How to CREATE ORGINAL FANFICTION CHARACTERS
Wow. Is this ever a problem. So much fanfiction today is all the same. I strongly recommend to try reading Endless_Seas's Why Our Fanfiction Flipping Suck, Bye Bish! That chapter is a parody of every Fairy Tail fanfic ever! And it makes me think. There are so many non-original stories, it's not even funny.
But today I won't focus on the actual fanfiction, but more of the actual character. Although I already touched on a chapter for Mary Sues, I only said how to AVOID them, not how to make regular, amazing, perfect ones.
So, to start, here are some ways to make an original/believable OC:
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#1: Decide the fandom!
Each fandom will have information that other ones will not need. For example, in Reborn! you will have to choose a flame type for your character, were as in any other fandoms, this information would not exist. Jot down all the things that you will have to consider when creating your OC.
Try remembering that even if your character has to have certain...requirements to be part of that fanfiction world, add your own twist to it. Perhaps you do a Dr. Who fanfiction. Maybe the OC is actually one of the older, Dr. Who incarnates! There's lots of things you can do.
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#2: Research the chosen fandom ^-^
If vampires don't exist in your chosen fandom, then don't make your character half-vampire. By all means be creative, it is your OC after all, but remember to keep your OC realistic to your chosen fandom. This is something I've seen quite a few times. A vampire in a Ouran Highschool host club fanfiction, (which was done really well by the way), it's just the vamp theme didn't fit for the fandom.
Try to keep fantasy in fantasy, supernatural in supernatural, and shoujo, in shoujo.
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#3: Make them blend in!
Don't make your OC a smart, pretty, athletic person who also saves kittens from trees in their spare time from saving the world. Mary-sue's (or Gary-stu's) are not the best way to blend your OC in, you want them to feel at home. Try to keep them normal, because let's face it, most people are normal.
If you look closely, most other people in a fandom world are actually pretty average. Heck, if you watch Kotoura-san, she the only one in the entire show with an outstanding ability. She's not even smart, or overly pretty, her only outstanding feature is her psychic ability to read minds, and even then, she thinks it's a curse.
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#4: Give them a believable past!
There is two ways to approach this for fanfiction. 1) give them a believable past with a cannon character. This is an optional step, however it makes your OC blend in better if they have a past that other characters can relate to, since that in turn will help the reader relate to them too.
Although you will need to be careful with this as certain canon characters will not be suited for your OC. For example, using the manga/anime Reborn! again, Tsuna, the main protagonist, is a meek, shy boy and would not have an aggressive older sister who likes to make people bleed.
2) Using your own created past without a cannon character. Instead of having an old cannon character, try to bring in newer character that we didn't know about. Characters that are dead maybe, or maybe it was your OC and someone close to them.
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#5: If you intend to couple your OC with a canon character, again watch for compatibility!
For this you may want to look at the canon character's friends and see what traits they like in a person. Remember, try to incorporate traits that they both have for the love interest, and make it so both are compatible.
A loving, caring, dense OC wouldn't fall for a killer character with the tendency to drain people of their blood. That's...a no-no.
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- Make sure that your character has a point to the story. Are they the antagonist? Are they best friends with one of the characters? Are they the birth father of one of the characters?
- Don't change the universe to suit the OC, change the OC to suit the universe.
- Don't name Japanese characters after Japanese words you like. Nobody wants to read about a character named Tuna Baka.
- Don't write an OC that represents you all the way through. Be original. If you want to write yourself into a story, have a purpose for yourself. Don't announce that you are character XYZ.
- If your OC has a canon love interest, don't make him/her the gender-swapped version of the canon character. If you ignore this, don't make the canon character say, "Oh my gosh, we're so similar!" and instantly fall in love. Make them more creeped out, like any normal person would be.
- Don't give your OC a name from a country that they are not from simply because you were too lazy to find one from their country of origin or because it sounds cool.
- Try not to give your character an over angsty past. A little bit of trauma is okay, but don't overdo it. Some very well written characters don't have angst.
- When thinking about an appearance, be original, but don't overdo it. Make them look like other characters in the story, but with maybe a different height or hair color. The possibilities are endless, but keep it with in the boundaries of the story.
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Welp I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did. Those extra tips down below are very good and i think many of you will benefit from it.
By the way, is there anything that you guys want me to touch on? Because I have quite a few ideas, such as:
- How to CREATE A WORLD
- How to MAKE THE PERFECT VILLAIN
- How to WRITE SHORT STORIES, etc.
So just let me know if there's anything you guys want. Buh-bye!
- A_P♥
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