Why you might be the only one impressed with your OC
Posted By Inflate123 on August 10, 2011
It’s been a very busy time for me in real life again. My job is one of those this-needs-your-immediate-attention positions, where the pressure is often high and not in the exciting kinky way. As a result I find myself coming home mentally exhausted, which leaves little energy to brainstorm for story ideas or new concepts. But with a slightly lighter workload and no travel to stress about this week, the wheels started turning on the way home from work today.
Earlier in the year TLink invited lots of people to create an original character for his Academy of Swelling project. I took the chance and did my first OC, Dr. Julie Janssen. I then…didn’t do anything with her. (Though TLink did, and that thrilled me.) I see a lot of people create OCs (in fact, offering criticism to one artist who suddenly didn’t want to hear it, he haughtily told me that he’d created over 300 OCs as ultimate proof that he knew what he was doing thank you very much) and while some of them get the attention they deserve — like Kreizen’s always-interesting Inflatrix — I see too many people come up with a character and then stop. Like, to that guy, it was way more important to have 300 OCs than one well-developed one.
To me, OCs are not Pokemon (My OCs — let me show you them). They’re not supposed to be little tributes to yourself. “Look, I have created a character! It is original! I am a god! My work is done, so let me go bask in the glory of my own awesomeness.” Actually, nobody cares, because you have not given anybody a reason to care. I maintain that coming up with a name, a hair color, and a cup size is easy; putting a heart and a brain and a real personality behind the mind-numbingly boring data sheet is where you should be focusing your attention. James Bond, Jean Grey, Kermit the Frog, Hermione Granger — all the best characters have depth. An OC data sheet has none.
When I sit and think about Julie, I really like not who she is, but what she could become. I haven’t done the work yet. I want to give people a reason to care about her, to follow her adventures, to root for her and her loopy brain that brings good inflatable ideas to life. I have to convince you that she’s worth your attention; otherwise, she isn’t.
I don’t think anybody NEEDS an OC, but if you’re going to make one, commit to it.
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