When OCs meet fandoms....

OK, so you're a BIG fan of something, and want to do a fanfiction, but to make it easier on yourself, you just so happen to have your own collection of original characters, world and personalitys to chose from.

Should you combine the two for luls? Or is it tacky for a writer to do that?

My Pros for this set up-

• Less research
• You know the characters WELL
• Less work creating new ones
• Its writes its own story
• The characters are already well established.

Negatives-

• People that write them can easily get caught up in power for the spot light battles
• You sometimes have to take the fandom characters out of their normal way of life to use them in your story- unless your OCs are flexible
• Mary Sueage. So your lead girl makes the fandom fall inlove with her or something just as bad T.T
• Poor in jokes can come out that don't make sense for people that don't know the fandom.
• You have to establish a relationship with the characters, and that can be hard.

Thoughts on this? Good? Bad? Depends on the writer? Perhaps you have other thoughts to add?

It always depends on the writer. I've roleplayed full fandoms ,fandoms with OCs, and pure originals. A good story is a good story.

My knee-jerk reaction to OC and Fandom combos would be Hell No!

The pro's you listed all appear to benifit the writer not the audience.  You assume the audience knows your OCs and or wants to take the time to get to know them in the mixed OC/Fandom universe.

Granted, adding new characters based closely on the fandom universe can work.   For instance the plethora of additional Saiyan warriors DBZ fanfic authors have created over the years.  Sometimes those work.

You point out valid issues in the con's.  Changing established characters personalities is for me a personal pet peeve. Maybe some folks won't mind - and it certainly depends on the changes. If they are major - then..well, that's a deal breaker for me.  The Mary-Sue stuff would certainly turn a lot of people off. 

After reading both the pro's and cons it feels like you don not want to (or simply can not because of time constraints or something similar) put in the effort it would take to write a good fan fic.  I realize you're looking for feedback on this topic and you may or may not have made a decision on the matter.

After spending time (possibly years) building OCs, their universe and the cultures therin why mix them?  'If it ain't broke don't fix it.'

The closest I've come to mixing an OC with an existing Fandom was a sketch I did of Aang from Niceklodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender and my OC Vendrevin.  Since the two share so many things in common I thought it would be cute to see what would happen if they met.  However, their stories are far different and puting them together would inveitably clash.

That's my two cents.  Hope I wasn't too harsh.  Best of Luck no matter what you decide.

Thanks Sliverbane ^^ That's the first peice of sense someone has to offer me on the for or against ^^

The forum was specifically about a story I'm planning, my Pheonix Wright one.... I was thinking of using some of the less known characters in my story as a ground basis, but I'm getting all sorts of issues, being that I need to drag Phoenix Right to New Zealand for it to work. The back story wouldn't be an issue, cause I know I'm a good enough writer to simplify my characters down to make it easy to catch up on, but it didn't feel right writing the story.

I've seen OC crossovers fail so often, and though I must admit that some do make it (I did a Green LAntern cross over with my story and it seems to mingle ok- my world is very complex though), but even if it meshes together, something never quite beats making a character specifically for your story.

I'm not sure if I'll persue my idea. I think the Phoenix Wright storylines demand a story specific character, as the court cases tend to be very elaborate. Not much room for error. Thank you for your thoughts hon ^^

My apologies, but I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you're asking -- are you asking about using OCs in fanfiction ? If that isthe case, then I personally think something like that depends on the writer's skill.

You could definitely sneak in an OC or two as the defendant and/or prosecutor. (not the attourneys, just the disputees.) And if you wnated elaborate with more OCs you could put in a whole storyline with witnesses who are friends and supportivie family members. Like I just got the image of Brian suing Alex for years of lost child support...XD sorry. just too funny to pass up. You get my point tho, disregard the general silliness if you want.

I think it depends on the writer.  You do run the risk, as others have mentioned, of Mary Sues but not all OCs interacting are that.  (I have an OC with Kakashi and Iruka in an AU that comes from something way back but she's never been a Mary Sue or there to "steal" Kakashi from Iruka).

OCs in different things do allow for someone to expand the universe.  I guess I'm pretty bias because a lot of my RPs use original characters based on one of the universes we're playing in.

You do need to make sure you introduce the characters more than just them showing up out of the blue and suddenly being majorily involved.

I'm sorry, I guess I'm not being a huge help...

On Mar 14, 2008 6:48 am, cruffins said:

Lol Cruffins- Bryan could actually win that too XD Poor Alex though, he's never had a kid let alone a son that's OLDER than him ^^ He could also sue for mental trauma, neglect and, intent to murder XD That'd really screw him over XD

Let me clarify with the OCS thing- its a pre-existing OC from another story being pulled out to cross over with another storyline- the key word being a crossover. This one happens to be an OC of your own though. Does it come across as tacky? OCs made specially for the world are more than fine ^^ Its pulling someone from another Earth or what ever story.

good thing for Alex, Bryan is a nice guy! XP Who are you planning on putting in there? It depends on their history wether you can intergrate them smoothly.

Hmmm? My cross over I was planning on doing? I was thinking of a sort of crossover story for the Phoenix Wright fic I'm wrighting. I was going to put some of my OCs in that don't get much light after pulling some of the characters to New Zealand for a 'vacation' (Phoenix should know better than have a vacation ^^ )

My thoughts were, I have some interesting characters in Alex's icehockey team 'The Legionairs', who don't get much lime light and there's also Chris in this one (Although I think I'll have to change Chris's name, cause that's Alex's father's name now >.> This group of guys got alot of attenion in one of my storys which I informally call 'Monica.doc' (The lead was a girl called Monica), and the group was really fun to rwrite, but they never got any attention in my novel... except Darren. I couldn't get rid of his personality XD I was going to have something happen with their group and Phoenix finds out cause he's good friends with Darren's father, Mr Jones.

I didn't intend on having Alex, Bryan or any of my normal characters in it, cause well... their extra abilitys are a bit OTT for a lawyer story, but I guess if Alex was needed, I could pretend that he doesn't have powers and that he's just a normal human.

Is it a tacky thing to do to do this though?

Gratuitous insertion of characters made to go into a specific fandom is hard. Mary Sues happen because the author is in love with (a) someone else's fictional universe and (b) an original character idea, and doesn't know how to go about making readers interested in the character.

If your characters are already well-rounded and three-dimensional, and if you've already written stories/RP/etc. about them, I don't see why it's tacky to use them in a crossover just because they're yours.

If you have an idea for a story, write it. Don't get into the habit of second-guessing your stories' quality before you even get them on paper. That's a sure way to develop chronic writer's block. Write the story, and if you don't want to publish or post it immediately, ask a trusted few readers for critique and be prepared for whatever they might say.

Oh- don't worry- I'd write it if I didn't have an equally cool fall back idea I wanted to know if it was tacky, cause I've seen it done badly SO many times T.T Specially in comics where everyone personality seems to dumb down to elements so that they unsubtle enough to be noticed. I agree it can be done right but int he end, isn't it usually kinda tacky? Like.... you can't be bothered creating a new character for a new storyline?

On Mar 16, 2008 7:02 pm, arkillian said:

Only the author knows if it really is laziness. Who knows, you might be wanting to write that crossover because a particular OC of yours will fill a certain role in the plot particularly well. You might not even be realising it consciously. Write the story and see, and if it seems awkward, or if a completely new character would serve the plot better, rewrite.