Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it.

Some fandoms I have oc ideas for:

*Transformers
*Puella Magi Madoka Magica
*Sonic the Hedgehog
*RWBY
*Tokyo Ghoul
*Steven Universe
*My Little Pony

If it's not too much trouble, could anyone with some familiarity with these give me a hand?

(Since my reply to Miah is incoherent waffling.)

1/ Write a story that explores something the canon doesn't. All my stories (try to) do this. What if there was a tenth member of the Fellowship? What is it like to be a gay elf? What if Susan Pevensie met Maglor? Once you know what your 'What...?' is, you can use that to determine whether you need a canon character or an OC.

2/ Never let yourself be scared out of writing what you want to. Persuaded out of, absolutely - if someone gives reasons why your story is a problem, be open to listening. But never be frightened, intimidated, or bullied into not writing what you want to. Don't be scared of that bad reputation - try to prove that it's wrong.

3/ Decent wikis are your friend; Wookiepedia and Memory Alpha set the standard here, I think. Reviewing the piece of the canon you're writing about is always a good idea, too. And it really helps to know someone who's familiar with it! Most geeks will be delighted to answer all your questions... at length... with diagrams...

4/ The number you need for your story. A story isn't a dumping ground for your characters; they each need a purpose. My first long story centred on a four-person team; it was only much later that I realised one of them had no reason to exist. I'm still sad about writing her out. :-/

hS

As someone who has way too many OCs and makes a detailed backstory for each and every one of them, I can confidently say:

1. It depends a lot. There are many combinations of roles for canons and OCs that if written well will definitely work. My fandom OC stories usually involve the OC as the protagonist and canon characters playing small side parts (not meaning that they become just the OC's sidekicks, but meaning that they rarely ever interact with the OC or even show up in the OC's life.) However, that's just what I like to do.

2. That bad reputation shouldn't stop you if you know you aren't going to do bad writing yourself. From my experience on the Internet, I have seen much fewer people with the "all OCs are bad" perspective than I have seen with the more reasonable variant, "bad OCs are bad". If someone doesn't like OCs and attacks you for writing with them, that's not your problem, and indeed, it's one of the few situations in which the phrase "don't like it don't read it" actually applies.

3. Wikis and guides are your friend. So are fandom-specific cliche lists and "Is your [fandom] OC a Mary Sue?" tests that you can find on Wattpad and Quotev. So is Google image searching about "[fandom] Mary Sue" or "[fandom] bad OC" or just "[fandom] OC". That latter source isn't really quite as good as the other stuff, but I use it to supplement the knowledge I gain from those other sources. It's also good to have a wiki by your side even if you think you know what you're doing, because otherwise you might screw something up like, for example, combining all the locations in Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny to make one generic "Castle Wolfenstein." *bangs head on keyboard repeatedly because I need to rid my OC's backstory of this mistake*

4. Well, by all means write multiple fics if there are too many to put into one, or if there are some who just don't fit into one fic. If your OCs can be grouped together somehow (friend groups, teams, etc), then by all means write something about each group and each remaining OC. Or you could break down the general timeline of a huge group and write fanfics about each part of it, focusing on whichever characters are most relevant to the event each time.

Springhole.net has a good amount of pages dealing with OC creation and fanfiction (link below my signature), so I suggest you check those out for more info.

-Twistey
----
http://www.springhole.net/writing/ocs-fan-characters-and-fandom.htm

Firstly, you need to know the canon pretty well. You don't need perfect knowledge, but you have to know everything pertinant to what you're writing. You should be familiar with the source material, although I wouldn't say you necessarily have to read all of it, depending on how much it is. You don't have to read every SWEU novel before writing any SW fic, for example. And if your fandom has a well-cited and maintained wiki, USE IT!

As for using OCs... Well, I am primarily in the 40k fandom, and OCs are the rule there, not the exception. You are expected to write stories about your OCs, and come up with tales and backstories for all of them. I don't know a single player who hasn't given at least their HQ choice a name and backstory, if not all their other characters. Some of them have even written fairly long stories about them.

Anyways, there's a lot of great fanfiction in that fandom that has nothing to do with canon characters at all. Heck, in most of the very best ones, canon characters take on a relatively minor role. But that's how that universe works: Warhammer is very much about Your Dudes and Your Stories, and it's as much about AARs and what happened at the gaming table as it is about what was written in any book.

Given that background, I'm as interested in the well-written adventures of an OC as any canon character. I'm also partial to a good "day in the life" fic: stories about characters who aren't big heroes or amazing, high-powered awesome people, but just more-or-less normal people living in whatever world.

The usage of OCs, for me as a reader, has to maintain the canon characters central role. This does not mean they have to be limited. It doesn't mean the canons must carry the POV. One of my all-time favorite fanfic writers uses many, many OCs and they usually carry the POV. The stories always tell a story that not only introduces the OC, but also moves the narrative of the OC forward.

The catch is that it is always a tale of 'how the canon characters intersected my life.' The canons, when they do appear on-screen, are always suberbly in-character, which helps as well. The stories also tell a story about the canons that deepens or moves them, too.

I do believe you need to know a canon very well before writing in it. How else can you get the voices and backstories and fan-picky details right? I'm passionate about my fandoms. I notice when someone doesn't know them well, but wrote anyway. If it is a messy canon (Marvel, anyone?), then putting the story into context of a particular universe and only knowing it is valid. I love Hawkeye, but so many backstories...

Does that help any?

Do you want a link to that author? I read her LOTR and Stargate fics, but she has some other fandoms, too. I do think she has the best usage of OCs I've ever seen.

What immediately comes to mind is to take a look at the canon that you're going to be working with. Get a grasp of how everything works, then find out more about the thing you plan on writing about. If your OC has a certain power, for example, you should look at other characters' powers, how they got them, and if your character's power could work.

Don't let your OC replace a canon character. There was some of this in the Original Series where the author would kill off a canon character and have their OC take their place.You should also get to know how the canon characters act so you can portray them accurately. The way I think about it, good fan fiction is the kind of story you could read to a character in the canon in question, and they would believe it.

If you're just starting off, you're probably going to have an easier time writing for one OC per story. It's better to have one well-rounded character than several flat ones. And just a suggestion for the plot, I'd recommend something simple that would take place between time skips, or perhaps after the story has ended. You'll probably have an easier time saying "This happened sometime between Book 1 and Book 2" than if you were to narrow it down to "This happens during this specific battle scene." You'll have more flexibility and you won't need to worry about little details.

I hope this helps!