Hey guys!
Yesterday I talked about the books that I wrote and mark me the most, and by talking about them, I told you about OCs (even if it was more like a mention), so I decided to today talk about it.
In case you haven't read my books, I almost never have an OC in them so in case you think I'm going to give some advice, I'm sorry but I'm not the right person to give advices about this.
🚨 Important warning 🚨
Also I'm going to talk about OCs that I made in the Salvatore Boarding School (book 1 and 2) and there will be spoilers so in case you want to read the story now without the spoilers you've been warned.
🚨 End of warning 🚨
I understand if you don't want to stay to read the rest of you don't even know the characters and because I don't have much experience but you're more than welcome to read the rest of my rant.
Anyway, I barely wrote characters that never had appeared in the TVD/TO universe because I am very aware that making an OC is very hard, I mean I find it hard sometimes to write about some characters and I know their background so you must imagine how I think about making OCs where it's up to the writer to make the background story about them, the names and the relationships they have with the other characters. Because the reader hasn't seen the character(s) in the show(s) it's up to the writer to write the character in a special way so the reader could see their personality and so it can like (or not) the character, and even if the writer is also careful with the way she/he write the other characters, the reader as already an idea of the character and likes (or not) that character/those characters.
There was a few times that I write a character for my book and could appear in one or two chapters or maybe more but I never truly consider them OCs bc even if I made them up, they didn't had background story and they wouldn't be the main characters, they would be more like guests in the story.
Then I had the idea of the Salvatore Boarding School so I would challenge myself to write more about characters that I wasn't so used to, aka the Saltzman sisters and Hope Mikaelson. Yes, they are from TVD/TO universe and we did saw them but I didn't knew how they would be as teenagers (I wrote the book after ending TVD and I'm not sure if TO s4 had started but if it was, it was before the appearance of Alaric Saltzman in the show), so even if I (the writer) and you (the reader) knew a little about them, there was still many things missing, like how they would be and how would be their relationships with family/friends, those things might seem little but they weren't, I wasn't used to make all this decisions about a character, but getting out of your comfort zone can be a good thing and we never know what could be the outcome... Because I wasn't used to it, sometimes I found myself writing more about Klaroline and I had to make an effort to write also about other characters. Then there was also a few characters who never had appear on the TVD/TO universe aka Bryan, Dylan, Jason and (without planning) Kate. Those characters appeared a few times in the beginning because I wasn't sure how they would come out. It was the first time I was writing more about characters that were just in my books so I was kinda nervous and afraid how they would end up...
I'm going to talk about the characters (the OCs, Saltzman girls and Hope Mikaelson) one by one so you would have an idea how I come up with them (and also bc if I don't do this like a list, I'm afraid I won't say all that I would like to and maybe even forget to mention a character bc that how distracted I am). So... Here we go:
• Hope Mikaelson - I had many plans to this character but I ended up by not doing everything I wanted with this character bc there was a point in the story where I felt that was more the story guiding me than the other way around and I found myself curious to know what would happen next even if I was the writer. In my book I wanted Klaus to come back to Mystic Falls so I made Hope get in a fight in the school and I planned on making her deal with her anger and all that but then there was so many characters that I was afraid to focus just on Hope. But I did tried to write her a storyline and to try to write her relationship with Klaus as best as I could bc Klope is just so freakin cute! I did try to show the reader how was her relationships with other characters, focusing more on the close bond she had with Caroline and her friendship with Lizzie and Josie.
• Lizzie Saltzman - She is probably the female OC with the least focused storyline and I don't really know why. I love her but I just found myself writing about other characters. But I did tried to show her personality. Looking back maybe at first I made her as the good and bookworm sister but I believe that by the end of the second book I show more of her than just that.
• Josie Saltzman - She was at first the bitch sister I guess... I think she is the most or one of the most OCs in my book with bigger dynamic and I don't know why but for me it come easier to write her than the others. A few people did thought that she was kinda selfish and bitchy and didn't like her but then she grew on them which made me very happy bc I was seeing that I was able to make a nice character development. I did based Josie a little on human Caroline and maybe that's what helped me writing so much about this character. I did try to make Josie, Lizzie and Hope best friends and I did explore how would be her bond with Caroline and how she felt about Jo not being in her life.
• Kate Anderson - The unexpected OC. When I wrote her in the book I was with the idea of just having her a few times and maybe cause som drama but she ended up being an OC that wasn't just another character and became more important in the story than I already plan. And I ended up writing her development as a character but also the development of the relationships she had with the other characters. She was probably the Bobby Singer of my book, not bc of her personality or background story but because just like Bobby she was meant to appear only once but ended up by being a recurring (and even main) character in the books.
• Jason Cooper - he was a character that at first I thought in only making for a love interest and maybe for some people he was just that but then I made him a small backstory that I wasn't able to complete it but I did write a few things (maybe too vague) about his past. He didn't appear that much but I did had an idea how would be his personality.
• Dylan Olsen - He was at first meant to be just a guy in love with a girl who sees him just as a friend and trying to make her fall for him but then I started to wrote about his relationships with other characters and in my eyes he became not just a guy in love but also a guy with an adorable, close and kinda funny friendship with Bryan or may I dare to say... bromance. I loved writing scenes where was just Dylan and Bryan because I did based their friendship on a few I've seen in tv shows like Chandler and Joey, Nik and Schmidt, Cory and Shawn, Seth and Ryan and Stiles and Scott.
• Bryan Walker - At first I plan on writing him as a childish guy with a bromance and that would end up dating a girl who just saw him as a friend but then I realized that it would be too predictable and maybe would end like that, so I tried to write him not just as a guy in love but also as the childish guy who loves his bro and food and he was for me the funniest character, yes maybe he didn't had a big storyline but he was always there for his friends and even if most of the time he was the joker/childish one he was also the shoulder to cry on and even gave good advices to his friends because I didn't want him to be just one thing. But I did love writing scenes with him specially in Karaoke nights and at breakfast bc of his love to food and how he didn't mind to show his love for his friend Dylan. And I have to admit that big part of his personality was based on Joey Tribbiani.
In the end, I do love all of them. Not because of the reads/votes/comments I got in the books but because they took me to their world and I did experience with them how their story developed and how they as characters developed.
So yes, it was hard for me to get out of my comfort zone and to write these characters but I'm glad I did and if anyone asks me my advice about writing or not an OC my answer will be yes because I did it and I never looked back in regret. Yes, I'm sorry for not writing as much about one character and more about other but I think that's what happens when there's many characters and you aren't used to have all of them as important characters.
Thank you so much to the ones who stayed reading all of this rant. I didn't plan on being so big... These two books were just so important to me because they made me see that I could make an OC which I had doubt until I made these books and that gave me such a giant joy that I felt that I just had to talk about it, not brag about it but share with you how was like.