The OC Tag of Death · 6:33pm Aug 17th, 2019
This is going to be a short post. I've still got some editing to do today, and it's a weekend, so I should be relaxing and taking the day to rest but ... Jungle. Gotta get Jungle into Beta.
Anyway, the other day I was hanging out on the FimFic Discord's Writing channel, and a discussion on the dreaded "OC" tag started. Specifically, what hoops a lot of authors on the channel jumped through in order to avoid the tag at all costs ... even if their story was entirely about an original character. And there were some pretty elaborate hoops, from people admitting that they'd start with a viewpoint that was a series mane six, just to "trick" the audience in, and then switching to the original character, to various ways around the tagging requirements to avoid having the OC tag.
Why? Well, because all of them felt that the OC tag was the mark of death on a story. Good or not, it didn't matter. People needed to be tricked into reading an OC story at all.
Which made me a little curious. I've always had the OC tag front and fore with my stories because "surprise," they follow a team of characters not from the show. And in all fairness, it makes the stories struggle. It doesn't take much to look at the stories in my stories folder, for instance, and note that stories that follow the mane series cast seem to have ratings that are about five to ten times as high as stories that do not.
Actually, it gets even stranger. Looking at stories that have no OC tag at all but mane series characters, compared to similar stories that do have the OC tag on the same set of characters shows ... a serious drop in readership and upvotes. By about a factor of five.
Now, again, this is all conjecture, because A) I'm not spending my Saturday doing charts, stats, and diagrams, and B) it's kind of impossible to make some sort of declarative statement without running some blind tests with an identical story (like say, releasing the same story with and without an OC tag to see what happens). Which isn't really that feasible given a number of other factors online.
But ... if I poke around (and I did) on other author's story pages and start making some blanket observations, I do note a few things.
1) Stories that are about OCs but don't use the OC tag seem to outperform any story using an OC tag.
2) Stories that are about mane cast characters but have an OC tag seem to perform decently.
3) Stories by the same author that don't have mane cast character tags but an OC tag perform abysmally.
Now, there are exceptions. This is, after all, just an observation. There are a few stories that are straight about OCs that seem to buck the trend, either through time and word of mouth or even just "right place, right time."
But honestly, looking over a few author pages, my own pages, and checking story stats, there does seem to be a lot to support the idea that "The OC tag is the mark of death, avoid it if possible." Sands, there are stories that show this to be true, such as a few popular right now that are entirely about OCs (I know, I've read them), consistently getting hits, upvotes, and eyes ... that have almost nothing to do with their tags, if I'm honest. They're straight OC characters, but the OC tag isn't used, and the tags that are used are for characters that make brief appearances here and there for a paragraph, a justification to get the tag (and thus pull in eyes).
Which again, seems to support what a lot of people in the chat were saying: The OC tag is death. Don't use it. Ever.
Why? Well, there could be a lot of reasons. One that was offered in the chat from one commentator was that the OC tag really meant "self-insert" and that automatically meant a bad story. Even though it doesn't mean that, they argued, that was how it was used and seen, so that's what it was. So OC meant "bad story."
Other theories were proposed. I, for example, am still a pretty solid supporter of the "comfort" mentality, that most fanfic readers just read fanfic for the "comfort" of whatever setting the fanfic is from. It makes requirements for satisfaction fairly low, mostly "have the elements of the thing I like, even if a little skewed" and one of the most common there is characters (not setting, judging by how popular crossover stories are).
Ultimately, though, I have to say that even in just glancing over author pages and seeing how stories with OC tags stack up ... there's appear to be very solid trends indicating that a lot of these writers are correct, and that using every trick in the book to get around using the OC tag is a smart idea. OC tags are a negative indicator on Fimfic. Sands, I'm halfway convinced I should go through and strip all the OC tags out of my library, as it would seem viewership would spike pretty well on them after that, even if they are old. Whether or not they actually star OCs doesn't seem to matter to readers as much as the tag existing. Nor does it seem to matter to the tagging system, given the amount of OC-focused stories that no longer use the tag (since, you know, it is the kiss of death).
I don't know, what do you guys think? It certainly couldn't hurt Hunter/Hunted. Which does have a few canon characters appearing here and there, which seems to be all one needs to use those tags instead and ditch the OC tags.
That's... kinda disturbing, actually. A bit of connotative meaning that apparently everybody picked up on except for me.
I really don't want to be dishonest with my tags, so I don't think I can take the OC tag off of Tastes Like Heresy and company, but maybe fics like Monster Hunter: Equestria and Unbalanced Scales could stand to have the tag removed...
Personally, I tend to skip OC stories for the second reason of the two you listed; 90% of the time, I just want to read about the ponies I know.
The only stories I've seen bunk that particular trend with some level of consistency are the ones where the description and/or cover art make it very clear that the OC is the child of two other characters who've been shipped together. But other than that... it's pretty much dumb luck whether or not they'll get popular.
Good post!!!
I think the comfort thing is definitely a factor: a good portion of readers are here to read about their favorite character(s); throwing OC’s in adds extra mental load that will turn them away.
The bigger factor, I believe, is the connotation: the strong (perceived) relation between OC and badfic. The canon characters have relatively set personalities, traits, and appearances, making them easier for less seasoned writers to pick up and craft an acceptable story with. Well thought out and written OC’s take more work on the author’s part, and the sandbox that we’re all writing in has its share of experienced and inexperienced authors.
[Disclaimer: non-representative sample of one weirdo]
I don't get it. OK, back during S1-2, OC probably meant "self-insert crap", but that was early days. Now we have a self-insert tag, so it probably doesn't literally mean that anymore. Add in that many of the authors around here have lots of experience now, and they know how to write OCs that don't suck. Provided it's by an author I trust, I'm very happy to read an OC story, whether it's OC+M6 or OC-only. Even with new authors, if the description sounds OK, I'm likely to roll with it.
Now, this probably boils down to the same thing as The Big FiMFic Porn Argument of 2018: people who write stories and/or leave comments are a tiny, tiny minority of the audience, and they have vastly different tastes than the silent majority. Listening to your commenters and other authors is a guaranteed way to do exactly the wrong thing with confidence. When the other porn authors (and some noisy commenters) say you're not being feminist enough, but the porn readers want you to leave the politics out of their clopfic, you don't want to listen to the other authors unless you want to lose most of your readers. When us comment-leaving readers say we like your OCs... well, I guess you probably shouldn't listen to us either, assuming you want anyone else to read the story.
Part of it is definitely the dreaded cliche Red and Black Alicorn OC.
We're more or less part the era where things like that get written, but... what if it does? How do you know going into a story that is doesn't have garbage cliche self insert OCs?
The short answer is that you don't, so if you want to just avoid that kind of thing entirely, your only realistic option is just to use the OC tag as a proxy.
I think it's that there's too many bad OCs or somesuch, but honestly, that's not the character, that's the story, and reading the description will tell you more about if the story is worth reading than a single tag will.
For me personally I love a good OC (as you can probably guess from pre-reads
). For some reason though I have found I tend towards stories that have at least 1 or two tags for characters I know as well as OC tags. Maybe because I like to see how a new character will play off of ones I know. I know the way I originally came across and read Rise was a fairly convoluted chain reaction. (Read Arad's Stardeust then his non-canon fic with the Dusk Guard and loved the characters.)
I have found though that stories with just an OC tag fail to capture my interests as much as those with an OC and another character I know/like. Even ones I love that are totally OC centered (aside from the Dusk Guard) all have at least one other character in the tags no matter how tangential their involvement. I actually hadn't even noticed that trend before.
5107544
You know I just realized I've committed a great sin. After multiple pre-reading trading/reading comments I haven't read any of your stories. I must correct this!
Most of the "favorites" made on fimfiction are made by people who are not members of the fimfiction community. They are the vast silent majority, who follow zero or one people, or don't bother to create accounts at all, don't comment on stories, and drop in once or twice a month, probably to read a few stories about the ponies they know. I discovered this by scraping fimfiction a few years ago and building a database of info about who favorited which stories, and who followed whom.
I also did regression analysis to find out how different character tags affected story popularity. Results are in
What tags correlate with popularity on Fimfiction (July 2 2015)
and
Story tag results simplified (July 3 2015).
The most-relevant point re. the OC tag is in the second post: After the contributions of all other tags are factored out, the OC tag typically multiplied expected views by 0.62.
Digging through a lot of stories with OC specifically; can definitely say that Sturgeon's law applies. My own preference more or less is to avoid Romance and Sex tags in combination with OC, as that is so far the majority of them have contrived stupid reasons why "My OC hooks up with Twahlaht Spahkle". Combine that with the strange rationale that people are a lot more forgiving to a story when it focuses on canon characters, even if they go off the rails in terms of character, compared to an OC being written badly, and that is why I believe the OC tag has a negative connotation.
Take for example, The Sweetie Chronicles. I personally do not like that story, as to me it seems like an OC wearing Sweetie's skin and having very shallow interactions with each 'verse's cast before moving along to the next crossover story. Were the main character some kind of OC instead of Sweetie, and I bet you that there would be a lot less eyes on it.
Another story, a bit hitter for its time: My Little Dashie. Still have no idea how people oohed and ahhed at a story that was so flawed. Only thing I can come up with is that for some reason it triggered a lot of people's "It is smol and cute so I must protec" switch, combined with a child Rainbow Dash. Same deal, less eyes on it if it were not Dash, considering how little her characterization actually was put into the story. You could replace it with some OC, but it would not draw as many eyes since it was not RD.
5107544
Honestly, even when I first showed up on the site, it was kind of acknowledged that OC tags hurt stories. Going and actually looking though made it apparent how damaging the tag can be.
5107548
While I see that perspective and do understand it, I feel like it's worth pointing out that in and of itself, the mane characters are just OCs that you happen to know. Written by talented authors, naturally, but then there isn't a shortage of that on Fimfic that are writing original characters.
I mean, obviously I'm a little biased because I wrote The Dusk Guard, which revolves around OCs, but then I write and sell published books full of original characters as well, and people love 'em, so ...
5107581
Thanks!
5107584
Agreed. Comfort is a real draw to people, and gives stories leeway.
I do wish there was a better way to differentiate between "good" and "bad" OC fics though. Maybe a review group for it? IDK, but it's sad to see fics that are praised for being impressive stories overlooked simply because they're original characters set in the MLP verse.
5107589
I don't know much about that debate, personally, but both embracing all comments equally or ignoring them equally would be a misstep I think. Sometimes people say interesting, worthwhile stuff, and sometimes they're out on a limb. Though yes, the wide expanse don't comment at all. But getting back to that silent majority, I think they're missing out on some solid fics out there.
No one uses that SI tag either. I did find it strange that people were arguing OC meant SI, but they did counter with "That's what it means everywhere else, so ..." I can't say on that one, but they were shocked at how many in the chat wrote OC and very confused.
5107645
I'll admit, that approach seems foolish to me, but then again ...
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/284/456/eef.png
I get that there are terrible OCs out there. But that's why we have reviewers, ratings, and a lot of other means to see how well received a story is. At the end of the day I'd rather spend a few minutes vetting a story and find a gem than not bother at all and miss out on something great.
5107646
I think this shows that there's a wide range that don't read the description at all, sadly. Just tag and go.
5107763
Yeah, no joke I'm considering throwing a "Shining Armor" tag on Hunter/Hunted, plus the princesses, just for draw now that I've noted that arrangement. Plus, it seems all you need is a single appearance and that's good enough, so ...
Yeah, Arad cameoing the Gusk Guard in Stardust was a huge boom to it. Shame life got in the way and his sequel sort of petered out.
5108326
This blew my mind. I never knew this had been done! Glad you shared it, and it really got some convo going on discord.
If you ever revisit it for 2019, I'd be curious to know what comes of it!
Also, I could have sworn I was following you. Amended!
5108465
Speaking of shipping OCs with canon characters, I honestly can't say that they're any worse than a lot of straight canon character ships, save that the OC might be flatter. Not that a detail like that matters in a lot of shipping (SHOTS FIRED!) lol.
I kid. Mostly. And I definitely agree with you on the "I'll use a canon character but completely rewritten as an OC" because I know people have done that. Or swapped OC-only stories out for canon characters just for views.
Again I find myself wishing for some sort of depository of "OC characters/stories worth your time" or "Best OC stories to read" or similar.
5108740
I found myself wishing just that myself as I read the original post.
5108764
Huh. I wonder if there'd be a way to make that happen?
5108772 5108764 You can create a fimfiction group. Although I've created several fimfiction groups for various purposes, and mine all have very little activity. I know how to start a group, but I don't know how to gain momentum and make it last, other than to put a whole lot of your own time into it.
5108772
5108838
Getting enough stories together and ready at start would probably be a good way to go. I'd be interested in trying but life has just decided to delivery a gut punch like a buck from a very angry Big Mac, and it will be months before I have much more than token free time here and there to work on a group for at least the next few months possibly longer.
I'd be happy to forward stories from my libraries if anyone else does something though. While I have OC tagged stories I'm realizing just how few I have though are only OC tagged. I really could have sworn I had a few but I'm not finding them...
After spending about 30 minutes looking through stories I've read here the closest I've come to OC only would be Of Lillies and Chestnuts and I'd only include that since the canon characters in it are pretty much 90% fan personalities.
Well Viking if nothing else from this I can thank you some an interesting revelation about my own habits. lol
5108740
Agreed on how unfortunate that is. I do think that it might be a different story if fimfiction circa 2012 had the capabilities it has now, like the self insert and anon tags that’ve broken out some of the OC tag’s subgenres. Hats off to knighty and the other developers for keeping this place running as smoothly as it does, but loads of old stories, good and bad, are going to be forever stuck with “OC” as their defining tag simply because their authors aren’t here anymore to adopt the newer, more descriptive ones.
Well, in my personal car, I ran across the Dusk Guard seeks because I was looking for Luna-centric stories. Without the Luna tag, the search engine would not have picked it up--and I would never have seen your excellent work.
5108902
Maybe some sort of admin or community tagging of abandoned stories is in order?
5118151
That would be ideal, but probably borders on impossible. A good number of stories would probably have to be read in full just to be tagged properly, and even then the tags that the reader decides on might not been jive with the author’s true intent...
I’ve actually been thinking about about this blog post again recently. Specially I’ve started to wonder if the Alternate Universe tag holds a somewhat similar stigma for very similar reasons?
5118198
It would be difficult. Perhaps a Wikipedia like system where editors have a reputation of some sort, based on how often they are overwritten?
Oh yea AU tag gets some stigma too.