OC's are the most important characters in a book. Personally, I love making OC's because it's like putting a piece of myself into each one. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird.
Anyways!
When creating an OC, you need to focus on not only who they are, but who they'll become.
i. you need proper background about the OC; they're not just a name and age, or even a faceclaim. Essentially, they're tiny fictional people. Yeah, people.
You can't just not have a background and throw the OC into the first episode as someone who stole moonshine because their father/mother neglected them their entire lives, and then the third episode their parents have always loved them and the OC is all of a sudden arrested for the assault of a Guard or something. You need to have a background that sticks with the OC all the way through.
I know that it's very hard to come up with a background, but once you find out what the OC wants to be (doctor, mechanic, guard, etc.) you'll figure out which station they'll have belonged to. I'll have the different stations and their characteristics in another chapter.
ii. characteristics
Give them believable characteristics!
They're not all sad, funny, sarcastic, etc. They're also many other things like intelligent, hot-headed, quiet, loud, obnoxious, rude, antagonizing, etc.
iii. personalities
Make them have a unique personality! The little things are important. Like, yeah, maybe they're shy and they don't speak much, or maybe they try to stay out of the spotlight for as long as possible, but there are small things that may be crucial for an OC.
Small, maybe even ridiculous things are nice to know. Say your OC comes across a path of small, blue flowers. What would they do? Have they ever seen them? Their personality is important.
If they don't really care about anything, they'll probably just trudge on and ignore it. If they are still excited about things like that, because the flowers are such a beautiful thing in all of the horror and madness in their lives, they might bend down and smell them. Maybe they'll even pick one up, put it behind Clarke's or Bellamy's or Raven's ear. If they're usually hot-headed, maybe they'll stomp them so far into the ground they'll never grow again.
Say your OC came across a Grounder whilst on a hunting trip. They've disbanded from the group and gone in search of a deer or a hog, but they find a big, burly man instead.
If you're OC is a survivor, like John Murphy, chances are they'll turn and run to find the group, maybe even hide. If they're usually scared of Grounders, they might panic, freeze, try and run and fall instead. Or maybe they'll try and attack them. If they're compassionate, they'll probably try and find their way back to their group to warn them.
You'll need to know whether your characters Flight or Fight would happen in a certain situation. You can't have them fight a Grounder one second, and then be too scared to do it again (unless of course it's because they're injured or whatever). If they fight the first time, chances are they'll fight the next.
It's very important.
iv. age
DON'T MAKE THEM AN NINETEEN+ YEAR OLD CONVICT THAT WAS FORGOTTEN BY THE ARK.
It doesn't happen. Unless their eighteenth birthday is the day they're sent down to Earth, which is overused anyways (I'm guilty of this), just don't do it.
Make them 16-17. 15 is young, but feel free to make them that age. Charlotte was 12, so even that age is okay, though it's not appropriate.
Yeah, still mad at Jason for putting her in there and killing her off. Smh. Jason, what you doin?
v. faceclaims
This will be in another chapter.
