30-Day Fanfic Writing Meme, Day 8

[geri_chan]

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.

I guess it's obvious from my previous answers that I write tons of OCs, plus several canon characters that are practically blank slates because we know little more than their names (mainly students in the HP universe that don't cross Harry's radar in canon).

Sometimes I create them because I need a character that doesn't exist or is only briefly described in canon. For example, when I wanted to write about Snape and Lupin's schoolboy days at Hogwarts, JKR had not yet told us whom the Head of Slytherin was at the time, as HBP hadn't yet been written. So I created Professor De Lacey as the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin during that era. I also wanted to write about Slytherin students who weren't budding Death Eaters or part of Draco's in-crowd, so I created some OCs and fleshed out a few minor canon characters. In my Haru fics, we never meet Onozuka's family, so when I wanted to deal with his family background, it was necessary to create OCs.

And sometimes I create an OC just for the pleasure of it. There was no real reason why I had to send Snape and Lupin to Japan in Summer Vacation (Part 1, Part 2)--I could've just had them spend the summer together at Hogwarts or in Lupin's cottage. But I love anime, manga, samurai dramas, and Japanese folklore, so I decided to combine my love for Japan with my love for Snupin, which resulted in Snape and Lupin traveling abroad to do some research with a Japanese Potions Master, which of course meant I had to create some Japanese OCs. 

And sometimes it's a combination of pleasure + necessity. I created Professor Blackmore because I wanted to have a teacher who was a role model and mentor to Snape--aside from Dumbledore, that is, since Snape has mixed feelings about him, and seems to both respect and resent him at the same time. (Again, this was all before we knew the full story about how Snape came to work for Dumbledore.) Of course it wasn't really necessary to create two OC teachers--I could have made Blackmore the Potions teacher, or I could have had De Lacey be Snape's mentor. But I wanted to play a bit with a different type of magic than we see in the books (I used to play Dungeons and Dragons, and Blackmore's Summoning magic is based on spells from that game), so it was partly my personal whim. And also partly because I wanted to use De Lacey to show a neutral type of character who was neither for or against the Death Eaters--ironically, a bit similar to Slughorn, though De Lacey was much less ambitious and self-serving.

I created Dylan Rosier (son of Evan Rosier) because I wanted a student that Snape could mentor, in order to contrast with the way he treats Harry. We see Snape mostly through Harry's eyes, and I wondered what he would be like with a Slytherin student that he actually liked, who was a talented and hardworking student. Draco could have filled that role, but at the time, I didn't really like Draco very much (though he's since grown on me), and I also thought that Snape's need to cater to Lucius by flattering Draco would make it difficult for him to truly grow close to Draco. It's a problem that could be overcome with good writing--I've seen other writers pull it off--or I could have used Theodore Nott or Blaise Zabini instead. But I was intrigued by Evan Rosier ever since I read on the Lexicon that his name was probably derived from a demon of seduction, which made me picture Evan as a smooth ladies' man, and I got bitten by the bunny of him having a son who would be just as smooth and charming as the father. Since Evan is dead, it provides Snape with a perfect reason to mentor a late friend's son--both out of obligation and because he wants to prevent Dylan from following in Evan's footsteps by becoming a Death Eater.

When I first started writing, I didn't really know what a Mary Sue was, and it's probably better that I didn't, or I would have been too terrified to write any major OCs, especially someone like Professor Blackmore, who on the surface has the basic trappings of one: beautiful, an expert in a special type of magic, and has a mysterious past and exotic family background. But after I did become aware of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, I simply tried to continue with what I was doing and write characters (both canon and OC) that are complex and three-dimensional. Feedback from my readers is usually positive, so hopefully I'm succeeding.

I think one reader did comment awhile back that I didn't really need to create that many OCs in my Snupin series when there are so many canon characters to choose from--which is true enough, as I've admitted above, so I wasn't offended. But writing OCs can be a lot of fun...I was kind of mulling this over for the last day or so, and I think maybe what I find so appealing about OCs is that it's a chance to be creative and write something that's entirely your own while still staying within the bounds of fanfic...sort of like being halfway between fanfic and original fic. I write fanfic because it's fun--I don't really have a burning desire to write an original novel and become a published author because then writing would be my work, and then what would I do to relax? But I guess sometimes I do want the freedom to create something that's mine without giving up the joy of fanfic, so OCs fill that need.

And maybe because they're mine, I find myself growing fond of them, even the villains and one-shots. Even though I created Daniel specifically to be Kikuchi's ex-boyfriend in Unexpected Opportunities, I found myself liking him and I felt a little guilty for making Kikuchi break up with him in the fic--even though I was already happily shipping Kikuchi with Onozuka by then. When I was discussing the fic with Bronze Ribbons on IJ, I said: But then I do tend to get attached to OCs who are supposed to be one-shots--like a mama with her babies, I guess! ;) And now that I look back on it, there are some one-shot characters like Ash who turned into recurring characters because I couldn't let go of them.

Previous days:
Day 1
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Day 7

Comments

[lawless523.livejournal.com]

It annoys me that there's an implicit assumption that an OC is a Mary Sue or otherwise artless or useless. It's like being considered guilty until proven innocent. Some people won't write OCs because of it.

That's not to say that there aren't any Mary Sues or egregious self-inserts (a subset of Mary Sues), but they're usually easy to spot. (I say egregious self-inserts because Miki Sakamoto, the photographer in my Gravitation story "Exposure," is conceivably a self-insert. But I'd argue she's not an egregious one, seeing as I had other reasons for writing the character that way.) At least they are easy to spot in FFN summaries of Saiyuki stories (something that's digested on saiyuki_news every day): it's when you see female cousins who are magically transported to Shangri-la and meet up with the boys (one I've seen recently), or something of that ilk. [Name of character] x OC is often a tipoff, too.

[geri-chan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do think it's too bad that OCs get a bad rap and some people won't even bother reading them. Of course there are a lot of awful Mary Sue stories out there, but like Theodore Sturgeon said, 90% of everything is crap. ;) And as you said, the egregious ones are usually pretty easy to spot.

Maybe I've been lucky, but I've read a number of stories with great OCs--I ought to gather them together and make an OC rec post later this month.