Original characters in fandom

[raven]

I blame hathy_col, too little sleep (fell asleep at seven, got up at one!) and too much time on my hands for this latest set of fannish musings...

I hate original characters in fandom, hate them. The reasons for this are not quite clear. One of them is clearly a fear of Mary-Sue-ism, of course, and as far as I see it, there are two ways of creating a Mary-Sue. One is the classic method, the creation of a fascinating, perfect-in-ever-way original character with strange-coloured eyes who then goes on to have sex with/be fallen in love with/screw over the canon character of your choice. The other method, less common but equally annoying, is to take a minor canon character and flesh them out. This is a good thing to do, but not so good when you make them captivating in every single way and immensely desirable to boot, despite the fact their inherent perfection has so far been miraculously unnoticed by the rest of the canon until you took a hand in it.

But that doesn't go all the way towards explaining my hatred of original characters, as it's perfectly possible to fall into the Mary-Sue trap without using an original character at all. And I ought to make clear, I don't hate all original characters. My favourite original character anyone has ever created is from Anais' Dr Jackson's Diary. The character's name was Sam Jones, commonly known as "Jonesy" and he was well-imagined and very funny, and despite the fact he was in a relationship with a canon character, no footfall of a Mary-Sue was ever heard in his vicinity.

But I hate creating my own original characters. Even when all they do is say one line, pass someone the ketchup, appear in a list, I hate them. Even when they're vital to the plot, I hate them, and it's a sad truth that most fandoms do need original characters to a greater or lesser degree. MWPP need classmates and teachers, the M*A*S*H doctors need patients, the SG teams need aliens. You need them.

But then we reach the inherently stupid part of my mind. For me, what defines an original character is his/her name. It's naming a character that makes them real, in my ever so humble opinion. In one of my latest M*A*S*H fics (the Mulcahy one, Hallelujah) there is an original character who is a vital part of the plot. He's a fairly well thought-out character - although the story was only 2500 words long, he has something of a personality, a thorough physical description and even something of a backstory. What he doesn't have is a name, and that was how I avoided setting off my own alarm bells. Because the moment I gave him a name, I would have immediately have started thinking, no, no, no, and scratched him out of the story, which would have meant the plot would have major holes in it, which I'd try to fix up and fail miserably at, and then the whole fic would just fall apart. I decided beforehand it would be easier if I just avoided giving him a name at all.

I can carry this to the other extreme, too. The Fic From Hell is a Harry Potter fic, and at the beginning, at least, it features a character named Milicent Bagnold. I would be prepared to bet that hardly anyone knows who she is. However, she is a canon character, mentioned just once in passing in the books, and all we know about her is the fact she was Minister of Magic before Cornelius Fudge. In my fic, she's an old lady, rather severe and given to pomposity and condescension, but in her own way she's one of the good guys. She just relies too much on bureaucracy. These are all characteristics I could have given an original character, whose only difference would have been a different name, but I couldn't do that without my inner voices shrieking, "No!" As things stand, she has a canon name and my writing is therefore made mysteriously easier. I might be well and truly jossed come the next two books - JKR might reveal her to be a ditzy blonde airhead or a Death Eater in disguise - but I won't mind. Which I find weird, as what I have basically done is created my own character. It's all in the name!

So, yes... all this rambling did have a point. Am I the only one with this particular problem? From what I know of you people, you don't seem to have the same difficulties in writing as I do, especially judging by how well some of you write, but I thought I'd put this out in any case. Any thoughts?

Comments

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I LIKE OCs. I like OFCs. In fact, I'm reasonably tolerant to Mary-Sues.

Allow me to explain. For years, while I toiled in the Stargate fandom, a Mary-Sue meant self-insertation, simple as that. And I didn't like them. But there weren't many, so that was okay.

Then I got to LOTR, which defined Mary-Sue as "irritating female character who everyone loves". And I didn't like them. And there didn't seem to be that many. So that was ok.

Then, as I got deeper into the fandom, I found more and more of the dreaded Mary-Sue, and it got to the point where EVERY OFC was tainted with the hand of the Sue. And then I realised that every OFC in ME was suddenly classed as an MS, even the rather groovy ones like Melia and Bronwyn. (that'll make sense to no one). So I stopped mentally classing all OCs as Mary-Sues, and instead I starting reading them avidly, to find the good ones. And there are some good ones out there.

But I still found the bad ones. Which I hated. And thats okay. Because now I just take the mick out of them, or wail in pain, and I've even taken up the challenge of writing my own OFC, to see if I can do it.

And thats okay.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

I write fan-fiction with canon characters, with only rare exceptions (Igor's granddaughter?).

I write original fiction, where there's no canon from which to draw.

I can't write inbetween.

It seems to me that, in M*A*S*H at least, the succession of patients are canon characters. It seems to me that their families back home are canon characters, even if we never see them. We're not short of fic-fodder inside canon. If people can write BJ's daughter, or Hawkeye's father, or Mulcahy's sister, then that's okay.

I've fleshed out Daniel, Hawk's dad, considerably. I retold Daniel's sonnet in prose, and there was loads of non-canon Daniel in it. And I didn't publish. That's my response to Mary-Sue-ism. I just don't release the fic. Or it gets retold outside the fandom, as an original fic, and I pray that no-one recognises the muse. But that's rarer.

[niqaeli]

I don't write much, period. I have issues with follow-through. Further, I have some severe whacked issues with fanfic--it's a love/hate thing that is wildly complex and I don't even want to try and explain it in a comment.

Anyway... I have far less trouble creating an OC for fanfic than I do my own characters. I'm always terrified that I'm over-identifying and putting too much of myself into my original OCs; in fanfic, it's much easier for me to avoid that since the sandbox I'm playing in isn't my own creation as well.

So I guess I'm the opposite. There is a great deal signifigance in names for me, though. A character of my creation, be it an OC in a fanfic or completely my own, has to have a name for me to be able to write hir. A name that really reflects hir, or otherwise, s/he just melts away.

*hugses*

[emerald-embers.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I used to be very, very sceptical about creating original characters for the purpose of fanfiction, and I started off by just having them as bit parts - generally vampire victims, inn-owners, stuff like that. Nameless, almost faceless, but still with their own emotions and lives. It was only when I started work on one particular Legacy of Kain fic that I became majorly involved with original characters, as I had no choice but to flesh out the whole fic with them - the vampiric empire was not created with a total of seven vampires who barely seem to stand each other ^_^.

So... I think first things first [after deciding the role they'll play] is to give them their own morals and principles. This stops them being generic and makes it possible for you to decide if a certain action is OOC for them. This helps majorly :).

It also helps, physically, to know their flaws and their kinks. This humanises them further :). Be it a mole, annoying hair, whatever - but not to make an /enormous/ deal of this because, well... for example, Final Fantasy 8 didn't have the entire story populated by people asking how Squall got his prominent facial scar. People just don't generally ask about stuff like that :).

Lastly with the name... I think it's just a touch of awkwardness with making a character totally 'real' and /there/ in the story. Names give people identities, make them one specific person as opposed to anybody with those attributes :). Just try and make them something reasonably normal for their environment. For example, in England, you'd choose names that are not overtly normal because then the genericness is enhanced - John Smith, William Jones - but not the typical Mary Sue froofiness either.

Last but not least, with the fleshing out teeny canon bit-parts... this is one of my fave little bits of fanfiction, and I don't /quite/ think of it as Mary Sue or original character things. I've always though of it as fitting the general point behind all fanfiction - the "What if?" scenario.

So there you go :)

[disc0nnect.livejournal.com]

i find myself not being able to write ANYTHING in the way of fiction. you're one of the lucky ones who got an imagination when they were handing out brains. i, on the other hand, must have thought they said something else because i have absolutely no creativity. i can write analysis just fine. teachers upon professors upon teachers have praised my analysis skills. i think i've got a knack with creating interesting theses.. but that's about where my writing skills end.

so, in conclusion: shh, i'm jealous, i wish that i could write awesome stories.

[ex-svendra317.livejournal.com]

I love OC's. I think people are afraid of writing OC's because they know the primary function of fanfic is to put your favorite characters into situations you'd like to see them in (snogging other guys for one). You don't want an OC to take up important canon character time. But I think OC's can be used to build a wider picture and more intricate plot, especially if you're writing a long story. They make less sense in a short fic.

I'd never deny an urge to write an OC into a fanfic because it stunts your creativity when you don't explore new ideas. The aim should always be to write a well-rounded character that will inspire sympathies or conflicts in the reader. Mary Sues can be avoided if your primary aim is to tell a good engaging story.

*goes off to write fic about MacGvyer meeting a gorgeous super intelligent gal called Danvers*