[ SECRET POST #2216 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2216 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 120 secrets from Secret Submission Post #317.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - personal attack ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

11. http://i.imgur.com/MMVkF8r.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Bless you for this secret, OP. Because I've read fanfic with OCs in it whom I ended up liking better than most of the canon cast as they appeared in canon. There are some truly astounding fan writers out there who can come up with fascinating characters that TPTB either didn't want to or couldn't have gotten past a board of stupid-ass network suits.

[shinsengumi]

+1

[sensualcoco.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right. Good writing is good writing.

I just personally have no interest in reading about an OC that takes up a large chuck of the story. The reason I'm reading fanfiction in the first place is because I love the characters that are already a part of the canon and want to see them expanded on.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't assume that a fic featuring OCs are inherently bad, I just simply refuse to read it because I read fanfic for canon characters. If I wanted to read about OCs interacting with canon characters, I'd write my own fics.

Sorry for ranting, but...

[elephantinegrace]

Repeat after me: An OC doesn't make a story bad. Bad writing makes a story bad. And a female OC is not automatically a Mary Sue or an author insert. Honestly, authors write what they know; it's probably easier to write a character with the same background as the author because it's what the author is familiar with!

[(Anonymous)]

And don't forget the popular opinion that all OCs = Mary Sues. Especially if it's a woman/girl (and it usually is). Because a competent woman - someone who knows stuff and can do stuff and may be attractive to someone - is totally unrealistic and unbelievable.

[ninety6tears]

Yeah, I don't care whether people are interested in reading OC fic, I just wish they wouldn't vocally generalize all of it as being shit. And there's sometimes an amusing double standard in how characters we know very little about are shipped and written to death in whatever possibly self-inserty/badly developed way the author pleases without coming under the same fire.

[(Anonymous)]

If I'm reading a fic which has an OC that clearly exists to move the plot forward, whether or not they're well-written or interesting, it makes sense to me, and it's not annoying. If I read a fic where an OC is being focused on like a primary character, I backbutton. I'm sure OC-centric fic can be well written, but to me that's irrelevent. When I seek out fanfic, it's because I want to read about canon characters.

[dreemyweird]

I think it is actually painfully obvious.

Just, like some folks above said, sometimes people aren't into reading OC!fanfiction.

[lunabee34]

Yes! Thank you! I'm in 100% agreement with you on this one. It gets a little wearying to see tropes and genres dismissed out of hand as "generally poorly written" or "almost always terrible." There's the same proportion of shit to awesome in mpreg as there is in amnesia fic as there is in kidfic as there is in future fic as there is in crossover fic and so on. Belonging to a certain genre does not mean that a fic is more likely to be terrible than any other.

rec me

[(Anonymous)]

Can you rec me some good OC fanfic? any fandom. OC fic is actually my favourite kind of fic as well as Outsider!P.O.V because it gives a different view on the characters and (hopefully) a new direction for the plot

[orangesands]

One of my favorite fanfic series ever actually had a female OC as the main character who was an almost-Sue in that the universe did revolve around her (in a way). But, she wasn't a Sue, she wasn't annoying, she wasn't anything except a fan who got caught up in really shitty circumstances.

Another of my favorite fics (same fandom, sadly I think the fic has disappeared) was a hilarious crack fic about three fangirls getting sucked into a swirly-whirly vortex where they had to judge a cock-measuring contest. (seriously, funniest fic I've ever read.)

So yeah. OCs can be awesome. Self-inserts can even be awesome when done well. It's all about the writer's skill.

[making_excuses]

My favourite fanfic ever has loads of OC's...

Edit: Thought I would throw that out there. But kinda forgot my actual comment. I agree with you secret maker.

[helenadax]

I'm not a big fan of OCs but good writers have made me love some of them and I use them when I need to.

[laughingpineapple]

Yes, thank you. It may be true that some genres or even some tropes have a higher rate of crap stories than others, but it's never, ever 100% (and never 0% in the most appreciated genres), so it's no reason to judge. If we're talking about a single story, bad writing and bad use of its tropes is what makes it bad...

[aquila_black]

Here's the thing, I think. Fanfic with prominent OCs is something a good writer can pull off well. It's also a thing that inexperienced writers often gravitate towards because it's easier than having to figure out the voicing and thought process for a character they didn't make up. So you get a lot of the same snarling and grumbling about that as you would about someone claiming to act, but really just being hirself onstage. I mean, it's understandable that without an editing/publishing process, fic writers who really know their stuff are right alongside people who are struggling to eke out a story. But it's also understandable that the things struggling fic writers typically do get a bad rap from people who have limited time and just want to find something they'll enjoy reading. In that context, I think you can see why OC fics are being held to higher standard. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with them, it's just that as anyone who developed their "read? Y/N." judgment on a site like the pit can tell you, a lot of people use them as a narrative crutch.

[(Anonymous)]

I potently agree.

[(Anonymous)]

True - but I have to admit, I've come to dread rpers who claim to write oc's. Not because 'OMG! They're so bad!' but because, when I look for rp partners, I point blank state I have no interest in OCs and plenty of them ignore it to message with 'Hey~ Would you be willing to do -canon character- in a pairing with my OC?'

[velvet_mace]

I actually enjoy OCs a whole lot better than canon characters who have been shoved willy-nilly into tasks and roles that they aren't qualified or suited for. Writing OC's is like everything else, something that gets better with practice. It becomes a bit of self-perpetuating prophecy when only the very newest of the new writers will write them, because everyone else has given up on fandom accepting them.

[author_by_night]

Thank you.

I honestly don't even care that a lot of people are picky about OCs. I am, even , though I never used to be - just after I realized everyone had the "original" idea of giving Voldemort/Darth Vader/YourMom a secret child or whatever. But the utter hate for them? That I don't get. I think it does take a good writer who is willing to explore the universe through a new character as opposed to someone with a self insert... but half the time those good OC writers don't even really have a chance.

[maverickz3r0]

Yes, exactly.

OCs can be done quite well. They're sort of necessary in some fandoms if you're writing something plotty, unless you want to rehash the same old villains.

And I will never understand the fandom attitude that characters who we have no more details on but a name and thus can be just about anything are somehow better than OCs, when in fact they are OCs with a canon name.

[(Anonymous)]

Is weird that I feel like this sentiment needs a kind of "um...duh?" response? It just seems so darn obvious to me. Maybe I've been in fandom too long? (If nearly eight years is a long time...)

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, but if your fic has OCxcanon character in its description I will never, ever read it. The concept disgust me for some reason. But I don't mind well written OCs if they're used to drive a plot focusing on the canon characters forward.

[(Anonymous)]

I really like OC fic and use OCs frequently in RPs, but I can sort of see where people who absolutely hate them are coming from? They didn't come to whatever fanfic archive of their choice to read about an OC, they came to read about the canon characters.

What I don't get is the hate for any OC having any kind of relationship with a canon character. I mean, yeah if you're saying that your OC is best friends with someone like Squall, that's kind of not really possible. But if it's someone like Rinoa or Selphie, I kind of doubt they'd only have the friends we've seen onscreen.