#highbrow doesn’t see his point tho…

[compaculaaa]

*Baby Blurr try to explain with drawings the monster that he saw*

Highbrow: It's me or he Is trying to tell me something... Nauh, It's me

*Baby Blurr shocked that highbrow do not care*

Gonna need some better convincing skills there blurr

[titleknown]

Advice on Making Good Creepypasta OCs

So, as it’s about to be the start of the Spookiest Time Of The Year, by which I mean the Halloween season, by which I mean the beginning of August…

Boy does Halloween season start earlier and earlier every year, and yet nobody ever complains about it like they do Christmas. I suppose that a holiday about self-expression and weirdness is probably more welcome exposure-wise than a holiday about conformity and tradition, but that’s for another post.

Anyhoo, since it’s Almost Time, I figured I might as well do an advice guide on how to make some good Creepypasta OCs. Because, when created from scratch as characters rather than emerging from a “main” creepypasta, most of them tend to be Usual Deviantart Characters + Warmed Over Slasher Movie Cliches. And while that has its charm, I think we can do better.

So, what is my advice? Follow me after the break!

One of the main problems I see is, again, there’sso much aesthetic interbreeding, hence why you see so many Deviantart-lite pasta OCs, because so many of them come from Deviantart and copy the “pattern” they see from other Pasta OCs.

Well, first off, draw directly from the source for Creepypasta inspiration. Because, despite is use widening, the term Creepypasta does bring up what I would call a “house feel,” but a lot of people don’t know where that comes from so they end up not quite understanding the core of why it feels unique.

The long and short of it is, Creepypasta draws from forteana + weird fiction. So, for the former, look at the various testimonies of IRL-type supernatural or generally strange stuff, cryptids like Mothman or the Hopkinsville Goblins; bizarre natural phenomenae like strange rains or bizarre locations; or IRL terrifying cults like the Solar Temple or the Ripping Crew, and so-on.

For the latter, Lovecraft’s always a good place to start; because despite his notoriously bad (Like, even for its day) racism, the man was always good at setting a scene and creating an atmosphere and very specific feel. And check out his contemporaries too, like William Hope Hodgson; Robert Chambers or the excellent story The Night Wire, or modern weird fiction like the manga Fourteen or the works of Junji Ito. Or check out some of the more odd horror films that fit under the lable of “weird fiction,” which I will likely eventually make their own post on, but I’ll give Phantasm; Videodrome, Tourist Trap and Suspiria as a few very good examples.

But, a lot of people draw only from fiction, so my next piece of advice would be draw from yourself. Every creator brings their particular fears and aesthetic interests to the table, it’s what makes them unique, so one might ask, “What are yours?”

To talk of other Creepypasta characters, Harmburger comes from Jonathan Wojcic’s fascination with juxtposing cartoonish whimsy with absolute nightmare with hints of social satire, and Candle Cove comes from Kris Straub’s fascination with the slippery nature of memory. Find what sorts of looks you like, but also what subject terrifies and fascinates you. Even if that results in; like; a Homestuck Troll who jumps out of toilets to grab you or a buff guy with a Jojo stand that uses illegal wrestling moves, it’s still more interesting than the usual warmed-over kinda thing.

Of course, that’s only half the battle, inspiration. The rest is thinking of the character as an isolated character, able to exist independently of a work (Which a lot of Creepypasta antagonists aren’t).

So, the advice becomes think about what makes your character different from others, rather than similar. And I’m not just talking about “Mine has a bow on it!” Look at Slender Man, Harmburger, RED, the Rake, ect. They’re all wildly different, even in terms of shillouette, so go for distinct first.

If you want a quick starting point for uniqueness, try going non-humanoid with your concept; because I’m shocked at how few non-humanoids there are as Creepypasta Ocs even though they make up a good proportion of the Iconic Creepypasta Foes. Or go even weirder and make them an abstract force; like Uzumaki’s Spirals or the eponymous “show” of Candle Cove. Tho this stretches the definition of “OC,” you’d be surprised...

And, that’s another thing, add personality; not lore. Because, a horror creature gets less scary the more is revealed about it, but that doesn’t mean that; despite what Highbrow Horror People like @afloweroutofstone say; good horror can’t come from them as characters. In fact, I’d argue that great antagonists/monsters are one of the things that makes horror great; and an area incredibly neglected by that branch of Serious Analysts who don’t love monsters, but that’s for another post.

You can give an idea of how they’d act; what they’d do in a certain situation; what their motives and possible origins are; but never fully tip your hand. Always leave a “space” in the ideas behind them to perhaps fill out later; but usually to keep a perpetual mystery. Always keep ‘em guessing, but also be sure that what they do see and what is revealed is interesting and fascinating in the way the best characters are.

And, that leads to my last idea, know what stories can be told with them. Because, as much as I love characters-as-worldbuilding-elements, when it comes to rubber hitting the road; the best way to make a character compelling is to tell the dang story with them, and given they’re meant to presumably exist in multiple stories the way the most recurring Creepypasta characters are; or heck even the most recurring characters in general like Conan or Sherelock Holmes; you need to figure out what sorts of stories they appear in and what they do in those stories.

Relevant to the point before this; there always should be enough mysterious threads that you don’t quite reveal the ends to; but in every story you use them in; the reader should have enough information to understand what’s going on in the A Plot, even if the larger world has aspects left a mystery. That’s the difference between Alien and Prometheus, and that’s one of the big differences between a good Creepypasta and a bad one...

I’ll probably be adding to this article in the future, given I’m kinda writing this in a rush via reasons of irresponsibility, so feel free to let me know what I could add or how I could do better.

And, if you want to support me, feel free to join my Patreon, where you get previews and, at the higher tiers, even polls on what you want me to do next and art commissions. I

n fact, that’s how I chose this article idea. Huzzah!