oc-help-blog

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Hi, I was wondering if you could help me? I'm struggling to decide between umbrakinesis, pyrokinesis and telekinesis for my oc and if I could get away with a combination of two or even all three without my oc being too op. If I can't get away with all three, which combination would be best without my oc being too op? Thanks!

yes! hihello!First off, would like to apologize for not being more active here; I am an unfortunate uni student and that takes up a lot of my time. I’ll try to be over here more to help.

Now for your question!To start off with, I would like to say that when making anything you might consider overpowered, you should first take into consideration the world you’re slotting them into. If it is a piece of established media and you are making a fan character, check to see on the rules of said media’s lore. Does it encompass rules for anyone with superpowers, be it telekinesis or not? How do those rules slot into making a character with them?If it’s for an original piece of yours, how does it slot into your own lore? Even then, since it is original, you can always fudge around a few rules and make it work.

However, in my experience with such things, it is easier instead to integrate a character with an umbrella power [in this case, telekinesis] with a set of tiered powers related to it [umbra/pyrokinesis] with varying degrees of adverse side effects to using them. Things such as:

Using standard telekinesis might cause severe hemorrhaging, resulting in bleeding facial orifices that progress steadily worse over duration of usage. As the other two are used, it starts at a stage that is already worse and gets worse from there.

My personal favorite trope with pyrokinesis especially is burn scars or severe burning in direct correlation to using the power. I’m sure if you think about it, you can find something similar to shadows [the user loses a bit of their eyesight the more they use it maybe?] to use in this manner.

Basically, it’s perfectly alright to use all three in one sitting, and adding on ill effects to usage [permanent or temporary] can help you keep them in check without being overpowered. Also keep in mind that if not a power that directly effects them physically [things like super-strength or similar] will probably chew up an energy source, be it basic energy that keeps a body running throughout the day or something else, like life force, that can be used as a fuel for it. An individual without training for conservation and duration will likely lose steam early on and have to stop, and a risk of death or disfigurement or permanent damage that leads into loss of the power or mobility of simple normal functions [ie losing one’s eyesight] is another good balance for making sure you don’t have them use the powers too much or too long.Remember, unless explicitly stated, your character is probably not a god; treat their development in this way how you as a mortal human being would handle it.

I hope this helps you out some! Feel free to come in off-anon and we can discuss things in private in-depth, if you like.

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You bored, or feeling artsy but don’t have any inspiration...? *updated!*

Do you need to distract yourself? Or are you simply bored? Here are some great websites to make the time pass.

create pixel art

Awesome photo editor and art program, all free…!

Totally free transparent textures

make a cute chibi

draw some cool generative art

be a graffiti creator

create a picassohead (you don’t need to be a picasso to do so)

paint online

another awsome site to create pixel art on

and another one

create your own mandala

or color one

create an avatar

or you can try creating your own superhero

here you can interact with organisms in different environments to see how to music changes

here’s a website that translates the time into hexidecimal colours,

Here is a website where you can travel along a 3D line into the infinite unkown

here is a website where you can listen to rain with or without music

Need a model in a certain pose for drawing? here

Want to build your own planet

here is a website where you can create your own galaxies

make your own pattern (very useful if you need a new background)

create next hit comic

make a city which looks like something from 90′s games

draw a mandala like design

jig saw puzzles

more jig saw puzzles to solve

create a stunning HTML5 animation - no coding!

make a movie

create and dress up dolls

play a piano

you can also play a guitar

create sounds

another sound creator

create a logo

design your dream home

sketch rooms

explore fashion trends and create your own sets

build a website

try this app for building a website

Or maybe start learning how to code!

design your own t-shirt or a beanie or sweatpants and order them

design your own phone case

pretend to be a graphic designer with this cool online tool

Make your own Glitch art

Here’s another glitch art maker

And another!

Holy hell, here’s a third!

make an image look like it was created by a commodore 64

freaking cool text generator!

Easy to use word processor

Make up really cool patterns or run your photos through it :)

Write an essay on anything with no hassle

Wanna see how something you write would look like if it was on JacksFilms YGS((Your Grammar Sucks videos on YouTube))?

Make pictures out of text

ASCII word generator

Need an idea for some fanart-here :D

Still haven’t found something that would float your boat? Try these:

watch a documentary

learn to code

do something yourself

workout with the help of this great youtube channels

learn things

play pokemon or zelda or other awesome old school games

waste your time on miniclip

play games at additing games

or try games at agame

calm your thoughts

the quiet place

it will be okay

vent or listen to someone

pour out your soul

explore the sky

look at art from around the world

virtually visit museum of iraq

explore world with arounder

create a music playlist

list through rare books

scroll useful science website

create sand art

brain games

try out tastekid and discover new favorite band or movie or book

interactive 3D anatomy

random street view

post a secret

create a family tree

find our what’s the difference between x and y

help scientists and become volunteer researcher

create your own font

read a classic short story

In the mood to read, but not sure exactly what book to go for?

scribble on maps

listen to letters

play with acrobots

listen to podcasts

make a bucket list

Ever want to see the most truly useless websites in creation?

Prank a friend with this blue screen of death!

Zone out watching the colors drip down

Maybe none of these peeked your interest-maybe you’ve been wanting to create an o.c, but never really knew how to start-or you just enjoy making O.C’s….

This masterlist is to help you in making your own OCs….it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! (´ヮ`)!

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Need an Appearance idea?

Humanoid generator? check

Here’s another one

and maybe if you didn’t like those this’ll work

Need Monsterpeople?

Well, then here ya’ go

Maybe you need Cats?

Diversity

adding more racial diversity

avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it

writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Test to see if your character is a Sue

Explains subdivisions of Sues/Stus

Powerful Characters Don’t Have to Be Sues

Villains

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

Clothing generator

Another clothing generator

More clothing generator

Aaaand even more

Steam punk clothing

Char Style preference

Dress Generator

DETAILS

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

Oh shit someone died

Backgrounds and stuff? yep

Quirks

Personality. you need that shit

Need something fandom related?

City generator hell yeah

location? got ya

World-building?

make your own god damn laws

Landscape.

Need Item names?

Fantasy/sci-fi/etc. medicine names

Stuff to make things more interesting.Weapons, clothes, treasures… whatever your characters need.

Item & Artifact Generators

Other stuffs!

Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators

How did your characters meet?

Fanfic plots. you bet your ass.

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Tips and Helpful Hints for Writing!

These are the only things I could come up with that seem to be the most problematic aside from the edginess of some characters which is fine  but should be monitored throughout the story because it’s perfectly fine to have a character someone doesn’t like in writing material. It’s only natural. Just don’t try, too hard.

Don’t be afraid to have on hand or use an online dictionary, thesaurus, or google in general for spell check and definitions. It’s always good to have resources, but be careful of overusing such resources like the thesaurus. The words need not be too complex or it will not be very digestible for the readers and will not keep them interested if your document is littered with ill-placed or wrongly used synonyms and exceptionally big words nearly every sentence.

Make sure that when you finish writing that you also proofread everything you have written. Check for and correct any noticeable typos and grammar mistakes that may be littering the material. Typos can often kill the mood or atmosphere you try to set for the reader and will diverge them from the main attraction. It helps to check several times, not just twice. So keep rereading and even revise to see where improvements can be made to add more complexity and diversity to your writing. Just make sure to also keep it simple “enough” that the reader does not struggle to understand what you’re trying to type.  If you can, find a spell check system like Grammarly (which is what I use) or have a document app on your computer that comes with spellcheck. PS. Be aware of run-on sentences, capitalization, and punctuation. These are key to proper writing. http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ is a good site to help with sentence structure and consistency throughout your writing and explains if something is too difficult to read or too complex. 

Brainstorming is key to the writing process and can be executed in different ways. One way is what you were probably taught in school—make a chart or number and write out ideas and plotlines for your material. There is also a more hands-on approach which means, you can start out with a draft and can edit, revise, and correct with the material already on paper. I only recommend this if you have a solid grasp on what you’re writing and the order you’re writing it in. I personally use this method because I have spitfire ideas that come at random times that inspire me to write. This has brought out many great stories in my writing.

Description of scenery and people can be good for your story as long as you don’t overuse it. If you are describing every single outfit change of your character(s) each time you start a new scene, a new day, or when introducing a new character, you are doing this way too often and need to tone it down. The readers don’t need to know every outfit change of your character(s) which means focusing on the material and not your character is most important. If it’s of significance to the plot, like a description of your character in a ball gown for the dance upon entering, that’s a more lenient reason to describe her attire. However, don’t describe it in a lengthy manner or the readers will become detached from the writing. Some examples of descriptive writing further into the story for special events and include something like this; “As she walked through the door upon the night of the dance, her long lace-trimmed dress fell to floor length. Without straps, it accentuated her bare shoulders and gave away subtle cleavage as the pearl color of the dress accentuated her soft ivory complexion. What tied it all together was the decorative braid she tied her long brown hair into alongside the subtle hazel eyeshadow that lit up her sapphire hues. This brought a sense of beauty to her face accompanied by the peach lipstick which brought out the amber tints in her flushed cheeks as everyone stared at her.” An example of introducing a new main-side character without lengthy or done descriptions can be shown as such; “She had never seen this boy before. She looked up and down upon his slender stature and noticed the white t-shirt and baggy black basketball shorts marked with a Nike logo on the back and overused shoes of the same brand. His skin was slightly more tan than her own hinting he must practice outside a lot. She then took notice upon his short soft-looking blonde hair and baby blue eyes that lit his face as he looked towards her and smiled politely to acknowledge her. She smiled back and waved.”

Try getting a beta reader, meaning someone who can look over your writing to catch typos and other things you could’ve missed. Yes, it’s possible to STILL miss errors even when you reread your work time and time again. 

New characters, ethnicity/race, antagonistic characters, and what not to do and not to do with them, and diseases/disorders. When introducing a new character of another race or just in general, don’t try too hard to describe their ethnicity and skin color just yet except for slight subtleties. When dealing with diverse cultures and races, it’s best to implement this further into the story as you write out events that help you understand that character better. Examples can include; what they do when they’re at home, a favorite sport or food dish from their ethnic background, or simply have the character explain where they’re from if another character asks whether rudely or otherwise. As for interesting side characters or an antagonist… Don’t forget, it’s not bad to have a character who is rude to others if the person is significant to the story as “the bully” to give an easy example. The bully is usually troubled by something in their life or just, in general, can be a mean person. Also, don’t use a bully just to get pity points for your character or have any character randomly explain their long painful backstory without being asked. If it is painful, when telling it, if at all, the character will most likely go into as simple of a description as possible to avoid painful memories. Side note: Do your research on different diseases/disorders that may cause problems for your character or another character. Read the stereotypes to see what NOT to use, and then read genuine articles to better understand how it works. This also includes bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. Don’t have a good side and dark side to your character and if you do implement multiple personalities there are ways to use them properly.

To continue multiple personalities, they would probably have simple names like another person and not “dark Patty”, “yokai”, “etc”. Think about how these should play out… If your character is in a stressful situation, another personality they created to cope with the situation may be that person’s protector and be used to force the threat away. Another can be something of another side of the character or an unexplained personality such as a teenager or child when the character is arrogant or feeling vulnerable and doesn’t know what to do which brings out this childlike personality. In order to self-diagnose when one is in an extremely stressed state, it’s also possible for the person to make up a personality that claims to be a doctor of some sort to protect from being influenced by others or told what’s wrong with them to convince themselves that they are fine so no ones’ words can make them feel more vulnerable by admitting to having a new or extended problem. Regression from a problem can cause a different in personality leading one to become more childlike or back into their teenage years where they might’ve defended themselves with a smart mouth and wit to try and survive in high school when things were too hard on them. 

Now, dealing with amnesia. You want to be very careful how to express this in a story. It can be overly done and be very cliche leading to let’s say; “Princess Yananoka got amnesia after traveling through a portal to the Naruto universe. She doesn’t remember her name and is also incapable of remembering she was this powerful magical girl princess and is suddenly helpless and doesn’t know why she’s getting kidnapped for her powers when she doesn’t even remember she has them and constantly has to get saved by her new love interest Sasuke Uchiha.” Keep in mind, many parts of the brain help with keeping your memories intact. Any number of problems to the brain can affect how memories are recalled or lack thereof. It can by damage to the brain called neurological amnesia. Possible ways this can occur are; strokes, brain inflammation with a virus such as herpes simplex virus, lack of oxygen to the brain caused by heart attacks or respiratory distress from carbon monoxide poisoning. Other causes include Long term alcohol abuse leading to thiamin deficiency, brain tumors around memory controlling areas, a degenerative brain disease, seizures, and certain medications. Head injuries that cause a concussion, whether from a car accident or sports, can lead to confusion and problems remembering new information. This is especially common in the early stages of recovery. But head injuries usually don’t cause severe amnesia. Another rare type of amnesia, called dissociative (psychogenic) amnesia, stems from emotional shock or trauma, such as being the victim of a violent crime. In this disorder, a person may lose personal memories and autobiographical information, but usually only briefly.There is also retrograde amnesia which is a loss of memory-access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease. It tends to negatively affect episodic, autobiographical, and declarative memory while usually keeping procedural memories intact with no difficulty for learning new knowledge. RA can be temporally graded or more permanent based on the severity of its cause and is usually consistent with Ribot’s Law: where subjects are more likely to lose memories closer to the traumatic incident than more remote memories. The type of information that is forgotten can be very specific, like a single event, or more general, resembling generic amnesia. It is not to be confused with anterograde amnesia, which deals with the inability to form new memories following the onset of an injury or disease. 

Detail for amnesia goes to these links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrograde_amnesia and http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amnesia/basics/causes/con-20033182 .

I hope this helps! I’m sorry I couldn’t think of much else ;3;

God bless <3

- Mod Maddi

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The Three Laws of Fandom

If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws.

If you aren’t able to do that, then you need to realise that your actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you are stifling creativity.

Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone respects these rules. Creators need to be free to make their fanart, fanfics and all other content without fear of being harassed or concern-trolled for their creative choices, no matter whether you happen to like that content or not.

The First Law of Fandom

Don’t Like; Don’t Read (DL;DR)

It is up to you what you see online. It is not anyone else’s place to tell you what you should or should not consume in terms of content; it is not up to anyone else to police the internet so that you do not see things you do not like. At the same time, it is not up to YOU to police fandom to protect yourself or anyone else, real or hypothetical.

There are tools out there to help protect you if you have triggers or squicks. Learn to use them, and to take care of your own mental health. If you are consuming fan-made content and you find that you are disliking it - STOP.

The Second Law of Fandom

Your Kink Is Not My Kink (YKINMK)

Simply put, this means that everyone likes different things. It’s not up to you to determine what creators are allowed to create. It’s not up to you to police fandom. 

If you don’t like something, you can post meta about it or create contrarian content yourself, seek to convert other fans to your way of thinking.  

But you have no right to say to any creator “I do not like this, therefore you should not create it. Nobody should like this. It should not exist.”

It’s not up to you to decide what other people are allowed to like or not like, to create or not to create. That’s censorship. Don’t do it.

The Third Law of Fandom

Ship And Let Ship (SALS)

Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.

It’s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.

You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.

It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.

These three laws add up to the following:

You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn’t to your taste. That’s the height of bad manners.

Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.

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look @ him

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YOUR ANGEL NAME

First letter of your last name

Second letter of your middle name (or parents name if you don’t have one)

Third letter of your first name

Any letter you choose to end

Mine would be Liya or Loya…Reblog and tag this post with yours :)

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Have others edit your work.

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This is without a doubt the best author’s note I’ve ever read. 

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So You Want To Make a Character..

I’ve got a few generators you can use.

Need some clothes?

Try Here Here or Here Definitely here Steam punk clothing Char Style preference Dress

Need an Appearance idea?

Humanoid generator? check Non-Humanoid? Got that too and this and maybe this Need Monsterpeople?  I’ve got you. Maybe you need Cats?

Need some details and shit like that?

Bam Backgrounds and stuff? yep Personality. you need that shit Need something fandom related? World-building? location? got ya City generator hell yeah make your own god damn laws Oh shit someone died Landscape. CHAR DEVELOP QUESTION GEN Profile Thingy Have some dates Quirks

You thought I was done? Nope. Motha. Fuckin. Names.

So many fuckin names MOTHERLOAD OF NAMES

Plant Names Magic Book title

Just search ur ass up some names man

Items. Yeah. You heard me.

Medicine? got it Items out the ass more items wow

Other shit.

Wow Yep Plots More writing stuff This site has everything so fucking go for it Need AUs? How the shit did these two meet? Fanfic plots. you bet your ass. (tag me in the shit u write i wanna see what you get) What does it do thing (you come up with a better name for this one. fuckin fight me.

You bet your ass I will continue to update this. If you’ve got something I should add to this hmu. Now, go forth! Make characters and live yo life. UPDATE: Added more shit everywhere.

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when my friends make new oc’s

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shoutout to people with ocs

that are either for fandom or purely original projects. you just spend so many hours constructing them from essentially dirt. shoutout to people with ocs who have them go through a million changed names and a million changed backstories, and still don’t feel like they’re up to the developmental standards that they should be…but they’re still loved by you regardless. shout out to people with ocs who want to share them with others, but are too anxious to tell information about them out of fear of judgment or laughter. And shout out to these same people who’re obviously adoring their creations but feel scared as shit to express the love out of your friend’s potential annoyance. shout out to people who make their ocs align with themselves in surname or quirks or just giving them those softer, hidden traits that also make you, you. to the peeps who feel so disappointed with their creations because again, they don’t feel good enough or accurate enough compared to other ocs. Nothing is perfect on the first draft, but they’re getting closer to perfected imperfection. to the creators who will write paragraphs about those brain children, paragraphs and concepts that have been building up for months only to be greeted with no response or simple replies such as, ‘oh.’ or to people who actually pay attention to them, and ask the BIG QUESTIONS and you’re just internally screaming and have to put on this cool act. shout out to people who spend hours thinking about how they sound like. (listening to voice clips for HOURS just thinking about your characters) What songs can apply to their personality and lifestyle…how they apply to them specifically.  shout out to big-brained creators who have a hundred and one characters and are greeted with, ‘isn’t that enough?’ when you talk about the concept of making a new one. If shows can have a vast cast of more than a ten to twenty characters, you can have your own vast cast too.  this post is just for people who feel so uneasy being so deeply involved and enthused in their creations. as if, there should be a limit on this type of love.  fandom ocs get stepped over and judged on sight, non-fandom ocs really get stepped over. But all that work and construction is valid and shows in your explanatory essay of their favorite genre. 

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My biggest problem with “Mary Sue” as a critique is that it no longer sticks to the original meaning as created back in 1973. It also does not have an accepted definition now - leaving it open to being plastered all over reviews. Reviews such as: “She is such a Mary Sue.” “Talk about a Gary Stu.” “Sigh. Mary Sue.” “What a Gary Stu!” And with no other commentary? These are useless. They rank alongside “WTF?” for a review. A review should be a pat on the back OR it should be holding out a hand to help an author grow in their writing/characterization/etc. abilities. If the review does not teach, it should congratulate. If it does neither, then it deserves to be deleted and ignored - or as Lademonessa has recommended, it should be confronted. People have taken to using “Mary Sue/Gary Stu” (though not calling out the men very often - you are so right there) as a shortcut and a way to avoid explaining why they don’t like a character. Given the huge variety of canon characters who have been given the title “Mary Sue,” such as Hermione Granger (Harry Potter), Nancy Drew, Lucy Pevensie (Narnia), Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man), Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes), Rose Dawson (Titanic), River Song (Doctor Who), Mary Boleyn (The Other Boleyn Girl), Charlie Bucket (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory), and the list goes on? I just can’t find it in myself to take “Mary Sue” as a serious critique.

Me

I gave this as a reply to a comment on my opinion of “The Dreaded Mary Sue Critique”.  Look at that list of characters.  Mary Sue, Gary Stu, Canon Sue…whatever.  I cannot take it as a serious critique.  A critique should be something like - “This character has promise, but they never made a wrong decision?  That’s kind of dull - not to mention statistically impossible in a person.  They need to have something go wrong if they’re going to grow.  Give them some flaws.  It will make them much more interesting.”  That type of review gives the author something to work with.  “Such a Mary Sue/Gary Stu.”  That review does nothing but annoy.

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Since the cynical ones are trending now, I thought I’d remind people that sometimes I’m actually funny. [x]

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