So You Want To Make An OC?: A Masterpost Of Ways To Create, Develop, And Make Good OCs!

So you want to make an OC?: A Masterpost of Ways to Create, Develop, and Make Good OCs!

i made this masterpost in hopes that it helps you in making your own OCs ah;; it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! if you’d like to add more resources then go for it sugar pea (´ヮ`)!

EDIT (9/25/17): hi! i see this post going around a lot and a LOT over my many years here so here’s a sort of disclaimer before you delve into the huge chunk of info here.

1. i made this post when i was like 13, so jot that down. the information researched here is very, very old. a lot of it, imo, is no longer relevant! especially with language use (ESPECIALLY if you’re reblogging the old version of the post that had links to an article about gender/sexuality. i’ve removed that. i’ve removed also the mary sue/gary stue chunk because my values have changed since i was 13.) the point is, i’m not the person i was since i was 13, and the resources here will not always fit in with what we need as time goes on.

2. you! don’t! have! to! take! these! resources! as! law! i made this post because i was and still am very passionate about ocs. this resource was intended to be a sounding board for when u have ideas you want to further delve into and you’re not entirely sure where to begin. it’s not the only resource out there, and sometimes, the best sounding board will be you!!! follow ur heart. ocs are fun. this post was never, ever meant to tell you how to write your own characters but help broaden ur knowledge if u found urself limited in an area (as a lot of this was made with a white cishet audience in mind. i apologize for that ;;)

3. i’ve gotten some great notes and commentary on this post and things i want to explore more since making this post roughly 5-6 years ago. things are very, very different. i have better resources for a LOT of these, and have more i want to tack on! but i simply can’t find the time for it, so until I do: i’ve removed a lot of links here that i found harmful and irrelevant to today, but i haven’t combed through all of them and can’t lead you to what i think is best. research yourselves! you’ll learn lots.

4. and in closing, thanks for reading! this a/n got off on a tangent so that’s that, LMAO. go forth and develop your ocs!!! and tell me about them!!! or tell me if you have fresh sources or a better perspective or just wanna call me out. this post is 100% open to criticism because it’s imperative to keep growing. thanks!

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Diversity

adding more racial diversity

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Villains

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook 

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

DETAILS

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

again, this is to help inspire you or help establish your OCs! i hope you get a lot of info and help from this ahh ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

Ramadan for non-Muslims: An etiquette guide

During Ramadan, when your Muslim friends are fasting, is there anything you should be doing? You can follow these tips

Read this & be mindful of those partaking in Ramadan. 

I'm kinda ashamed to ask this, but could you make a tutorial on how to draw hands? ;A;

omg dont be ashamed at all!! Hands are generally tough to get used to, lots of artists struggle with it! so dont be ashamed i feel you.

and I actually have made a hand anatomy guide before in fact! If you want to get better at drawing hands I def recommend you learn the basic anatomy first. Please check out the ones I made, I try to make it simple and easy to understand:

Artistic Anatomy: Hands Part 1

Artistic Anatomy: Hands Part 2

There’s my guide to the anatomy, but here’s some more tips that I’ve noted to myself that I’d like to include

First off, I’d like to just note on the fingers: if you pay close attention to your own hand, you may notice the fingers are ever ever so slightly curved inward. It’s a very subtle detail, but I noticed that, despite how slight it is, it can make a hand look more lively, and less stiff.

Second, the “M” on the palm! Your hand moves in many ways, and because it does it creates creases in your hand. The most prominent creases appear to make an M shape; this is handy to remember for what I’m going to talk about next. (It also could be a “W” I guess, or to be more specific a “ )X( “; just think of it in whatever way helps you remember!)

SO now that you see the M, draw your hand as a basic blocked shape and add your details. As you do, you can see that the M divides the palm into four basic parts!

When the hand moves, parts A, B, or C of the palm, alone or in different combos, will create the general poses that the hands do normally. These parts are the parts that move, with D being stationary, no matter what!

Here’s a chart of all the possible combos. Once you have down what part of the hand moves for a certain pose, you can change up the fingers and tweak it a bit to do what you need to make it more specific!

This is simply my method of drawing hands. God knows there are hundreds of tutorials out there by other artists, but personally, this way helps me the best (after learning the anatomy first). 

This way I can divide the hand and combine the parts in any such way I need! 

Hands take a lot of effort to grapple, and you need to practice them a lot, especially foreshortening of the hand; that’s really something you need to learn through your own studies. Look at your own hands, draw hands from life, from magazines, shows, comics; just draw hands! You’ll eventually figure out a method that works best for you. So to get better at drawing hands; draw hands!! And don’t stress over it, have fun with it!

ohohoOHOHOHOHO

flower pup to remind you to be easy on yourself uwu 

this is fantastic now children in Puerto Rico wont be able to receive the education they deserve thanks to their messed up government