#original character tips

[occoj]

Oh hey, look! An appropriately themed video for today’s date. What a coinkidink.

Let’s explore creating romantic relationships between characters. Who will you pair your character with? What will their relationship be like? And how will it all tie up in the end?

[occoj]

How to Ninja is here!

I feel like playing some Tenchu right about now.

[captaiindeer-blog]

OC Tips #01

Don’t name your OC Shadow/Shadowclaw. It is way overused, and if you didn’t know, a shadow is just a grey thing that is blocked from the sun.

[occoj]

A Friendly Reminder to Y’all!

I am so proud that the OCCOJ has grown to almost 3,000 subs and almost 300 followers on Tumblr. There’s a lot of well-mannered, helpful people amid my fans, and I couldn’t be happier to talk to you guys and be a part of this community. Today though, I’d like to have a little “real talk” with everyone.

I want to remind you guys to be careful when approaching an author who has had their OC in a OCCOJ episode. Here are a few things to remember:

Please refrain from sending them their character’s court case. Someone has probably already sent them the link in one way or another (in a private message, on their profile, on another site, ect;) and you don’t want to be unintentionally spamming them. I realize that you’re trying to be helpful, but you have to understand how hard it must be to receive an avalanche of messages telling you the same thing over and over again.

People are not their OCs, so don’t mistreat a person based on your feelings about their OC. All can be solved when both parties are able to be civil. ‘Nuff said.

OCs can be improved. Take time to see if an OC has been updated before commenting/critiquing it. Nothing bums an artist out more than when people can’t get over their past mistakes.

We don’t want reviewing to be a bad thing. We don’t want reviewing to continually stress out and scare artists. So, let’s all do our part in making reviewing helpful, fun, and an overall good thing. :D

Thank you guys!

[occoj]

Mascot theory is now uploaded!

For now, this is the last analytical video on general character development. I’m going to take some characters to court next!

[occoj]

Is My Original Character A Self-Insert?

To a degree, most characters have “self-insert” characteristics to them. As long as those characteristics don’t get in the way of a character’s integrity, functionality, and development, then it’s forgivable. If you’re questioning whether your character is or isn’t a true self-insert, try asking yourself these questions:

Does my OC make choices that go against their personality to accommodate my own desires? 

Does a character that my OC is interested in pursue them even if it goes against that character’s personality? 

Does my OC visually and, or contextually represent many other OCs that I have?

Does the existence of my OC in the world they’re in not make any sense?

Does my OC only agree with and, or understand my personal beliefs or politics, despite they way they grew up or the beliefs of the society that they live in? 

If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, you might want to sit down and write out everything you know about your OC and their role in the story they’re in to figure out why they are they way they are and if you’re unintentionally using them as a self-insert.

What do you think?

[occoj]

“Bad Guy” Original Characters

When creating your original villain, try to avoid the typical “they’re bad simply because they’re born that way” character trope, which is completely unrealistic and two-dimensional anyway. The best villains usually have an understandable end goal but are ultimately bad due to their way of achieving it. For example, Richmond Valentine in Kingsman. Richmond just wants to save the human race from becoming extinct, which is understandable, but his way of doing so is what makes him the villain. A good background to a villain can sometimes make the protagonist, or even the reader/viewer, question the protagonists actions and ask themselves if the protagonist is actually doing the right thing.

What do you think?