Aaand I'm coming back with daily updates! The reason why I didn't update this story yesterday was because no one got the email that I already updated on the day before until around six in the morning yesterday. (I think FanFiction is changing the emailing system...or is that just me? I don't get any alerts from FanFiction until six in the morning now, which I find a bit annoying...*sighs* Ah, well...)
Thank you for the support - enjoy!
Drabble Six. Original Characters
Ahsoka kicked herself back to the wall, slapping her hands together. "Original Characters," she started. "Otherwise known as OCs. And no, there isn't supposed to be an apostrophe between the C and the s when trying to indicate that there is more than one Original Character, though I know that people like to do that."
Ahsoka held her hands to her face. "Now, I'm going to be very careful with this topic because I know that a lot of people have Original Characters. And those people who have Original Characters may not have known about the actual rules of FanFiction when it comes to them." She waved her hands around. "So, if you have an Original Character before and you didn't know the rules of having an Original Character, (and ended up breaking them,) don't be totally down! It's not your fault that no one told you about it until now!"
"So, where shall we start? An Original Character is exactly what it sounds like – the writer would create a character of their own and place it in the canon world. It doesn't matter who the Original Character is – it can be a minor character, a major character, a villain, a hero…whatever." Ahsoka shrugged. "It's actually rather fun to create an Original Character. You don't have to worry about 'staying in-character', like you have to do when writing with actual canon characters, but there are certain things that you might want to take into consideration before writing up an Original Character."
"In fact, if there's one thing that FanFiction writers are careful about when making an Original Character, it's Mary Sues, and if the Original Character is a boy, Marty Sues." Ahsoka said matter-of-factly. "Basically, Mary/Marty Sues are Original Characters who are either perfect, modified version of the writer him/herself."
Ahsoka groaned. "I can't tell you how annoying Mary/Marty Sues are – most of the time, they're attractive, ridiculously talented in just about everything they do (including music, talking to animals, et cetera), have some sort of tragic backstory, and to top it off, they have a Force-awful name."
"For example, one of the biggest Mary Sue stories in the entire FanFiction universe is the infamous My Immortal." Ahsoka shuddered. "Now, I'm not gonna hate on the writer, but most of the writers and readers on FanFiction have either heard of or read this particular fiction and all agreed that it was just…awful."
"For those of you who don't know, My Immortal was a FanFiction written in the Harry Potter fandom. The story revolved around an Original Character named Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, who was supposedly a vampire, only with perfectly human-looking teeth. Naturally, one of Ebony's main issues was that she was 'too beautiful' and funnily enough, she gets on with Draco Malfoy, (who, in the Harry Potter fandom is considered attractive…probably because he was played by Tom Felton,) and ends up battling Voldemort or something like that." Ahsoka rolled her eyes.
"Mary Sue all the way!" Ahsoka said, cupping her hands over her mouth. She dropped them and continued, "But to be honest, I don't think there's ever been a worse Mary Sue in the FanFiction world – however, you still need to be careful."
"For example, if your Original Character falls in love with a canon character, don't make it the 'true love at first sight' situation, because we all know that no one falls in love successfully at first sight and ends up getting a happy relationship with that person. No. That just doesn't happen – don't argue with me, don't give me that lovey-dovey speech – we all know it's true. That sort of stuff only happens in Disney movies." Ahsoka said, shaking her head. "If you're going to make your Original Character fall in love with a canon character, at least make it a realistic relationship development!"
"Add some conflict! Some friend-zoning! Some gradual jealousy and tension!" Ahsoka added, flinging her hands up in the air. "Because in real life, that's what happens. Even in the canon world, you don't see the canon characters falling in love with each other like that." She snapped her fingers. "And if they do, well…they're either very, very lucky or the writers just wanted some good, old fairy-tale ending to the fandom or something."
"But hold on, peoples!" Ahsoka said. "If any of your Original Characters have these traits, there's still time to redeem yourself! If your Original Character has an unnatural talent in shooting a gun, make her/him have some sort of past in which he/she took shooting lessons! If your Original Character has unusual, powerful abilities, give her/him a weakness! A big one, too!"
"See?" Ahsoka shrugged her shoulders. "As long as you're careful about controlling your Original Character's traits, you should be fine. Remember, make him/her realistic. Most readers on FanFiction are very picky and very anti-Mary Sue/Marty Sue, so if you show even the slightest bit of making your Original Character a Mary/Marty Sue, they'll stop reading the story because…it's just annoying."
Ahsoka held out a hand, flicking away each finger as she started to list the last of her points. "Other things you might want to remember when writing about an Original Character – don't elaborate on how great his/her clothes are, don't elaborate on how many weapons he/she has, don't spend two paragraphs on how he/she looks, et cetera. Most readers don't even care what your Original Character is wearing, so don't go on about how pretty or handsome he/she looks."
"And a few more things – if your Original Character is supposed to be a lonely, sad creature, don't overdo the characteristics. Don't have your Original Character constantly moaning about how miserable he/she is...and if he/she does start off like that, put in some character development, for Force's sake!" Ahsoka said, slapping a hand over her face. "I can't stress how important character development is when you have an Original Character as the main character of your story – if your Original Character is something of a Mary/Marty Sue, you can always have the character develop into a more realistic person."
Ahsoka threw up her hands. "And that's all for today! My little rant about Original Characters is over – and for tomorrow, well…is anyone ready for ratings?" She asked with a wink.
A/N -Again, I'm sorry if I offended any of you - I personally didn't know that my own Original Character might potentially be a Mary Sue because I didn't even know the rules of creating an Original Character until much, much later...so don't feel bad! :)
As always, reviews would be nice - constructive criticism is tolerated, but flames are not.
