#creating ocs

[luna-azzurra]

Some Tips for writing internal conflict

Wanting Two Things at Once Imagine your character really wants to chase after something big, like a dream school, a major opportunity, or maybe even moving to a new city. But at the same time, they’re terrified of leaving behind everything they’ve ever known. Or maybe they’re in a relationship that’s holding them back, but they can’t bring themselves to let go. Show them getting pulled in two directions, torn between their ambition and their fear of losing the people or places that ground them.

Right vs. Wrong Sometimes, your character will know deep down what the right choice is, but it’s the most difficult one to make. Like, maybe they see someone getting bullied and know they should stand up, but doing so could make them a target. Or maybe they have to decide between helping a friend and doing something that could ruin their own future. These moral dilemmas create intense internal conflict because it forces them to question who they are and what they stand for.

Doubting Themselves We all have moments where we wonder if we’re enough, smart enough, strong enough, brave enough. Let your character wrestle with that same doubt. Maybe they’re the kid who has always been told they’re special, but now they’re in a place where everyone is just as good, and they start to wonder if they even belong. Or maybe they’ve been through something tough, and they’re not sure if they can bounce back. These moments of insecurity make your character feel human, like they’re trying to figure it all out, just like everyone else.

Dreams vs. Fears Show your character dreaming big but getting frozen by their own fears. It’s like wanting to ask someone out but being terrified of rejection, or wanting to move away for college but being scared to leave home. Let them imagine all the things that could go wrong , that moment when fear makes them doubt if they should even try. But also show their desire burning just as strong, making it impossible to ignore. That’s the heart of internal conflict: they’re stuck between wanting something so bad and being afraid of what it’ll cost to go after it.

Beliefs Being Challenged As your character grows, the world will start challenging their beliefs. Maybe they grew up in a family that drilled certain values into them, and now they’re meeting people who see things differently. Or maybe they’re experiencing something new, and it’s changing their perspective. It’s like when you think you have everything figured out, and then life throws something at you that makes you go, "Wait, maybe I’ve been wrong this whole time." This kind of internal conflict is powerful because it forces the character to question who they’ve always been.

Keeping Secrets If your character is hiding something, like a mistake they made, feelings they’re afraid to admit, or a truth they don’t want to face, that secret becomes a huge part of their internal conflict. The fear of being found out or of dealing with the consequences can create a constant pressure in their mind. Maybe they’re scared they’ll lose their friends if the truth comes out, or maybe they’re dealing with guilt they can’t shake. The tension comes from their battle to keep it hidden while knowing they can’t keep it locked away forever.

Pressure from Everyone Your character might feel like they’re trapped between what they want for themselves and what everyone else wants from them. It could be pressure from parents, who have their whole future planned out, or pressure from friends to fit in or follow the crowd. Maybe your character wants to be true to themselves, but they’re scared of disappointing people or standing out too much. This kind of internal conflict is super relatable because, at some point, everyone feels like they’re stuck between living for themselves and living for others.

Fear of Failing Sometimes the biggest obstacle isn’t the external challenge but the internal fear of failure. Your character might have big dreams, but they’re paralyzed by the thought of messing up. Whether it’s competing in a sport, performing on stage, or just trying something new, the fear of not being good enough can be overwhelming. Maybe they’re afraid that if they fail, everyone will see them differently, or worse, that they’ll see themselves differently. The internal conflict comes from their desire to succeed battling against their crippling fear of failure.

[moonandris]

✨NEW WRITEBLR TAG GAME JUST DROPPED✨

If you're struggling with breathing life into your OC's, try this funny yet stupidly simple trick/writeblr tag game I just came up with. I call it the 'Roast Your OCS and Make It Into a Title' tag game. 🤣

So, we've all heard of fictional character archetypes and stereotypes that are often present in fiction, right? We all know it's not good to have shallow, surface level characters that have no complexity or nuance to their personalities, because real life humans contain multitudes, contradictions, and are in general very complicated beings.

Throw all that shit out for this exercise and toss it into the trash! 🗑️ In this tag game, we're gonna be reducing all our OC's to the most basic, mundane, stereotypical/archetypal renditions of themselves and making it Fit Into a Title!

Here's an example of my main character + his besties from my Science Fantasy WIP:

Cold and Stoic Pretty Boy Loaner With Social Anxiety and Unhealed Trauma Tries to Save His Sister

Disowned Goth Femme Fatale With Bitchy Yet Gentle Attitude Is Socially Neglected and Cries A Lot

Occasionally Serious Himbo City Boy Cop Tries and Fails to Fight Crime With Therapy and Rehabilitation

Snobby Know-It-All Imperial Man Who Somehow Has Both A Superiority and Inferiority Complex

Protective Amazonian Lesbian Sadist Who Will Absolutely Step On You and Ruin Your Life Forever

Gifted Slutty Bisexual Boy Genius Is Hiding a Dark Secret and Is Very Zesty (Rude) About It

For this tag game I'm gonna be tagging A LOT of people but mainly people who've interacted with me recently. Free to reblog if you see this on your dash, even if you're not tagged. I find this shit HILARIOUS and I would love to see what everyone manages to come up with! No pressure at all if you don't wanna participate, this is all just for fun. ❤️😊

@in-heavens-trenches @revenantlore @cupandquillcafe @fattybattysblog @eames-with-a-rose

@gailynovelry @kestalsblog @dru-reads-writeblr @druidx @indigowriting

@diabolical-blue @writercoracain @tildeathiwillwrite @craig-h-stuart @illarian-rambling

@coarsely @rjcopeseethemald @jackiezenauthor @squarebracket-trickster @kaylinalexanderbooks

@pen-of-roses @flock-from-the-void @sarandipitywrites @buffythevampirelover @imsaanvikhanna

@songsofsomnia @shadow-of-tea-and-tea @owlsandwich @faeriecinna @hauntedluminarybbq

@sarahlizziewrites @ayzrules @rickie-the-storyteller @janec23

If you want some extra help you can also look up character stereotypes/archetypes like I did. There's hundreds of blog posts about this topic but here's some helpful links so you can judge/roast your OC's to your heart's content:

[stephofromcabin12]

[theplantbish]

Step 1: create a guy

Step 2: put the guy in a horrible situation

Step 3: cry about the guy being in a horrible situation

Step 4: repeat steps 2 and 3 until satisfied

[novemberhope]

thinkg what you write about cordelia

if you give her a slightly darker skintone you could pass of crocodile as her parent (if you're still looking for a backstory for her)

Not a bad idea, anon, since I still don't have any idea who I want her parents to be. But... the crocomom theory was never confirmed so I'm unsure which route I should take in this scenario. Is Crocodile her dad then or her mom? And what do we know of Crocodile's backstory that would give us a valid reason for Cordelia growing up in the streets? And who would the other parent be? I'm open for more suggestions though because this actually sounds interesting.

[takemetoneverlandihateithere]

My constant nightmare is creating OCs but not knowing how to fuckings DRAW, I want to see them but I can't draw for shit 😭😭😭

[thylocalswampcreature]

The urge to post about my OCS is like the call of the Void, beckoning me to just info dump about them here👹💀

[apprenticeluck]

Hi! My name is Luck and this is my first time in writing!

Fellow writers, any tips on how to start world building?

[brightsunsmeanshello]

Hello there! I hope you don't mind me asking some questions about your Star Wars oc?

How does one choose a race, home planet, lightsaber colour and all that good stuff?

No pressure to answer nut many thanks if you do ♡

Thank you for the question! (And sorry for the lengthy answer, I got excited 🫣)

I have a few OCs

My first was actually a requirement for where I worked (you had to have a whole backstory, it was amazing 😍) and it introduced me to the whole process of creating a character

Important things I learned from this one-

1. If you will be performing as that character often, make their backstory as close to yours as possible

- Ex) I rode horses a lot growing up, and my first job was on a ranch. So my character’s version of that was growing up with banthas and working on a bantha ranch.

2. It’s okay to try out part of the story and decide later you want to change it

- This is YOUR character and YOUR story- you can change it as many times as you need to until it feels right

My next OC was a Clone that kind of arose purely out of necessity lol 😅 I was writing a fic with the Wolfpack and I needed a medic. That one was a bit easier because a lot of their backstory is pre-decided, but you still get to make their past with other characters as interesting as your imagination allows (who they grew up with, how they got/chose their name, their likes and dislikes, weird personality quirks, etc.)

My Jedi OC was by far the hardest because there just SO MUCH to choose from.

1. For timeline I decided to do Clone Wars-era because I was the most familiar with it

2. Choosing a lightsaber color was like pulling teeth- I went from green, to blue, to yellow, to blue, to purple, to green… etc. I was SO worried about a) picking the right color and b) not being cliché

- ^note that this second reason should be IGNORED at all costs!!! Nothing comes from nothing- yeah, parts might seem cliche or derivative to others; who cares? Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Everything we do is influenced by everything else that already exists. You want a purple lightsaber? Give ‘em a purple fucking lightsaber.

3. I find infographics to be SUPER helpful, especially for those types of things that have SO MUCH lore it’s overwhelming (like planets and species)

- I also found it helpful to narrow down important plot points I wanted to hit and those decisions helped me make choices that supported my storyline (do you want your character to have extra knowledge of trade routes? Experience with pirates or farming? See which planets support that storyline and pick from a handful rather than 100+)

Some of my favorite graphics/references below

Force powers (light side, dark side, and neutral):

https://www.playgroundequipment.com/image/data/66-force-powers-star-wars-5_comp.png

Map of the Galaxy:

Lightsaber colors:

And, of course, this honorable mention from Reddit on saber colors:

I also really liked this other person’s HC about Padawan braid color symbolism, so I adopted that into my character design as well:

[this-hopeless-war]

I could never project my own unresolved trauma into creating OC's (I'm a dirty filthy liar)

[http-paprika]

I know I'm supposed to be working on the updates for There Was Something Here Once and Ivy and Iron Thorns, but where's the fun in that? I'm thinking about an OC I'll probably never share (Simon's boyfriend) because that's more fun

[luna-azzurra]

Signs of Falling in Love

When you’re falling in love, it can be such a magical experience, full of little signs that your feelings are growing. You might find yourself blushing whenever that special person is near, your cheeks turning a shade of pink without you even realizing it. It’s as if your body knows something your mind is just starting to understand.

You start seeking eye contact more often, feeling a flutter in your chest whenever your eyes meet. But then, you might shyly look away, overwhelmed by the intensity of the moment. You can't help but smile frequently, often for no apparent reason. It’s not that anything particularly funny is happening, it’s just that thinking about this person makes you so incredibly happy.

Physical contact becomes something you crave, even in the smallest forms. You might find yourself lightly touching their arm or shoulder as you talk, just to feel closer. When they’re around, you might catch yourself constantly playing with your hair, a subconscious way of dealing with the nervous excitement you feel in their presence.

Humor takes on a whole new importance. Suddenly, you’re laughing at all their jokes, even the ones that aren’t particularly funny. It’s not really about the joke itself but more about the joy of sharing that moment together. Your brain might even go into overdrive, causing you to stammer or struggle to find the right words when you speak to them, as if your thoughts can’t quite keep up with your emotions.

You find yourself coming up with excuses to be near them, finding reasons to cross paths or spend time together. When you’re around them, it’s like your stomach is filled with butterflies, fluttering with nervous excitement. Your heart races whenever they’re close, beating so fast you’re sure it’s obvious to everyone around.

When they’re not around, your mind drifts off, daydreaming about them, replaying past conversations, and imagining future ones. You get lost in their eyes, feeling like you could stare into them forever. There’s this strong urge to share everything with them, from the big moments to the little ones, as if they’re the only person who truly understands.

You might catch yourself absentmindedly writing their name, doodling it in the margins of notebooks or in the air with your finger, as if it’s become your new favorite word. And when you think about them, you’re filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling, like your heart is wrapped in a cozy blanket of happiness. It’s these little moments and feelings that make falling in love such a beautiful, confusing, and exhilarating experience.

[majoresca]

Have you ever made an OC from a Fandom that you don't participate in that much? Or that you don't have much of a connection to?

[pr1ncessasuke]

Some OCs I designed this week!! Didn’t feel like properly rendering them yet ;P

[bookmothic-dyke]

I’m giving my vampire oc, Andromeda “Annie” Meadows, the middle name Lee. Is this mostly because I have a *mild* obsession with Brennan Lee Mulligan, maybe. I don’t care.