As the title says, I'm going to attempt to do a podcast. Some of my followers may know that I have a serious problem with the sound of my voice (mainly I hate it), so this is something I want to do to help gain some much needed confidence.

The podcast's topic will include my reviewing some OC's people send in as well as answering any questions folks may have on OC's.

Sooooo, my request to you all is this . . .

Please send me some OC's to critique! They must have a decent reference picture and a seriously thought out story (please just don't throw one together to see how I react). I will be completely honest in the podcast, so if you're sensitive to criticism, please don't submit. I hope to give plenty of suggestions to the designers of whatever OC I'm critiquing, so if you're needing help with your OC's, then this is a great opportunity to get feedback from an experienced author.

Also, please send some questions regarding OC's and their creations! I'll try to talk in-depth about them to the best of my abilities. Provided you can stand my voice.

That is all. Thanks, everyone!

4966509
If this is a writing critique... then why do we need a reference image?

I imagine that if this were on DeviantArt you'd get many people who have images associated with their characters, but... not really on Fimfic. On Fimfic you either need to draw yourself, be well connected, or be willing to pay to just... have art of your characters.

I mean, it means I can't submit anything but the character that you drew, because I don't have art of any of them.

And with the story, are we talking about a previously written something, or anything the person submitting thinks is well thought out and has some real value to it?

4966509 Most people hate the sound of their own voice. I'm sure you're better than me; I sound like I always have a cold.

I've got an OC for you right here. I recently got some original art for the protagonist. It's a complete 12-chapter story with about 33,400 words. You probably don't want to read the whole thing, so I'll give you a character summary.

Brownie Sundae is an earth pony from an alternate universe version of Equestria based on the Pathfinder rpg. She grew up in a family of mercenaries, looking to her father in particular as a role model. When she was still a child, her father betrayed his family, trying to sell them into slavery to make a profit for himself. The family objected to that plan and a messy fight ensued. Ultimately, Brownie was the only survivor. Ever since then, she has struggled with paranoia; after the person she trusted most betrayed her, she can't make herself trust anyone. Her only education had been fighting practice, so she became an independent mercenary.

Brownie has a very direct personality. She tends to be honest and humble, and tries to avoid attention. To keep her tragedy from impairing her, she suppresses all of her emotions, only showing her feelings to someone she trusts (and she doesn't trust anyone). It is traditional for people in her profession to only think as a last resort, but Brownie makes full use of her average intelligence, always looking for a better or safer way to do a task. She has excellent hearing and eyesight, and her paranoia always keeps her alert, so she is frequently the first person in a group to notice anything. In conversation, she is very blunt, sometimes rude, but always makes her position clear. She has a strong maternal instinct, which manifests as a tendency to protect her associates, even when they are as strong as she is. She may not trust them, but she doesn't want them to get hurt either.

In combat situations, she wears sturdy metal armor and holds a large sword in her teeth. When facing an enemy of similar strength, she only dodges potentially lethal attacks, trusting her armor and hide to protect her. She tries to end any fight as quickly as she can, usually setting up a single well-timed strike that requires no follow-up. She comes out of most fights with a few minor injuries, but she has a high tolerance for pain and usually ignores them.

In terms of the MLP virtues, she is honest and loyal, and a little bit generous inasmuch as she is sometimes willing to donate her time and risk her life for others. She is not especially kind, and has almost no sense of humor at all. She is as magical as a stump, and has a similar amount of leadership. Nobody would follow her unless they are somehow impressed by her bluntness or respect her experience.

The performance of the story was a little disappointing, and I think Brownie may be part of the problem. I have my suspicions about what's wrong with her, but I'd love an unbiased second opinion.

4966509
4966562 Brooke, I love this and I totally want to be in on it. But I get what RadicalDishonesty is saying. You've stumbled into a schism in the fandom between artists and writers. What writers writers want more than anything is fan art, and that is art generated by a reader who imagined and visualized one of our scenes and turned that into visual art. This is vanishingly rare.

Artists don't want a verbal description, they want a visual template. I've had artists tell me flat out "don't make me read something, I don't want to have to read your story. Just show me a picture." And, since we want the art, we try to accommodate the artist by going to General Zoi's pony creator and we do our best to craft a visual template for the artist who refuses to read our story. And this makes us bitter, because visual art is more important to the fandom than writing (and we HATE being reminded of this!), and the artists know they have authors over a barrel and we have to accommodate them if we want our art. This is the way of things, this is how things are in all fandoms. As an old guy and a member of multiple fandoms, I understand this. A younger fan; someone for whom being a Brony is their first experience being part of a fandom; might not.

Um... I still love what you are doing here and I still want to be part of it (I'll be submitting my OC in another post, and I hope I haven't said anything that offends you so much you won't consider including her). And I know, from my brief experience in broadcasting, that none of us is right our voices, and you will almost certainly sound delightful.

4966952
I think bitter might be overstating my feelings about it... but I can imagine someone getting bitter about this sort of thing, yes.

I am not a very young person anymore, but I've only engaged in fandoms on the periphery (partaking of others output) until Pony. I identified early on that, for the majority of fan communities, that there is only a little overlap between fan artists and fan authors, and even smaller between the high quality parts of them.

And, actually, I was under the impression that Pony authors are actually quite a bit closer to Pony artists than in other fandoms. I see quality artists who apparently have no qualms about drawing covers for fanfiction, even if it's for commission, and some that clearly even read fanfiction. However, I have no broad experience in this, and not even a lot of specific experience, so maybe I'm just seeing a few good examples.

But that doesn't mean that they're all that close. It would mostly make sense that artists would be more interested in art than fiction, really. And vice-versa.

Also the amount of commitment to read even a short story is a heck of a lot more than the commitment to view an image or even read a short 5 page comic strip. So, even not considering how differently immersive stories and art is, it's a no brainer that art would be more accessible than writing.

Edit: more commitment. It's more commitment to read something than it is to look at an image.

Again, I think this is a wicked cool idea and I want to be a part. If you are still speaking to me, my OC's verbal description is here. This will also give you a link to her story, and to the 9 sequels, and counting. She has a gallery of art here (mostly art on request by my fan Remare Shadows, though there is some reader inspired fan art as well).

Can I please still be part of your blogcast? Please, please, please?

I bet you have a beautiful voice. Doe saying that help? Please?

4966562 I have to look at the character's visual design as well as the written design because they should be a whole. I understand that some cannot draw their own, so I'm totally fine with a pony generator image. I just have a very difficult time visualizing characters without a picture. It's always been a struggle for me, thus why I get so many commissions of my characters.

Interesting point about the investment time of writing vs. pictures! I never thought of it like that, but it's sooo true. Does put us authors at a disadvantage . . .

4967111 Oooh. Sounds like she'll be fun to go over.

4966612 Cool beans! I'll take it.