A Guide to Writing Original Characters
By Lady Sanzennine
A/N: If you’re one of those wonderful people that’s read everything I’ve written so far, first of all I’d like to thank you with a big hug. *HUG* And secondly, I want to apologize for my current state of mind. I’m so sick and tired of authors creating stupid perfect characters and then proceeding to mutilate, say, Sephiroth so that Mary Sue can come in and save the day. If I rant enough on paper, I’ll feel better eventually.
I’m going to use Sephiroth as the OC’s love interest because I see bad Seph/OC pairings way more often than anything else. And I love Sephiroth and enjoy writing about him. ^_^ If you aren’t writing a Sephiroth/OC fic, then just replace Sephiroth’s name with whatever guy you’re planning on using.
Disclaimer: Sephiroth is the property of Squaresoft Inc.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Do you realize that writing a successful OC fic is
much, much more difficult than writing, for example, an Aeri/Seph?
Why, do you ask? There are two reasons: people are prejudiced against OCs because there are more bad ones than good, and creating
a good OC is difficult. So make sure
you’re confident with what you’re doing before attempting an OC fic. Otherwise,
be prepared to receive some flames.
Before you decide to sit down and write a serious OC fanfic, you need to remember a few things.
~People don’t want to see any more Mary Sues. In case you’re really new to this and don’t know who Mary Sue is, allow me to explain. Mary is the PERFECT CHARACTER. She has no faults and everyone loves her. You might be thinking, “But if she’s perfect, then shouldn’t all readers love her because we all love perfection?” The answer is NO. Perfect characters are totally inhuman and you cannot relate to them in any way. Also, there’s so many perfect characters that they are totally UN-original, and boring since they’re all the same.
~People hate to see Sephiroth’s character mutilated. Do you have any idea how painful it is for a Seph fan to see their favorite character acting like a friggin pansy? Sephiroth is an amazing character and there are many different ways an author can portray him without totally destroying his essence. I don’t know why, but like, 90% of the time in OC fics, Seph is just retarded. This is bad! Don’t do it!
~People feel like tearing their hair out when they see Sephiroth fall in love with an OC when it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE! Maybe it’s just me, but I doubt it. There is nothing wrong with Seph/OC romance. As long as you do it right.
Got that? Oh, by the way, these three rules apply to all OC fics. Not just the ones where they are paired with Sephiroth. For example, Vincent/OC mutilations are also a big no-no.
Okay, let me repeat because this is the most important thing. If you get this down, then there should be no problem and you’ll receive fewer flames for your fic.
Perfect characters are bad. Keep Sephiroth in character. Do not write a romance which makes no sense!
Alright, moving on.
Like I said in the beginning, it’s not easy to get people to like an OC fic. It’s also not easy to create an original character. Keep in mind that the easiest character to write – the perfect character – is the simplest. And the most despised.
My advice is to create a chart with two columns. One will be the character’s positive points, and the other will be a list of her faults. (I’m not going to get into male characters, Gary Stu ‘s, because they are far less numerous than their female counterparts) Make sure that the two lists are fairly even. Come on, negative aspects can be just as cool as positive ones! And make sure that the faults you list are REAL FAULTS. “She cares too much,” for example, is not a real fault. Bitchiness, weakness, and being incompetent in some important areas of life, on the other hand, are substantial. If you can’t think of anything, look at the people around you in real life. Everyone has personality defects and such, so just take to ones you want for your character and incorporate them into your story.
Oh, and it’s probably not a good idea to make your character the most beautiful person to ever walk the earth. It’s also a bad idea to make your OC more powerful than the cannon characters.
Once you’ve finished your list of good and bad points, it’s time to move on to the next step.
It’s time to do a character analysis of Sephiroth (or whatever cannon male you’re writing as your OC’s love interest). Write down all the characteristics that you believe make Sephiroth a unique, well loved character. Look at the list you created and ask yourself if the general fanfiction community agrees with your view of him. If the answer is no, that’s still okay, since fanfiction is all about being creative. However, now you have to ask yourself if the characterization you have is at least feasible. Is it more likely to be accepted by readers? Or is it more likely to attract flamers?
If you have problems grasping what Sephiroth is like, try reading some fanfiction starring him. There are a lot of amazing Seph-writers out there. If you don’t know which one to take pointers from, just pick one that has a lot of good reviews.
Sephiroth as either remorseful and angsty, or mad and driven generally seems to work well. Of course, many other takes on him can work too, if you have the ability to write him in such a way that people will accept him.
Sephiroth balling his eyes out for no apparent reason and acting like a little girl is NOT acceptable unless you are writing a humor fic. I don’t care if you want to have him like this so that your OC can come in and comfort him. If you do something like this, you are guaranteed to get flamed. Sephiroth can, though, cry in a fic. For example, “The Irony of Fate,” by JenesisX makes Sephiroth cry after he’s convinced of the truth of how Jenova was just using him. It was powerful and worked very well because JenesisX is a very competent writer and she showed all of the painful angst before the waterworks began. It made sense, and that’s the key point to success.
Lastly, think the whole romance thing through, like, ten times before beginning to write. Whatever you do, do not make Sephiroth fall in love with your OC three pages into the story. Not only does love not work like that, but people will just get angry because once again, this is a typical Mary Sue set up.
If you want to make Sephiroth fall in love with your character, fine. I’m certainly not going to complain since I’m doing that myself. But keep in mind that though you may love your character dearly (probably cuz she’s supposed to be you ^_~), other people might not. In order to make the romance work in other people’s eyes, you have to make them like your star characters. People already love Sephiroth, so as long as you don’t screw around too much with his characterization, you’ll be fine in that respect. On the other hand, getting people to like your OC is a lot more difficult. Once again, Mary Sue is not the way to get appreciative readers (I can’t stress this enough).
Making Seph fall in love with your character really fast will probably get you one of two responses. The first and most likely reaction is, “God, you’re so conceited. Why should Seph love your character?” The second is “Ooooh, yay! Sephy loves her! Me so happy!”
Personally, I wouldn’t be too impressed if I received the second response. Great, some half-retarded fan-girl who’s possibly never read a good story in her life thinks you’re an amazing writer. Joy.
Am I getting my point across? Sudden attraction can be done, in which the two characters are drawn to each other for whatever reason. This is dangerous though, because if you cast Sephiroth as the character who begins to obsess about your OC because of looks, you are once again putting your fic in the classification of Mary Sue-ness.
You’re might be thinking, “But some Aeri/Sephs have Sephiroth develop a fixation for Aeris immediately because of her looks.” Yup, you’re right, and that’s generally an acceptable idea because Aeris is a cannon character. Fans already love her. If you introduce a new character and make her so beautiful that Sephiroth just can’t help but drool, you will get labeled as “egotistical.” It’s like, oh look, my character is so much better than all the cannon females. Go me!
Yet again, Mary Sue-ish.
Oh, and making the cannon females jealous of your OC is also not a good idea. That once again makes people think you’re an egotist.
And for the love of god, DO NOT make half of the male cannons like your character. One is fine. Two is really pushing it. Any more and she’s a Mary Sue.
Now I’m going to delude myself into believing that people are actually going to read this and take into account what I’ve written. You probably won’t though, since there’s really no reason you should listen to me.
Except that if you do, I can promise you people will like your story better and you won’t receive as many flames. That is, if you get any at all.
Recap:
~Original characters must have flaws. If she doesn’t, she is a Mary Sue.
~Don’t mutilate cannon characters. Unless it’s a humor fic. Then by all means, knock yourself out.
~Give reasons for why the OC’s love interest is attracted to her. And don’t make them fall in love in three pages.
~Nobody likes everybody. Likewise, not everybody will like a certain character. Do not make everyone in the story either worship or envy your character.
A/N: If you would like to discuss anything I’ve written, please feel free to email me. I always respond!
I’d love you forever if you would be so kind as to check out my other fics, “Mary Sue Meets with a Tragic Accident,” (basically making fun of Mary Sue fics. It’s short.) and “The Paths We Walk,” my Seph/OC fic.
And don’t forget to review!
~LS~