Fanfiction, PLEASE sort out that line break and stop it deleting my titles, pretty please? It's very annoying to have to write it all out again. ;.;
Wow late update is late. I'm in University guys, things ARE going to be late no matter what I do, I'm afraid. :c sorry.
I wanted to get this one out of the way. Just to note down, in bold too:
A LOT OF THIS LESSON IS OPINION BASED. DON'T TAKE THIS AS PURE FACTS. NOT EVERYBODY WILL HAVE THE SAME OPINION, BUT THIS IS THE OPINION OF MANY WRITERS AND READERS I'VE TALKED TO ABOUT THIS ISSUE SO TAKE THIS INTO CONSIDERATION WHEN WRITING A STORY. PLEASE DON'T SEND ANGRY REVIEWS AT ME TELLING ME I'M WRONG. I'M NOT WRONG, I'VE JUST A DIFFERENT OPINION. HISTORY TEACHER TOLD ME THIS, OPINIONS ARE NEVER WRONG.
Just to clarify. Enjoy and hope this helps out!
EDIT (24/10/2011): Dear anonymous reviewers; I cannot reply to you, so please sign in if you're asking a question because I cannot reply. Common sense should let you know. I will try to start answering anonymous reviews here, but that's a hassle for me, you see.
Oh, and the whole abbreviation thing? Yeah, I don't think we do that in Britain. I've never been told to otherwise, they're never like that in letters we recieve and I've never been penalised for it. I've done it before but only in very formal letters, this is not formal at all, so a fullstop isn't needed, NOT IN BRITAIN. Oh and yes, it's called a fullstop here, a period is the girls' time of the month where you bleed, so DO PLEASE be careful if you use that near Mr Kirkland, he gets embarassed very easily, you see!
Lesson #4 Pros and Cons of OCs
"Some of these might be opinion based." Mr Kirkland tells you, as a group. "Some people might actually like to read Mary Sues, and whilst it's fun and easy to write them, they are definitely not recommended. I suppose you want to know why?"
You check behind you first to see if anybody else makes a response. When they respond with a yes, you turn around to nod also, showing your answer. It felt awkward to be the only one to answer, or make some form of reply, especially with the likes of Kirkland there.
Mr Kirkland smiled; "Very well." He stood up, picking up his crop and smacking it lightly against the blackboard. "Mary Sues have this bad reputation, good or old fanfiction readers or writers take one look at the word 'Mary Sue' and they turn away right away without looking further. The reason behind this is that a Mary Sue is often portrayed in a way of perfection. There are no faults in the most common Mary Sues. That's infuriating for most people, as they should still be human and make mistakes, perhaps even obvious ones, but Mary Sues rarely do. The worst kinds are the ones that save the main character/characters. This is the direct opposite of what many call 'Damsel in Distress', wherein a, most often than not, female character is captured multiple times and requires the help of another to escape. Take Princess Peach from Mario for example or Zelda from Legend of Zelda. Very popular games that require you to save the land/save the princess, cliché story but very effective in gaming. Not so much in reading."
"For writing stories, you have to try to write something unique. Mary Sues are not unique in any way and are often predictable. The best stories are usually the unpredictable ones, because then the reader is taken by surprise and caught off guard, that's what they want. They want to see something clever, something different, reading the same thing is very, very boring." Mr Kirkland sighed, as if bored with his own speech. You weren't sure if he was just emphasising how truly boring it was to read the same type of books over and over or if he really was bothered about teaching you. It didn't seem likely that he was bored of you as a group, so you took it as emphasis to be safe.
"Just to clarify, Gary Stus are the same thing as Mary Sues, only male. That's the only difference there is." Mr Kirkland lowered his crop to the table and brought up a cup of tea. You hadn't noticed he'd made that, but then again you were busy taking notes. Teachers were always like secret ninjas, lurking up and jumping and doing things without you noticing.
"Now," Mr Kirkland picked the crop back up; "an OC, as you can imagine, stands for 'Original Character'. An Original Character is basically a character that the author has made up and has no relation to the fandom the fanfiction is based on at all, so therefore it technically belongs to that author. Most, if not all, OCs have no copyright law protection, so you could easily take that OC and use it, if you really wanted. Problem being is that ones that you would bother to take are usually very popular and you would get caught and hated for it. Stealing OCs is not advisable, by any means." You swear you could hear Mr Kirkland say under his breath: "Not sure why you'd want to." You stay quiet about it, however; no sense of making a tidal wave over a small puddle.
"OCs can be frowned upon; it depends on how you use them and under what fandom. Take Fullmetal Alchemist, for example. There is no need for a huge amount of OCs with all the given characters there are under that fandom, but a few smaller ones are fine, they don't even need to be named if they're not important at all e.g. a waiter at a restaurant. Having an OC being the main character is just not needed; it doesn't feel like a fanfiction if that's the case for a fandom like Fullmetal Alchemist that has about twenty characters to choose from. Same goes for Hetalia, they have a large number of characters, a stupidly high amount, there is no need for big OCs like that. Perhaps a son or a daughter, fair enough, but otherwise, there is no need at all."
"However," Mr Kirkland continues, as you keep writing down notes like most others in the class. It's different and difficult trying to take down notes you think is important whilst the teacher was speaking as fast as he was. It might've been normal speech speed, but when writing it, it was a whole different story. Nobody felt like asking him to slow down, however. Not with that crop he probably wouldn't use, but surely could if he wanted to. "If you're taking a fandom such as Prototype, where there is only a maximum of about six characters, then having an OC as a main character is not so terrible, because there is a lack of them, so many OCs in a fandom with few characters is common. A fandom like Prototype doesn't really have a solid storyline, so many things can be done with it and you could get away with it, provided no Mary Sues are added."
"Other problems with OCs are often that OCs aren't developed very well, so we see the character doing things, but we don't know the character as a person. The character just doesn't shine and show his/her true colours to us, we don't know their personality and we can't put a good opinion on them because of that. It makes the character seem stale, a space you just fill in because you feel like it almost and, worst of all, boring. An OC has to have character, a true personality, so we can like or hate it. It's probably better to have the protagonist liked and the antagonist hated, but different people might like different things."
"The key thing is: remember that people may not be interested in your fantasy. If it's something you purely love and purely around you, then write it by all means, but keep it to yourself. Not everybody likes reading stuff about you or revolved around you. Self Inserts are not recommended in any shape or form. They are almost worse than Mary Sues, for obvious reasons. You often can't find a fault inside you, so writing you down makes you seem very arrogant and snobby, to put it simply. Hence, Self Inserts are a big no-no." Mr Kirkland smiles again, putting the crop down for another sip of tea. "The same goes for Mary Sues, most are seen as arrogant or show offs and hardly anybody likes those, so try to avoid them if possible."
Mr Kirkland picked up a piece of chalk and began writing on the board 'Pros and Cons of OCs'. You copy them down anyway, since he hasn't told you to not do so. You look up every few seconds, finding it hard to remember what he's written and the scratches of writing with chalk distract your brain from remembering that much before it needs a reminder, knowing that Mr Kirkland had written more. He drew a table of sorts, like weighing the pros and cons to show what's better and what's not.
Mr Kirkland turns back to the class, still holding that same chalk as a sign that he will be writing more later. "Now, who can tell me a pro for writing an OC, what's good about OCs?" He waited until a hand came up, before he pointed to a person near the back. "Yes?"
You turn to look around to see the person, mostly to hear them better; "OCs are easier to write for us because you can make up their own personality."
Mr Kirkland smiles and writes the point down on the table, silently encouraging the rest of the class to follow suit. "That's correct! OCs don't have a set personality already, so you can make one up entirely, so it doesn't require that much research and is simpler to do. Another?"
Another hand went up to give their point; "OCs are your work, so it might make you feel more accomplished?"
Mr Kirkland noticed it was a question, but didn't comment on it. Instead, he continued; "That's true, some might feel that way, but the readers might not see it that way. Many might see an OC as a lazy way out; that they weren't clever enough to use the characters given to you to make something up then. It's more challenging to write a character and keep them in character than it is to make one up entirely." The teacher had a point there; you had to see things in different perspectives to get a full good and confident story. It was no good just working on your own opinions, you needed to hear other peoples' opinions also.
"There are many cons for OCs, that's being one of them that you show lack of creativity, because it's a lot more difficult to take any character in the fandom and use it then than it is to make an entirely new character up from your head. Another is that because you're making an OC to just fill in a space, there is a chance that the character won't be given a proper, or even a good or steady personality, so people are probably not going to like your OC or find the point in it. That's the most common problem, even if you use an OC, you have to give it a proper personality that we can see and let us know the basics of what your character looks like, we don't need pages on detail, just the basics would do and we can figure it out from there. Well, most of us, anyway."
"Others don't like OCs because they didn't come to read that. People come to fanfiction to read about a fandom, not to read about a character you made up. For your own stories, you should visit FictionPress, the sister website for Fanfiction rather than posting it here. If they wanted to read about own stories, they'd go there, not fanfiction. That's my opinion, though that might not how everybody else views it, just to clarify. If you write that down, make a note that that's opinion based and my opinion only, not a fact. Much of these aren't necessarily facts, because it's all down to opinion, but this is based on, hopefully, the majority of peoples' opinions." Mr Kirkland writes all the cons down, making sure to write 'opinions' at the top, to make sure that you don't use it as true facts and have been told that it's opinion based and not factual.
Mr Kirkland turns back to the class, putting his chalk down and picking up his crop again. "Any questions on that?" No hands were raised; the teacher seemed pleased about that, whether it was because everyone seemed to understand or that he didn't have to answer an infuriating question, you weren't sure either.
"Good, what's the next question that someone needs answering concerning writing?" Mr Kirkland waited for a few moments, before pointing to a person who had her hand up. "You there, what's your question?"
It's longer than usual, I know. I hope that helps some guys out, just to let you know why using OCs and Mary Sues are usually a bad idea or good idea xD
Coming next is either going to be how to make a good summary or info on semi-colons. Take your pick and let me know! ;D
~Blackie