A Question about Original Characters · 4:52am Nov 12th, 2018
Original characters, or as they might be known otherwise, fan characters. They can be both blessing and curse for a fanmade story. Good OCs are well-written, engaging in their own right, and mesh well with the setting of the universe that they appear in.
Bad OCs, on the other hand, can be any number of unpleasant things: annoying, ill-conceived, poorly-written, jar with the setting, mouthpieces for the author's views, and potentially become (in the most damning and extreme cases of all) that dreaded abomination of fan-made fiction, the Mary Sue / Gary Stu.
Thus, for some, OCs can be a pretty touchy subject. I remember one person I came across who point-blank refused to read stories involving the OC tag, because they saw it as an open door to Sues and other bad writing. And, while I think that reaction is a bit too far, I can understand the emotion behind it: nobody likes to read a crap story, especially if it involves characters you love and enjoy being upstaged or overshadowed by the author's new creation.
That being said, I think that there is nothing inherently wrong with OCs. All characters were new at one point, after all. And done well, a good OC can be a veritable joy to read.
This leads me to my question.
I've conceived of a variety of original characters, some minor characters for larger works; others recurring figures or even central characters for stories I'd like to write someday. Some of them are more or less original, others made in reference to another work (I love making references in my writing XD), and one or two are just as a joke that I find particular amusing.
If I put together a list of some of these OCs, would any of you all be interested in seeing them and sharing thoughts?
Go for it.
And in my experience, an original character can be just as well-written as a canon character. The real question is, what role do they play in the story? Do they upstage the canon characters? That's the tricky part.
4966939
Thanks. I think I will.
And that's a good point, definitely. ^_^
Original characters can be just as good as canon characters :)
However you have to be careful just as much with them as you would canon.
But share away!
4967614
Well said. And thanks, I will share! ^_^