5 BIG Questions to Help Develop Your OCs!

There are a lot of OC questionnaires out there, and some of them tackle the big important questions and some… don’t. Of course, if you like answering questions about your OCs and figuring out all the little details, you should answer the Question of the Day on the community page of Unvale every day. But if you want some big OC defining questions, you’ll find some here.

Question One

I’ve always found the question “how does your OC see themselves” to be a bit limited. It’s natural for a person to have a somewhat warped perspective of themselves, especially based on what other people say about them. So we could change it to “how does your OC see themself and how do other people see them”, but that lacks the most important information about your OC: the truth.

“How does your OC see themselves, what do other people think of them, and what’s the truth?” 

This question comes in three parts, and should have three different answers. Only you as the creator can answer the final question, but if you need some help you can always ask others about your character and what they think of them. 

• Are they scary at first glance? 
• Do they look sweet? 
• Do they help others out in public?
• Do they curse a lot, or do they speak politely?

Even if they do act in certain ways, they might be performative; bad people can do nice things to seem like good people, good people might make a bad impression by seeming scary.

The reason why this question is important is because it makes your OC more ‘real’. Understanding ourselves as people and seeing ourselves objectively can be just as hard as understanding someone else. Adding those layers to your OC might change how your OC interacts with other characters in your stories, adding more misunderstandings or more chances for characters to talk and really get to know each other.

Question Two

“What is your OC’s main goal?”

I’ve always struggled in school to set goals. Having a lack of direction in your life as a teen isn’t uncommon, and if your OC (and you!) don’t have any big goals in life, that’s absolutely fine! I’ll get back to this in a minute, but here are some examples of big-scale goals for ambitious OCs.

• To open a five star restaurant
• To graduate top of their class with honours
• To defeat the big-bad-evil-guy who burnt down their hometown, killed their family, and save the world
• To take over the world

Some of these goals are life-long, some of them could be done in a year. But there’s also smaller goals that drive us and our OCs. Maybe they want to save money to buy something important, create the perfect date night for their partner, or just survive the winter. No matter how simple or unimportant it might seem, a goal is a goal, and is an important part of making a character. 

Writing with a character’s goal in mind will change how they act. Maybe you want them to do something that might get in the way of their goal; at that moment, the OC has to decide what’s more important, the thing you want them to do, and their goal. Sometimes your own character might surprise you! 

Question Three

This one’s for the character artists out there:

“What is your character’s style, and why do they wear what they wear?”

Sometimes it’s fun to just go wild and design a cool but impractical outfit for your OC (trust me, I’ve done this). But if you want to develop this character, you have to pause and scrutinize your own fashion choices; and your OC’s fashion choices too. 

For characters who are assassins, thieves, scouts and spies, it might be fun to put them in a skintight black catsuit; but if you’ve ever worn skinny jeans or something tightfitting, you might quickly realize how difficult it can be to move around in. And then you put your black sweater in the closet, but it pops out in the shadows! What gives?! Well, shadows aren’t actually black. If you think about it too long, the outfit becomes super impractical. And then maybe you realize that your OC hates black, or maybe they have some sensitivity to certain textures or fabrics.

Maybe this question is something you’ve already sorted out though; as you get more used to character design, the easier you’ll find character design and backstory integration. If you want to show off your character development skills through visuals, making sure their fashion is appropriate for their daily life is key!

If you want to read more about character outfits, check out this article by WhimsicalWonders! If you want to read more about colours in OC designs, check out this article by me!

Question Four

“What are your OC’s strengths and weaknesses?”

Sometimes when you’re just starting to make OCs it can feel boring or not fun to add weaknesses to them. Other times, you just want to make your OC suffer with infinite angst and weaknesses. Either way, it’s actually good to give a character a balance of strengths and weaknesses to round them out as a person even if you just want to use them as wish-fulfilment (or an emotional punching bag). The more your reader can empathize with the characters you want them to, the better! 

Thinking about strengths and weaknesses can lead into more questions and discoveries so once you have your ideas written out, ask yourself these questions about your OC:

• What strengths can be turned into weaknesses? (Being too kind, trusting, or polite)
• What other skills does your OC have that can cover for their weaknesses?
• What weaknesses are a part of your character’s personality, rather than something outside their physical control? (Being selfish, having a temper, or lacking impulse control)
• What strengths does your OC have that are just due to luck of their birth and not due to any actual hard work? (Physical strength, magical powers, being rich)

Question Five

“What kind of person does your OC have the potential to grow into?”

This question is about character development. Rather than just going with what you might have planned out for your OC’s journey (if you already have that figured out), I want you to consider all the facts about your OC and then think about where else they could go. The answer might surprise you!

Sometimes a series of catastrophes can cause life to swerve off course. Sometimes you win the literal lottery! Think about how your OC might change as a person with a sudden change of luck. Would they try to stay kind and positive through their struggles, or would they become distant and uncaring about their former friends if they suddenly came into wealth?

Going back to the question about goals…

• What kind of person would your OC be if they suddenly got everything they ever wanted? 
• Would they become bitter because they didn’t have to work for it, or just be happy that everything worked out the way they wanted it to be? 
• What would they do next? 
• Would they be unable to move forward now that they fulfilled their purpose?

Think about all these “what ifs” and try to imagine different versions of the same character. Maybe different parts of the character come out in different situations. It’s your job as their creator to find these hidden parts!

I bet you’re all quizzed out by now! If you’re hungry for more though, remember that you can find Unvale’s Question of the Day on the community page! 

If you’d like to do some more reading, here are some community OCs that you might enjoy (bilingual edition!):

• Tsuk1’s Phoebe, a young girl as gentle as soft summer rain whose life in a lab hasn’t destroyed her kind nature. (If you’re looking for Portuguese-speaking creators on Unvale, check out Tsuki!)
• Nectarbloom’s Camille Nakamori, who I think can be summed up by the user’s own TL;DR: Flower person. Indestructible. Awesome sauce. (If you’re looking for Thai-speaking users on Unvale, check out Nectarbloom!)
• Chalane’s Louisa Amandèl d'Arna, a princess with a difficult past who’s risen to become a defender of her people. (If you’re looking for French-speaking creators on Unvale, check out Chalane!)