*rolls into the room on an office chair, misses her mark, and smacks into the wall*

...That went much better in my head.

Welcome, lovelies, to another installment of Tips for the Rest of Us!  On today's episode, we're going to start covering some basics of creating an OC that isn't terrible.  But first, we need to go over some background information.

Background Information!

I doubt anyone here is a stranger to the term OC, but just in case we have some fanfic virgins out there (and that's totally okay if we do!  Welcome!) OC stands for Original Character.  

*waits for the hissing from the audience to subside*

Ya'll good?  

Okay, moving on.

In the fanfic world, OCs have a really, really bad rep.  And for a really, really good reason.  You know how it takes one bad egg to ruin the omelet?  Typically, in the world of Fanfic OCs, the entire damn carton is rotten.  This has led to many readers shying away from stories that involve OCs - especially if that OC is listed as a love interest of a canon character.  

(For the virgins, canon means something that is established in the source material.  For instance, in the Harry Potter universe, it is canon that Ron Weasley has red hair.  In Lord of the Rings, it is canon that Aragorn weds Arwen.  And in Twilight, it is canon that Bella is as likable as a pile of soggy paper towels. [Yes, I've read the books.  She has as many redeeming features as a decomposing octopus.  Fight me.])

ANYWAY.

The stigma of OCs being horrible really stems from the Mary Sue / Gary Stu phenomenon which, in turn, came from self-insertions.  

(Hi, virgins!  Self-insertion is not a sex position; it means you write yourself into the story.  Although, in some stories, it could very well be a sex position.  Take that as you will).

Mary Sue / Gary Stu

A Mary Sue / Gary Stu is a character that is over the top awesome.  Everyone in the story absolutely loves them on first sight (except for the BIG BAD... we'll touch Big Bads in a separate lesson).  These characters have no flaws.  They're perfect.  They're super unique.  They're powerful.

They're as likable to a reader as an intestinal ulcer and as believable as anything that comes out of the USA Oompa Loompa's flabby jowls.

These Sues have inundated the fic world like plague rats and, because of how painful it is to read a story that features one, readers tend to not want stories that include OC characters.  

To that, I say "pah!"  OCs are not an inherently bad idea.  Authors just need some help on making their OCs more relatable and, well, likable.  Lucky for them, I'm here.

What are my qualifications for teaching you to write good OCs?  I'm good at it.  Period.  Mic Drop.

In most every fic I've written, both in the BTS fandom and in other fandoms, I've had one or more OCs.  They've filled both Supporting Character roles (we will touch on Supporting Characters in another lesson) as well as Main Character roles.  And time and time again, I've gotten readers commenting on how much they like those characters.

So, with that, let's get to the basics!  I don't want this to be too long, so I won't go into great detail in this lesson.  We can save specifics for later episodes.

The Basics - Names!

For this section, I'll be using some of my OCs as examples.

When naming your characters, it's important to pick something that is memorable but not ridiculous.  Here's some good guidelines to use when making an OC.

1.) The name should fit the setting!

Example 1:  Soonhee "Sunny" Lee from Herding Cats

Soonhee "Sunny" Lee is an American-born Korean woman.  The name Soonhee is a Korean name that is acceptable as feminine.  "Sunny" is appropriate as she was born in America and it is not uncommon for first generation Korean-Americans to have both a Korean and American given name.  My best friend growing up was first generation Korean-American.  She had two names.  I can't remember her Korean name because she always went by her American one.

So, both "Soonhee" and "Sunny" are appropriate names for this character.  Her last name, Lee, is a standard Korean last name.  Since she is American, she would put it at the end of her name, not at the beginning.  As she's in Korea for the duration of the story, she does introduce herself as Lee Soonhee, because it's appropriate for the setting, but she still thinks of herself as Sunny Lee.

Example 2: Choi Dasom from A Little Slice of Heaven

The book takes place on Jeju Island, South Korea.  Dasom is a native of Jeju.  The name Dasom is an acceptable feminine Korean name.  The surname Choi is a recognized Korean family name.  Therefore, her name fits the setting.

When naming characters from a culture not your own, it is important to do your research.  In many cultures, you can't just throw random sounds together to make names.  I am not Korean, so whenever I need to name a Korean character, I research names to not only make sure they're actual Korean names, but that they're assigned to the appropriate gender. (We will touch gender in another chapter).

Fun fact: Jimin is a unisex name.  Dasom is not.  Therefore, you could name a female OC Jimin if you really wanted to, but you would not name a male OC Dasom.  That would not fit the setting.

This is not a difficult thing to research, either.  There's TONS of resources on names for all sorts of different cultures.  That said, it's not a bad idea to google the name once you've picked it, just to make sure more than one source agree on it.  Or to make sure you didn't pick the name of a famous serial killer or something weird like that.

2.) The name should be easy to remember!

Example:  Six / Song from Six

Six actually has three names, but one has not yet been revealed in the story so I'm not dropping it here.  It gives away too much. (We will touch more on this in moment.)

Regardless of how many names she has, the ones that have so far been revealed are super-duper simple to remember.  Six.  Song.  Both easy.  Both spelled as they sound.  And that segues into the next guideline nicely!  Almost like I planned it!

3.) The name should be obvious in its pronunciation!

In an age where parents are trying to give their kids uniquely spelled names, try to make sure that your character names are at least moderately intuitive.  Please.  Please.

I should not have to sound out a name multiple times and ask Google just to figure out how to say it.  If your character's name reads like a chemical compound, please consider changing it.*

*There are always exceptions to the rules and you can purposefully give them a goofy-ass wtf-filled spelling, but you've gotta work it into the story.  Like, their parents named them Phenolphthalein and they hate it, so they just ask that everyone calls them Fen.

We'll use Six as the example again in this situation.  Anyone who knows English will know right off the bat that this word is pronounced like it sounds.  There's no trick to it.

4.) Unique names are dandy, but don't get too carried away.

If it fits the setting, feel free to make up your own names!  Get creative!  Just don't get carried away.  

Example: Xaerene from Torment by @Verisimilous  (Naturally, this is not my OC)

The main character is named Xaerene.  Based on standard English mechanics, this name feels really intuitive.  And then, on top of that, the author shortens it to Xae, which is super easy to remember and pronounce.  It's not a name I've ever seen or heard before, so I assume it is a fabricated name.  Either way, it fits this guideline.

A name that wouldn't fit this guideline would be something like Yllyrkt.  I mean, seriously... how the fuck would that be pronounced?  That is not a good name.  Unless you're a demon that speaks a language that isn't humanly pronounceable.  But if that's the case, then your demon should have an alternative name they give to humans to allow for easy pronunciation.  Yllyrkt might tell people to just call them "Ricky," for instance.

5.) Multiple names are fine if done for the right reasons.

Example: Six / Song / [redacted]

If your character has multiple names, you'd better damn well make sure there is a reason for it.  Six's multiple names are all derived from specific circumstances and are part of the story.  

Her real name is [redacted as it hasn't been revealed yet].  She won't tell anyone what it is because [redacted plot related shit].  

Her second name is "Six."  She is slave-born in the story, and every slave is branded with their breeding pen and a number.  She is NH 637.  She goes by "Six" as that's the first number on her brand.

Her third name is "Song."  Song is Yoongi's nickname for her, based on an inside joke shared between them that has not yet been fully elaborated in the story.

I encourage this type of naming.  People in real life have nicknames.  Those of us with long names shorten them.  Some of us go by middle names instead of first names.  Some of us change our names.  

But having someone who has twelve different names for no reason is not a good thing to do.  Don't name your character Abigail then have her also called Rosy, Samantha, Tippy, Sheen, Kitten, and Snakebite.  That's just ridiculous.

Lastly...

6.) Usernames are not character names

I don't care who you are.  SupreemAwesome69 is not a character name; it's a username created by a 12-year-old trying to pretend they're 21.  Don't do this shit.

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I think that's about it for today, folks!

Next time, we'll start building our character's physical appearance!  Until then, stay chill, come up with some good names, comment, vote, follow, and turn a tracing of your hand into a turkey!

Littie out!