In Defense of OCs
by ItBelongsInAMuseum

So, when I was a kid, I used to have terrible insomnia. Every night there were at least two hours between getting sent to bed and falling asleep. I've been given to understand from mid nineties sitcoms and several misguided attempts at babysitting, kids don't usually like being told to go to bed—usually because of something involving Nickelodeon or just general rebellion against the idea of a 'bed time'. For me I hated going to sleep because ofthat feeling. The inevitability of intense boredom looming in the future. Those few hours between going to bed and falling asleep were complete agony. Especially since I could hear from the TV downstairs that my older sister with her later bedtime was DEFINITELY watching Nickelodeon.

So what was I supposed to do for those two plus hours each night? Stare blankly at the ceiling? Or, an even more ridiculous idea, run my times tablesin my head? Not likely. Luckily for me, these bouts of insomnia came at the same time as something that would become very important to my life. The Harry Potter series.

To say I was obsessed with Harry Potter would probably be an understatement, and not of the mild variety. I was of that lucky generation (still mildly freaked out that I can date myself with a word like 'generation'), who got to grow up with J.K. Rowling's books as they were being released. The first night I got my hands on the newest book I'd find myself up late at night under covers and with a flashlight, staring with wide eyes at the last line. For one glorious night, my insomnia would be put to good use. And then I'd be left with it again. The boredom. That is until one day I realized it didn't have to end. Or, even better, I could participate in it for myself.

One night I decided, what if there was another character J.K. Rowling left out. Another character who could join in all the adventures, play Quidditch, and I'd get to experience that world through her eyes. When I was nine years old I just thought of it as daydreaming. It wasn't for another eight years or so that I found out there was an actual name for it: fanfiction.

Apparently there was a slew of terminology that went along with the 'daydreaming'. Apparently what I had been doing all those years was creating my very own OC. And I've been doing the same thing ever since, even if it took me till 22 to actually put pen to paper. And that was it. Suddenly I was a writer of OC fanfiction.

For a while I tapped away on my laptop, totally oblivious to the sort of 'politics' that surrounded the fan fiction community, and was more than a little disappointed to discover that, for some people, OC fiction is looked down upon. Terms are thrown around like 'author self-insert' or 'Mary-Sue', and, upon investigation I found their meanings to be quite dismissive of the characters they describe. Over time those labels seem to have become all-encompassing and all OCs are seen as 'perfect' or 'boring', and suddenly they aren't worth our time.

Maybe to some extent an OC protagonist is a way of the author to experience a story first hand. To which I say, so what? How is that wrong? How is that anything to be dismissed? The entire point of the fandom life is to revel in these different universes. Fanfiction is a medium through which we as readers and as writers get to dive head-first into a world to which (tragically) we have no other access. So why on earth do we need to fault others for trying to create their own portal into those worlds?

When I was a kid, writing mental fanfiction in my head, it was all about a form of escapism. It was a way for me to leave my troubles and anxieties, and to enter a world which had a lot more troubles and anxieties paired with much higher stakes. But it was good. It was necessary. It helped me through a significant portion of my life. It's a chance to turn your life into something more exceptional than it might be otherwise. And again I ask, how is that a problem? I imagine that for others writing OC stories, it performs much the same purpose. It's to participate in a world, and bring your readers along on an adventure.

I've always thought of OC stories as companion novels, plots parallel to those of whichever book, TV show, or film you've come to admire. The same story but from a different perspective, complete with side plots and added adventures, like what Orson Scott Card did with Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. Providing a new perspective on an existing work is nothing new, it's nothing shocking, and it's nothing to be disregarded. It's simply allowing yourself to dwell in a world that you love and among the adventures that shaped you a little while longer.

To weave another character into a pre-existing narrative is nothing simple. Not only do you have to accommodate all of the characters and keep them true to their characteristics and relationships, you also have to develop a whole new set of relationships. Introducing an OC is not simply dropping a single point into a pre-existing narrative. From that point links radiate outwards, connecting until it forms a pretty elaborate spiderweb. OCs must weave themselves into the pattern of a story without interrupting the initial flow. It's like adding a new color to the design. And sometimes, that extra color can just make the tapestry that much more vibrant.

Are you on the OCs side?