Writing Real, Original OCs

Hi. I'm Alexi. Before we get started, there's some things we need to get out of the way.

[2019 EDIT: wow. I wrote this when I was about 15, and trying to figure out what was wrong with my first book, that I had been working on since I was about 11. I had submitted it directly to publishers back in 2009, when you still mailed queries to publishers, and you still had to insert your own HTML to make things bold or underlined.  Overall I'm still proud of the writing theory I learned and shared, and I'm happy that this has resonated with so many people. Since this post is still gaining traction, I did wanna add some 2019 edits of what I've learned since then.]

My advice is not gold. It's probably not even silver. It's not law. It's just advice. But I've been writing for years, and I've been working on this for a few days now, so It'd be pretty nice if you listened to me.

Writing believable characters starts off pretty difficult. The first characters you write will probably be shallow, and/or idealized versions of
yourself. Your first villain is probably 'just evil because he's evil'.
Your characters fall into a number of stereotypes, and become labeled by them.
Maybe you're terrified of your character being labled a Mary Sue, so you write your characters excessively ordinary.
Maybe you write extrasuperfabulous people because you want your characters to be liked, and you're afraid of your characters being boring.
DON'T WORRY. THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL. EVERYBODY STARTS OUT LIKE THIS.
Throw this mindset out the window, because:

There is one thing that every main character needs to be.

They don't need to be likeable. They don't have to be good people. They don't have to be attractive. They don't even have to be very relateable (although there should be emotional grounding that allows us to enter the character's headspace, especially if they're a Point of View (POV) character).

But above all else, Your characters need to be INTERESTING.

Why? Because who wants to sit down and read about a boring character? Overpowered/ "Mary Sue" characters, characters that rely on tropes to the point they become cliche/stereotypes, or excessively normal characters can often leave audiences with their eyes glazed over.


I'm  not going to talk about stereotypes or Mary Sues (very much) because, we're going to focus on making real, gritty characters.
*2019 Voice*
Actually, let's talk about Mary Sues for a second.

Because this was something I was super afraid of. The character in my first novel was LITERALLY named Mary, and she had a whole laundry list of superpowers.

In the years since I wrote this, I saw the term Mary Sue used more and more for just "any female character that fufills a female power fantasy in a story aimed at a general audience."

If you are a female writer or a writer of color, I strongly suggest not worrying if your audience will perceive your lead character as a Mary Sue. A lot of the discussion around overpowered characters- which I originally used this term as a shorthand for, is mostly rooted in bias and sexism. Write your Wonder Woman, your Rey, your Captain Marvels. 

I do still personally favor a little more grit and flaw than the goddess figure of Wonder Woman, because there are still so few female leads that have reached pop-culture ascension, but I did just want to say, there's nothing wrong with a power fantasy, if you know you're writing a power fantasy for a historically marginalized group!

*2019 Voice ends.*

Even if your character has a few 'Suey' characteristics, they can still be great characters? What's the big secret? Well, read on my friend.

For every good trait, there is an equal and opposite bad trait.

Is  your character super-mega-sexy? Well, she's probably also super conceited. Are they innocent and optimistic? That means they're probably  also naïve or oblivious.

There are several different ways to balance your character out. I'll be using my own OC (original Character)  for all the examples.

Good Trait=Bad Trait

For background characters, and for simpler traits, it can be this easy.

Claire is Independent=Claire is selfish.

For more complex characters, and in most cases, it isn't this easy.

Having a very strong traits leads to sub-traits that balance the original trait out.

Claire is Independent= Claire is selfish/assertive/untrusting=Claire has high self value=Claire is egotistical.

Claire is Independent=Claire is creative/unique=Claire is crazy.

One strong trait leads to several sub-traits. You can create a whole character based on one individual trait.

The Character Diamond

This is a very basic explanation of the "Character Diamond," originally designed by David Freeman:
Base Trait:
This trait is the 'spine' of your character. It's the main trait of your character. It doesn't necessarily have to be a positive trait.
Supportive Trait:
A somewhat less important trait, but still vital to the way a character thinks and acts.
Or course, a character can have more supportive traits.
Fatal Trait:
This is a trait that almost always brings your character in awkward or dangerous situations. Your character may deny that this trait exists,
but it's there, no matter what. It's always a 'negative' trait, and a character's weakness.
Hidden Trait:
A hidden trait is a trait that your character is often unaware of.

Okay, this is the professional one. Any balanced character should be able to fit into a character diamond.
To prove it, I'll use a well-known character, Harry Potter.

Base Trait:
Bravery. Harry is a very gutsy
Supportive Trait:
Stupidity. If Harry was a bit wiser, he would be more cautious.
Fatal Trait:
Curiosity. Harry's need to do things people have told him not to constantly leads him and his friends into trouble.
Hidden Trait:
While it may not seem like it, Harry is arrogant. He often refuses help.There's also the fact that Harry always feels as though he needs to be the hero.

There is a reason behind every trait & choice your character makes.

Background:

We are built from our experiences. A character's background is the cause for their traits.

Where they're from: When  we are raised within a culture, the traditions and quirks of that culture rub off on us. An Egyptian man is used to different ways of showing respect, different considerations of what is rude, than a Canadian one. Do your research. Just because we live in a globalized society, doesn't mean everyone is as comfortably brash as an American.

When they're from: Likewise,  even if two people are from the exact same place, if they're from different times, they're obviously going to have different behaviors, because there is a difference in the environment and what is acceptable.  Say there are two women who were born in Greenwich, London. They  are both middle class, and they have similar personalities. The first one lives from 1882-1945. The second is born in 1970. While it is the same exact city, these women live in entirely different worlds. The first one lives through WWI and WWII. She sees women's suffrage, the loss of the British Empire, and the decline of aristocracy. She sees the  arrival of electricity, telephones, and the railway. The second woman lives in our world, in a country where women are treated equally, and social class no longer matters as much. *2019 Voice.* Well. That didn't end up. Being what I thought it would be huh. So a woman born in the 70's today is a Gen X'er who saw second wave feminism and then saw the rise of global fascism! So. She's still really in tough times.*2019 voice ends.*

Social Standing/class: Another  thing to consider about behavior. When you're rich, you have more opportunities and luxuries than a poorer person. In places where social standing means everything (e.g. India and Castes) this will affect your character more. Education also makes a world of difference.

Other Characters: Do you ever find yourself doing things that you've noticed your friends do?
It could be anything from saying a word a different way, to a change in your opinion. When we like people, we become a bit more like them, in very small ways. Your character's relationship with other characters
shapes them. This can be utilized as a facet of the character's backstory to establish an existing relationship (Character A carries a pocket knife from her sister at all times), or to show how a relationship has become important to your character over the course of your story.

Backstory: We are made of our experiences. Everything in your character's back story contributes to their outlook on life, and their behavior. If your character has had a horrible life, but trusts easily and thinks the world is a great place, then you have what is called a continuity error. Continuity errors occur when you contradict yourself when writing, for example, if you have a character who is allergic to peanuts at the beginning, and gorging on PB&Js the next.

For important characters, it is essential to have a basic idea of their backstory. This is where character sheets come in. You don't need birthdays, favourite bands, and pets for everyone. You don't need to know every biographical detail, but it's good to have a broad strokes idea!

However, whenever you introduce such information to the story, write it down in a character file. This will save you loads of time searching, later.

So, the homework here: write out basic backstory info for all main characters. Note down all features mentioned in the story in the same document as they occur.

I'll list some good character sheets in the artists comments.

Motivation

We do things, because we want things. Everything you do is in hopes of a desired outcome.  I am writing this article so more people know how to write interesting, dynamic characters. I have the fan on because it's stuffy and I want to cool down. I ate cake with lunch because cake tastes good, and I wanted that taste in my mouth. Similarly, your characters are driven by motivation, and until they get what they want, they will act in order to do so. Conflicting desires lead to, you guessed it.... conflict! It's great to put conflict everywhere you can in a story. It's fun to write.
Motivations, and the reasons behind a character's choices define them.

Likes & Dislikes:
Likes and dislikes play majorly into our motivations. Victoria tripped Susan because she hates Susan--> Victoria tripped Susan because she wanted to see Susan hurt. Make sure that a character's preferences don't contradict their motivations.

Human reactions validate your characters.

This  is the real ticket for creating believable characters. It not only validates your characters, but all the absurd things that can happen to them over the course of your story.

*2019 Voice* Some stories have a larger-than-life, mythic tone. Knowing the tone you are aiming for- Theatrical? Mythic? Emotionally grounded? Comedic? Ironic? Can help you choose when to place those human reactions. This is a personal taste thing, but I do find it very frustrating when a character just kind of rolls with something that should seem absurd, challenging, or upsetting to them in the structure of their story/the world-building. I tend to like slower stories, or stories where the emotional reactions are continuously addressed, rather than pushed to the side to continue the big fighting plot. A few months after I wrote this I got REALLY into Homestuck, which, while flawed, I still think is an amazing study in creating memorable characters!

At the time of originally writing this I was very into Puella Madoka Magica, which I don't necessarily regard as a deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre anymore, but it does ask some interesting questions about well-established tropes of that genre. PPM asks: "What if the being we generally trust to recruit Magical Girls had ill intentions?" and everything in the story takes off from there, and all of the character's reactions make sense for the tone that central conflict sets. In PMM's world, it's okay that Madoka's hair is pink, because it's a clear character design choice. 

I think in 2010ish when this was originally written I was really embarrassed about liking magical girls, but hey, the example is still a poppin' magical realism short story! *2019 Voice ends.*

Say Iris Farthing was born with bright blue hair (a classic sue-characteristic).

This is completely unnatural, and probably very frightening for her parents. Can you imagine the following scenario?

Iris's mother only shows the baby to close friends & family, and becomes very reclusive.

As soon as Iris is old enough for reception/kindergarten, her mother begins bleaching her hair, so she looks like her parents.

Iris  grows up feeling very conflicted, introverted and sheltered. She has the feeling that she cannot show herself to the world, because it will cause harm. Anger starts to build inside her.

You see what doing one extraordinary thing can do to a person? It builds great conflict. You could write a whole story about that conflict.

Also note, a great part of Iris's personality comes from the fact that she has blue hair.

The bottom line is, you can throw any number of absurd things at your characters, and as long as they react like a proper human being.

Do your Research!

This  is extremely important in all writing, but it is so, so, important that  you research things you are unsure of with your character. Does your character have an eyepatch? Put one on for a few hours and walk around the house. Is your character a firefighter? Research all you can about training/what it's like/ things all firefighters know.

THERE IS NOTHING YOUR READERS WILL HATE MORE THAN AN ERROR OF THIS KIND.

It's insulting. It usurps your entire reality. Let me repeat that.

THERE IS NOTHING YOUR READERS WILL HATE MORE THAN AN ERROR OF THIS KIND.

Never go OOC!

This is an important note. As I said before, there is a reason behind every choice your characters make. If your character does something that seems drastically OOC or (out of character) then our belief will be shattered. If your character goes OOC then, well, there had better be a damn good reason for it. Sure, characters grow and change, and sometimes you can mistake OOC for character growth and development. Growth and development is fantastic!
OOC isn't.
But I promise you, you will know when your character does something they wouldn't. It will feel unnatural. Look out for it!
Of course, if your character takes a love potion or suddenly looses all their memories there will be change, and probably OOC, that's a damn good reason.

Avoid Stagnant Characters!

You've heard the saying about how people change, right? Well, characters do too. When you write a story, you set your characters up against a
conflict. Each time a character moves past a conflict, they change.

This is part of letting your characters grow naturally. Don't force them to be the same, or micromanage them. They'll start feeling fake to both you and your readers.

Some characters will change less than others,  these will be your minor characters. Why? They've had less conflict and reason to change.
There is also a theory that in classic good vs evil, the good guys win because they've changed and grown as a character, and the bad guys loose because they've remained static.
There's a number of stories that prove this to be true (anyone remember the lion king?)
So, remember: Your main characters need to be dynamic. Minor Characters remain stagnant as a way to measure the change.

It's okay to base characters off of yourself and/or people you know.

As long as you don't idealize them, this is perfectly fine, and makes writing much easier. Don't treat them as favourites either.

Have fun.

The bottom line is, if you want to make your characters unique, you don't need to give them special powers and mysterious pasts (although, you can if it suits you), give them character!
You have no idea how freeing writing messy, faulted characters is. It makes them enjoyable to write about and explore as an author. It also makes them more interesting and relateable to the reader.

*2019 Voice* Please, please, don't stress about what your audience's reaction to your character will be. If you are writing an #ownvoices character, please don't feel as though they have to represent ALL of that demographic. Let your male characters cry, let your female characters punch walls and kill god. Write a nonbinary character! (with research if you're not nb!). If your character's choices aren't driving the plot, at least let their reactions to forces greater than them affect it. I think the TL;DR is: Do your research. Be emotionally honest whenever possible. *2019 Voice over.*

If you're willing to take my advice, please try to keep it in the back of your mind while writing.

*2019 Voice again* Thank you to the people who've written me over the years to say the original helped them! Hopefully the amendments will continue to aid other young writers. Since then I have finally written another book, which is currently out for submission with agents. I took a long break from writing, and I'm really happy to be back on the saddle. Happy Holidays! *2019 Voice over.*