Kei0523

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@CloverReef Haha Yeah, I'm not even sure what i'm looking for myself.
The character is definitely human, basically a priestess that abandoned her duties because she thought it was boring but that's about all I've got. 
It's one of those things where when writing for others, having them embodied into these OCs, I know exactly who their characters are (even if they sort of change from how i initially wanted to portray them as the story plays out), but I know exactly how i'm wanting scenes to play out.
When writing a story catered to me, my alter ego or personality, or completely have the freedom to make her to be anyone i want, I have no idea. 
 

How much time do you spend trying to create the Perfect Woman? She's brilliant, passionate and the life of the party. She can cook, clean, raise children and hold down a job with no problem. There's nothing she can't do.
It's a great thing to dream about but there's a problem – no one, even characters, are perfect. In any movie or novel you read, there is always some obstacle that the heroine has to overcome and these barriers allow the reader to connect emotionally to your character. If you start out with a perfect character then there's no place for them to grow with the reader. There isn't anything compelling them to follow your story and character, wanting to know what will happen next or will she be okay. That doesn't mean she has to have gone through some horrible situation but small problems can mount up, so keep that in mind.
Regardless of the genre there are eight basic heroines.
The Boss is a take charge woman. She demands respect and her goals are her most important things in life. She doesn't accept failure and she won't give up. She's a workaholic, confident, competitive, arrogant, and her attitude must be consistent with her behavior. Imagine how she would act in a situation – I use key words like the ones listed in the previous sentence.
Examples: Working girl climbing a corporate ladder, a pampered princess. Katharine Hepburn is a good example. She's played many 'boss archetypes' (Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter).
The Survivor is mysterious, manipulative and has many charms. She's street smart and her intelligence is always hiding behind a seductive smile but she always keeps her wits. She hides a very strong streak of distrust in anyone and it's second nature to size up everyone in a room the minute she enters. Cynicism guides her every action. Her survival instincts gives her the means to do whatever is necessary to come out ahead. She skates on thin ice and may seem more of a villainess than heroine. Eventually a hero comes who is able to see through the wall she built around herself.
Examples: Margaret Mitchell, who crafted the icon of a Survivor through Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, Madonna in Evita, or Bette Davis in just about anything.
The Spunky Kid is funny, supportive, reliable, the All-American Girl. She's not looking to be at the top, just in her own little niche. She's the team player, always ready to lend a hand. She maybe a cheerleader but never captain. She doesn't have any enemies and plenty of friends. Her humor helps her through the bumps of her love life, "ever the bridesmaid" ring a bell? She's more comfortable to hang around the guys than dress up. She never runs away and can forget the differences between her and the hero if it can stop an escalating situation. She also worries for others more than herself.
Examples: Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, and Janine Garofalo in The Truth About Cats & Dogs.
The Free Spirit is "original", playful, fun loving, acts on a whim and follows her heart, and not head. She sets trends and is always looking for new experiences. She travels through life with a hop, skip and jump always stopping to smell the flowers and admire the colors. She can be a little ditzy but is sincere and willing to help. She scoffs at danger and resists any effort to be pulled to safety, enjoying the excitement and would be high from the adrenaline rush.
Examples: Lucille Ball, Goldie Hawn, Jenna Elfman from Dharma & Greg, and Calista Flockhart in Ally McBeal. These women share sincerity and imagination, with a strong sprinkling of an impulsive need to meddle in their friends' lives.
The Waif is the original damsel in distress. Think Cinderella, Sleepy Beauty, Rapunzel. Her innocence evokes a protective urge from the hero. She has a tremendous amount of will and will endure instead of fighting back. She's pure at heart, too trusting and insecure. She seems untouched by the harshness of the world and is patient and adaptable to any situation. She'll carry on looking for the day she will be free of her suffering but takes little action to bring herself closer to that day. If she's cornered, she will take desperate measures when there is no other option.
Examples: Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits and La Femme Nikita (I guess I could see Nikita as a waif in the beginning).
The Librarian is prim and proper but has a passionate side. She's learned to lead with her brain and not her body. She doesn't wear revealing clothes and always has an answer, which can make her quite stubborn to others opinions. She's serious, efficient, and may have to overcome feelings of inadequacy. She's prefers a well-reason debate to settle differences, is practical and takes a moment to study the situation, trying to find the easiest way to safety. She can take care of herself but wouldn't turn a man down.
Examples: Shelly Long in Cheers, Shirley Jones in The Music Man, (wonderful movie), Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy.
The Crusader is a modern heroine who doesn't scream in fear. She's not a damsel in distress. She has a mission and marches over anyone in her way. This woman is headstrong, tenacious, keeps her eyes on the goal and brushes off any opposition. You can't calm her down or force her to do anything and she doesn't need to be protected. If you aren't helping her, then you're in her way – or even an enemy. So if she has to save or protect something, she's a crusader.
Examples: Sarah Michelle Gellar in Buffy, Lucy Lawless in Xena, Wonder Woman, BatGirl, Supergirl.
The Nurturer is not always Suzy Homemaker but she takes care of everyone else. She listens, is happy to see you, serene, capable, optimistic, calm, cool, collected and always has the answers. Her role is to take care of family and friends so anyone can depend on her.
Examples: Julie Andrews who played Mary Poppins and Gabrielle from Xena.
(Will eventually post the Eight Male Archetypes.)

Hahaha Saiyuki has PLENTY of fodder to craft M/M.  oh, the fodder. 

If I was an M/F writer in the Saiyuki fandom, yeah I’d have to do the whole OC thing too. The few female characters who make infrequent, repeat appearances, from what I recall (It’s been years since I dipped into my Saiyuki DVD collection) weren’t all that interesting to me. Saiyuki was a great place to write M/M though, lol. 

Now THIS is a thread I can get behind! The series i've thrown OC's into is male dominated. While there are female characters, it's few and far between which means plenty of fodder for the yaoi and WAFF tags. 
My first story i feel is fine as she's an OC (succubus) thrown into the series in a plausible manner and she doesn't require a whole lot of backstory. Her motives are clear and it's also clear as to the type of story it's going to result in. 
My worries are integrating other OCs that may border WAFF tags and if that'll generate interest for people to read them at all as I do try to stay true to the original characters and universe they reside in. While they're all giftfics, there is a part of me that still wants to throw those out into the world for some light reading. But i definitely worry they won't be as well recieved as the succubus story.

I'm going to add a link to a post from our own Melrick on World Building only because a great many of the questions it asks about the people of a world are very much applicable to the sort of character development being discussed here.
Even when writing within the confines of a fandom, where the world has been created for you, being able to answer some of these questions can help you create an OC that makes sense within the setting.

Stupidest reason I have ever had for killing off a character, was because my beta at the time thought the character was irritating. It was the main character… And I killed him like chapter 2. lol, story took a maaaaajor shift in another direction right there, and not for the better. I don’t recommend it. 

I’ve killed off characters often, despite how attached I get to them. It’s often literally painful for me, but if it’s necessary for the story, I’m ruthless about it. I take Stephen King’s advice: “kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
(Which is, of course, Mr. King quoting William Faulkner: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings” who was in turn quoting Arthur Quiller-Couch: “If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.” Sort of a stretch to interpret that as killing off one’s characters, but there we are. )

I think all authors are afraid of that in some way or another, no matter what they write. Are my characters solid, are they three-dimensional? Did I take my time and flesh them out enough?
Some scenes I've written make me cringe and I've been known to ask my editors over and over, "do they read okay?" lol I cringed with each and every chapter of the fic I posted here, even though I had been pretty proud of myself previously.
Shadowknight (edit: ack, sorry not used to this forum setup!) basically has the best advice, IMHO. Detach yourself from your work and you'll be better for it. Even negative reviews and flames can help you if you keep an open mind and your emotions in check.

This is a very common doubt that plagues writers, particularly if they're new at the art. The only way to really know whether the characters you're writing are Mary Sues or not is to develop a strong sense of objectivity. You need to learn to pretend you have other opinions, other viewpoints, that you don't know what you, as a writer, know. Place yourself in the eyes of the audience, that's the only way you're going to find out. Like, for example, pretend you despise "cuteness" or clinginess. Does your character still have redeeming factors? Does she have flaws the audience can identify with? (remember: a flaw is only a flaw if it actually hampers the character; arachnophobia is not a flaw if the character never encounters spiders or never actually gets hindered in any way when she encounters one).
Being detached and unemotional about your own writing is one of the hardest skills to acquire, but it's arguably the best when it comes to ensuring the quality of your work.
And if you ever become a respected author someday, do try to keep this sort of thing in mind. I can't tell you how many authors I've seen who become so full of themselves in their maturity that they don't even consider the possibility that they too can make mistakes and write painful Mary Sues.

Sometimes, like when it comes to linking to writing and art, I regret filling my facebook friends list with uber russian orthodox catholic family and childhood friends, lol. I can think of a couple who would absolutely 100% read a story if I put it up there, and every one of them would be horrified and try to save my soul. Another reason my twitter isn’t under my real name. They can’t find me there!!!! Woooooh! 

@Kei0523 I spent a lot of time as a lurker here before I became a regular so I get it. Feel free to send me a PM if you ever need to talk it out. 

Thank you! I'm more of a lurker than anything else, but I was very inspired by some of your comments throughout the thread. It's very encouraging. ^^

I actually felt a little of this coming back with my one and only story. I mean, I don’t have a lot that I’ve written or anything, but when I initially posted my story, I was basically ecstatic it was received so well. I think I became overconfident since I’m a novice at best and didn’t have the ending fully mapped out in my head. That’s what prevented me from finishing the story up until this year. The story was written for a friend, but I still had similar feelings as you, CloverReef. I was thinking: “are the readers that initially read the story still even on this site anymore? Is there anyone that’s been patiently waiting for me to finish this WIP?”
I suppose the train of though is not the same since this story was a gift fanfic while you have a lot of originals, which is a lot more pressure when it comes to leaving a lasting impression on a reader and enticing them to come back for more.

That's honestly what I'm hoping for. Haha I mean, no biggie either way but as I am posting it for others to read, there's still that part of me that hopes it's caught the attention of those that enjoy the fanfic category.

Thank you! I'm more of a lurker than anything else, but I was very inspired by some of your comments throughout the thread. It's very encouraging. ^^

In order to be able to use dialogue from the Harry Potter books, what we require is that you cite the original work from which you've taken the dialogue at the end of each of your chapters. For example, you might have something like this:
Some dialogue taken from JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" - Chapter 1
This identifies the actual author of the dialogue as well as the source material. You might even want to do what some authors have done and bold-face the dialogue taken from the book to clearly identify it.
Please keep in mind that you do need to include your own writing as well in each chapter. Merely copying a chapter from the original books and changing names to change POV does not constitute enough original content to make this a fanfiction.

I recently started to rework/update a story, started 15 years ago.  I had that initial spurt, then trickled off.  Several updates in between, before putting it onto “permanent hiatus” in 2012.  Oh, I think I surprised more than a few readers late last month when I started to update it again, after a six year silence.  A couple of people un-sub’d from the alerts, probably not realizing that they had sub’d to me.  I do intend to finish it, but time will tell.

@Kei0523 The fact that you did eventually come back, even if it's just one story, says a lot. Though I do hope you have more stories in you. I like having new people around to play with.

I actually felt a little of this coming back with my one and only story. I mean, I don’t have a lot that I’ve written or anything, but when I initially posted my story, I was basically ecstatic it was received so well. I think I became overconfident since I’m a novice at best and didn’t have the ending fully mapped out in my head. That’s what prevented me from finishing the story up until this year. The story was written for a friend, but I still had similar feelings as you, CloverReef. I was thinking: “are the readers that initially read the story still even on this site anymore? Is there anyone that’s been patiently waiting for me to finish this WIP?”
I suppose the train of though is not the same since this story was a gift fanfic while you have a lot of originals, which is a lot more pressure when it comes to leaving a lasting impression on a reader and enticing them to come back for more.

So... I've been having this little episode of self-doubt and anxiety. Sometimes it helps to get other perspectives on things to get a clearer picture of a situation. (Does that even make sense?)

Anyway, as some writers tend to do, I went on Hiatus. I haven't stopped writing. I've been writing constantly since the last story I posted a couple years ago. But that's just it - I haven't been posting anything. Anywhere. And now I'm thinking of posting again.

It kinda feels like posting for the first time ever all over again. All the anxiety that comes with it: will people read it? will people like it? What will they think? Will it be boring? They won't remember me - what about my story will draw them in? It's a scary thing, coming back from a hiatus. I've never done this before - before the hiatus, I was always pretty cocky about my writing.
I would like to know... Those of you who have gone on hiatus and come back, was it easy? Did you have trouble coming back? What helped, or did it go poorly? Those of you readers who have known writers who have done this, or simply have 2 cents to throw in on the subject, please weigh in. I feel like I should ramble some more, but that's probably just the caffeine. Take care <3
~Clover~