in all seriousness: you need to cast the idea of a "bad OC" out of your mind because it's a tar pit you can never escape, and you will paradoxically end up /making/ bad OCs if you try to fight it the only bad OC is an insincere one. - ThreadSky

sphenewife.bsky.social • 59 days ago

in all seriousness: you need to cast the idea of a "bad OC" out of your mind because it's a tar pit you can never escape, and you will paradoxically end up /making/ bad OCs if you try to fight it

the only bad OC is an insincere one.

Reposted from The Ham Dynasty🖌️👑

i can't relate to OC insecurity actually; it may sound bigheaded i DO think most of my Major characters are phenomenal, and even a lot of my side roster are homeruns

MY FICTION WRITING ON THE OTHER HAND

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trustworthyelf.bsky.social•59 days ago

maybe this is a self-deprecating way to think about it but i always try to remind myself that the whole practice is self-indulgent, and imagining a disapproving audience when you're just making up a character to be an outlet for your own ideas is the worst of both worlds

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

YEAH it's like being a crab in a pot and turning on the gas yourself. you can just not touch that knob!

trustworthyelf.bsky.social•59 days ago

more than that, you're not gonna get any money or prestige (beyond a tiny amount of niche online clout, i guess) even if you do everything right and make a "good" character, so it's a genuinely pointless thing to pursue

raivin.bsky.social•59 days ago

Ham, this is very "right-on-time" tweet, like genuinely thank you

squapejuice.etheirys.social•59 days ago

The "bad OC" mindset is why we have gridania dirt farmers yelling at people who have ocs who like knitting

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

you can, if you wish, make a bullet point list of what constitutes """good""" and try to fit that mould and you'll probably make some bland pabulum that nobody - not even yourself - likes or cherishes

again; fixating on good and bad is a trap.

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

the answer to "is my OC terrible?", "is my OC just ideas and concepts?", "is my OC boring?", "is my OC samey?"

is

"who the FUCK cares"

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

how do i know my OCs are good?

simple; i just will to be so.

frozennorth.bsky.social•59 days ago

can you send some of that energy my way I need it

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

alas, you can only generate it yourself

frozennorth.bsky.social•59 days ago

guess im screwed for now then

stellezen.bsky.social•59 days ago

This is why I don't use "good" and "evil" in alignment charts, I use "light" and "dark" instead, because some behaviors may be seen as "holy" or "demonic" or whatever by definition, but what is good and bad will always be subjective and changing over time

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

oh uh, this is in reference to imagined quality, not alignment

arrianaxiv.etheirys.social•59 days ago

Every OC that someone has put love and care into is a good OC in my opinion. (Not that my opinion should matter to other people)

shauntalkingheads.bsky.social•59 days ago

The Mary Sue Litmus Test has done very little but give people self-conscious bad writing habits that have replicated well past its time of relevance. Overcorrection doesn't succeed in making a character better

puraidoeustass.bsky.social•59 days ago

I love all my OCs, and every one of them is very precious to me. I don't have bad OCs!
I don't care if other people like them or if they think they are too op or whatnot (Mary Sues). As long as I'm a fan of them, that's all that matters.

tentaslut.bsky.social•59 days ago

its freeing when the only thought you have when creating a character is "that would be cool". i used to stress about it way too much & those characters i made are not my favorite. missy is one of my most treasured characters & shes hardly changed ever since i made her at 14

kilieit.bsky.social•59 days ago

i think, i suspect due to dysphoria and possibly trauma, i am incapable of liking anything i made. like i have the kneejerk "no, i don't like it" reaction and no other reaction, it always comes back to that no matter what processing i try--

so i end up having to judge blind if i'm Doing Anything,

kilieit.bsky.social•59 days ago

and when i look objectively i think that sense of "blindness", of not knowing what i want to shoot for, is the biggest thing holding my works back and making them milquetoast

...or maybe that "objective look" of mine is tainted by The Pathos, too 🤔

sphenewife.bsky.social•59 days ago

objectivity is fake so probably

thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat said, at the risk of sounding like an armchair therapist, this sounds more like a nascent personality disorder than dysphoria?

kilieit.bsky.social•59 days ago

i'm pattern-matching - it's the same way i feel when i see an image of myself with Blatant Traits Associated With My Assigned-Sex-At-Birth, and the feeling does not occur if said traits are not visible. a feeling of gutwrenching insincerity, of oh-god-not-this-again

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