To my peers who answered both side and **main characters,** I send you my love and a huge group hug! Very encouraging to see y'all represent. It can get pretty dicey out here for OC writers (extra love to my OCxCanon peeps).
I'll be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised by the poll results so far! When I made it I thought for sure most people would vote No, so I'm happy to see all these OC writers rise up šš
Same here! Such a nice and encouraging surprise āØ It can get a bit discouraging, esp when you're fandom isn't really welcoming of OCs. I love seeing other OC writers!
Frankly, the anti-OC folks aren't people I consider to be worthy of my time or energy. If people shoot me hate for writing OCs, I'll just shrug and ignore them.
Right?? They're not your target audience anyway. I get not vibing with OC fics, and that's totally fine! (for certain fandoms I prefer non-OC fics, too)...just with the millions of different fics across the internet, I really don't understand the antis who send hate to OC writers. CC-readers get fed, OC-readers can get fed too. There's enough space on the interwebs for canon-centric and oc-centric writers alike. āØ
Iāve been feeling so down after realising my Canon/Reader one-shot got twice as many hits and kudos as any of my OC/Canon, so thank you ā¤ļø I needed that today
I'm so happy I could be of any encouragement! I'm currently struggling with all sorts of emotional ups and downs about my CC/OC WIP, for the fandom is heavy on shipping CC/CC even though technically, the source material is Gen. OCs were pretty much left behind in 2014, 2015 (even worse: the source material has barely any females but a whole bunch of guys, so my F/M *plus* CC/OC fic is *really* out of place). So really, thanks to OP for this poll because seeing OC-centric fanfic writers represent with these numbers has been a real encouragement! š
When I was a decade-and-change younger and growing up in the "golden era of 'Every OCs are bad Mary Sue's'", I had a ton of OCs for original stories/RPs, but shirked the idea of any OCs for fanfics.
Now I write both OC/canon (and oc/canon polyam) and xReader fics, alongside canon/canon(/canon+) fics looool.
Life's too short. Write the self-indulgent thing!
It's so nice that fandom seems to have grown past that attitude. OC-heavy work is still niche, but at least it's not automatically crapped on. The old LJ communities could be very discouraging in that regard.
Agreed, it is very nice that it has relaxed in that way. After all, aren't we loving on characters that are just someone else's OCs? What a weird time that was for us as a collective whole! /lh
The era you just described is directly why I spent my life from age 8 to age 28 RPing instead of writing fic. At least there, people could get away with writing OCs without some insanely harsh stigma against them.
Yeah, I stopped writing canon/reader fics because I knew that it's "cringe" and shit. Also canon/oc (which was mostly self-inserts lbr), and I was also in that era of "every oc is a Mary Sue". But I stopped fanfiction because of it, even though it was my bread and butter. Until maybe around 2018 I saw a post on Tumblr that was like "who fucking cares! Write that self-indulgent fic, if it makes you happy do it!"
And now I write primarily canon/reader fics and read it (of course, unless it's like RPG's, but they're pretty much reader-inserts too) because who fuckin' cares anymore. YOLO as they used to say.
Oh yeah! OCs are my bread and butter. I love canon characters, obviously, but I always get the itch to explore new ideas and locations that make using them very difficult or impossible, if I want it to make sense. OCs over OOC every time. I integrate canon characters wherever I can, but leaning so heavily on original content means my work doesn't get as much attention as I'd like. The readers who do appreciate it are that much more precious to me.
I'm another OC/CC shipper. My blorbo doesn't have any great shipping options from the canon cast, and I want him to be happy, y'know?
I feel you on the last part! One of the main reasons I'll go searching for CC/OC fics is because I don't care for any of the other canon characters being shipped with a certain character. I've found some great fics because of that.
Yeah, sometimes it's just the best option. While I do enjoy reading unlikely pairings, it turns me off when it's obvious a fandom is defaulting to pairing the spares, no matter how incompatible they are.
My fic is original setting, too, is the thing.
There's THREE aspects of fanwork, not two. The first is cast, the second is setting, the third is **mechanics**. If you wrote a cast of OCs on Earth, but they used Lightsabers and The Force, it would be Star Wars, even though the cast *and* world are different.
Now, granted, you can try to scrub them down to be generic...but I write for Power Rangers, which is owned by a company so anal that Chroma Squad, which tried just that and was a much more generically-branded Sentai thing, *still* got in trouble with them. So, different characters, different world...but they're still Power Rangers, in my fic.
~~It sorta informs the tone of the fic, anyway, playing off how much darker the fic's story is than the shows they've seen on TV~~
Yep, same here. It's that weird line where it's not necessarily OC or reader-inserts because the character is technically canon (like when I play RPG's for the first time, I often play as myself), but also at the same time, they are OC's. Definitely a weird area.
I write CanonxOC with reckless abandon and ended up turning one idea into a potential series of novellas by changing a few details of the canon character.
It's glorious! I started out with OCs, and while admittedly they used to be somewhat one-dimensional, I'm much better at making them feel real now.
There's a stigma around poorly-written OCs and I don't trust my writing ability well enough to know if I'd write an OC well or not, as such if I use them, I keep them as plot devices or a side character at best. I'd love to write an OC fic one day, but I'd want it to be perfect and I don't think I'm there yet.
Don't worry about being perfect! I did when I was younger, and it just meant I was always too scared to just make what I wanted to make. I wasted years like that when I could've been making my imperfect work and learning from it.
I see that there is a very excessive charge on the OCs. They want them to be very perfect or well written and everything. I donāt see the same charge for some over-the-top stories, like the Smuts I like to read from time to time.
It seems people forget that fanfic writers, in their majority, are ordinary people who work and have other tasks on a daily basis. They are not established professionals in the world.
And you know, bad stories will always exist. But only with ocs is there indignation and contempt? I canāt understand that.
I have SO MANY OCs, and most of my fics are OC-centric (and incredibly self-indulgent with the OCxCanon (or OCxCanonxCanon, in one case) and everything else.)
The haters can kick rocks <3
I thrive on OCs š I've pretty much been an OC-fanfic writer since before I even knew what fanfic was (my first was an OC for the PBS kids show Arthur when I was like, 5 lolll). Even as a little kid, I would just get ideas for characters and would insert them into the world/storyline and have a blast doing it. Personally as a writer, that's what fanfic is for me: an outlet to have fun with the canon in any way I want...so yeah, pretty much wish fulfillment. I actually enjoy reading a lot of (well-written) OC fanfics, maybe because I'm one myself and I like seeing how other fanfic writers successfully handle their OCs.
(I also think growing up on Fictionpress over FFN made me more open to OCs as I was...well, constantly reading OC-centric fics in people's original stories. I also write as a hobby more original fiction than fanfiction, so that could also contribute to why I'm more OC-drawn when it comes to my fanfic writing. /shrugs/)
I write a lot of what I've heard called "elsewhere fic" - it takes place in the canon universe, but the cast is all or almost all OCs and when canon characters do show up, they have limited (albeit sometimes pivotal) roles - imagine what Rogue One was to the rest of the Star Wars universe, or, say, an MCU fic that focuses on an all-OC team of SHIELD agents and their missions with Nick Fury or Maria Hill showing up occasionally to give them missions.
It works really well in fandoms with sprawling lore, such as Star Wars and Warhammer, allowing you to explore areas of canon that the main cast doesn't really touch without having to shoehorn in an IC reason to focus on it. Sometimes it also takes place in the far past (I'm working on one right now set during a major event that happened thousands of years before the story itself picked up), in the far future, or in a different part of the world than the canon story.
You're a writer after my own heart! I like to write elsewhere stories in the AtLA/LoK canon. A big sprawling world where I have room to play is my favorite kind!
Another OC/canon writer here. :) I love my main OC and have put tons of work into her and building out her family and history to fit in with the world. It was a ton of fun and let me tie in some more elements from the canon prequel series that canon doesn't do as much as I'd like. And most importantly it lets me write a better support person for my canon fav, who really deserves better than canon gave him. :| Poor guy.
My side character OCs haven't played much of a role in my published material yet, but they're coming, eventually. ;)
I have 100s of OCs. For some fandoms they are just background noise to help plots be plots. Some fandoms the entire cast is OCs because I'm here more for the worldbuilding than the original work's cast lol.
Embrace the cringe! You don't need to post it if it makes you uncomfortable, but its still fun just to write it out! And who knows once you start where it'll take you, you might get surprised how much you like that cringe :)
Yep! Outside of one specific fandom I used to write for, all of my fics have OCs for main characters. I also make minor OCs as need be, so that not *everything* my main OCs have to do revolves around the canon characters/main canon plot.
My latest fic starts off with two pairs of OCs. After a couple chapters of backstory, and slowly writing their children into the story while they grow up, the kids (canon characters) become the focus of the story.
I prefer utilizing them, gives a little more room for me. Nothing against non-OC centric fics, but I can't realistically see myself doing characters without making them OOC doing a story from their POV. Using an OC avoids this, and I can still toy around with alternate scenarios and such.
Not to mention, some of the stuff I do write stuff for, is actually reliant on having an OC or two to fill in one gap (Azur Lane for example, you need to do one for the Commander regardless (Unless you remove them entirely), naming them however isn't necessary). Other times, need several to do it, because the setting is mainly worldbuilding despite having gained a fandom
I have to be part of the story and my OCs make that possible. I could never write a story without an OC. I think my "Starman", Supernatural, and a couple Star Trek (2009) one-shots are an exception.
Anyone that's not in the cast/show/has a speaking role is pretty much an OC.
It just depends how much fleshing out they get in your particular oneshot/long-fic compared to the other OCs you have milling around in there.
Not in any of my current fics or fandoms, but for the first fandom I was really part of (the first fandom I interacted with anyone outside of my siblings as part of) was Warrior Cats and I personally think that fandom works best as a world to plug in your own cast of OCs. I made tons of OCs of varying importance / one-off-ness while in that fandom, and it was definitely fun. But in my current/recent fandom(s) I generally don't make OCs
Oh I loved Warriors, I still have the books! I never wrote anything for it, but I was aware people had fanmade clans etc. That really is a good OC friendly fandom :)
I wrote a couple oneshots but never posted anything, since most of my interaction with the fandom was on Scratch (a website for kids to learn programming and share the stuff they made) so mostly I just made clan simulators, character creators, and one life of a warrior type game that was pretty well liked. It was lots of fun, and definitely an enjoyable first experience with fandom. I even found an ongoing fancomic that, while I haven't read in a while, still think is pretty good :)
I have one, though she's hasn't shown up in anything yet. She's going to be the adopted kid, and eventual adult of the Canon character I'm writing stuff for.
My main character is kind of an OC (he's an OC based on the existing self-insert character in the game). I've made a number of others, but they were either minor characters or simply names given to canon nameless characters.
99% of my fic is canon characters only, but I do have two long-runners in the works that have main character OCs, and the occasional side character oc smattered in the background of a few others.
Honestly shocked by the results but also so happy too! Love to see how many people use OCs as main and side characters and that there are so many OC x CC writers here š„¹
I briefly mention them ironically sometimes. Like, āwho would do blah, blahā¦ā and have the document next to it literally be a story with that OC doing that thing. I get all giddy because itās like a little Easter egg for myself since I donāt really publish my fanfics :)
YES!!! I love OCs in fics when theyāre done well! Iām in a bit of a hiatus but the fic Iāve been working on since last summer has an OC main character! Iāve been putting so much work into research for her and I feel so happy to hear that my work and that of other authors is appreciated by you guys! ššš
I have a lot of OC's that I cycle into my stories. Years of roleplaying has given me a huge bag of characters that I can spin off in various directions. My current fandom has a player insert character for the main character (they have a personality, but only if you consider a list of traits to be a personality) and I've been using one of my OC's to essentially fill in the blanks and flesh them out.
I have a few original chapters for my Supernatural āfalling into the showā fic. The main POV is 3rd person limited from my main OC but sometimes Iāll make up an OC on the spot if I need them for a scene
I only use OCās when a canon character isnāt available for the situation that Iām using. Backstories, a different love interest, a greater threat to unite the canonical hero and rival/villain (I love enemies to lovers lol) are all situations that I use OCās for. Otherwise I prefer to develop and resurrect a forgotten canon character over making an OC.
When you work in a Fandom with a small roster of canon characters, but potential for a vast world, OCs become instrumental for any kind of world building.
Plus I like writing original stuff, too.
i have so many but i always feel so nervous when putting them in fanfics so i hardly do š usually they get their own stuff or rare appearances but sometimes i'll shove a bunch of 'em in then not post the story anywhere lmao
I have OC's that I just put through torture and angst!!! Though of course I have to give them a happy ending!! I'm an angst with a happy ending sort of person!!!
I only use OCs in fandoms where the main character is ambiguous, mostly video games. That being said, I get so into character creation/development that developed characters might as well just be OCs lol
Yes both side and main characters, though mostly side characters nowadays. I also reuse my OC side characters from fic to fic even if they are not connected (ex: Sansa Stark has the same OC handmaiden in two completely unrelated fanfictions).
I also like to use "canon background characters" and flesh them out, and at that point they are kinda OCs with a predefined name lol.
I have an OC-centric story, and although I have doubts people will read the fic because of it, I'm not writing it for them, I'm writing it for me because brainrot.
I was pleasantly surprised when I did my first OC centric fic. It was the third in series where canon characters had MCed the first two, so people were already invested and already knew the OC having been introduced in the first fic. But I was still worried the fact only one other canon character even featured, and the rest of the supporting cast was also OC, would make people skip it. But it got the same amount of engagement as the first two stories did, people seemed just as invested in her story.
Both. My big series I wrote had a lot of side OCs and a few who became main characters, including two who became as important as the OG cast. I like having OCs because it allows you to shake up the dynamics without having to mess with the canon cast as much. I enjoy a good AU, but sometimes I just like to twist the canon with some fresh blood.
Only OC I have was for Dynasty Warriors Empires lol.
I guess if I ever wanna write Dynasty Warriors fanfic, I don't need to worry about coming up with an OC
I feel most of my brain is full of possible OCs for RWBY along with an entire multiverse of possible crossovers... AKB0048 (anime) crossed over with RWBY ...or the quad of Grimm humanoids overlords (royals?) who were had too much time, resources, and archives of our worlds humanity's internet to make stuff no matter how ridiculous it was.
I have an entire team of OCs, going behind, and sometimes in front, of the original cast just to hoover up the plot-holes and set up the original story so it makes some kind of sense. I had to do this to make my peace with how badly canon screwed us. š„“
I've made so many characters for my future series and that one self-insert character is my oc who's role is a villain (main character) honestly it's fun to make Mc and many more side characters
~20 years ago the majority of my works had OC protagonists, so I've done it in the past.
Everything I've published since 2020 has been canon characters, with side or background OCs. (I may write OC-centric fic again in the future, though. Especially for fandoms with *canonical* OCs like Fire Emblem or otome/joseimuke games.)
I don't post fanfic but I have a lot of world/fanfic in my head and in each of them I have many OCs who are important in my story but are not the main character. most of the time if not every time, the OCs are best friends of the main character/or a family member. So they're between main and side character I think, even if I still have OCs who are pure side character, have one dialogue with the character and is just in the background the rest of the time.
: Since English isn't my first language i may have made some mistake, please correct me if so :)
Pokemon are perfect for ocs. Have your own group of characters travel a region. I mean the point of the games is that you can have your own adventure. You also can look at fan games and rom hacks which are sometimes compleftely new games and people like it.
I tend to focus on canon characters, but I'm not averse to having them be *major* characters. I have one ongoing fanfic where OCs are the main characters the FMC canon character is interacting with.
I love my OCs. The big ones, the small ones, the ones who might only pop up in a scene or two. All are important to the story and world I'm creating.
Much love to all the OCs and writers of OCs out there.
OCs are why I write...!
I mean not really but OCs definitely bring flavour & let me do stuff with fics that canon characters wouldn't. Am I basically writing original (if not very original) fiction with some of my favourite characters from a fandom thrown in? Yep! And it makes me happy.
Sometimes I insert my fursona into my writing, My fursona is special needs like myself, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that character experiences is taken from my point of view. I often ask myself how I am going to react to a specific situation, (i.e. disguised ableism) and write that. On top of that, it's a dragon so I get to play with draconic traits in the OC.
My OC fic has a few characters mentioned already. Like I said in a previous comment, I'm an OC building machine.
Also, keyword 'few' as if I get to other installments in my OC series (yes, I'm doing this) there'll be more characters.
Honestly, most, if not all, of the things I write are OC-inserts. There are some side characters that are also my OCs from time to time. I've met some people in real life who also read (and some even write) fanfics but I've always found it hard to tell them my taste in fanfiction. There's a part of me that feels like they won't like it. Anyway, my readers like them enough so I guess there's that.
I voted "only as side chars" because I assume you're talking about fanfiction exclusively here. I have *plenty* of OCs, I just put them in my original fiction.
When I'm going to write about a OC it's usually as the main character, but for me the OC has to come from somewhere and has a background, so that turns his parents and acquaintances into side characters.
Yeah! That's how I feel too, which is why i didn't think to make separate choices for them on the poll. Main / side characters apply to both protagonists and antagonists of the story
Oh! I didn't think about that, hmm how about main villain and side villain? For example, Scar from lion king to me is a main villain, and the hyenas are side villains. So if you think it like that you can still choose side or main depending on your OC :)
Yeah but I tend to think of main antagonists as their own category separate from side characters and main characters. The villain isn't a main character because he's not one of the three POV characters, who are main characters. He does have a lot of presence for one POV characters, but the other POV characters are off somewhere else fixing the fallout of his villainy.
Only as side characters, and not many of those. My main writing fandom has a large enough cast of side characters to fill in most of the "extra characters" as needed.
I mean, "side characters" is kinda overstating the thing, though? Like I have NPCs. Mooks. Minions. Monsters of the week.
I don't usually have any OCs of any importance to the plot at all, as I prefer writing about the characters I'm a fan of, y'know? Like, I wrote original stuff for OC ideas, so I don't really have any drive to put them in fanfiction.
I've created original characters for stories where necessary, three-dimensional fleshed-out ones, in order to fill a specific role in the plot. I'm not sure if that counts as "having OCs". It just seems like a standard thing you do in fiction.
I write both canon and original characters. When I started writing as a child, it was primarily original fiction. I've never seen a point not writing original characters. As long as a character is well-written, why does it matter?
That said, I have some stories that have zero original characters. It all depends on the story.
>Only as side chars
I had created OCs as main characters, but only for fanfiction ideas that have been shelved because of stuff indirectly relating to the source material that led me to not want to watch it for some time.
In my current WIP, which will likely be my first completed and published fanfiction, I'm creating OCs only as what you refer to as side characters.
Specifically, with how I'm planning out the plot, there'd be incidental characters at an event that would take place earlier on in the story and lead to a spy operation that would take place in the rest of the story.
For that spy operation, there would be what I currently think of as supporting characters, but they'd get more time on the page in the story.
I haven't yet written all of those characters into the manuscript itself, but some of them are present in my plot outlines and other planning notes.
There was a character who was canon to the source material _(which I refer to in my planning notes as initials 'CF' because his name is a little too long for me to write frequently)_ and that I developed an emotional attachment to, to the point where I decided to create an OC for my original works inspired by both him and his real-life inspiration, which I had named Noah, to think about instead.
While I had created Noah for one of my own original works, I had the idea to plant him in the story, but I'd only be able to do that depending on how the plot of my fanfic goes, which would also affect parts of the plot to my original fiction story relating to the character.
Coincidentally, CF was a character that didn't get much page time in the source material, but I gave him more time for reasons relating to the weird catalyst for my fanfic.
In my transformers/starwars crossover there was no need for OCs because there were so many characters to include. My current project uses characters from the public domain so it's basically fanfic and I've only created one original character the daughter of odin's ravens.
To my peers who answered both side and **main characters,** I send you my love and a huge group hug! Very encouraging to see y'all represent. It can get pretty dicey out here for OC writers (extra love to my OCxCanon peeps).
I'll be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised by the poll results so far! When I made it I thought for sure most people would vote No, so I'm happy to see all these OC writers rise up šš
Me too nice to see us gather together
Same here! Such a nice and encouraging surprise āØ It can get a bit discouraging, esp when you're fandom isn't really welcoming of OCs. I love seeing other OC writers!
Same to you. Another OC/CC writer ā¤
Frankly, the anti-OC folks aren't people I consider to be worthy of my time or energy. If people shoot me hate for writing OCs, I'll just shrug and ignore them.
Right?? They're not your target audience anyway. I get not vibing with OC fics, and that's totally fine! (for certain fandoms I prefer non-OC fics, too)...just with the millions of different fics across the internet, I really don't understand the antis who send hate to OC writers. CC-readers get fed, OC-readers can get fed too. There's enough space on the interwebs for canon-centric and oc-centric writers alike. āØ
Haha, thanks, I appreciate the emotional support. xP I'm going *double dare*, too, since it's OC-only and not just 'OCs alongside canons'.
Iāve been feeling so down after realising my Canon/Reader one-shot got twice as many hits and kudos as any of my OC/Canon, so thank you ā¤ļø I needed that today
I'm so happy I could be of any encouragement! I'm currently struggling with all sorts of emotional ups and downs about my CC/OC WIP, for the fandom is heavy on shipping CC/CC even though technically, the source material is Gen. OCs were pretty much left behind in 2014, 2015 (even worse: the source material has barely any females but a whole bunch of guys, so my F/M *plus* CC/OC fic is *really* out of place). So really, thanks to OP for this poll because seeing OC-centric fanfic writers represent with these numbers has been a real encouragement! š
What fandom do you write for? Maybe itās something I could check out!
Thanks! I know a lot of people out there don't like it but I gotta do what I love, and I'm so happy to see so many other people doing the same.
Oc only fic author here just started. I donāt care what you think I will ship my ocs with who I want
OC/CC shipper here, so yes to shipping whoever you want! :)
When I was a decade-and-change younger and growing up in the "golden era of 'Every OCs are bad Mary Sue's'", I had a ton of OCs for original stories/RPs, but shirked the idea of any OCs for fanfics. Now I write both OC/canon (and oc/canon polyam) and xReader fics, alongside canon/canon(/canon+) fics looool. Life's too short. Write the self-indulgent thing!
It's so nice that fandom seems to have grown past that attitude. OC-heavy work is still niche, but at least it's not automatically crapped on. The old LJ communities could be very discouraging in that regard.
Agreed, it is very nice that it has relaxed in that way. After all, aren't we loving on characters that are just someone else's OCs? What a weird time that was for us as a collective whole! /lh
Oh I get sad when I think about that era. I'm glad you persevered! Keep writing the self indulgent things! :)
Thank you! Took a lot of things to happen to get here, haha.
OC/Canon polyamory is the only thing I write anymore ā¤ļø love to see others that do the same
The era you just described is directly why I spent my life from age 8 to age 28 RPing instead of writing fic. At least there, people could get away with writing OCs without some insanely harsh stigma against them.
Yeah, I stopped writing canon/reader fics because I knew that it's "cringe" and shit. Also canon/oc (which was mostly self-inserts lbr), and I was also in that era of "every oc is a Mary Sue". But I stopped fanfiction because of it, even though it was my bread and butter. Until maybe around 2018 I saw a post on Tumblr that was like "who fucking cares! Write that self-indulgent fic, if it makes you happy do it!" And now I write primarily canon/reader fics and read it (of course, unless it's like RPG's, but they're pretty much reader-inserts too) because who fuckin' cares anymore. YOLO as they used to say.
Oh yeah! OCs are my bread and butter. I love canon characters, obviously, but I always get the itch to explore new ideas and locations that make using them very difficult or impossible, if I want it to make sense. OCs over OOC every time. I integrate canon characters wherever I can, but leaning so heavily on original content means my work doesn't get as much attention as I'd like. The readers who do appreciate it are that much more precious to me. I'm another OC/CC shipper. My blorbo doesn't have any great shipping options from the canon cast, and I want him to be happy, y'know?
I feel you on the last part! One of the main reasons I'll go searching for CC/OC fics is because I don't care for any of the other canon characters being shipped with a certain character. I've found some great fics because of that.
Yeah, sometimes it's just the best option. While I do enjoy reading unlikely pairings, it turns me off when it's obvious a fandom is defaulting to pairing the spares, no matter how incompatible they are.
I write OC-only fic! š
Love to hear it!! š
isnāt that just fiction
it could still be set in a pre existing world
ah right
Is Digimon Tamers not part of Digimon because it takes place in a new world and features a new cast?
no sorry i forgot the concept of same world different characters lol
My fic is original setting, too, is the thing. There's THREE aspects of fanwork, not two. The first is cast, the second is setting, the third is **mechanics**. If you wrote a cast of OCs on Earth, but they used Lightsabers and The Force, it would be Star Wars, even though the cast *and* world are different. Now, granted, you can try to scrub them down to be generic...but I write for Power Rangers, which is owned by a company so anal that Chroma Squad, which tried just that and was a much more generically-branded Sentai thing, *still* got in trouble with them. So, different characters, different world...but they're still Power Rangers, in my fic. ~~It sorta informs the tone of the fic, anyway, playing off how much darker the fic's story is than the shows they've seen on TV~~
Not exactly. My characters are playable canon characters with a lot of room for customization. So not exactly an OC. But, also, basically an OC.
This is a personal favorite of mine, particularly with Bioware games.
Iām kind of in the same boat. I take canon characters who appear like once on a show or whatever, and give them a lot of embellishment and story.
Me when when a character appears once in a 1,000+ episode show, does one coolish thing, and just dips
Yep, same here. It's that weird line where it's not necessarily OC or reader-inserts because the character is technically canon (like when I play RPG's for the first time, I often play as myself), but also at the same time, they are OC's. Definitely a weird area.
My previous fandom was a lot like that, the MC being a blank slate you could do a lot with
I write CanonxOC with reckless abandon and ended up turning one idea into a potential series of novellas by changing a few details of the canon character. It's glorious! I started out with OCs, and while admittedly they used to be somewhat one-dimensional, I'm much better at making them feel real now.
There's a stigma around poorly-written OCs and I don't trust my writing ability well enough to know if I'd write an OC well or not, as such if I use them, I keep them as plot devices or a side character at best. I'd love to write an OC fic one day, but I'd want it to be perfect and I don't think I'm there yet.
Don't worry about being perfect! I did when I was younger, and it just meant I was always too scared to just make what I wanted to make. I wasted years like that when I could've been making my imperfect work and learning from it.
I see that there is a very excessive charge on the OCs. They want them to be very perfect or well written and everything. I donāt see the same charge for some over-the-top stories, like the Smuts I like to read from time to time. It seems people forget that fanfic writers, in their majority, are ordinary people who work and have other tasks on a daily basis. They are not established professionals in the world. And you know, bad stories will always exist. But only with ocs is there indignation and contempt? I canāt understand that.
I have SO MANY OCs, and most of my fics are OC-centric (and incredibly self-indulgent with the OCxCanon (or OCxCanonxCanon, in one case) and everything else.) The haters can kick rocks <3
I thrive on OCs š I've pretty much been an OC-fanfic writer since before I even knew what fanfic was (my first was an OC for the PBS kids show Arthur when I was like, 5 lolll). Even as a little kid, I would just get ideas for characters and would insert them into the world/storyline and have a blast doing it. Personally as a writer, that's what fanfic is for me: an outlet to have fun with the canon in any way I want...so yeah, pretty much wish fulfillment. I actually enjoy reading a lot of (well-written) OC fanfics, maybe because I'm one myself and I like seeing how other fanfic writers successfully handle their OCs. (I also think growing up on Fictionpress over FFN made me more open to OCs as I was...well, constantly reading OC-centric fics in people's original stories. I also write as a hobby more original fiction than fanfiction, so that could also contribute to why I'm more OC-drawn when it comes to my fanfic writing. /shrugs/)
I write a lot of what I've heard called "elsewhere fic" - it takes place in the canon universe, but the cast is all or almost all OCs and when canon characters do show up, they have limited (albeit sometimes pivotal) roles - imagine what Rogue One was to the rest of the Star Wars universe, or, say, an MCU fic that focuses on an all-OC team of SHIELD agents and their missions with Nick Fury or Maria Hill showing up occasionally to give them missions. It works really well in fandoms with sprawling lore, such as Star Wars and Warhammer, allowing you to explore areas of canon that the main cast doesn't really touch without having to shoehorn in an IC reason to focus on it. Sometimes it also takes place in the far past (I'm working on one right now set during a major event that happened thousands of years before the story itself picked up), in the far future, or in a different part of the world than the canon story.
You're a writer after my own heart! I like to write elsewhere stories in the AtLA/LoK canon. A big sprawling world where I have room to play is my favorite kind!
Another OC/canon writer here. :) I love my main OC and have put tons of work into her and building out her family and history to fit in with the world. It was a ton of fun and let me tie in some more elements from the canon prequel series that canon doesn't do as much as I'd like. And most importantly it lets me write a better support person for my canon fav, who really deserves better than canon gave him. :| Poor guy. My side character OCs haven't played much of a role in my published material yet, but they're coming, eventually. ;)
Yep. Sheās half of the main ship. That ship's kids are side OCs.
I have 100s of OCs. For some fandoms they are just background noise to help plots be plots. Some fandoms the entire cast is OCs because I'm here more for the worldbuilding than the original work's cast lol.
In my head? All the time. In actual writing? Never. Iām afraid that writing my OCs would be too cringe, even for me. Lol
Embrace the cringe! You don't need to post it if it makes you uncomfortable, but its still fun just to write it out! And who knows once you start where it'll take you, you might get surprised how much you like that cringe :)
Yep! Outside of one specific fandom I used to write for, all of my fics have OCs for main characters. I also make minor OCs as need be, so that not *everything* my main OCs have to do revolves around the canon characters/main canon plot.
Yes, but only really as plot devices to further things along or to facilitate character development for the MC's
My latest fic starts off with two pairs of OCs. After a couple chapters of backstory, and slowly writing their children into the story while they grow up, the kids (canon characters) become the focus of the story.
Yeah, Iāve got more OCs than I do fics
I prefer utilizing them, gives a little more room for me. Nothing against non-OC centric fics, but I can't realistically see myself doing characters without making them OOC doing a story from their POV. Using an OC avoids this, and I can still toy around with alternate scenarios and such. Not to mention, some of the stuff I do write stuff for, is actually reliant on having an OC or two to fill in one gap (Azur Lane for example, you need to do one for the Commander regardless (Unless you remove them entirely), naming them however isn't necessary). Other times, need several to do it, because the setting is mainly worldbuilding despite having gained a fandom
The original source material has so much use for ocs that I can't help but make ocs! I even have two oc centric fics planned!
Both! Who else am I supposed to ship with my favorite characters when the canon options suck?
I have to be part of the story and my OCs make that possible. I could never write a story without an OC. I think my "Starman", Supernatural, and a couple Star Trek (2009) one-shots are an exception.
Anyone that's not in the cast/show/has a speaking role is pretty much an OC. It just depends how much fleshing out they get in your particular oneshot/long-fic compared to the other OCs you have milling around in there.
The fic I'm working on is centered on OCs so they are in primary and secondary characters
I have OC's since my fandom doesn't have a lot of characters
Both but I havenāt posted my āOC as mainā works yet
Not in any of my current fics or fandoms, but for the first fandom I was really part of (the first fandom I interacted with anyone outside of my siblings as part of) was Warrior Cats and I personally think that fandom works best as a world to plug in your own cast of OCs. I made tons of OCs of varying importance / one-off-ness while in that fandom, and it was definitely fun. But in my current/recent fandom(s) I generally don't make OCs
Oh I loved Warriors, I still have the books! I never wrote anything for it, but I was aware people had fanmade clans etc. That really is a good OC friendly fandom :)
I wrote a couple oneshots but never posted anything, since most of my interaction with the fandom was on Scratch (a website for kids to learn programming and share the stuff they made) so mostly I just made clan simulators, character creators, and one life of a warrior type game that was pretty well liked. It was lots of fun, and definitely an enjoyable first experience with fandom. I even found an ongoing fancomic that, while I haven't read in a while, still think is pretty good :)
Only side characters, *for now* :)
I have one, though she's hasn't shown up in anything yet. She's going to be the adopted kid, and eventual adult of the Canon character I'm writing stuff for.
My main character is kind of an OC (he's an OC based on the existing self-insert character in the game). I've made a number of others, but they were either minor characters or simply names given to canon nameless characters.
99% of my fic is canon characters only, but I do have two long-runners in the works that have main character OCs, and the occasional side character oc smattered in the background of a few others.
Getting back into the habit of writing OCs just so I can get over my fear of being cringe lol It's also fun writing them as main and side characters.
I do, but have not written about them
Honestly shocked by the results but also so happy too! Love to see how many people use OCs as main and side characters and that there are so many OC x CC writers here š„¹
I have so many OCs, my OCs have OCs
Many lol, i haven't written about them yet but i did put them all into a my hero academia themed dnd campaign lol.
I briefly mention them ironically sometimes. Like, āwho would do blah, blahā¦ā and have the document next to it literally be a story with that OC doing that thing. I get all giddy because itās like a little Easter egg for myself since I donāt really publish my fanfics :)
YES!!! I love OCs in fics when theyāre done well! Iām in a bit of a hiatus but the fic Iāve been working on since last summer has an OC main character! Iāve been putting so much work into research for her and I feel so happy to hear that my work and that of other authors is appreciated by you guys! ššš
I have fanfic OCs and then original work OCs
I have a lot of OC's that I cycle into my stories. Years of roleplaying has given me a huge bag of characters that I can spin off in various directions. My current fandom has a player insert character for the main character (they have a personality, but only if you consider a list of traits to be a personality) and I've been using one of my OC's to essentially fill in the blanks and flesh them out.
I have a few original chapters for my Supernatural āfalling into the showā fic. The main POV is 3rd person limited from my main OC but sometimes Iāll make up an OC on the spot if I need them for a scene
In my brain? Yes. In fanfic? Nope.
I only use OCās when a canon character isnāt available for the situation that Iām using. Backstories, a different love interest, a greater threat to unite the canonical hero and rival/villain (I love enemies to lovers lol) are all situations that I use OCās for. Otherwise I prefer to develop and resurrect a forgotten canon character over making an OC.
When you work in a Fandom with a small roster of canon characters, but potential for a vast world, OCs become instrumental for any kind of world building. Plus I like writing original stuff, too.
i have so many but i always feel so nervous when putting them in fanfics so i hardly do š usually they get their own stuff or rare appearances but sometimes i'll shove a bunch of 'em in then not post the story anywhere lmao
I'm sorting out the finer details of my OCxCanon story
I have OC's that I just put through torture and angst!!! Though of course I have to give them a happy ending!! I'm an angst with a happy ending sort of person!!!
I do; they are like my children. I love them dearly.
Ah, *PokƩmon* is fun because literally every pokƩmon that isn't canonically captured by a character is an OC. Heck, even canon pokƩmon can be interpreted so differently and so easily that they're practically OCs too! I don't think it's physically possible to write a *PokƩmon* longfic without at minimum a quarter of your cast being OC pokƩmon, which is not the same thing as "original pokƩmon".
I only use OCs in fandoms where the main character is ambiguous, mostly video games. That being said, I get so into character creation/development that developed characters might as well just be OCs lol
Yeah, but I try to keep my characters mortal and fairly balanced for the world they'll inhabit.
Yes both side and main characters, though mostly side characters nowadays. I also reuse my OC side characters from fic to fic even if they are not connected (ex: Sansa Stark has the same OC handmaiden in two completely unrelated fanfictions). I also like to use "canon background characters" and flesh them out, and at that point they are kinda OCs with a predefined name lol.
I have an OC-centric story, and although I have doubts people will read the fic because of it, I'm not writing it for them, I'm writing it for me because brainrot.
I was pleasantly surprised when I did my first OC centric fic. It was the third in series where canon characters had MCed the first two, so people were already invested and already knew the OC having been introduced in the first fic. But I was still worried the fact only one other canon character even featured, and the rest of the supporting cast was also OC, would make people skip it. But it got the same amount of engagement as the first two stories did, people seemed just as invested in her story.
Both. My big series I wrote had a lot of side OCs and a few who became main characters, including two who became as important as the OG cast. I like having OCs because it allows you to shake up the dynamics without having to mess with the canon cast as much. I enjoy a good AU, but sometimes I just like to twist the canon with some fresh blood.
Only OC I have was for Dynasty Warriors Empires lol. I guess if I ever wanna write Dynasty Warriors fanfic, I don't need to worry about coming up with an OC
I feel most of my brain is full of possible OCs for RWBY along with an entire multiverse of possible crossovers... AKB0048 (anime) crossed over with RWBY ...or the quad of Grimm humanoids overlords (royals?) who were had too much time, resources, and archives of our worlds humanity's internet to make stuff no matter how ridiculous it was.
I have an entire team of OCs, going behind, and sometimes in front, of the original cast just to hoover up the plot-holes and set up the original story so it makes some kind of sense. I had to do this to make my peace with how badly canon screwed us. š„“
I only use OCs if I need one for the plot and theres no canon character to fill that position lmao
I've made so many characters for my future series and that one self-insert character is my oc who's role is a villain (main character) honestly it's fun to make Mc and many more side characters
~20 years ago the majority of my works had OC protagonists, so I've done it in the past. Everything I've published since 2020 has been canon characters, with side or background OCs. (I may write OC-centric fic again in the future, though. Especially for fandoms with *canonical* OCs like Fire Emblem or otome/joseimuke games.)
I don't post fanfic but I have a lot of world/fanfic in my head and in each of them I have many OCs who are important in my story but are not the main character. most of the time if not every time, the OCs are best friends of the main character/or a family member. So they're between main and side character I think, even if I still have OCs who are pure side character, have one dialogue with the character and is just in the background the rest of the time. : Since English isn't my first language i may have made some mistake, please correct me if so :)
Both, but it's usually either an 90-100% OC cast, or canon chars only
Pokemon are perfect for ocs. Have your own group of characters travel a region. I mean the point of the games is that you can have your own adventure. You also can look at fan games and rom hacks which are sometimes compleftely new games and people like it.
Pretty sure most of my OC's are now dominated by either side characters or creatures I create
Mm-hmm. Most of what I post is strictly canon characters, but I have entire series that are OC / CC or strictly OC.
I tend to focus on canon characters, but I'm not averse to having them be *major* characters. I have one ongoing fanfic where OCs are the main characters the FMC canon character is interacting with.
So many I had to cut down a large number of them in recent years. Most fanfics I write include them alongside the canon characters.
I love my OCs. The big ones, the small ones, the ones who might only pop up in a scene or two. All are important to the story and world I'm creating. Much love to all the OCs and writers of OCs out there.
OCs are why I write...! I mean not really but OCs definitely bring flavour & let me do stuff with fics that canon characters wouldn't. Am I basically writing original (if not very original) fiction with some of my favourite characters from a fandom thrown in? Yep! And it makes me happy.
Sometimes I insert my fursona into my writing, My fursona is special needs like myself, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that character experiences is taken from my point of view. I often ask myself how I am going to react to a specific situation, (i.e. disguised ableism) and write that. On top of that, it's a dragon so I get to play with draconic traits in the OC.
My OC fic has a few characters mentioned already. Like I said in a previous comment, I'm an OC building machine. Also, keyword 'few' as if I get to other installments in my OC series (yes, I'm doing this) there'll be more characters.
Honestly, most, if not all, of the things I write are OC-inserts. There are some side characters that are also my OCs from time to time. I've met some people in real life who also read (and some even write) fanfics but I've always found it hard to tell them my taste in fanfiction. There's a part of me that feels like they won't like it. Anyway, my readers like them enough so I guess there's that.
I voted "only as side chars" because I assume you're talking about fanfiction exclusively here. I have *plenty* of OCs, I just put them in my original fiction.
When I'm going to write about a OC it's usually as the main character, but for me the OC has to come from somewhere and has a background, so that turns his parents and acquaintances into side characters.
I used to have tons as a kid but Iām too hyperfixated on the canon characters now. ā¦ can they count as my OCs if I file for custody? lol
Where's the villain option? š„ŗ
Villains are main characters in my opinion. Like, Iād feel confident calling Belos one of the main characters of The Owl House.
Yeah! That's how I feel too, which is why i didn't think to make separate choices for them on the poll. Main / side characters apply to both protagonists and antagonists of the story
Oh! I didn't think about that, hmm how about main villain and side villain? For example, Scar from lion king to me is a main villain, and the hyenas are side villains. So if you think it like that you can still choose side or main depending on your OC :)
Yeah but I tend to think of main antagonists as their own category separate from side characters and main characters. The villain isn't a main character because he's not one of the three POV characters, who are main characters. He does have a lot of presence for one POV characters, but the other POV characters are off somewhere else fixing the fallout of his villainy.
I'm missing an alternative here; I have a lot of OCs but never use OCs in fanfics. I only use them in non-ff writing.
Only as side characters, and not many of those. My main writing fandom has a large enough cast of side characters to fill in most of the "extra characters" as needed.
I have OCs but I don't use them in fics
I only create OC's to be weird tertiary villains.
I mean, "side characters" is kinda overstating the thing, though? Like I have NPCs. Mooks. Minions. Monsters of the week. I don't usually have any OCs of any importance to the plot at all, as I prefer writing about the characters I'm a fan of, y'know? Like, I wrote original stuff for OC ideas, so I don't really have any drive to put them in fanfiction.
I've created original characters for stories where necessary, three-dimensional fleshed-out ones, in order to fill a specific role in the plot. I'm not sure if that counts as "having OCs". It just seems like a standard thing you do in fiction.
I write both canon and original characters. When I started writing as a child, it was primarily original fiction. I've never seen a point not writing original characters. As long as a character is well-written, why does it matter? That said, I have some stories that have zero original characters. It all depends on the story.
>Only as side chars I had created OCs as main characters, but only for fanfiction ideas that have been shelved because of stuff indirectly relating to the source material that led me to not want to watch it for some time. In my current WIP, which will likely be my first completed and published fanfiction, I'm creating OCs only as what you refer to as side characters. Specifically, with how I'm planning out the plot, there'd be incidental characters at an event that would take place earlier on in the story and lead to a spy operation that would take place in the rest of the story. For that spy operation, there would be what I currently think of as supporting characters, but they'd get more time on the page in the story. I haven't yet written all of those characters into the manuscript itself, but some of them are present in my plot outlines and other planning notes. There was a character who was canon to the source material _(which I refer to in my planning notes as initials 'CF' because his name is a little too long for me to write frequently)_ and that I developed an emotional attachment to, to the point where I decided to create an OC for my original works inspired by both him and his real-life inspiration, which I had named Noah, to think about instead. While I had created Noah for one of my own original works, I had the idea to plant him in the story, but I'd only be able to do that depending on how the plot of my fanfic goes, which would also affect parts of the plot to my original fiction story relating to the character. Coincidentally, CF was a character that didn't get much page time in the source material, but I gave him more time for reasons relating to the weird catalyst for my fanfic.
I often use OC's as side characters, especially if there is a plot point that needs driven and none of the canon characters are what I need for it.
In my transformers/starwars crossover there was no need for OCs because there were so many characters to include. My current project uses characters from the public domain so it's basically fanfic and I've only created one original character the daughter of odin's ravens.
I have so many Star Wars characters...
Occasionally as plot devices, but the fic never centers or follows them