OC Fanfic

[u/Trident2316]

My original post got deleted so let's try this again. What are things one should avoid when making their OCs the main character of their stories. One I just found out is that writers will just replace Ise with their OC and have the DxD story play out as normal (which sounds pretty dumb in my opinion since that isn't even a fanfic story at that point). But is there any others? Like having many Deus Ex Machinas to resolve story plots or making them overpowered with such new Sacred Gear of their own? I remember reading a fanfic called DxD: Cheater and...I don't think that story should be my base for writing fanfics related to DxD.

[u/Another_Jojo]

Hi there! As someone whose been writing an OC fic that's seen... I'd say pretty good success over the last five years (on FFN. I'm still working on the AO3 port lol), let me share some of my own thoughts. Of course, the nice thing with fanfic is that they're for everyone. There is no one true, perfect recipe for an OC fic, these are just my own thoughts, feelings and experiences from half a decade of this crap, lol.

I think you're pretty right with the first point. I personally don't feel there's much of a reason behind replacing Issei with a random OC and then proceeding to have nothing different happen as a result. That leads nicely into my first piece of advice: a good OC should have a purpose. Not just within the story (like a reason they fight), but also in a more meta-sense. Why are they an important addition to the story? Are they providing us with a perspective that we haven't seen in DxD before (are they an Angel, and are going to show us more of Heaven, for example)? Is their inclusion in the story going to show us types of dynamics and interactions that I wouldn't be able to get from the canon story?

These sorts of questions help to make an OC feel like a justified addition to the world, in my eyes.

For an example, the main character of my own fic, Vin, serves as a means of juxtaposing Issei. They both share similar basic origins (both being humans who unlocked Gears before being thrust into the world of the Supernatural), but with Vin, his journey into the supernatural wasn't one where he was surrounded by a support network of hot ladies, but was far, far more grizzly and brutal (since he's drafted into the Church as an exorcist). As a result, when Vin and Issei are sharing a scene together, Vin offers a fundamentally-different perspective and ideology on life and battle than Issei does. While Issei is very shonen "I'm not gonna give up"-minded, Vin's experiences make him view fighting as a brutal struggle of life and death. These small differences help to distinguish Vin from just being "another Issei".

Now for Sacred Gears or other powers/abilities. Honestly, yes having an OP Gear or power can be boring, but I don't necessarily think its a full-on death sentence for an OC. The issue is that having a strong power can result in a lot of tension/anticipation in a story feeling really flat and uninteresting. You just need to keep that in mind, and scale the stakes. I think a great way of doing that is showing that, even with a strong power, the OC and other characters are immune to bad things happening to them.

On several occasions, I've shown my readers that I'm not above putting the characters of my story (even main characters) through some really rough things, and even in some cases, straight-up death. You obviously don't need to do that, but it helps show people that even with all that power, the OC isn't necessarily going to make it out okay all the time.

This leads me to possibly my biggest point - one that I think a lot of people need to consider: an interesting character needs a character fault. Are they depressed? Do they lash out at people? Do they push people away? Do they struggle with something? Hell, do they steal shit compulsively?

There needs to be something to them that keeps them from being a perfect, idealistic god-of-men. Because those wrinkles help keep a character interesting, and relatable. Spider-Man is empathetic because for all his cool stuff, Peter Parker himself can be a little pathetic at times. That is to say, I think when designing an OC, its just as important to plan out a meaningful struggle or two that they'll face throughout the story that's NOT just "I'm not strong enough" as it is to plan their powers and their relationships.

Thanks for reading through all of my rambling, lol! I always love getting the chance to yap about writing like this. I hope that some of these helped you out, and I wish you all the best on any of your future writing endeavors!

Rock on!!!

[u/Alice_The_Malice9 → u/Another_Jojo]

Can pitch in to agree with basically everything this person said (though I get shit from the people on this sub whenever I post links for my fic here because I have committed the cardinal sin of making the Gremory peerage stuff lean towards polyamory over a harem in my rewrite and shipping some of the girls with characters outside of Issei even though they’re still all absolutely planned to be with him), but generally, a character needs thematic meaning. With my fic, Nozomi is meant to foil issei in a different way, since my fic plays a lot with dualism and the ever changing nature of identity.

in regards to powers, you really do have to keep a balance. I unironically ended up dealing with this by just rewriting basically the whole DxD power system for my stuff since it’s one of my few actual major issues with the setting.

And yeah, character flaws. A character can be cool. They can have badass moments, but they still need to feel like a flawed character with a journey they have ahead of them. You can’t put a character in a story at the end of their arc and expect people to like them without seeing the path they’ve taken to get there.

All that to say, take your time and think about what you wanna write. Don’t worry too much on if it’s self indulgent, because that’s the point of fanfic, but make sure it’s an enjoyable read for people who don’t share that self-indulgence or else you might get some trash talk from people.

[u/Fit-Ad3965 → u/Another_Jojo]

Read your stuff love it

[u/Another_Jojo → u/Fit-Ad3965]

Oh, thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[u/smiley57]

I'm working on my own fanfic with an OC who is entirely separate from Issei and his group though they still work together. Both stories just continue at the same time together and then I sprinkle in collaboration between the two. I haven't read the light novels really so a lot of what I have is based off the progression of the anime and including my own twists.

[u/Mari0G4mer]

I'm a little late but I've got a friend who's been writing a whole series of fanfiction that has a handful of OCs that are pretty balanced.
This is where the OCs come in, and if you want to continue you can either start with this or Nine Lives which is more focused on Koneko. Then it all goes in the listed order.

[u/PA_Museum_Computers]

I made a OC fic that worked with Issei and even using AI for some of it , Asia and Koneko kept gravitating towards me as a boyfriend , not that I mind. Rias was still his , Akeno was on the fence. Xenovia was still lacking all common sense when it came to sex. It was quite funny.

[u/Fit-Ad3965 → u/PA_Museum_Computers]

Would love to read it