Hello, lovelies!

Welcome back to the second installment of my segment on OC character creation!  Today we're going to cover the physical attributes of your character.

While it is true that looks really aren't important in the grand scheme of life, it is important that your readers know what your character looks like!  Physical attributes can also effect how other characters react to your character, as well as what your character is physically capable of doing (the latter point being something that many authors of Mary Sues forget about).

Since we covered the background of why OCs are often avoided in the previous installment, we will skip that and get right to it!

The Basics - Appearance!

Just like with naming our character, there are a few things you need to consider when deciding what your character looks like.  And, like before, I'll use some of my own stories and characters for examples as appropriate.

Hair

Pick a color.

Literally any color.

We live in a day and age of readily available hair dye.  There is pretty much no limit to what color hair your character can have.  

The limiting factor here is whether or not that hair color makes sense in the context of the story, and that is where some authors tend to fall flat.  So here are a few things to think about when picking your character's hair color.

Ethnicity, The Setting, and The Laws of the Universe

The first biggest factor in the color of your character's hair comes from the universe in which your story takes place.  If it's taking place in our world, then our world's rules apply.

This means natural hair colors are limited to:
Brown
Black
Blonde
Natural Red
White
All the shades in between of the above colors

Unnatural colors consist of everything else that you'll find in a box of crayons:
Pink
Blue
Green
Purple
Firetruck Red
And every shade in between

If your character is Korean, claiming they are naturally blonde is not realistic in our universe.

Regardless of the ethnicity of your character, claiming they have naturally blue hair is also not realistic in our universe.

You could potentially get away with claiming a young character has naturally white hair if they have a pigmentation issue.  (Example: I have a character named Yuki from a fic I haven't posted.  She is Japanese and has whitish-blond hair due to being born with albinism).  Otherwise, colors like silver and white can only be natural when a character is elderly or going prematurely gray.

Otherwise, dye that hair any color you want!  Just don't claim it's naturally if it isn't.

What if your story is in an alternate universe?  Well, then, the laws of that universe apply.

If you're writing in most anime universes, for example, hair color can be naturally just about anything.

If you're writing in a universe you've created, then you get to make the rules on hair color.

In Six there is a very distinctive rule for hair colors.  Nobles in Hanguk have naturally silver hair.  The rest of the citizens of Hanguk, Bahmeez, and Etrar have brown or black.  While it is possible to dye one's hair (i.e.: Hobi dying his black hair silver to impersonate a Noble), it isn't something that is culturally done.  So everyone has either brown, black, or silver hair.

The one exception to this rule is Jimin.  Due to the rules of the universe, and recessive genetic traits from mixed blood in his past, Six's Jimin ended up being born with an anomalous head of chestnut-red hair, despite looking like a full-blooded non-Noble Hanguk.

Say your characters are in a universe that allows for hair dying.  Now you've gotta consider the setting of your story.

Are you writing a historical story?  Pink hair would not have happened in 1726.

Is your character impoverished?  If your character's biggest current concern is where their next meal is coming from, they aren't going to drop $20 on a box of hair dye.  (This can be worked around if someone else supplies the dye or the character stole it, but that's still pushing it.  Most believable is that they dyed it before they were in the situation they're current in, and it hasn't grown out yet).

Hair Styles

The style of hair is important, too.  This includes how long the hair is, if it's curly, wavy, straight, thin, fine, frizzy... Just make sure that once you've settled on it, you stick with it.  Someone with fine hair (like myself) wouldn't be described as having wavy, voluminous locks.  Nope, people like me have hair that lays flatter than the Utah salt flats.  My hair has less personality than a discarded sock puppet.

Length can change over the course of the story if the character cuts it or grows it out, but it's always good to indicate how long hair is if you want to give your readers a good visual.  If their hair changes drastically, tell the readers.

Examples: 

Dasom from A Little Slice of Heaven is described as having long, straight black hair that reaches the small of her back.  If she were to suddenly lop it all off into a pixie cut, it would be startling... but only because we already know her hair is super long.

Six from Six also has long, black hair.  She keeps it almost constantly in a braid down her back that's described as being thick.  When she takes her hair out of that braid, it has a natural wave to it and, if not brushed, becomes very unruly.

Eye color

Another trait to consider is the color of your character's eyes.  Just like with everything else, you need to keep it believable within the laws of the universe of your story.

In Six, the people of Hanguk, whether they are Nobles or not, have brown or black eyes. Six, who is not ethnically Hanguk, has gray eyes.  Gray eyes are common among her people.

If your character is from an ethnicity that does not have blue eyes, don't give them blue eyes without a feasible explanation.  (Example again being Yuki.  Due to the albinism, her eyes are a blueish color instead of the black they should be if she had been born with pigmentation).

Otherwise, pop some colored contacts into your character's eyes to make the make them a different color.

Body

Alright.  This is where things usually get the most Mary-Sue-ish.  

It's very common for an author to want their character to look absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and perfect.  This character is often going to be the love interest of a cannon character and, thus, they've gotta have no physical flaws, right?  Super model or bust, yeah?

Fuck that noise.

A believable, relatable character isn't a sculpture of perfection.  No one is like that in real life.

Despite how people would describe them, even the members of BTS aren't Adonises.

*ducks a yeeted soda can*

I'm serious.  They aren't "perfect" in the sense that most people imagine a perfect body.  I hate using the term "flaws" because that implies there's something wrong with a person and there's nothing wrong with any of us.  But there are things about them that prove my point: you can't make your OC "perfect" and "flawless" because it isn't realistic!

Seokjin has joint hypermobility in his fingers.

Taehyung has cholinergic urticaria.

Yoongi has EGD.

Not to mention most of them need glasses.

So give your character some physical characteristics that make them less like a barbie doll and more like a real, honest to goodness, person.  

In A Little Slice of Heaven, Hoseok describes Dasom has having "a little extra curve in all the right places."  Dasom has body fat.  Crazy, I know.

In Herding Cats, Soonhee is terribly nearsighted and has to wear glasses or contacts.

For the most part, I barely touch on the body shape of my OCs, unless it's super important.  It's rather unnecessary to mention how perfectly shaped your character is or whinge on about their lack of body fat or big tits.  Readers won't like your character for how awesomely pretty they are; they will like them for how they are written and how they are characterized as a person.  It's fine to make them attractive, but you don't have to obsess over them like they're the best thing since sliced bread.

Let's use Six as our example here.

When Six is first introduced, I give you her hair color, length, and style.  I touch on her face and her skin tone briefly, just mentioning that her features are sharper than those of the Hanguk and that her skin is more of a golden tone.  Her eye color is mentioned, as well, since it's distinctly different than a Hanguk's.

I also give the reader her generalized height (Six is around 5'5" to 5'6") based on the top of her head being even with the bridge of Yoongi's nose.

Later on, it's indicated that her skin is soft.  However, at no point do I mention if she's super skinny, or fit, or lean, or busty.  Whether she has defined muscles or pudgy tummy rolls.  It really isn't important in the grand scheme of the story.

Overall

So, the overall lesson I want you to take away from this is that good characters have to fit into the story and look like actual people.  Give them some "flaws" so they are more relatable to real people (Six's unmanageable hair, Dasom's curves, Yuki's albinism, Soonhee's eyesight).  It's these traits that make people feel real, and real people are so much more likable than the most perfect cardboard box ever crafted.

That's it for today.  Next time, we'll go over creating personality traits to really flesh out your OC.  Until then, stay frosty.

Littie out!