What is an OC? · 2:20am Jun 26th, 2015
What is an OC?
It is an acronym that stands for “Original Character.” But what does that actually mean?
In the context of a site dedicated to fanfiction, an audience of readers and writers of fanfiction, it is any character that doesn’t show up in canon. In the context of MLP:FiM, this excludes the main and supporting characters of the show, and by most people’s reckoning, it excludes background ponies as well.
“Whoah, whoah, wha? Cryo, you’re throwing out all these terms here and you’ve lost me. Please explain yourself!”
I’ve clearly lost it. I’m talking to myself in my own blog here. I blame the idiocy of the masses. This is totally not some clever narrative trick to suggest anyone reading this might not know what these words mean, nor an attempt at self-deprecating humor to further mask that. Nope.
So, crazy blog-self, and not anyone reading this who may not be familiar with the jargon, allow me to define a few words for youmyself in my own words.
A main character is the central character of a story. In MLP:FiM this is Twilight Sparkle. As the show is a series and contains a fair number of episodes that explore the lives of her friends, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack (resisting urge…) count as main characters as well. Despite having a few of their own episodes, characters like Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Discord, and Spike are not main characters, but are supporting characters. Luna, Celestia, and numerous other ponies also fall into this role. While a particular pony may be the main character of a particular episode, as far as the series goes the above categorization is what most people follow.
So what is a supporting character? A supporting character is an important character that, while not the main focus of the story, is vital to it. In literature, a story will often be told from the perspective of the main character. Supporting characters would be those who don’t get that treatment. We’re not told things from their perspective. But they’re still important, fully realized characters who have “major speaking roles.” In terms of the series, Twilight Sparkle and her five friends are the central cast of the series, with all of them fully qualified to lead an episode. The supporting cast may get the focus for an episode here or there, but they aren’t vital to the overarching season or series plot. They support it and the main characters.
More noteworthy supporting characters include Trixie, Gilda, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer, and so on. Antagonists are very important supporting characters.
Yeah, I realize that’s rather vague and probably a little contradictory. This is on purpose. Bear with me.
So, last but not least, background ponies. These are the extras. These are those ponies that you see literally in the background (occasionally in the foreground and so on). They may have bit speaking parts. Most often they silently go about doing their pony things while the camera is focused on Scootaloo zipping through Ponyville on her scooter, or Twilight Sparkle laying the magical smackdown on an Ursa or some other invading beasty. Examples of background ponies are ApplejaLyra, Bon Bon, Roseluck, Davenport, and so on. They serve a purpose of making the setting feel more lifelike. They’re intended to be scene dressing.
OK, so most of you probably are bored with this. I’m saying things everyone already knows, right? Right? So what is the point? “Hey, I didn’t know this!” Shut up, me.
The point is that when it comes to fanfiction, these terms become meaningless, and these definitions useless, when you go about writing your own story. Toss them out the window. Hell, they barely make much sense anyway.
The main character(s) of your story are whoever you want them to be. If you feel like writing about Blossomforth, she is a main character for your story. If you feel like writing about Scootaloo, and having her compete with Blossomforth for a summer job at a hayfries stand, she becomes a supporting character. If you want to write about Twilight Sparkle semi-awake and mumbling cute and adorable things as she passes by Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker sharing a smoothie at the cafe, she becomes a background pony.
So, back to original characters. Most people define them in a way that fits the set of definitions applied to the series. An original character is none of the above. It is a character that is 100% created by the author (or artist), and it has not, nor will it ever, show on screen being partially obscured by the Hub/Discovery Family logo. Not even for a single frame.
“Why is this important?” In the art world, where the focus is on the appearance and mannerisms of the character, that’s pretty much all you need. Are you drawing something you made up or are you drawing something someone else made up?
In the literature world though, that’s hardly important a distinction at all. If you write about Twilight Sparkle, you shouldn’t be quoting her lines from the show, or describing the events of an episode. That’s plagiarism. You should be putting Twilight Sparkle into a new situation, and making her react to that situation in a believable way based on her character as shown in the series. She should say new things, but word choice should feel like the words Twilight would choose to say those things. You’re creating original content, but using an existing character as a guide or template.
In practice, an original character is simply one for which you lack this template to go off of. You have to come up with original speech for your OC. You have to choose words, mannerisms, and so on for them. Unlike when writing for Twilight Sparkle, you don’t have material to reference to see if your depiction matches. You don’t have that safety net. But you also do not have that restriction. Technically, no matter what you say with your character or how, it is correct. That said, if you do present your original character in an interesting way, and produce a fair amount of material for him/her/it, you’ll need to keep to some internal consistency and actually build that template. Otherwise you’re going to confuse your readers as they try to figure out how you made your own OC OOC.
“So why am I writing about all of this?” Lets get back to background ponies. Blossomforth needs more love. She was shown in the background of some episodes, but we have no idea what her voice sounds like, or anything about how she speaks. We have no idea what her favorite color is, what her job is, what kind of music she likes, nothing. Is she good at dancing or clumsy? Is she an introvert or an extrovert? How did she earn her cutie mark? Anyone writing about Blossomforth has to go through all the same work as they would for an original character. If you want to write about Blossomforth as your main character, you have to develop the template yourself. The Blossomforth you come up with is an original character.
But, you might bring up the fact that “original” still means “100% made up on your own” and that even background characters like Blossomforth have some material to work with. We obviously know she spends a fair amount of time in Ponyville, helped out with hurricane duty, is really flexible, and and has flowers for her cutie mark, which is kind of unusual for a pegasus. So there is less you need to come up with than for a “totally original” character. 
This is an argument of false dichotomy though. Twilight Sparkle, the most realized character in the show, still requires some original content in order to work for a given story. An OC still makes use of the setting of Equestria, the lore of the world, the races in the world, and so on. If you manage to actually make your character 100% devoid of MLP:FiM content, you wouldn’t be allowed to upload it to this site. An OC therefore simply sits somewhere on a scale of canon/original content, and happens to be a bit closer to the original side than other options. I’d say that the gap between main/support and background is substantially larger than the gap between OC and background. It is not a case of black and white, 100% original versus anything less than 100% original.
So why does this matter? Let's say I agree with me, and will go ahead and say that stories about background characters are still actually OC stories. Blossomforth has her fans while an OC does not!
This is true. Because a lot of people are idiots. A lot of people seem to have had it nailed into their head that Blossomforth, or any other background pony, is somehow superior to an OC. A lot of this has to do with how a lot of idiot writers fail to properly realize an OC. Most of these writers commit all sorts of grave sins, such as writing about themselves with only the thinnest of veils to cover the fact. They’ll give themselves all sorts of cool powers and write about all their pony fantasies, sometimes in TMI levels of detail, which is all fairly juvenile and boring. The readers probably want to read about themselves cumming in Rainbow Dash far more than they’re interested in reading about you cumming in Rainbow Dash.
But underlying all of that, is a vague understanding that characters are hard. What makes a story interesting is interesting characters. MLP:FiM is interesting because Twilight Sparkle is interesting. Because Rainbow Dash is interesting. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy (and Applejack) are interesting. Maybe not to every fan each, but they each appeal to a large portion of the fanbase. Because they have fun quirks and flaws, they have goals and personality. Twilight Sparkle is more than just a purple unicorn. She’s more than just some smart wizardy type. She’s more than just some extroverted bookworm (yes, extroverted). She’s Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight Sparkle is an OC. Lauren Faust came up with her. I don’t personally know Mrs. Faust well, but I’d imagine she likely shares some traits at least with Twilight. Tara Strong, her voice actor, is another person I don’t personally know well. I imagine some of her personality carries through with her tone and inflection. Various writers on their staff have written stories involving Twilight Sparkle, and I imagine at least a little piece of each of them comes through to the character we see on screen. But because Twilight Sparkle is interesting, and she’s often well-written, she doesn’t come across as a shallow author self-insert.
OC’s are often reviled because the author doesn’t put in the work to make their character interesting. It’s an art, not a science. But like any good piece of art, forming a likable and engaging character is a complicated and error-prone process. You’re lacking that safety net, after all. Slapping the name and color scheme of a background pony on your OC doesn’t change that. You’re still pretty much lacking a safety net, and you’re likely to fail even if you put in a lot of work.
Again, there are a lot of idiots out there. They’ll revile an OC simply for being an OC. Not because you personally wrote one badly, but because people are tired of seeing all the shitty jobs, and it’s simply a way to filter them out. Hiding behind a background pony might trick the idiot masses to not automatically filter you out, but you’re not fooling everyone.
When I discuss story ideas, a thing I seem to often do, I am going to refer to a character as an OC, even if it “technically” is a background character. Because I’m discussing it in the context not of the show, but of the story it is being considered for. When someone starts a conversation with, “Hey I was thinking of shipping Cherry Berry with Berry Punch” I’m going to call that “OC x OC.” Because that is what it is. That is the level of detail and lack of safety net you’re working with. The names of two background characters tell me nothing of importance about the proposed story. Is it a get together fic, an established relationship, a breakup fic, mindless fap-fuel, or what? What sort of plot are you going to use? Are you going for some dramatic sad romance, creepy horror dark romance, light-hearted romcom, or an adventure with a side of romance? What is your hook? What themes are you going to focus on? What tone? How do you envision these two characters and what kind of chemistry are you going to depict? Is there some existing story that created original characters using their name that you’re interested in emulating? Maybe some entirely unrelated character template(s) you’re interested in using.
Two random names and descriptions is not a story or a story idea. You’ve said literally nothing. If that is the limit of your “idea” then you’re better off keeping it to yourself. When you’ve thought it over more, and can answer at least a few of those questions, then you’re starting to have a story. If you can describe who they are, then you have an idea. When you have characters to discuss, then you can expect people to have a conversation with you. Until then, expect at least me to be highly dismissive of your “idea.” Anyone not being dismissive of such a lazy idea is very likely an idiot, and whatever feedback they’re giving you is probably not helpful, even if they’re far more friendly to you than I’m being. 
If you want useful replies from me in a conversation, then do the work. You don’t need to have done all of it, but at least demonstrate that you understand what you’re missing, and ask specifically for brainstorming on those deficiencies. I’d urge you to expect the same from me, or anyone else.
Also, Blossomforth really does need more love. Everyone write about her. 
I agree.
Excellent points.
Are these guys OCs?
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/5sln-1432582642-214415-full
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All except the top-right one. She's canon, just poorly drawn.
Okay, I have I really interesting thing or two to say about my version of Blossomforth. First off I decided I liked her based on her blind bag, which at least in picutes has more teal and pink hair than that full green. Second her manecut is based on some fan art I have somewhere where someone was drawing all the blind bag ponies in g4style, but giving them more character. Her hair was a mess and she looked very stressed. I went with this and what it said on her blind bag card and she was the former weather manager before rainbow and really hated clouds since she loves clear skies. She's currently one of Luna's guards. Then she made her first appearance in the show. I published the story with my odd version of her sometime later though I wrote about her well before that. I forget if it was before or after the first Winningverse story or not, but again I know I wrote it before then. Sometime after that I wrote a little snippet I have somewhere or other and I know I haven't published where Blossom ends up beating up Cloud Kicker after she goes to far with the teasing, and Cloud's last words to her are "so I guess the rumors about guard training were true."
In other words, you can create something very different with the same character since there really isn't much information. In fact one thing I'm fairly fond of is taking the one sentence about the pony on the blind bag card and using it along with their cutie mark to create a personality.
"I-"
"No, Cloud Kicker."