My Take: Building a Better OC

I've been watching some videos about OCs,

and I have some thoughts.

Here's a few things to keep an eye on when making an OC.

1. Appearance

 People's first impression of a character is usually their appearance.

If you character's look isn't both memorable and unique,

less people will want to see other stuff involving them.

A good way to test this is to look at your character's silhouette.

If you can instantly recognize them from their outline,
and wouldn't confuse them for another character, you're on the right track.

On the other hand, if they have garish or mismatched colors, look over-designed,

or have too many accessories
(that includes weapons, belts, magic items, wings, tails, and lot of other things),

then people are more likely to make fun of them.

No one likes an overly attention grabbing OC.

A good way of testing this part is to ask yourself,

"Would I go out in public looking like that?" and "Would I wear that in that situation?"

If you can find the balance between the two, you're already doing better than a lot of people.

2. Personality

This is what breaks many otherwise great OCs, and what can save a bad one.

 Your character's personality needs to be believable and consistent.

A good way of checking this is to ask things like, "How well do I know my character? Would I know what to get them for their birthday? What would their living space look like?"

Avoid committing too much of your character's personality to any one trait.

Try giving your character a few different quirks to start,

then adding more or mixing them together as time goes on.

Believable characters are rarely static.

But be careful.

You can also usually get away with unexplained changes to their appearance,

but that rarely applies to personality.

If you keep changing how your character acts without giving a reason,

no one will know what to expect (that's a bad thing here).

That's not to say that your character shouldn't grow and change over time, but those kind of things happen slowly (as in months or years, not hours or days).

3. Backstory

 If you aren't going to write stories or do roleplay using the character,

the backstory isn't quite as important.

 But if your backstory is good,

other artists will be able to draw inspiration from it and make better pictures of your OC,

which will mean more people will want to see it,

which means more artists who wants to do pictures, and so on.

Backstory is also a big part of your character's personality.

There are two big things here.

First, don't copy another character's backstory.

Seems simple, right? But this is what a lot of people end up doing.

If a canon character is the last of their kind, or from a far away place,

don't give your character the same origin.

Having your OC be from the same city or town is probably ok,

but try not to make them childhood friends with a canon character,
and (for the love of all that is good and holy) don't make them siblings of a main character.

If your OC can be summed up as [Canon character] but [single trait], or [character 1's backstory] plus [character 2's backstory], you should probably try something else.

I know it seems like it could work, but just trust me on this one.


The second thing is don't try too hard to make your character cool.

Plenty of awesome characters have been ruined by an over-the-top backstory.

Don't stuff a ton of government experiments and secret training into a character who could be awesome without it. Everything needs to have a purpose.

Any character can be awesome, regardless of backstory.

It's up to you if you want your character to have good parents, or come from a broken home,

or be the last of their kind (though I wouldn't recommend that last one).

Just try not to make it too tragic.

Trauma after trauma wouldn't harden someone into an invincible badass,

 it would be more likely to turn them into an emotional wreak.

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things summed it up very well.

4. Believability

Your character need to fit in the world where they live.

If something is stated to be impossible or very difficult,

your character shouldn't be able to do it easily (or at all, in most cases).

If magic A and magic B are mutually exclusive,

don't have your character use both.

If there's only one Alicorn/Avatar/Dragon Rider/ White Wizard,

don't make your OC another one.

If a canon character is the last of their kind,

don't make your character another of the same thing (this also applies to macguffins, see below).

There's a little more leeway about "extinct" species,

but, again, the "last of their kind" story is sometimes overused.

In general, other people will not appreciate you breaking the rules of the world in order to make your character.


Similarly, if an item is said to be rare, powerful, forged by the gods, ancient, etc, then you'd better have a darn good reason if your character has one.

If there's a Macguffin that's one-of-a-kind or limited in number, your character probably shouldn't have another for no reason.

 I realize that all seems hard, but as long as your character can stand on their own,
isn't overly flashy, and isn't a copy of another character, you should do fine.




I want to apologize for the lack of posts recently.
There's been a lot going on in my life, between my car, computer, dog, family, and friends.
That said, I should be able to return to a more-or-less normal schedule now.

Hopefully.

On the upside, I've got a little bit of work next weekend, so it'll balance out how much I've been spending.

I'm more-or-less committed to going to BabsCon now. I just need to buy my ticket.

Aside from that, I'm just hoping to take a few days to rest and recover;
it's been a busy couple of weeks.

I'll keep you posted.


God bless.