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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Eight
Jul. 8th, 2011 07:04 am8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
I don't write OCs often, being a canon girl at heart, but sometimes they're simply necessary for the story to work. And then there are the characters who are original characters in all but name, i.e. canon tells us of their existence and sometimes provides a name, but doesn't give us anything further, so you have to make up the personality if you want to use them. Again, usually I need a bit more from canon to intrigue me, but not always.
Going through my work, here are the original characters I found, counting only OCs that take up a sizable portion of the story and have a more important role than to say "ready to order, ma'am?":
Highlander:
Andrew Lanart in the Covenants series, specifically the stories Incubus and Transferences; the later also has an important OC named Mireille Lejeune. Andrew Lanart is Cassandra's Watcher and a minor (but important) character in Incubus and a major supporting character in Transferences, a story that uses the events of Incubus as background but is about Amy Thomas (Joe's daughter) finding her way after the episode Indiscretions and figuring out for herself what it means to be a Watcher. Mireille Lejeune is her supervisor. The Mary Sue question never even presented itself due to Lanart's function in both stories, and if Lejeune can be accused of anything, then of fulfilling the wise mentor stereotype.
Heroes:
The unnamed campaign worker from the Petrelli campaigin in my crack story Campaign Secrets from whose perspective the story is told. This was a story written for comedy effect and the narrator's constant misinterpretations (or are they, she asks sinisterly) of the first season events she observes are the very point of the tale.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
My childhood story about Kai Winn, Chosen, has two important OCs, a childhood friend of hers named Lerin and a Vedek who has to choose between them both. Considering we know nothing of Winn Adami's childhood, it was necessary to make up both characters in order to show young Adami in development. Again, the Mary Sue question didn't pose itself due to what happens in the story.
Technically not original characters because canon tells us of their existence but doesn't do more than that which I wrote about were:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Everyone in Five in One, my story about five of Spike's victims. These people existed (I quote the relevant dialogue from the show at the end of each part), but with the exception of Nikki Wood and her son Robin, we don't see them on screen (and the Nikki section is told by her Watcher who later adopted Robin, a character mentioned but not seen on screen). And the crux of the story, the big challenge, was to make each of them real and complex, with their own story, hopes and dreams, that come to an abrupt end when each of them encounters Spike.
Babylon 5:
The four Centauri telepaths from White Lies. We see these women in the episode Coming of Shadows (where they never speak a word), but never again, and one of the reasons why I wrote the story was that I wondered what had become of them and why they weren't around in Cartagia's time anymore. It allowed me some world building while pondering what it would mean for them to be raised the way they were, and how they would cope after Turhan's death. It also allowed me a glimpse on post-show Londo. But I don't imagine any reader would like to be them, and I certainly would not, so - no danger of Sueing.
( The rest of the questions )
I don't write OCs often, being a canon girl at heart, but sometimes they're simply necessary for the story to work. And then there are the characters who are original characters in all but name, i.e. canon tells us of their existence and sometimes provides a name, but doesn't give us anything further, so you have to make up the personality if you want to use them. Again, usually I need a bit more from canon to intrigue me, but not always.
Going through my work, here are the original characters I found, counting only OCs that take up a sizable portion of the story and have a more important role than to say "ready to order, ma'am?":
Highlander:
Andrew Lanart in the Covenants series, specifically the stories Incubus and Transferences; the later also has an important OC named Mireille Lejeune. Andrew Lanart is Cassandra's Watcher and a minor (but important) character in Incubus and a major supporting character in Transferences, a story that uses the events of Incubus as background but is about Amy Thomas (Joe's daughter) finding her way after the episode Indiscretions and figuring out for herself what it means to be a Watcher. Mireille Lejeune is her supervisor. The Mary Sue question never even presented itself due to Lanart's function in both stories, and if Lejeune can be accused of anything, then of fulfilling the wise mentor stereotype.
Heroes:
The unnamed campaign worker from the Petrelli campaigin in my crack story Campaign Secrets from whose perspective the story is told. This was a story written for comedy effect and the narrator's constant misinterpretations (or are they, she asks sinisterly) of the first season events she observes are the very point of the tale.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
My childhood story about Kai Winn, Chosen, has two important OCs, a childhood friend of hers named Lerin and a Vedek who has to choose between them both. Considering we know nothing of Winn Adami's childhood, it was necessary to make up both characters in order to show young Adami in development. Again, the Mary Sue question didn't pose itself due to what happens in the story.
Technically not original characters because canon tells us of their existence but doesn't do more than that which I wrote about were:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Everyone in Five in One, my story about five of Spike's victims. These people existed (I quote the relevant dialogue from the show at the end of each part), but with the exception of Nikki Wood and her son Robin, we don't see them on screen (and the Nikki section is told by her Watcher who later adopted Robin, a character mentioned but not seen on screen). And the crux of the story, the big challenge, was to make each of them real and complex, with their own story, hopes and dreams, that come to an abrupt end when each of them encounters Spike.
Babylon 5:
The four Centauri telepaths from White Lies. We see these women in the episode Coming of Shadows (where they never speak a word), but never again, and one of the reasons why I wrote the story was that I wondered what had become of them and why they weren't around in Cartagia's time anymore. It allowed me some world building while pondering what it would mean for them to be raised the way they were, and how they would cope after Turhan's death. It also allowed me a glimpse on post-show Londo. But I don't imagine any reader would like to be them, and I certainly would not, so - no danger of Sueing.
( The rest of the questions )
