#unless they have defenestrated canon

[last-of-the-lot]

I can not wait to see what the internet thinks when it wakes up and sees the newest batch of episodes.

I have so many questions and am interested to see how things are going to resolve.

[khytal]

you can say it. youve known clay terran for hundreds of years. speak your piece

they call him clay terran because he’s as old as the earth itself and I was there when he was born. we are timeless and he isn’t really dead. how’s that for cosmic deity clay lore—(I am forcibly removed via defenestration)

ok being silly aside I mostly said (implied) that as a joke; I’ve known about clay for all of 10 months and it’s only thanks to the assistant au that he’s started to become a real character to me lol

I said this about sei shura but original characters are really hard for me to bring to life. if I don’t have a solid grasp on how I think someone would act, then my headcanons get scattered and too contradictory with one another. which is why I actually struggle with how I interpret clay, believe it or not

like yes I love mr cardboard cutout but I don’t really think about the finer details and smaller hcs unless someone figuratively holds me at gunpoint and asks lmao. so he still feels kinda nebulous to me

but assistant clay is completely different because his involvement in the plot means he’s constantly interacting with characters we’ve never seen him meet. so I’m always thinking about what he’d be like in every situation, which leads to his personality being more developed

basically canon clay is the fanbase’s oc, but asisstant clay is my oc, and I may not know canon clay but I sure do know assistant clay. if that makes sense lmao

my interpretation of canon clay obviously bleeds into assistant clay (and vice versa, a little bit) but they’re still distinct from each other x)

[olivieblake]

As someone who writes a lot of OC’s, what’s your take on the best way to approach incorporating them into a story? And what kind of feedback do you or others typically get? From what I understand, it can be really risky. But you do it so so well and I love all your OCs. I personally am very in favor of dynamic OCs. ☺️ Anyway this could be a podcast ask for when serious (Sirius?) hats are donned, or just a regular ask. Thank you!

hm hm hmm WELL, I promise, I don’t purposely write OCs. actually, I mostly avoid them as much as possible? the only fic I’ve ever written any OCs into (minus a few here and there, like Paul the house elf) is How to Win and I regret it immensely. well okay I don’t REGRET it, per se, because I love all of them and I developed them fully and I felt they were necessary to the plot, but the more OCs I introduced to the story the more reviews dropped, so… I’d caution against them unless you can’t get around them (which, again, I couldn’t). This is sort of the inherent problem with post-Hogwarts fics, especially; most readers don’t want original characters to begin with (and blending them into the potterverse can be a lot of work to do well, even based on simple things like naming them; I find a lot of OCs can throw me from the story if their names or occupations feel out of place) but often they’re a necessity, obviously, because half the canon characters are dead and/or can’t merely be shuffled around if you’re going into any sort of depth, plot-wise.

basically, here’s the rules for writing OCs into fics (DISCLAIMER: they are only rules for if you want the fic to be broadly consumed, mind you; you can write excellent OCs without using any of these rules, but for purposes of making them appealing to the average fic audience, I’d bear these in mind):

you know how the moment you drive a car off the lot, it loses value? that’s what happens when you add an OC to a fanfic. the moment you add one, the entire fic depreciates in value to the average fic reader. so, if you can avoid using one and can use a rare or underused canon character instead, always do that. 

sidebar: I mean, people love my Theo, right? and yet he’s nearly as much an OC as any other character I’ve dropped into How to Win. people just know his name and they have a general idea of his background, so they’re okay with seeing him. if I made a character exactly like him, down to the very last detail, and then tried to pass him off as Draco’s best friend? ha. yeAH right olivie put the martini down where you found it and defenestrate yourself

if you can’t avoid the OC, then try to give them a backstory that blends fully into the potterverse. rhys hawkworth is a pretty good example of that. he’s the same age as dramione and the gang, but there’s a pretty solid reason he wasn’t at hogwarts with them; same with mel warbeck, whose mother is a canon character we know close to nothing about from the books

do not give the OC a canon love interest if you want them to be liked by the reader. if their job is to be the person who sleeps with one of the main canon characters until they gradually disappear from the plot, fine (though people would still likely prefer a canon character in the OC’s place) but people will generally never come around to liking someone if they were ever a rival for draco or hermione in a dramione fic, for example. they are also usually fine as love interests on the side; basically, just limit their screen time, so to speak.

when it comes to any characters, original or canon, it always seem to follow that the female ones are harder to get people on board with if they have even a little bit of ambition. I think this is mostly low-key levels of sexism but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it has proven true across the board from Nobility’s Hermione to How to Win’s Daisy

the MOST successful OCs are the ones that supply comic relief. people are always happy to see an OC like Hortense or Thibaut whose one job is to be outrageous, vs someone like Cadell Hawkworth, who has a Tragic Backstory that requires them to feel something they may not wish to. they’ve had no time with him; they don’t care about him. fair enough! but everyone can laugh at thibaut eating grapes, so he’s safe

I mentioned names earlier; try to pick names that fit into the potterverse, (which is sort of hard to do considering none of us are Joanne, but…) I think it’s generally safe to just avoid names of people you know. OCs that are named things like Ben and Andrew feel unlikely to pop up at Hogwarts, you know what I mean? which is not to say that they can’t, but I think the less “familiar” a name, the more easily they blend into the narrative

try not to insert a lot of OCs at once, if only because inserting any volume of characters at once can be confusing. by that I mean if harry for example is being introduced to an OC, try not to make it a group of OCs all at the same time, because the reader is unlikely to remember all of their names. remember: EVERYONE is bad with names.

I also like to develop each of my OCs quite a bit with a full backstory before I really make use of them. I also use the backstory-developing time to make certain I can’t use a canon character in their place. every OC in How to Win went through vigorous mental testing of: is this character necessary? is there anyone else I could conceivably use in their place? once I was certain the answer was no, I moved forward.

okay I think that’s enough rules for now, and man, have I been a bit down on OCs? possibly (read: yes). I guess that’s a hint they’re not very loved in my story, so I’m wary of using them. but hey, I love the ones I’ve used, and I certainly think they can be used well, and skillfully — so as long as you have a compelling reason for using one, then just develop them as thoughtfully as you would develop any other character!