Hello, and good evening/morning! It's been a while since I've done a Babbles post, and tonight just might be the night for another one. It's currently 12:08AM as I start writing this - and knowing me, my babbles tend to be structured around midnight. I'll be writing about something I love dearly, which are: Original Characters. So the read more is there if you're interested in my incoherent typing, click it if you want to read on.
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| Irrelevant gif is irrelevant, but I love them anyways. |
So a week or so ago, I was able to finish my PowerPoint that was about my main characters and stories that I've come up with since the third grade. Upon finishing it, I felt strangely nostalgic. I've made terrible characters, I've made okay ones, and I've made ones I'm sticking to until this very day. So basically, what is an Original Character?
I define an Original Character as a character you made up from scratch, from their name to their fear to their ultimate demise (though this is purely optional). An Original Character can be made for the author's own original story, or towards a fictional one (whether book, film, TV show, video game, etc). They are owned by the author and are purely theirs. So, if anyone besides the author would write about said Original Character, the character would have to be credited to such author who came up with character. They are obviously not limited to any species, race, or whatever - as previously stated, they are a character made from scratch.
You can have OCs who are animals, human, hybrid, unicorn, faerie, or a mix of all though that would be considered overdoing it. They can be sweet, ditzy, fearful, dull, romantic, or a drug addict. They can also be a child prodigy or a struggling adult, a lonesome sailor or a thrill-seeking waitress from that restaurant down the road that serves really great burgers. Or even better - they can be the key to the world's survival and not even know it.
So really, the OCs can range. There are millions of them worldwide, creeping in FanFictions or even being written down as you read this. Sometimes, though, OCs have limits. Being too perfect can result to being classified as a 'Mary Sue' or 'Gary Stu', depending on the OC's gender. But we'll not talk about that, and that may be for another post. But you get the picture, right? But hey, that's where we all begin - with a Sue, whether we like it or not. (And generally, we usually tend to laugh and poke fun at said Sue much later on.)
So, this was my experience - my very first original character. Ever.
Roselyn Hayden was cousin of Drew Hayden from the Pokémon verse. With green hair up to her hips and shining green eyes, she usually lets down flirts and such, saying that she's used to guys flirting with her (in her words). Rose focused on coordinating, not finding battling as fun and preferring to show off her Pokémon's artistic performances. She was a romantic and was usually sweet, though had a fiery temper and tended to be quite daft as well as clumsy. She tended to raise Grass-type Pokémon and especially loved to tease her cousin Drew about his relationship with May.
Alright, so maybe she wasn't on the bad side. I mean, Harley had purple hair and Drew himself has green hair. But if anything, I'd love to improve on her, starting with her appearances. Rose was described to be immensely attractive, and was used to having men fall at her feet (though upon meeting Ash and the crew, Ash and Paul regarded her as a normal girl). Even Brock flirted a bit, to which she didn't actually reject the guy.
Next, I'd love to modify her personality. Lessen her horrid temper and make her really daft and naïve, maybe a little vain was well. Make her more rounded than she should be and not limit her so much to coordinating. And then I'd most likely change some other unimportant parts.
So, that's Rose - alright in my younger eyes, but looking at her now, she definitely needs some improvement to make her better.
Sometimes, characters can be overly done. But there are cases in which some are massively underdeveloped, often making them flat and boring to read.
Case number two, my first male OC.
Macmillan 'Mack' Thomas was a silent, brunette-haired, brown-eyed boy who was part of the guy's band, playing electric guitar. He resorted to being the peacemaker often, and blended into the background until he spoke for himself. Mack had romantic feelings for the oblivious Rose, and had a mischievous side to him as well.
As I recall, he was a sweetie. A darling. I regret not developing him further - hey, what can I do to make him a believable character? I can modify his personality, changing him from the wallflower to the cool-headed guy who stopped things from going worse. Weaknesses? He was too trusting and people used that to their advantage. Aside from that, Mack would most likely get cocky. Other than that, he would be stubborn and maybe, just maybe a tad bit sexist.
With these two characters of mine, let's compare them to the next two:
Arianne Maxwell, cold mostly to others but had a warm side to her if you dug deep enough. She went by as A in the office, and though she was generally kindhearted, she was pessimistic and didn't quite see things positively that often. Due to events in her childhood, A developed a fear for fire and fast-moving cars, hence her dislike for cooking and her ownership of a motorcycle instead. She can sometimes be bitter and though doesn't admit it, is still attached to her past. There's a part of her that has refused to move on. Due to the troubles of work, she's turned towards alcohol to drain her problems away, no matter how long.
On the other hand, Samuel Peters is a large contrast or foil to the cold A. Peters is lively and sociable, but among all, he is a flirt. Coming from the States, he's grown up often overshadowed by his older brother ever since he was in his teens. Wanting to make a name for himself. Peters moved thousands of miles away and signed up for detective work. His flirtatiousness caused him to resort to being quite the ladies' man, often taking them out and bringing them home. In reality, he uses sex to drive away his real need for a partner, for an actual relationship. This has caused him to develop a large ego. Like A, he's turned towards drinking but prefers smoking, using it as a method to chase the stress away.
Comparing Rose and Mack as well as A and Pete, the second pair of OCs are more developed in my eyes. They have something the first pair doesn't - character development. A and Pete have a solid backstory, actual points in their life that have made them who they are now. They have fears and goals, they have strengths and weaknesses, they even have vices that they turn to. Rose and Mack, though, don't have as much. They may have personality, but they weren't as developed and to me, stand out as paper people - two dimensional and flat, compared to A and Pete, who actually stand out to me as possible real people in this kind of reality.
Whew.
Make your own characters, go ahead - make them however you want.
But for them to be taken seriously and to appear three-dimensional, there has to be development that has to be done. Give them flaws, give them problems, give them hell. Because hey, no one really is interested in reading perfect characters who always save the day.
What? Heroes can be defeated too.
That ends my nightly post, I hope you've had a great time reading it! Now I'm not an expert on OCs, so take this with a grain of salt. But if any of you need some help regarding characters and such, I'm always glad to help. Comment away if you need it, and see you guys on my next possible post (which is soon. I hope.)
And did I mention this is my 100th post? Holy sweet heck.
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