INTERACTIVE: 30 DAYS OF FAN FIC MEME || DAY EIGHT

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY THREE
DAY FOUR
DAY FIVE
DAY SIX
DAY SEVEN

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

We welcome your participation! There is no minimum or maximum requirements for your answers -- they can be as long or as short as you'd like. I will include my answer as a comment.

Comments

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

I have a very long answer about my OCs here (http://slytherincesss.livejournal.com/466538.html), but cut most of my answer for space.

Let's face it. Writing a canon character that has very limited canon information is essentially writing an OC. The way I write Pansy is the equivalent to writing an OC, really, especially back in the day when there was limited canon. I've written Theodore Nott and Zacharias Smith, and they, too, are like doing OCs, because only the very basic information is known about them (year, house, some family background). Astoria Malfoy counts as an OC, IMO. I don't think anyone should shy away from writing OCs. As for Mary Sue/Gary Stu, there's a ton of littmus tests out there that'll tell you if your OC is a Sue/Stu, and depending on how Sue'ed out your OC is, you tweak their characterization accordingly. Some of the littmus criteria is unfair, IMO, for example, having a very thin character. I wrote a very thin OC who is thin because she's homeless. Oh, but being homeless is also Sue criteria! Pretty much if anything strange or wrong is going on with your character, you can get called on the carpet for Mary Sue/Gary Stu, but if angst, woe, and despair are the greatest indicators of Sueville, where does that leave Harry Potter, hmm? Dude's a huge Stu on the littmus tests ;)

[often-astray.livejournal.com]

The only time I will write an OC is if I need to fill a small gap in plot or scene, for example: Madame Bones was the head of the DMLE before she died in HBP, and if the plot doesn't allow me to use an existing character I will stick in a minor OC into her previous role.

Any other time, I will stick to Canon Characters.

[deirdre-aithne.livejournal.com]

I do write OCs! Before I started writing Dominating Draco, they were more like incidentals that just sort of popped in for one scene for something I needed (where a canon character wouldn't have fit) and that was that. With DD, though, they have much more screen time, so the concern about 'Mary Sues' has been raised because I hate those so very much. But I think the big thing keeping them from becoming Mary Sues is that they all have personalities and serve a purpose. They all have goals or their own opinions, and are in no way an attempt to drop myself into the fic (because that just drives me batshit). They're characters in themselves, not just blank canvases that may as well be a sack of potatoes for all their presence adds to the fic. So I guess for me, it's all about just making sure they have their own personalities and quirks. OCs need to have a voice just like any character from canon does.

Fandom Meme: Day 8 - OCs

[vaysh]

I just went through my stories, looking for OCs that have somewhat major roles in my stories. There are quite a few minor OCs as supporting cast. The major OCs are

- Shah Rukh Khan, real life person
- Byron Crabbe, OC brother of Vincent Crabbe
- Hollace Torwell, my OC stand-in Auror
- Aunt Timila, OC Muggle
- Jacob Fenwick, OC son of Benjy Fenwick (old OoP)
- Thomas McKinnon, OC son of Marlene McKinnon (old OoP)
- Nono Pepper, OC son of Octavius Pepper (killed by Death Eaters)
- Elliot Miller, OC wizard

Only Torwell and Aunt Timila are entirely made from scratch. I did a whole lot of research for writing Shah Rukh Khan, and while everything about his sexuality and magic is obviously made-up, minor details like his favourite cigarettes and his family background is fact. Aunt Timila runs an Indian restaurant, and her character came out of the research I did for Shah Rukh Khan. ;) Torwell may come closest to a Mary Sue (or rather: an author-insert) character. In "Friendly Advice" I made use of her deliberately to have my author standpoint represented in a story of conflicted morals.

It is funny how I seem to bind my OCs always to minor canon characters. With Fenwick, McKinnon and Pepper, I tried to extrapolate as much as possible from the little we know about their canon parents. Thus Nono Pepper's odd first name is my attempt to come up with a family tradition in the Pepper family to number their sons. Nono Pepper's son, then (if Nono is ever released from the Janus Thickney Ward) would be named Decimus.

[amt149.livejournal.com]

I try to use Canon Characters as much as possible, but I love writing OC's for personal fics. I have one fic/story that is really just a bunch of plot bunnies written down that is a Draco/OC paring. I'll probably never write a serious fic with what I have so far; I kind of took it apart and wrote a genderbender!H/D fic using bits and pieces of it.

I think it's fairly easy to make sure an OC isn't a Mary Sue, no matter what people say. All you have to do is make sure your OC makes mistakes. I tend to stick in stupid little thing (ie. Tripping over an object, forgetting to do the dishes, screwing up a spell) here and there to make them seem more natural.

Whenever I write OC's, I tend to make them girls. I don't really know why, although it's probably because I don't have a girl character in HP that I seriously love.

Also, OCs make great fillers, since your mind won't wander off in the wrong tangent if you know nothing about the OC.

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

I have written some. I think about six total. And I don't think I ever got so in depth with them that I even needed to worry about whether they were Mary Sues or not. The most recent I wrote he didn't even have a name and it was for a short drabble, no more than 300 words. The first I ever wrote was for an epic fic that I have since abandoned and I think I wrote a total of 1k words with him featured. I had just gotten to his part and so I didn't have much with him. He may have turned out to be a Gary Stu, or whatever the male is called, because I was so young and didn't know the difference; if I ever pick up that story again like I hope he will most likely get a complete overhaul.

I think Mary Sues are a complete opinion of the reader honestly. Each person will read the story differently and have different views of the story, and whether OC's are Mary Sues or not. So, usually when writing I don't even think on it. The only requirement of a character when I write is that he/she has a personality - quirks, traits, flaws. If by the end someone thinks that makes them a Mary Sue, so be it. I certainly didn't set out to make them a Mary Sue, but everyone's opinion differs.

[kinky-kneazle.livejournal.com]

I've written OCs, but normally only as very minor plot-fillers/plot devices. However, with my BB, the likelihood of all canon characters working on an Antarctic base was pretty slim, so I had to create OCs for those roles. It was an interesting exercise, trying to fit them in around canon characters and figure out how they would interact. I prefer to fill stories with canon characters - with the hundreds JK gave us, there shouldn't be any need to look outside canon, but sometimes it seems strange that everyone of import in the Wizarding World is an acquaintance of Harry.

Having said that, I don't think I'd ever write a pairing that featured an OC, except in the background or as a past relationship.

[crazyparakiss.livejournal.com]

I love canon characters but I enjoy well written OC's as well. I mean people in canon aren't the only people in the Wizarding World. However, I don't read stories based entirely around OC's. I do agree with slyterincess, writing characters with limited information is similar to being handed a base character . You are given free reign and can build that person up any way you want. My only problem with OC's is when they are very Mary Sue/Gary Stu. I don't want to read those, but hey to each their own. *shrugs*

[uniquepov.livejournal.com]

Well, aside from the obvious, "if I write Original Fiction, then I must write OCs..."

...I'll just focus on fandom.

I try very, very hard to write only canon characters, or characters which are rooted in canon. That said, as Julie says, when you have a canon character whose only mention is one line in one book - you're writing an OC. The was to avoid Mary-Sues is to try to root them in the canon as much as possible, and not make them a deus ex machina who saves the day out of nowhere.

[rebecca_selene]

In fanfic, I focus on canon characters. If it's a minor character, I just try to keep him/her from being "speshul." I always ask myself: "Is this a reasonable reaction/action?" If it makes me roll my eyes or cringe, I leave it out.

[hpfangirl71.livejournal.com]

Writing Next Gen is like writing OC's since they arent very well fleshed out in the bks and that goes for other minor, barely mentioned canon characters... as for my own creative characters, I have written them but they are only filler usually and dont have to be very well fleshed out.