How to make an OC!

After spending a lot of time on Unvale, there are two big questions I see asked. The first and most common is “how do I name my OC?”, of course, but the second is “how do I make an OC?”. It’s a great question and it’s hard to give a concrete, ‘works-every-time’ answer, but this article will focus on the process and some major things to consider along the way.

Much like my other article on colour palettes, I’ll be using my own process as an example here. Everyone’s got their own way of doing things, but hopefully following along with me will help you feel things out and create your own unique process of character creation. With that being said, the biggest tip for character creation I have for you is to consume a lot of media, and a large variety of it. When writing genre, it’s totally fine to keep yourself watching the same stuff over and over again, but if you want to create something genuinely fresh and unique to you, watching or reading things you might not have ever considered touching before will be a huge help.

But to start, what is an OC? You might be new to the art or writing space and see that word thrown around a lot, or maybe your first encounter with the term came from the “Original character, do not steal!” meme. In short, an OC, original character, is just a term to describe a character you’ve created. It’s often used in fanfiction spaces where fan characters are created, and to differentiate between ‘canon characters’ and ‘original characters’, the initials ‘CC’ and ‘OC’ began to be used. OCs can range from AU (alternate universe) versions of characters that spiraled and got out of hand, or simply your Dungeons and Dragons character. I’ll be using OC and character interchangeably in this article, so let’s get to it.

Writing Out Character Concepts

The way I like to describe how I personally make characters is that I start with a ‘seed’, a character concept that the character later grows out of. A character concept can be anything; a doodle you made of a strange anglerfish mermaid in English class, the phrase “punk-rock youkai ghost girl”, or something like putting a character from one genre into another to see how they’d work. Sometimes you might start with an image or other times a written concept, but both are legitimate ways of going about it.

If you’re more of the writing type like I am, I want you to try jotting down ideas for OCs you get over the next week in a notebook or notes app. Literally anything goes. Maybe something like…

• A vampire night school teacher
• A mermaid farmer living in the middle of the woods
• Green hair (or another colour you’ve never tried!)
• Romeo and Juliet but gay
• Talking star mascot

… wait, what was that last one? Ah- nevermind that. Once you’ve got an interesting list of traits, try putting some together; these can form the basis of your new character concept. Or perhaps you’ve had more of a structured idea come from the week; “a noble girl in a fantasy romance story decides to lead a democratic revolution against the other nobles”, or something along those lines. Just an idea like that alone can spark so much!

To help slowly develop your character, check out Unvale’s question of the day, a unique daily question that appears on the site, and stays on your character’s profile! And if I might be so bold, check out my article on how to build up a character’ backstory!

Drawing Out Character Concepts

Now for artists, or those who’ve received art in a trade or purchased it and aren’t sure what to do. Some artists like to create stories about the characters they’re designing as they write; they explain little outfit details like why…

• There’s a blue square patch on the character’s pants
• There’s a scar on the character’s face
• They wear a military uniform
• They have a crown or tiara

(As a bonus, take a look at my co-blog-writer Whimsical Wonder’s article on OC fashion choices!)

If you’re not the artist and say, picked up a design from someone else along the way, I want you to look at the colours, the items or outfit the character is wearing, their expression; come up with a story for why they look the way they look. You can try this with strangers on the street, but don’t stare too much! 

You can use my blog post on colour palettes to help you decide on character traits, or if you’re feeling particularly imaginative, I’ll offer up my catalogue of over 100 unique designs that have no story attached. Each one was drawn just as a design so if you want to, try to come up with characters and stories for them; since there’s no right answer, there’s no wrong answer! If you enjoy what you’ve come up with, make your own brand new OC with it. 

So, in summary:

• Watch, read, listen and explore new media to get fresh ideas to create OCs.
• Start with a simple character concept and expand outwards from there.
• Use Unvale’s QotD to develop your character further.
• Use your character’s outfit to spark ideas for their inner personality and job, and vice versa.

Did this article help or inspire you? Maybe you’ve got a whole list of new ideas you want to try out now! If you want to show off your new OCs so others who read this article can see them too, use the tag #ConceptOC to share them!