Notes: And yeah. Next chapter.

That's pretty much all I have to say, really. I suspect you should be happy about it.

Eight Simple Rules For Writing an OC Fic

(or, an attempt at breaking down the heinously complicated mechanics of writing a questfic)

1. Negotiate the division of territory between Purple Prose and Beige Prose

There are two extremes to narrating a story.

Purple Prose is where you expand and describe everything, never use a short word when a polysyllabic one would do, and where adjectives, metaphors and figures of speech are dragged out into the open and forced to stand together in gigantic groups. Beige Prose is the exact opposite. Sentences are short. Adjectives are rarely used. And only the smallest, meanest bits of information are given without the aid of background fluff.

Most writing styles fall into the vast territory between these two extremes, for very good reasons. While it would be hard to describe an emotional moment using beige speech, it would be immensely boring if purple prose clogged up the pace of an action sequence. There are places where one works better than other, but in every one of those places, what works best is a combination of both. Said combinations may be in various proportions, depending on the prevailing style of whoever's writing the story.

For the most part and as a general guideline, avoid straying to excess purple OR excess beige when you are writing. Roam all over the middle ground as much as you please, but stay clear of the edges.

2. Actions Speak Louder than Narrative Words

One of the primary rules of writing goes show, not tell.

This is simple enough in theory. Say, for example, you have an OC who is smart. So you don't tell the reader she's smart in the narrative; you show how she's a straight-A student, and for extra emphasis you add in her analyzing a Sherlock Holmes-esque situation and coming up with deductive conclusions far beyond anyone's ability.

(The second, by the way, is a scenario I strongly suggest not pursuing, unless you're confident you can pull off an Insufferable Genius.)

However, if at any point said OC takes a walk through a monster-infested part of the woods without weapons so she can get kidnapped and later rescued by her Love Interest, you have shown beyond all doubt that she is a complete and utter idiot. No amount of good grades are going to save her from that label.

Do not ever make your characters go through actions that completely and totally at odds with what you say they're like.

3. Beware the Perils of the Infodump

When you're writing an OC story, there's something you invariably have to end up doing.

In the beginning, your OC exists only in your head, and to make the reader connect with the OC, you need to give them a truckload of background information. Looks, fears, tragedies, backstories, anecdotes. Lots of stuff. Typically, most of the information is delivered in the first page or two, and the story proceeds like any other story the rest of the time.

This technique, where you try to tell the reader as much as you can about the character is very little time so you can actually get on with the story, is what is called the Infodump.

Never ever do this.

First off, the infodumping crosses over into the telling, but not showing territory. There's only so much you can describe a character without actions backing you up on said descriptions. This remarkably reduces the effectiveness of whatever it is you're telling the reader. Secondly, the typical response to an infodump is either shutting the brain off or skipping the paragraph. Your OC is your OC and you may already be in love with him/her, but at the moment, the majority of your readers don't really care about your OC. Which means that while they might pay attention to the odd sentence here and there describing the OC, a paragraph or two of condensed information will go in through one ear and out the other.

Your character will and is supposed to develop over the whole story, and you have at least half the story to form an impression of him/her in the readers' mind. So use plenty of actions and proofs, and take your time doing it.

4. Consistency is Not Just for Cupcake Batter

There's a reason most of my fics are oneshots. It's because plot-based stories have this one problem I can't ever seem to bluff my way around. They require planning.

Ick.

However, since most OC stories tend to be three-people-go-on-a-quest stories, I was obliged to cover this. Following consultation and research, I've even managed to form some opinions. All of which pretty much boils down to this: you have to do at least some amount of pre-planning, and there is no way at all you can escape it.

In a typical straightforward action/adventure quest story (three people go to fight people and find something; ring a bell?), the narrative goes through the following stages;

Introduction is exactly what it sounds like. This is where you do your expositioning (but for gods' sake, keep it gradual because some of us have ADD) and introduce the problem. For example, everything in Lightning Thief from the first chapter to the point where Percy and Co. leave on the quest.

Rising Action is where the characters go through the events leading to solving the conflict. At the end of the rising action, while not necessary, things are typically at the bleakest point for the protagonist and his/her allies. This would form the majority of the story; in LT, everything from the start of the quest to the point when the gang meet up with Ares and confront him.

Climax is what the all the other events lead to. In a story, it is defined as the single most crucial turning point, where the actions of the protagonist and crew solve the problem. If you've planned out an Epic battle scene, it's more likely than not going to go here. In LT, of course, this is the Percy vs. Ares battle sequence.

Dénouement is literally 'unknotting', and this is the part of the story where you wrap up all your loose ends and subplots. Just because the main conflict has been resolved, it doesn't mean that everything is. Those would be the bits where the Masterbolt is returned, Poseidon and Percy have a talk. Sally does away with Gabe and Percy realizes Luke is the traitor.

Pacing is important here. Rising Action has to be detailed (and presumably long). Climax has to make an impression. You don't give the Climax in the second chapter of a ten-chapter story. Stuff like that. Unless you have a vague idea of what is going to happen in each of these stages, things can get knotty. Planning major plot points as you go along results in self-contradiction, where bits of hints/information you might have set up at the start become suddenly obsolete.

No, you don't have to know this is how they win the fight with the Medusa when you start out, but it generally helps if you know that yes, they are going to face the Medusa.

On a related note, if you feel like being all deep and mysterious and foreshadowy, make sure that your foreshadowing is not the literary equivalent of an anvil covered with giant neon signs dropping on the readers' heads. Subtlety is not a bad thing.

5. Rules of Canon May Be Bent, but Not Broken

Always remember that you're playing in someone elses' sandbox.

So, you have a plot. Your OC is the prophecy child, and there's something weird going on in Olympus. Problem is, the plot requires Percy to be an antagonist of sorts. Not really much of a problem, that. This is fanfiction, after all. MorallyAmbiguous!Percy is just a few words away.

But wait, what is this? Percy spends his spare time kicking puppies and abandoning old ladies in the middle of the road? His Freudian excuse is that Paul Blofis went crazy and abused him? And hold on. Percy is eighteen? Guess the prophecy just didn't choose him. Oh and sure, we know the gods never raise kids, but they just had to make an exception for the adorable OC.

That blur of tears attempting to throw itself out of your penthouse balcony? Reasoning.

Writing gives you a massive, massive amount of artistic license. Entire worlds are your oysters. Fanfiction also gives you a massive amount of artistic license. But in this case, only parts of the world are your accessible oysters.

Change stuff, sure. But keep other stuff same so that the stuff you changed makes sense. Percy's not the prophecy kid despite him having had his sixteeth birthday a couple of years ago? Kronos cursed him to be fifteen and something for all eternity. The rules of the world and the basic characterization of any character are only slightly flexible. Over-manipulation of both of the above leads to massive structural failure.

Also, remember that stories are based on conflict. Now, unless you're writing Harry Dresden or the Winchester brothers, you don't have to make sure everything goes wrong for your character, but it generally helps if they have more problems than they do solutions.

6. Stick to the Bare Necessities

A single, linear plotline is actually kinda boring. You want to make things interesting, you need to have several plotlines running at the same time. OC1 has a crush on OC2, OC2 has a tragic backstory that might affect the path of the quest. OC3 secretly hates OC1 and OC2 and wonders why the hell he/she is on a quest with those two, of all people. The villain knows how OC3 feels and spends quite of bit of time trying to make OC3 act on their feelings of contempt. All of this serves to enhance the cast and events as a whole, and so are generally good things.

But, when you give subplots, make sure they don't overshadow your main plot. If you're going on a quest to save the world, the last thing you need is an altercation with the High School Jerk Jock over the Love Interest of OC1. Unless your subplot has an impact on the story, either directly (eg: the Cheerleader OC1 has been crushing on is actually the lead Empousa) or indirectly (eg: the fight with the Jerk Jock got him/her a dislocated wrist which hasn't fully healed yet and acts up just when the dracnae is about to bite his/her head off) it has no place whatsoever in your story. Even if you have elaborate backstories detailing out everything imaginable, it should not be mentioned in the story unless it serves some purpose or another; either as a plot point, a point for character growth or heck, even as a running gag.

And please, do not ever spend a huge paragraph describing you OCs' clothes for no apparent reason whatsoever. Nobody cares.

7. Reasoning is the Annoying Whiny Friend Always Looking Over Your Shoulder

When people do things, they do things for a reason. This is actually pretty easy to do, because even the Dark Lord killing people because he thinks it's fun? It's a reason. Reasons are some of the most easily developed things when writing a story, because almost anything can be used as one.

It does get slightly more complicated when you add in the constraints.

Point One. When you develop a characters' personality, you also indirectly develop the kind of actions your character is permitted to do in-story. OC1 is cheerful, bubbly and would care more for her friends than anything else in the world? Put them in a position where they have to choose between the world dying and their friends dying, they are supposed to choose the former. OC2 is cold, distant and obsessed with duty? Put them in the same position and they would invariably choose the fate of the world over the fate of a few people. Oh sure, there can be any amount of angsting involved on both ends, but essentially the choice has already been made because the OC is who he/she is.

Making sudden decisions that will further the plot at the expense of doing a completely 180 on the character? Avoid. OC1 has to choose the world because without the world there won't be any story left to tell afterwards? You'd better make sure she/he is being mind-controlled or manipulated or something else. A sudden change of heart at the climactic moment is one of the most groan-worthy things you can do when writing a story.

Point Two. What motivates your characters has to be clear. Sure, anything can be used for a reason; but your villains' pet goldfish being brutally killed by the neighbours' cat is not an excuse for him/her to try and conquer the Universe in later life. At most, he/she has a massive dislike for cats. And yeah, if your villain is just a psychopath looking for a reason, the goldfish thing could count as an excuse, but that also means that the sight of another goldfish will not make him/her tear up and that he/she is going to be a psychopath even if the OCs go back in time and save the goldfish.

OC1 has a desperate need to prove himself. Why? Because she/he has been ignored for most of their life. OC3 has a desperate wish to blend into the background. Why? He/she has always been at the centre of the spotlight, and would like very much to smash the stupid thing with a heavy object by now. Actions, feelings and reasons can be linked together, and they tend to be somewhat more solid when they are.

This does not mean that every facet of your character has to have an action based on their backstory, by the way. Making an OC means that you have a blank palette to play with at the start, which means that a certain amount of characteristics are native to the OC simply because you said so. Problems only come in when you overuse that power.

8. Genre Blindness is the Ineffective Way Out

Furthering the plot of the story is important. Actually, scratch that. Furthering the plot of the story is largely the plot of a story. Events have to happen one after another to lead to the climax and whatever comes after, and to do this, you need to make sure a certain sequence of events happen in a certain way. For instance, if the Huntsman had killed Snow-White right when the queen asked him to, there wouldn't have been much of a story. He had to let her go, and she had to meet the dwarfs.

This is where you run into a problem, and fairy tales are just perfect tools for illustrating this particular problem because they are guilty of the crime in so many ways.

Noticeably, most of the conflicts would have been avoided if either the heroes or the villains just used their common senses. The wicked queen could have killed Snow White herself instead of delegating the task to someone who might be susceptible to wide-eyed frightened innocence. After receiving ample proof that yes, the queen was trying to kill her, the last thing Snow White should have done was accepting gifts from old ladies who just happened to be wandering the middle of the woods- this bit is even worse in the original, where the queen almost-killed her, using the same methodology but different goods, thrice. But it happens because otherwise we wouldn't have the Prince coming in on the white horse or the queen meeting her bloody end.

This phenomenon, where the characters are unable to see through plots a kindergartner could unravel, or liable to take paths of logic which make sense only to the nearest drunkard on hallucinogens; is called Genre Blindness. In the post fairytale world, Genre Blindness is looked upon with much disdain.

Making your characters smart, capable and above all inclined to act sensibly in situations is far from a bad thing. Writing a story where the dim heroine defeats the dimmer villain is easy. Writing a story where the resourceful heroine outmaneuvers the calculating villain is harder, but a lot more satisfying in the long run. In a fandom as prone to attracting OC stories as the PJO fandom, it helps if your story has that little extra something.

So seriously. If your characters (protagonists or antagonists) are about to do something, try asking yourself if you would do that in their situation. Furthering the plot is not a good excuse for making people act like utter idiots.

End Notes: So, there are plenty of things to cover, but since I gave up on the notions of an ordered guide a while ago, I'm stuck on what to cover next. let me know if there's anything you'd like to see in particular. Everything should be dealt with eventually, of course, but this way you might get to see what you want before you get grey hairs.