User blog:TechSaur/Tech's Guide : Creating Characters

Hello! This is Tech here today with my very first guide. I will make a few more guide blogs, but here's the first one! You guys are the only people who can read this guide because it's on AJStories.

Because I've been seeing a lot of odd characters, I decided to make this to possibly improve some OCs or characters.

Things You SHOULDN'T Do With Your OC
-Make a replica of an overused character.

-Use a HIGHLY tragic backstory. When I say HIGHLY TRAGIC, I mean that the parents died for nothing and they were abusive for nothing. If the character had siblings, they would be abusive. DO NOT DO THIS.

-Use crazy epileptic markings/overused markings and patterns.

-Make your character kill for nothing.

-Make your character super overpowered (kills everyone in one hit, too many powers, etc.) when it's not even advanced in a way, or if it's just a normal animal/human.

-Give your characters syndromes/mental issues that don't actually fit in.

Refrain from using these at ALL times.

Subject One - When is Someone Copying You?
When you make a similar character, it's not exactly copying.

Some of you may be thinking, "BUT TECH! ______ STOLE MY CHARACTER'S NAME AND HE/SHE IS COPYING ME!!!!!!!!!"

When someone uses someone else's name, it's not copying! Let's take that one trollfic for example, the one about that mary sue wolf Onyx Blackheart. FoxStray got onto the story owner for using the name Onyx. Onyy was a bird, while Onyx Blackheart, a joke, was a wolf. See the difference? Onyx was a serious character, while Onyx Blackheart was a lighthearted joke character that wasn't all serious, having lots of powers. You can tell that the two are VERY different, joke or not.

If someone creates a character and names it, it's their character with their own personality. Another person uses the EXACT same pattern, name, personality and backstory. This is copying. The one who creates the character first has the right to confront the user who made a replica. See the similarities? The two characters are the exact same.

Subject Two - Clichés
A cliché is an overused subject, often found in the bad characters in stories. Clichés are NOT GOOD! Refrain from using these at all times. Here is an example of a cliché character:

The character had a terrible life of bullying, mental and physical pain, abusive parents and siblings. He/she had no friends throughout his/her life. The OC was hated by everyone and eventually began killing everyone in revenge. See the cliché?

The cliché is that the OC had a terrible, terrible backstory and killed for basically nothing. Now, let's find out how we can improve this crummy character!

First, let's improve that backstory and change it up a bit. Let's remove the bullying and abuse so we can change it.

Now we can replace it with something else. Hm, maybe the character's belief/religion changed, and then the parents began to disagree. Remember, parents don't just turn evil all of a sudden. Maybe the mom/dad could have problems, slowly resulting in abuse. That does seem a bit better, but the cliché is still the abuse. At least it doesn't INSTANTLY switch to evil and hurt.

Let's fix up the killing part now. Why did the OC go insane? Maybe he/she was getting tired of the fighting and decided to lash out all of a sudden, then that slowly notches up to a killing obsession, which then means he/she will kill others. Maybe he/she was forced to kill by another person. There's a lot more reasons than just going insane for vengeance all of a sudden.

Subject 3 - Designs
Everyone wants a nice design for a character, right? This is one of my concerns in creating OCs. If someone of you are familiar with the creepypasta community, you can see some designs similar to Jeff the Killer and other highly popular pastas. Let's find a way to improve designs.

Know the game Animal Jam? Of course you do, this is AJStories Wiki! Most of us know the popular YouTubers who play Animal Jam, like Julian2, Blupedalfeet and LilacPetal. Some users will copy their designs in game. Even though the character really isn't an OC, it's still using the design, but that's not my concern.

When people make OCs, they need a design for the animal/creature/human they're making. I based my fursona, Tech, off the real-life chimera cat Venus. I didn't make an exact replica. Venus is a tortie, while Tech is a calico. The eyes are also different and Tech doesn't have stripes. See the difference and similarities? They both have dual tone eyes and half of their face is black, but the patterns aren't exactly the same.

It's alright to refer to another user's character, but I would advise asking permission to base the design of your OC off the user's. Because Venus is a real cat, I didn't have the need to ask. Nobody created Venus (except god, he makes all things ((Im a Christian don't fuss at me if you disagree))) so I didn't need to ask.

Be original when making your OC! Make your OC unique. Let's take Shystar's character for example. She's an arctic wolf with Animal Jam items, which isn't very common, along with her patterns. Another example is Dragonheart's character Awesome. You don't see a white cat with red, blocky swirls on its body every day on the web. Am I right?

(more 2 come soon)