Characters The Essential Guide to OC's: The Mini Challenge Revival - Prompt the Fourth!

I sometimes base OCs on people that I can't stand.

 

Wow! This looks great
Bravo C_A you've done a great job on this!

 

Here, here. The best villians or antagonists are the ones I draw off of people from work.
Annoying customers are a great source of negativity.


Thanks Alley.

 

Lol. It's nfun to base OCs off of people you know. Most of the time that's what I do: I base my OCs off of people I know...whether in general, the negative side of their personallity, or the positive. Sometimes that get inspired by characters from other books or films.

I've got an OC Jedi knight based off of my dad in his less "glamourouse" moments.

 

I did that for a main OC once. Her name's Starflare and she's based on a combo of someone I don't like and a girl who couldn't stand Shanghai.

 

That was not my intention. I have nothing to do with the SW Fanon, and no reason to advertise for such a weird site, lol.^^ And since pretty much nobody except from you read my post, I doubt it does really matter...^^

Yep, same here. I also tried not to spoiler the fics, there.

As I said above, apparently no one apart from you read my post, or if so, didn't think it was worth replying, so chances are you can pretty much squash that idea.

 

No way C_F! No squashing of a sound idea. Obviously on JC there's not really room for that sort of thing, but I'm sure as it catches on, people will be more inclined to use te Fandom Wiki.

And I know for a fact that several of OC authors have a photobucket(or the like) page filled with pics of their OCs. So definately PM me the links people (along with your OC data if their not already listed).

 

That fanon wiki is interesting. Kind of a strange idea. Any characters that have an entry there, it would be pertinent to have a link I think.

But what do I know?

That tip about flaws is an important one. They're very important. If anything, I might suggest basing your heroes on people you don't like. You, would, of course, have to give them some redeeming qualities, but it would be an interesting exercise.

 

This is an amazing thread! Thanks for all the hard work you've already put into this.

I think a monthly challenge is a superb idea like the challenges they have in the canon character threads.

Also, love the idea of the writers' tips. I think the first tip is one of the important ones so you don't get into the Mary-Sues. Nothing wrong with have a physically perfect character as long as they have some character trait that makes them human. How much conflict can a character get into if they have all the answers to everything?!

 

OCs are the focus here in this 62 ABY probable AU, although J/J, Ben/Jys, and Valin/Syal, Krayt, and Leia are all in it:

http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/25668699/p1/?0

 

To writing challenges, I say party on!

Could their "perfection" be their flaw?

Absolutely. I thought of Sandra Bullock in "Two Weeks Notice." She's not necessarily perfect, but she sets such high standards for morality. This, of course, creates problems in her relationship with Hugh Grant (and I'm sure there are many jokes to be made about him, but that's for another time ).

Anyway, there's always that one person, whether in your class or at work or part of your family who's just so damn perfect. Maybe that perfection isn't always a flaw, but it sure annoys other people. They're bound to ask, "Why does that person have to be so perfect? Can't Mary Sue screw up once in a while?" In fact, I think it makes for great humorous tension.

Wow, I really hope that made sense. I'm running on three hours of sleep.

 

Sorry, I just saw this. Thanks for putting in the link.

 

Welcome to the inaugural Essential OC Challenge! The format is designed to fill in for the currently absent OC Dueling Circle. In fact all the rules are the same, save a few small details. You can find the complete list of rules near the bottom of Page 1.

The two main rule differences are that, one: the challenges are monthly; beginning dates, due dates, voting dates, etc.

The other is that the story links are NOT to be posted here. PM me the links, and I?ll post them all at the same time on the beginning of the voting round. Sound good? Great. Now get writing?


December 2006: Challenge #1

Due Midnight December 14th board time

As the most recent Dueling Circle ended in a multiple-tie, I decided that to be fair to those authors, that they should each be given the opportunity to submit a challenge for the inaugural Essential OC Challenge. Henceforth there are FOUR, count ?em, 4 challenges to choose from!

For this challenge, authors will choose one of the presented themes to submit. Challenges are listed in order of receiving.

1- Suppose your OC loses the use of whatever body-part/function he relied on for the thing he loves (i.e.: a musician loses a finger; an artist loses his sight, etc.) How does he react. How does he cope with the loss?
(Submitted by Rogue_Pilot_2347)

2- Your OC has been set the task of training someone, (human, humanoid, mongrel, canon or not) to replace him/her temporarily or permanently. Let?s see your OC rise to the challenge. Perhaps they succeed, perhaps not or perhaps they want the trainee to fall flat on their face. You choose.
(submitted by PadwanKayla)

3- We all have our off days. Each one of us has had a day (and more-than-likely, more than one such day) when we got up on the wrong side of the bed, and said things we would not have said otherwise, and did things we regretted later.
Make your OC have on off day. What does he say? Who will he hurt? Does everything work out all right in the end?
You decide.
(submitted by Meredith_Kenobi)

4- All friendships start somewhere. So how did you OC BFF*?s start off their friendship? Have fun with it -- another one of those that?s open to many possibilities.
(submitted by Alley_Skywalker)
*Best Friends Forever (for you lazy)


On December 14th, once the Submissions have been posted, the reading and voting round will begin.

 

Ale, this is, to put it lightly, an incredible thread. Did you sleep while you were putting this together? I like the indexing format: it's really easy to find what you're looking for. I also like the idea of monthly challenges, rather than bi-weekly. That way those of us who are really busy will have a little more time to come up with stories for them. Can't wait to get started on this one!

Oh. Almost forgot: VIVEN LA OC REVOLUCION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

challenge sounds great .

This is a perfect way to introduce Gray saber Gen and gray Saber Ferque .

 

Pardon me for not being acronym-savvy, but what's a BFF?

- lazy

 

Best Friends Forever

Or Booty-Floggin' Force.

 

Ah. Thank you, Jade.

- lazy

 

Nope.



GSF - Very glad to hear it!

lazy - Is this the very same lazy who came up with the Mass PMing shortcut?


okay, on to business...

Weekly Update for Friday 12-1:

-New Stories this week:

Quelsa Tonacrry: Return To Ter'Janiii by GraySaberFreque

Legacy's Scions by rebel_cheese

The Keithbert Files by Alley_Skywalker

Hidden Truths by DancesWithBlasters
&
Blade of Flame by Rogue_Pilot_2347

* footnote: Don?t forget to include the following info when you PM me your stories:
(It makes adding stories to the index soooo much easier)
Link:
Title:
Author(s):
Summary:
Thanks! -ale


-Plus there's some more great OCs donated by leiamoody have been added to the database, including links to pictures!
(That Meaithe?grrrrr! )


Keep ?em coming OC lubbers!


-Hey! And don?t forget to take up the pen and participate in our Inaugural Challenge! (see my previous post for all the info)

---

[b]OC Writing Tip #2[/b]
[u]Make a Good First Impression![/u] How did you introduce your character? Was it slow steady, or all at once? The general rule is: show, don't tell. (That was actually an [b]oqidaun[/b] tip when I started my first OC story) When you meet someone new, do you spend ten minutes staring at them? No. (Unless of course its Aunt Mole [face_wink]) If there's something striking about the character at first glance, uncommon eye or hair color, a disfigurement, or outlandish clothes; then write that down. Don't go into detail about everything they're wearing or what their face and build looks like. You can elaborate during the course of the story, otherwise it only serves to slow things down, and if you find your story dragging in places it may be because you've detailed too much in the descriptions.

 

Ah, my darlings are now all listed. So grand. Thanks for that.

In regards to Meaithe, I had to go with a physical model I consider divinely inspired for a character that is from the Other Side. Form follows function in this case.

This is one of the best tips in writing characters you'll ever come across. Not just in fanfic, but in ANY fiction. Even in nonfiction writing, where details count for half of everything in the narrative, you don't want to spend paragraphs describing the appearance of a person. There are exceptions to this rule, obviously. There was a newspaper article I read once where the opening paragraph described the appearance of a young child in a photograph. It wasn't a gratuitous list of details, but just enough to give you the impression of what that person looked like as a young person. And describing their appearance from a photo adds a certain amount of necessary distance in order to engage the reader's attention without boring them. It was an interesting way to open a story.

 

Finally a chance at a new OC challenge!

 

That's a great idea...gives me many actually


Hey t_w_s! Glad to see another familiar face around here!

 

This probably hardly needs to be asked but are crossovers okay just so long as they're run by OCs? Heck, there's no canon people from either universe, so I figure it's okay. If not... well, then, I'll still plow into the idea anyway, 'cause I'm so hyped up

 

As if I could stop you!!!