Hello, my fellow pony fans! Allow me to introduce myself . . . Lady Moondancer, pony fan since the dawn of time. (Okay, actually since the 80s.) From the start, the MLP-verse has been ideal for the creation of custom characters. Choose a great color scheme, symbol, and name and you are good to go. The G1 comic book back in the day used to publish some of the designs sent in by their faithful army of readers.

^ Did this little girl have a time machine? Because she practically predicted Princess Celestia there.

At the same time, OCs sometimes face a stigma, especially in the FIM fandom. How does one write a good original character?

Disclaimer

Everyone has a different level of writing. If people are ragging on your writing, yes, try to improve, but at the same time, don't let it get you down and--this is especially important--DO NOT STOP WRITING. You have to practice your writing skills to improve them!

Self-Inserts and the Persistence of Mary Sue

As a kid, any time I watched a cartoon I thought about how cool it would be to hang out with the ponies / Transformers / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After the show, I would daydream about how we would be best friends and fight bad guys together and it would be GREAT.

I think a lot of people have similar, fun daydreams. The thing is, this fun daydream does not translate into a good story. No. A self-insert character (often called a Mary Sue / Gary Stu) will drive the readers crazy. The more perfect a self-insert character is, the more effortlessly they make friends with the main characters, the more readers will hate them.

Oh No! Is My Character a Mary Sue?

There are a ton of Mary Sue litmus tests out there. Some warning signs are . . .

- Is your OC a lot like you? Like, a LOT? Is this a human-in-Equestria story where the human is, basically, you?
- Or how you'd LIKE to be?
- Does your OC move to Ponyville and then make friends with the Main Six?
- Maybe falling in love with one of them? Or are they related to one of them?
- Is your character an alicorn? Or do they have some other extremely unusual physical feature? Or super-special ability? (Unusual hair color, four wings, especially potent magic, amazing flier, etc.)

These are all signs that your character might be a Mary Sue / Gary Stu.

So How Do I Avoid Mary Sue?

- Don't let your character become your baby.

- Don't base your character off yourself or your friends.

- DO give your character flaws. Think about the main cast of MLP FIM. Twilight Sparkle can get obsessive. Rainbow Dash is often tactless and rude. Applejack is stubborn. Fluttershy has social anxiety. Pinkie Pie misbehaves in social situations. (She often gets away with it because she's the comic relief, though.) Rarity is overly dramatic and a social climber. If these flaws were stripped away, would the ponies still be interesting? NO!

Likewise, your character needs flaws. REAL flaws, not just a vaguely angsty background or interview-flaws. ("My biggest flaw is that I work too hard." Why do interviewers even ask that?) The best way to manage this, IMO, is not to come up with the concept of a character and then paste some random flaws onto her/him, but to integrate the flaw from the very beginning. Maybe even start with the flaw first, then build a character around it. Greed. A greedy pony. Who tried to cheat the mayor of Hoofington on her taxes. But then the mayor caught the mistake. And blackmailed the pony into smuggling contraband over the border to griffon lands, because the mayor has a little illicit business going on the side. Et cetera, et cetera.

- Make your character struggle for everything. Well, I don't mean this totally literally. Like, they shouldn't have to fight off armed guards in order to get to the store to buy some oranges. (I MEAN APPLES, PLEASE DON'T HURT ME, APPLEJACK! ) Nor should ponies randomly punch them in the face when they say hello. But anything they REALLY want--whether it's treasure or to be the best flier or to find love--they need to suffer for. Your role, as author, is not to be friends with your characters. It's to be an evil puppetmaster. If you are cackling nefariously as you ruin your character's life yet again, you are on the right track.

The struggles and conflicts don't have to be physical, of course. The sources of literary conflict are generally listed as:

- self (Twilight Sparkle vs. her tendency to worry about the future, as in "It's About Time")
- other characters (can be a straight-out villain like Nightmare Moon or a "normal" character like Trixie)
- society (Pre-Equestrian pegasus living in Pegalopolis falls in love with an earth pony? Uh oh!)
- nature (Character is caught in a freak snowstorm in the Everfree Forest and struggles to survive.)

(I've also seen "machine" and "supernatural" listed, but IMO they can fit into the above categories.) Remember, the appropriate conflict will vary from character to character. For Daring-Do a death-trap in a volcano is the worst possible thing, but for a socialite getting a stain on his white tuxedo while at a fancy dinner might be the worst. possible. THING!

Character Design for Fun and Not Profit

MLP gives much more leeway for unique designs and symbolic names than most other fandoms. Heck, ponies are SUPPOSED to have unique colors and symbolic names!

That said, do not make your character an alicorn unless there is a VERY GOOD REASON for it.

- Do not give your character a special design that is obviously awesome (gradient on the legs, larger than usual wings) and then have other characters tease them for no reason. Likewise, do not have other characters gushing over your OCs appearance or swooning over her/him on the street. Some people feel certain color combos (like black and red) are bad for OCs, but I disagree as long as you take a line from the appearance of Pipsqueak in the show; he had a very cool, unique coat pattern compared to the other ponies we've seen, but the other ponies accepted it without comment.

Ultimately your writing matters more than the character's appearance. Littlepip, the protagonist of Fallout: Equestria, had a very basic design and, to be blunt, I hated her hair color. Did this make me dislike her as a character? Not at all! I was rooting for her every step of the way! When in doubt, go with less bells and whistles rather than more.

Having trouble thinking up names / appearances for OCs / background ponies? Good news, there are hundreds of premade MLP designs! They are called "G1 ponies, G2 ponies, and G3 ponies." Okay, some of the names are not that great. Maybe you do not want to name a pony "Baby Alive" or "Ruby Lips", and "Butterfly Hunter" sounds like Fluttershy's ultimate nemesis.

But there are lots of great names and color schemes to be found in previous generations as well. (That is where all the Main Six started, one way or another.) Moonshadow, Locket, Flurry, Golden Glow . . . good stuff! Or even the downright silly names, if you have a use for them. I used the really ridiculous G3 names like Skedoodle and Tink-a-Tink-a-Too for some racing-pony callouts; it seemed to make sense that since racehorses have odd names in real life, professional racers would have names that are odd by pony standards. ;)

About the Main Six

The Main Six are the stars of the TV show. This makes is tricky to include them in a story with an OC protagonist, since the readers will not appreciate an OC who outshines the Main Six (unless they get their comeuppance later, as with Trixie) and will look askance at a pony who suddenly becomes close friends with all of them. Ask yourself if you really NEED your OC to live in Ponyville or know the Main Six. If they live elsewhere, will that actually hurt the story? Consider having an all-OC cast, or at least a mostly OC cast.

Alternatively, what about having a pony who lives in Ponyville but who only interacts sporadically with the Main Six, mostly making their own friends (perhaps with other OCs or perhaps with background characters)? This was the author's approach in Near Death Experience and it works quite well!

Romance with any of the Main Six is devilishly tricky. I'm not saying it can't be done, but tread with caution.

Finding the People Inside (or, "Gosh, It's Crowded in Here!")

Each character is the "OC" of someone . . . Celestia was once just a character in Lauren Faust's head. Trixie didn't exist until a show writer thought her up. And although Applejack's appearance came from a toy, Ms. Faust gave her a unique personality--just like every little kid who had an Applejack did. Hating on OCs because they are original is silly.

The trick to writing original characters is to learn to look beyond the person you are or the one your want to be and find the people you aren't. I assure you they are all there, teeming around in your brain . . . The old mare who has bitterly hated Celestia ever since her son died in a border conflict, the bored pet poodle of Diamond Tiara who yearns to roll in the dirt like Winona does, the pre-Equestrian earth pony who has watched his crops freeze and die again and again, the filly eagerly shaking a birthday present while trying to guess what's inside, the couple fighting over what color the living room should be. Don't write what you know; know more through your writing.

A Final Word

Again, everyone starts somewhere. My first fanfic, many years ago, was the "classic" human-in-Equestria Mary Sue tale. It. Was. AWFUL! I reread it recently and cringed (and immediately removed it from Fanfiction.net for all time). But so what! I still learned a lot by writing it. Don't feel bad if you're struggling with your characters . . . but never stop trying to improve.

Questions and comments welcomed!

Nice guide. I cringed when I reread my Story The Coversion Bureau: The Wildman, I have since deleted it and plan to resubmit it. But I had to write it to get better and now I can write cohesive, writing you don't need a cipher to decipher and read. The failings back then were a lack of know-how in how to write an interesting character. I took time to practice writing a story in the comments section of another story that eventually grew into a full blown story/side-story.

Also I like to think I'm pretty creative when it comes to names. I've got OC's named: Tick Tock, Crow, Snowball, Shade, Dagger, Blackbird, Topsy Turvy, Big Dave & a character I share with the author Rebelfire called Pyretread. Seven of these OC's are Assassin's

Hmmmmm. So after reading this, I'm thinking I should probably go back and redo most...all of my story. My character does seem to be a little too idealized.

286113
Pretty sweet guide (with pictures and everything)!

Here's a piece I wrote on Mary-Sues:
Okay, here goes. Mary-Sues are probably the most misunderstood thing in amateur writing (fanfiction and otherwise). Pretty much every character will be called a Mary-Sue if you ask the right person about it, while others will defend obvious Sues to the death (usually ones of their own creation). I’ve seen everything from “Twilight Sparkle is a Mary-Sue because she’s Princess Celestia’s personal student and has super magic” to “her name is eggoggy not mary su shes not perfect shes depressed nd she cuts herself!!!”

A Mary-Sue is defined by how the world reacts to her. You can have a weak, flawed character without any conventional Mary-Sue markings (exotic names, special powers, unlikely knowledge, tragic backstories, pointless physical features, etc...) still be a Mary-Sue if you mishandle how she is treated by the world she lives in.

Do all the characters you like like your character? Do all the characters you dislike hate her? Does every character talk about your character and obsess over her at the expense of everything else going on in their lives? Are there any characters that don’t really care about your character? If she's a Sue, the answers will be yes, yes, yes, and no.

The most important thing you can do to avoid making your character a Mary-Sue is have other characters act realistically around her. They’re not going to just become her best friend or fall in love with her if they’ve only just met her. They're not going to hate her with every fibre of their being and dedicate their lives to enacting vengeance on her either. That’s not how people work.

If your character is a real character, she will have a specific personality. And the thing about personalities is that sometimes they clash. Not everyone gets along just like that.

Considering the different personalities of the mane six, it’s unlikely that every single one of them will take an instant liking to the character you’ve created. Rarity might find her uncouth, or Applejack may find her too pretentious, or Rainbow Dash may think she’s a spy. Explore these reactions and relationships, and your stories and characters can only benefit.

All that said, it’s still a good idea to avoid common Mary-Sue tropes like the ones listed in bracket earlier on. The problem with exotic names and special powers is one of justification. A realistic character can do the things she can do and is the way she is because of things that she’s done and choices that she’s made, not just because “it would be cool”.

Finally, a note about characters that are better than canon characters: tread carefully. If you’re going to write about a pegasus who’s faster than Rainbow Dash or a unicorn who’s more magical than Twilight Sparkle, stop and ask yourself why you can’t just write about Rainbow Dash or Twilight Sparkle instead. If you don’t come up with a good answer, scrap the character. (This is sort of thing is probably why it’s easier to write a Mary-Sue in fanfiction than it is to do so in original fiction).

The Main Six are the stars of the TV show. This makes is tricky to include them in a story with an OC protagonist, since the readers will not appreciate an OC who outshines the Main Six (unless they get their comeuppance later, as with Trixie) and will look askance at a pony who suddenly becomes close friends with all of them..

This is a very salient point. The mane six are a group of characters with carefully thought-out personalities and a specific group dynamic. Introducing an OC into the mix can totally screw that dynamic up, and what's more, an OC you have interacting with the mane six on a constant basis is going to be compared to the mane six, and that's a pretty high standard of character to be compared to.

Littlepip, the protagonist of Fallout: Equestria, had a very basic design and, to be blunt, I hated her hair color.

The good news is that Kkat never mentioned what Littlepip's colours were in the story, so you're free to see them as you want – it's just that most fanart has kinda latched onto brown-on-blue for some reason.

Romance with any of the Main Six is devilishly tricky. I'm not saying it can't be done, but tread with caution.

And expect hate even if you manage to do it well, because some guys like to claim waifus.

Oh, thanks for the link to the Litmus test. A very good resource to be sure.

It got a little dodgy around the middle what with all the nods and mentions and things but overall a strong and useful guide to an often complicated and uncertain subject

Cheers

I have a question. Is there anyone on this site (or any other site, for that matter) who could help one with that? Maybe someone who would do a character analysis and give feedback?

Very well put! I have felt so terrible sometimes because of what I am doing to my characters with the events I have planned out. This post has given me a lot of confidence, I feel like I am doing the right thing with my characters. One of them is, admittedly, a bit of a Mary-Sue at first, but she's struck with tragedy later. I am having a lot of trouble determining if she and she alone is one of these self insert characters you speak of, but the others are most certainly not, from what I have written already. I can breath a sigh of relief.

This is a good guide, im unconsciously headed in the right direction it seem. Letting my OC's flaws flow naturally.

Oh derp! That's why I am getting insta-dislikes on my fic T_T. How could I be so stupid?!

Wow no wonder my fan-fic sucks! I've been too nice to my OC...TIME FOR SOME DELICIOUS CHAOS
actually I may just delete and start over...it may be easier...

now I know why most everyone hates my fics a. there all self inserts and based off of some part of me (spiteful angry the little happy part etc.) b. well some other things you mentioned and c. they were all near undefeatable that started to annopy me anyway so thats no longer a proplem planing on killing some of oc's soon with other oc's (this will be fun)

My OC has but one flaw... his story is getting dull, but the nding i have planned for him is SOOOOOOOOOO EPIC!!! I don't want want to skip through some parts but I feel like I should... Should I? my current best OC fic is called "The stallion without a mark".

It is very hard to avoid having an OC called a Mary/Gary sue because ponies are just so biased against them. I have had my main OC (who I spent a lot of time fleshing out as an individual before writing about) called a self insert character.

I give the guy a skill, job as well as details of his personality. I even listed some of his family! and some pony says "this is a self insert fic."

295532 Randomly passing by, but if you still have this issue let me give you some advice.

Chaos is NOT the right answer. Or not exactly. What your OC needs is conflict. Pit the OC against a situation or a character that they are going to have to flounder against

In my story I have 7 OCs. it's a lot. Because I don't have a specific villain yet, I designed the OCs so that they are going to conflict against each other. (therefore pitting OCs against each other resulting in heated arguments when the OCs need to work together) Or I put them into situations that they are not going to fare well in.

If you're still confused, watch a few episodes of MLP. The Main 6 are almost always pitted in situations that PLAY ON THEIR FLAWS. They don't get destroyed, but they have to struggle, as aforementioned, struggling develops your OC because they have to CHANGE in order to overcome it.

That's pretty much it. Good luck!

Believe it or not, I actually have 2 self inserts in Hayshire, but there are some qualities about them that I changed so they aren't a mirror of my personality. You CAN do self inserts but you have to be very careful about them. Most people aren't aware or want to admit their own flaws, but they are absolutely necessary for a character if they happen to be a self-insert.

For instance, my OC Starlight Gaze is based heavily upon myself. But she has a lot of flaws. She's impatient, doesn't think ahead very well, and can get obsessive about things. She also can't swim, just like me. It is possible to do a self-insert without them being a Mary Sue!

My other self-insert, you probably couldn't even tell if you looked.