twilight Sparkle in Asylum is not the Twilight Sparkle in the show. She's far more callous, self serving, ruthless, and determined to succeed at the expense of her friends. It's a brilliant examination of the character in the context of the story. It's also an OC interpretation of the character. In fact not only is Twilight an OC in Asylum, but so is everypony else. The play on our expectations on 'canoness' works to great effect.
However, a character that is wholly created from a writer is a complete unknown! What do you compare it to? How do you judge its execution? How do you empathize with it if you don't know how it should and shouldn't act? It's much easier to reject something that is completely unknown. Far better to attempt to pull off an emulation and play to an expectant audience than to strike out on unfamiliar paths. And there's nothing wrong with liking canon ponies, but ignoring and detracting from OC stories doesn't help. In fact, it detracts from the fandom. Think of how many stories would have died on the vine if the attitude towards OC that exists today was around a few years ago. No Nyx. No Little Pip. No Background Pony. No Blackjack. No Button Mash nor his Mom. Two thirds of the Tumblr comics wouldn't exist.
So what should be done? First of all, the OC= bad writing needs to be broken. Bad writing is bad writing, whether it's canon or OC, and bad writing is alleviated by education and constructive feedback. You'd have fewer poorly executed self inserts if aspiring writers knew how to construct a character. You'll have richer and more detailed OC supporting characters and antagonists as well, which allow for more involved and detailed stories. Secondly, try to judge OC characters based on their own merits and not in contrast to how show characters are presented. Third, devote a little time and feedback to OC stories. If you don't like the OC, say why and what could make the character better and more functional for the story. Writing is incredibly hard, and writing in a vacuum is exponentially harder. The only thing that makes it worth while is feedback from others telling us that our words were worth a little bit of your time.
Anyway, just something I was thinking about. I'll go away now.
The same way you judge any character from anything. Are their goals and life circumstances identifiable? Do they feel complete? Do they have perceptible flaws or just a slew of positive traits? Most of these questions aren't hard to answer.
Plz stop crying just because people hate on Blackjack.
There's been steps taken towards that. Personally, I believe it has more to do with inexperienced writers putting all their eggs in one basket (character) and then expecting people to be amazed or appreciative of what boils down to a Mary Sue. It's just the infamy of those that creates that belief, even if there's plenty of evidence on other OCs working just fine. The memorable ones, are the ones that failed, for the most part.
2416538 Uh, I'm pretty well past that and have been for about... um... 2 and a half years now. Hate away, if that's the kind of person you are. My concern is now what I'm going to write next, or if I should even continue to write in the MLP fandom. I'd like to, but I like to create OC stories. If that's something the readers don't want, then I'm wasting my time.
2416550 Right. Education and writing workshops are great for that. :)
2416604
I would love it if you wrote all OC stories. I find original characters to be far more interesting and entertaining then even the show characters. You know why? Because it is new! New stuff is mostly always good, especially when it comes to writing.
2416604
I honestly wasn't expecting the mature response. You have my respect for handling that well.
You don't write to please a fandom; you write to please yourself. (Go ahead and giggle about how that sounded like masturbation; I'll wait.) Write whatever you want and handle unfair criticism maturely. Worry only if people are giving legitimate criticism regarding the quality of your characters, pacing, plot, etc. If they don't like OC's, then fuck 'em. They can go rewatch Luna Eclipsed and jerk off.
Somber, you missed the obvious.
This is a fan fiction website. People generally read fan fiction in order to read about the characters they already know in new situations. If you want to read something else, then you'd read original fiction.
That's why OCs are "bad"—or rather, why many people don't read OC stories. It's against the reason we're on the site in the first place.
I'd see it as an OC is a character that is not from the show or a character that did not already have absolute character traits established. Say, Lyra liking humans, Derpy liking muffins, Vinyl and Octavia liking their own respective music genres, or really any background character character trait that the fandom has decided upon as a whole.
Next the idea that OCs are poorly written is a stereotype that, like most others, is built upon some truth. My assumption would be that OCs are harder to write because there is no 'road map' for the author to turn back to unlike canon characters. This among other reasons are why OCs tend to be bad.
But yeah you make good points I've thought about it as well and you're right, the way people have put up the idea of an OC is kind of dumb.
2416625
I completely agree I find that while canon character stories are generally good say averaging a B. When an OC story is good it's REALLY good and when it's bad it's usually only boring or sub par, also averaging around a B. So yeah, I think the rewards are greater when you do good on an OC story then when you do good on canon character story.
2416604
Please keep writing, even if it isn't MLP.
2416681
Does fanfiction have to be fiction of the characters, why not the world.
Would you consider Fallout Equestria or Project Horizons fanfiction of the Fallout games? They don't use any characters but they use the world and in the case of the original, uses events in the games and makes them story elements.
2416763 I'm not talking about the definition of fan fiction, I'm talking about what people want to read. An all-OC story that takes place in Equestria is still an MLP fanfic, but there are far fewer people who come to this site to read about MLP's setting compared to MLP's characters.
You have to think about people's expectations. If you're writing a Fallout: Equestria side story, then you can use as many OCs as you want because no one expects canon characters—they're attracted by the FO:E world. As another example, if you want to write an OC story, then one good method is to make your protagonist a changeling. Some people come to this site to read about changelings (as they're unique to this universe, and you couldn't get the same experience by reading original fiction) but all changelings are OCs by default, so an OC story is what people expect.
2416789
You make good points but I disagree with the Changeling part.
Hating on OC's is really not anything new. Back when I first ventured into the strange terrifying world of fanfic in the 90's the fics about a never seen before ensign teaching 7 of 9 how to looove got about as much backlash as standard male stallion cutout wooing Twilight Sparkle would today (doubly and rightly so if that cardboard cutout is called Flash Sentry
)
Basically there are very much good and bad OC's and it's entirely depending on the writer, setting, and reason why you are not using the regular characters. Little Pip, Blackjack and their respective casts are good OC's as all three standards come out wonderfully. Nyx used to be a good OC and then many, many rewrites later to please the masses... well, she's not so much. Button Mash and his Mum are entirely imo are one note jokes and really not my thing.
Personally I'd far prefer to read a competently done OC character than when the author is sneaking in an OC undercover by just using the name of a show character. See pretty much every single grown up Spike fic with the obvious exception of the wonderful It takes a Village.
Without feedback, you can really easily stop caring about a work. Happen to me, I hoped to get the biggest backlash in history to help me improve, got little to nothing. Stopped caring about writhing the story.
2416855
Perhaps there will be a lot of people hating on the story, but I write for only one person: Myself. If I enjoy writing a story about OC's, that is all that matters. And besides, someone is going to like the story, so the effort was worth it. Not only did you make yourself satisfied, but someone else as well.
Precedence has soured the concept pretty hard. There's been bad OCs, Mary Sues and Self-Inserts for as long as there's been fanfiction. The bad apples outweigh the good, so people have come to expect the worst until proven otherwise.
But I also think that familiarity plays part. When you read a story, you have to familiarize yourself with the characters in the context of the story. If they're established characters such as the canon ones, you're already familiar with them. If not, you have to get to know them and build an emotional investment in them first. "Why should I care about this character?" To a writer, audience apathy is death - if they don't care what happens to the characters, they don't care about the story and stops reading. By using characters the readers likely have an emotional investment in - yes, even in cases where said investment is negative, such as when a character is hated and the readers want to see them suffer - you immediately have interest. With OCs you have to build that interest first.
Which is not to say that a canon story will automatically retain that interest. I've read stories where, say, Twilight Sparkle - my favorite - is written so badly that I don't want to read further because I don't care about what happens anymore. Conversely I've taken a chance on OCs that turned out to be engaging and interesting.
Essentially, canon characters enter the race ahead of the others because they're established, while OCs are unknowns who are further held back by the sins of those that came before them.
Baby come back...you can blame it all on me.....
You speak the truth.
2417243
Objectively, there is no falsehood in Somber's statements.
2417633 indeed.
...while I acknowledge that there's no real difference between OCs from fans and OCs from the show's writers... sometimes I just want to read stories about Celestia. Or Trixie.
It's not about the quality of the story (well, it is, but it's not ONLY about that), but about the character I am interested in. I want to see Celestia struggle through a difficult day. To be put in an awkward situation. To be dethroned. I want to see Trixie truly redeemed. To triumph. Or even to relapse.
I have no disrespect for OCs of fans of the show, or even those that no longer consider themselves fans, but I grow attachments to the idea of certain characters no matter who is writing them and, sometimes, they are what I want to read about. To follow them across different works and different world and imagine that each story is, somehow, connected... much like the stories on the show are, despite having different writers.
Again, it would never drive me to hate the OCs of fans, but my preference isn't strictly on a known vs. unknown level, rejecting what I'm not familiar with because I can't tell how well it conforms to expectations I cannot have for it. My preference is just because I care about certain characters and want to hear more about them.
I suppose that might be it. Maybe there's just a simple preference for show based characters than not. I just don't like the comments I see here and there that OC's are a bad thing. OC's should be encouraged, and they should be made as good as possible, in order to flesh out and create new content for the fandom. It's great how much the show has done, but how many seasons can they do? When the ride is over, it's going to be up to us to make new content. Or else close up shop.
Snowdrop. That's another OC I wanted to credit.
I can definitely sympathise with this. Although Swicked's point about sometimes wanting to see something involving the characters we know and love, a good and experienced writer can drag you in whether they're using characters they created or ones from the show. Case in point - Fallout: Equestria. I loved the denizens of the wasteland and the canon characters alike, because they were well-written.
It's a difficult subject matter, though, OCs. I personally often judge OCs by their appearance if I see them drawn, and can be quite picky and slow to accept them. Blackjack is kinda the only hope I have for red-and-black maned characters, the only reason I don't instantly dislike any one of them I see.
I guess, as well as that, different people are reading for different reasons. I read because I love stories. Worlds and places that are beautiful and intricate, with wonders and horrors lurking around the corner - things that surprise and enchant me. While others may just be reading because they want to see more development of the characters they love in stories only explorable outside of the show. Or, y'know, they want to see some flank-slapping action in a familiar environment.
And as for past rejection of OCs, I hadn't considered the consequences of rejection of some of the OCs I know and love from Tumblr and beyond. *shivers*
Love your posts!
I dunno why, I guess it's because their mood is always so... Somb-
*GUNSHOT*
(Seriously though, I love 'em).
I've never really understood this either. A badly-written canon-based character is badly written. A well-written original character is well-written. Sure, maybe there's some sort of comfort factor with characters one already knows, but the other side of that coin is that that also gives an additional way to fail: one can have a well-written character named Twilight Sparkle who is not a well-written Twilight Sparkle. Why judge stories this way? Can't one just look at the stories and say "I like this" or "I don't like this" without worrying about who first thought of the concepts for some of the characters?
Though I've been somewhat aware of the tendency of some individuals to dislike 'OCs' on principle, I can't say I've ever really thought that much about it. Now that I am, I can only see such an issue as a misunderstanding of what makes a good story. What matters isn't so much who a character is, but ultimately where a character is going. Development is what makes any character ultimately relatable, and it is far and away one of the hardest things to write effectively no matter who the subject is.
Admittedly, I do have certain snap turn-offs myself that function in a similar manner to this. They're the result of my personality and my daily work, and they aren't something I can easily change. As understandable as they may or may not be, I know they have resulted in my passing up of stories considered by others to be of a high quality.
Given how difficult it is to become an effective writer, it should come as no surprise that most forms of original content are frowned upon in this community as likely to lead to disaster. The bad experiences, or what we perceive as such, tend to stick with us far more easily in this kind of environment than the good. As a result, we all see things a little differently.
I like these posts, Somber. No matter what the subject, please don't ever stop writing.
fair point, though ultimately it is used to seperate a character from the show from a character created in a fan creation.
In my opinion; I think that if someone just flat out hates OCs in general for any reason, they should do us all a favour and stay away from them entirely and allow those of us who 'do' enjoy them have our fun. If it weren't for OCs we wouldn't have some of our favourite characters like Littlepip. I'm currently working on my own fanfiction and I have several OCs planned. We can't have the mane six be the characters in 'every' story, right? So if anyone is going to look at my planned story like "eeew OCs, not gonna read" well fine, but they shouldn't attack me for using my own characters or judge my story as inherently bad for it. I can understand if they hate how I wrote a character though. At least take the time to read it and see if it's good. The DHX writers aren't the end all be all of good writing after all.
I'm more than a bit late to the conversation, but, may as well throw my hat into the arena anyways.
It's a gamble. Fan Fiction in and of itself is one of the greatest, most visible incarnations of Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap). Consequently, people cling to the bare structure of the source material as a guide of what to look for and expect. Going into a story that is OC heavy is a crap shoot for someone with only limited time to read. You have to trust that the writer is experienced and capable enough to craft a fully realized character without any established template, but this only explains a general wariness of OC's. It does nothing for the abject hatred they tend to draw from some people on principle.
Which is a shame because they are really missing out on some quality characters if only they'd bother to put aside their prejudice: the entire FO:E community, all of your work, This Platinum Crown, Harmony Theory, and dozens or hundreds more that I've never even heard of.
Btw, thanks for pointing me toward Asylum. I only found out about it because it was in your favorites list.