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Spaztique β [OUTDATED] Spaztique's Guide to Touhou OC Creation
Published: 2012-11-13 03:45:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 32250; Favourites: 243; Downloads: 319
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this would of been helpful a week ago.
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Can a character still have a sad backstory and not be a sue?
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Yes, but only if that sad backstory is not the only defining trait. ~Kigurou-Enkou made an awesome backstory guide, and it's linked in the description/comments.
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Umm could I run an a concept for a touhou OC by you? Its a youkai at the very least. Main thing I'm worried about is that the animal she's based off of may not fit in Gensokyo.
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What animal is it? Touhou is filled with all kinds of weird animals.
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An Eagle really, and I have been doing my best to look up Japanese based eagle and any mythology surrounding them. There's not a whole lot to tell the truth.
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Kasen rides a giant eagle. Eagles are acceptable.
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This actually works for just about any kind of OC... not necessarily Touhou... funy stuff dude ^^
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Nice. I was working on a way to translate this to any other series. Like so:
Principle 5: Give your character a weapon appropriate to the section: no swords vs. guns or guns vs. magic.
Principle 7: If your OC can easily beat the strongest character, it's overpowered.
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Yeah... but you don't really have to... the concept remains the same
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This is pretty good, this serve me to improve my characters from a Touhou Game Plot I was inventing.
For example, Kokori no Toyosaki (Original one) is a phantom who can see people's true intention. This power was given to her thanks to Yukari, who was actually her master in battle. But after years of being bossed by her, Kokori got tired and decided to go away and hide in Gensokyou where no one can see her unless the need her vidency. That means, in a posibility of 1/10000.
It is good enough?
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It's good, but it can be simplified: why can't she just have the power in the first place? Reimu never acquired her power to fly from somebody. Yuyuko was pretty much born with her death powers. Youmu was taught by an unseen character. This is very close to Principle 2: don't leech off of other characters.
In the SCP Foundation, there's a guideline that says, "Never write an article that depends on another article to exist." Kokori can just exist on her own without Yukari's help.
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Thanks for the advices. I'll try to apply it to all the bios.
(Pd: I love your Walfas videos!)
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I know my response to this is rather late, but I've been tied up lately and haven't been able to give it much thought, but here we go.
As a fanfiction writer, I have only ever incorporated OC's into one story, and I discontinued it after realizing exactly where I was going.
My discomfort towards creating OCs actually spawns from a bad streak of poorly thought out Dungeons and Dragons characters that left me feeling somewhat alienated from my gaming group. This comic will help me in both respects, restoring some of my confidence, and will serve useful in creating characters for those games.
Additionally, I have been planning a little story of my own for Gensokyo, but I have been uncertain of how to execute it and afraid I might bring about a bad story.(This is a fear I somehow developed while writing fanfiction, it has killed countless potential stories) This comic confirmed one major thing for me:
I have a lot of planning and research to do.
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You know, Spaztique. When I read this guide, I decided to make an improved version of my old
comics series "Ira's ressurection". You said that writing a relative of a canon character is difficult,
but I still want to do it! always was my role model, and he made a sister for my
favourite Touhou character Parsee. If he did it, I want to do it too. But I think I'll really need your
advices. Can you tell me: How hard it is to write a relative to a canon character, and what do I
need to do to not end like other failed creators?
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The gist of principle 2 is that the character should not be defined by the relationship: that's where most creators fail. Rather, the character should be defined by itself with the relationship as an added flavoring bonus.
For example, let's say you really do want to make a sister for Marisa. The bad approach would be the example I cited above: they're virtually a copycat of the canon character, which makes us wonder why the author didn't use the original. Also, the character isn't defined by behaviors, quirks, or anything unique: she's only defined as "the sister of Marisa." The good approach would be making a character that contrasts or compliments Marisa: like either a less benign thief who uses her powers for even more selfish reasons, or a more conservative magician who doesn't steal, doesn't use powerful magic, but isn't particularly good at her job. Meanwhile, the fact she's Marisa's sister is buried deep under these behaviors.
The SCP Foundation has this guideline: never write an article that makes extensive use of another article; write as if this was the first SCP someone was going to read. If we had no idea who the character your character is related to was, would we still care for that character?
The sad fact is that most novice writers never think of stuff like this: they just write characters like "Jane Kirisame" and expect us to like her solely on the fact she's related to Marisa, only those writers want the credit for "making" an "original" character (even though they just changed the name and costume, expecting credit). If you can properly distinguish what makes a blood-relative OC work and not work, you are clear to write a blood-relative OC.
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Oh my freakin' god!! Thank you for this! You gave me some confidence, as well as an idea for another project!
Before making "Ira's ressurection" I'll make a story about Marisa's sister, who doesn't steal, doesn't use powerful magic,
and isn't particularly good at her job. You gave me that idea, and I must admit, I like it. I'll make her weaker than Marisa,
and with flaws. Once again, thank you very very much! I expected nothing less from a great walfaser such as you!
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Hmm... What if I took a character from another series as a mold but changed most of his aspects, background and personality at major points? Would that still be ok or good? This has been bothering on my mind because deep inside it feels that I've done it wrong, but it was my first try at trying to create an OC.
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That falls into Captain Ersatz territory ([link] ), and they can be done well or not-so-well depending on the mindset.
The short answer: Just as long as it's not blatant copying and you understand what traits made the original work, you are perfectly clear to use an existing character as a template.
The long answer: Another thing I'm working on in-between classes is a guide on the different writing mindsets, and the short version runs like this:
1. Instinct Writing/The Frankenstein Mindset: You learned storytelling entirely from reading/watching other stories, so you essentially copy everything you come across and put it in your own story like Frankenstein and his monster assembled from the parts of others. This is where using another character as a starting template can go wrong, because there's a great chance the original writer picked those traits for a reason. This leads to the trope "Serial Numbers Filed Off": [link]
2. Feedback Writing/The Conditioning Mindset: Similar to Instinct Writing, only if something doesn't work, you throw out the old parts and replace them with new (and preferably better) parts. While this helps skirt away from some errors, you're limited to the parts that are given to you. If you're using a character as a template, you'll either get people praising you for making a character similar to X or negative feedback saying you pretty much ripped off X. Take of those comments what you will.
3. Tactical Writing/The Manipulative Mindset: Instead of listening to feedback, you use tested techniques to hold people's attention, regardless of how pointless the story is. Rather than resorting to cliched content, you now use cliched structures. By this point, the character feels original, but *how* you use the character is an entirely other story.
4. Craft Writing/The Artist Mindset: You only write things based on deep story theory rather than manipulative tactics, feedback, or instinct, but you also understand why those manipulative tactics work, the power of feedback, and what instinct can do for your creativity. By this point, you understand what made the character you based your template off of work, and you're free to shape it in any way you want without causing any problems.
I'll go over this more in a blog post.
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What if an OC that is a blood relative to a canon character but does not know about it?
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There's a little more breathing room, since it justifies why we've never heard of that character, but if that character is solely defined by that relationship, it violates Principle 2.
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I have the feeling the part about military characters was aimed towards my OC Tzao Arkun.....
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Nope. This dates back to the original Colonel Diamondback character and has since been taken up by Bowser56's General M. You have enough interest in the military to make a believable military-related OC.
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And,to be honest; I still need to study up on what the job is of certain ranks,though......
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Such as Yamato Washi,the ghost of a WW2 Japanese fighter pilot....
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It's then okay about to have a western youkai? And a one who comes from of Europe? Because my own OC, Camila( a bat youkai), is one of them. Pretty much i have no problems with the rest of the things. I had experience with character creation, i was before in RPG forums (more precisely a one of "Bleach").
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You can use past experience to make characters across different series (my experience started with Garry's Mod/Half Life 2).
There's a strange phenomenon in the Touhou community where some peeps don't like western youkai OCs, even though there are clearly western youkai in canon Gensokyo. I say go for it, and if anyone calls you out, I got four words for them: Rumia, Letty, Wriggle, Mystia.
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Rumia will bite my legs off, you say? Better call Graham Chapman.
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Oh, and as much as I'd like to say otherwise, this doesn't really help with the fact that I just feel kind of paranoid about trying to write with or use OCs. I mean, remember Aiko? No? My point exactly.
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It would seem my instructions tend to be aimed more at what not to do than what to do, so here's a few ways to apply these in "what to do" way:
1. Define your character's look in a clear way.
2. Have the character be interesting on their own. They don't need to be related/in love with/rival to/apprentice to/whatever to any other character: they can be awesome by themselves.
3. Make the other characters have lives as awesome as your OCs. That way, the whole story setting feels alive.
4. Giving your character a weakness supplies all the tension-making moments. Giving your character a strength supplies all of the awesome moments. Equalize them so your character can "fight fair."
5. If your character is in a series using ranged combat, give them a ranged weapon. That's all there is to it.
6. Keep military titles for military characters. You don't simply put on a uniform and become a general or commander.
7. Very similar to 4, let your character actually *work* towards things instead of having them win automatically.
8. Give us a clear idea of what this character can or can't do (unless the allure of the character is that they have a deep unknown side, but even then, there's a line between cheating and a pleasant surprise).
9. Personality is the most important factor in character creation. Once we see how they act, backstory and costume go out the window.
10. You are perfectly allowed to make an OC that isn't you.
11. YOUR OC MEANS NOTHING, NOOOOOTHIIIIING, IF YOU CANNOT USE THEM!!! Hell, there should be an archive of all of the unused OCs for Touhou alone to show people how not to do this. Submitting a bio isn't enough: we have to see them in action! In fact, once some of you learn story structure rather than character creation, you may find everything you know about characters is wrong.
Also, Cyborg, awareness of the problem means you're not particularly prone to the problem. Since you know you can mess up, your OCs should be much higher quality than those who believe they're being original gapping in their teenage avatar to Yukari's place because they're "the chosen one."
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Did Marisa just use the phrase "clever girl" to reference Cirno? OH GOD!!! SHE IS FREEZING HELL!!! REACTOR TO FULL POWER!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
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Origami killer... Heavy Rain reference?
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Imagine Madison Paige wearing a Tokin or Aya riding a motorcycle...
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Oh god, here we go, everybody making fun of my crappy OCs again. >.> *face palms* (Oh God, here comes my low self-esteem mode again.) Oh. My God. Just stop! Just. Stop. I am HORRIBLY ASHAMED for making my OCs now! I suck at everything! I'm starting to regret making OCs in the first place! Admit it, I SUCK! I can send you a link to where you can find my OCs' bios, but I'm still starting to think they're EPIC examples of HORRIBLE OCs! Well...my OCs don't/aren't:
- Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus.
- Have crappy designs (maybe?).
- Half-whatever that makes sense (only in Umi and Amai's case, the latter will be explain in my story.).
Instead:
- They have elemental powers. And by that, I mean they're sort of "spread out", like one controls fire and another one controls water.
- Most of them are one species, like a fairy and a dragon. They're all yokai, though.
I'm too lazy to give more explanations for both of the lists. Well, it is 6:40 over here, so...
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I wasn't making fun of your OCs. In fact, none of your OCs crossed my mind when making this: these are just common patterns I've run across between all OC makers. In fact, looking at your OCs, they don't really seem to violate any of the principles (but no OC is safe from #11: that one's just on a per-story basis).
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They don't? I thought that they at least needed a LITTLE improvement. Thanks, that made me feel better. 
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Yes!!! Thank you so much Spaz for making another guide to OC creations! I finally know what category my OC belongs β Series Outsider OC. Principle #6 sort of hit me but not that hard because heβs only a militia and I can assure you he doesnβt have some fancy high ranking title. Principle #10 - although Iβm using my author avatar as my OC, Iβm pretty sure I can still escape those 3 traps and if I canβt, well, no OCs are perfect anyways. But I still need to do some revisions though β a LOT of revisionsβ¦..
So just a few questions:
1. Isnβt Brolli violating principle #6?
2. βIt's acceptable to make a character similar to you, and you can even make a version of yourself that could survive in Gensokyo (a slightly more badass version of yourself)β β doesnβt this contradict trap #3
3. Is it acceptable if your OC is from a different timeline? We have two cannon characters (3 if you count the robo maid) that are from another dimension/ timeline after all.
Once again, thank you for making another guide and for reading my comment ^^
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1. The real Brolli doesn't anymore. DitR's Brolli is a deconstruction: he wants to think he's a colonel, but anyone who's seen the full movie knows how that turns out.
2. The end of that sentence is, "but you eventually reach a line between minor tweaking and pure wish fulfillment." The next sentence reads, "Finding this balance depends on your storytelling abilities."
3. OCs from different timelines are acceptable, but that's more of a storytelling mechanic than a character thing.
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I see⦠Thanks for clearing that up for me. ^^
@3.) I agree. Iβm guessing this is where a back story plays an important role huh?
Just a follow up question (sorry for being annoying
4. Do doppelgangers (like shadows, alternate personas, etc.) fall in trap #2?
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You're not annoying, so don't say that.
4. Deliberate copies of characters are acceptable if their not permanent or if they're used sparingly. Basically, use them at your own risk.
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Yeah! Not permanent and used sparingly. Just the way I plan to use em ^^
Thank you very much Spaz. Iβm feeling a bit more confident now. ^^
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Respect points to you yet again for crediting me with that quote. I tip my hat to ya, sir.
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I know I was on the Gary-Stu side at the beginning......(regret it) I feel it's away from there....probably not :\
Two Questions:
1) What if the Back-story was just something you wanted to write and it plays into your character? is it still in the bad category?
2) what if your like me and spend hours trying to think of a name that won't reference anything else, but never come up with anything. Then choose to use the name you put on everything so you can go ahead and get started and in the end you just end up using that name?
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1. Backstories, when developing a story and showing it off to others, can be like a resume for the character or a gauge for critics to tell the craft/discipline of the writer. You can have a terrible backstory but a great main story (otherwise the superhero genre would not exist), and you can also great backstories and a terrible main story (otherwise some Mary Sues/Marty Stus could get away with what they're doing).
2. If you're referring to picking a placeholder name and never growing out of that placeholder name, chances are there was a reason you picked it in the first place to use as a placeholder. Picking the right name is a tightrope: it can't be too generic (John Smith) or it'll feel bland, and it can't be over-thought (Bella Swan) or else it'll feel cliche. I tend to go for names that fit the following criteria:
A. It's appropriate to the character's background (nationality/race/income/education/etc.).
B. It's pleasant-sounding without feeling too out-there. Though in the past, I've used made-up names for sci-fi settings, and I used the Kiki Effect ([link] ) to develop made-up names. For example, back in my Garry's Mod days, I had a quick-witted and hotblooded (if eccentric and absented-minded) anime geek-turned-wasteland hero named Ron Vemos: Ron can be a pun on run or can mean its etymology of "ruler" (he eventually leads a small army against the bad guys), and Vemos is a made-up word that is quick to say and sounds similar to a number of Hispano-Iberian words meaning, "Let's go." (And that was essentially Ron's stance on adventure.)
C. There's some meaning to it. It doesn't necessarily need meaning, but it helps sometimes to unify the character artistically.
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Thanks a lot for making this, Spaz. Now hopefully people won't be coming to me with their OCs and ask if they're good ones anymore =-=''. Because honestly, I'm horrible at giving explanations, but this comic gets right down to the point and gives wonderful explanations. It also made me feel better about my own OCs.
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Know what, I'm actually glad that there's not much info about my OC are already submitted, therefore I can change some bits around to make it better.
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Is it okay to have characters with historic names? And by that, I mean ancestors of said historic clans like the Miyamoto or the Tachibana clan?
For example, my character Hanako is the ancestor of the Taira clan. In terms of history, however, the Taira clan faded into smaller branch families.
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