Characters Used In Fan-Fiction

Fan-fiction is used for many reasons, but is mostly used by fans of manga and anime.

Now, more than half of the fan-fiction out there on the internet has to do with romance, whether it’s angst-romance, romantic-comedy, hurt/comfort, etc. It all hooks up with romance.

They’re rather interesting too, and very well written. There are two types of romance filed under fan-fiction out there: 1) Two characters (or more) from the same manga/anime falling in love and 2) People creating an “OC” and making them fall in love with a character from an anime/manga.

Today, we’ll be talking about option #2: Creating an OC and making them fall in love with a canon character. The term “OC” is abbreviated for “original character.” The term “canon character” is basically used to describe any character from an anime/manga (i.e. Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach).

Tip! When you usually write fan-fiction with an OC paired with a canon character, you might want to add it as a warning to prevent any flaming (flaming = insulting in a [very] rude way). It’s easy to add a warning:

Note(s) or WARNING: Includes (Name of Canon Character)xOC. No flaming.

You also want to credit the original author(s) and/or illustrator(s):

Distributor: I do not own (name of series). It rightfully belongs to (name of author). I only own (name of OC[s]).

Now, as you can see, it’s easy to pair an OC with a canon character. What’s difficult is creating the OC. I’ll first be explaining how to make an OC and how to prevent your OC from being a “Mary Sue” (“Marty Stu” for males).

What is a “Mary Sue”?

A “Mary Sue” is a term for characters that are “perfect”. It is bad for your OC to be a Mary Sue. Nobody’s perfect, and neither are OCs. A Mary Sue is an OC that is “perfected,” meaning they have no flaws and everybody likes them. THAT IS BAD.

Trust me, if you make your OC “perfect”, you’ll be flamed. If you want to prevent yourself from being flamed, then make sure your OC has flaws; it’s as simple as that. They can have friends, but not everyone can like them. They have to have a few enemies- Let me just show you the difference of an “okay” OC and a Mary Sue:

Example of a Mary Sue (for girls, sorry guys)

Everybody likes her and her boyfriend will do anything for her; he would even die for her. She has no flaws and is a wonderful cook, athlete, is a straight A student, etc., etc. Her family is very wealthy and everybody wants to be her friend because she’s super nice and friendly. Nobody can dislike her because she’s too nice and anybody who wants to hurt her (who would?) gets beaten up by her boyfriend.

Example of an “Okay” OC

She’s usually bright, but has bad days like everybody else. She has a handful of close friends, but they had to come to her first because she is very shy. She usually has good grades in school but isn’t very athletic. Her parents died when she was very young and she is currently living with her aunt, who can’t hold down a job. She does her best to get money to help her aunt and is a workaholic. The boy she likes doesn’t notice her, but she’s hoping he will acknowledge her one day.

Enough of the Mary Sue-ness; it’s time to finally get into the main topic: how to create an OC.

Here are the steps you need to create an OC:

1.) Get a basic idea: Start with the hair and eye color- That’s always easy.

2.) Make a design: Design the hair (long, short, ponytail, etc.), make an age, and decide the gender (it’s not as easy as you’d think). Decide the anime/manga they’re from (Naruto, Bleach, etc).

3.) Make a background (this might be the most difficult part): Decide the relatives, nationality, where they live/were born, their friends, etc., etc.

4.) Add details: Just sprinkle your OC with a little more detail that would help build up the character; personality, likes and dislikes, strengths and flaws, hobbies, etc., etc.

5.) Other: If you need to add any more information that you think would be necessary for the build-up of your character, go ahead.

I hope this information helped you make a good character. Remember to prevent your OC from becoming a Mary Sue if you don’t want to get flamed.

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