I like Scifigrl47s OCs, but generally speaking I rarely find OCs add much to the narrative.

chrismg, your OCs in "It's Already Here" are working very well. They ARE actually important to the story, as it is crafted. So there is little danger of them being silly and intrusive Mary Sues/Marty Stus. I must say I am so taken with the way you write Regina, especially, that she may well be overshadowing how I perceive any OC. But if you craft them as carefully as you keep Regina in character, then I will welcome them any time, in any story you care to put them in. Whereas that OC description that ita just gave the link to... total author self-insertion.

I actually was thinking of scifigrl47's OCs and how I had to skip their stories in Phil Coulson's case files, because while not Mary Sues, I just don't give a bleep about them, and I adore her writing and don't mind the OC characters when they're salt and pepper, and not the steak.

ita I can see where seeing that character over and over again would be annoying. It doesn't sound like she's using the charater to further the plot, she just really really realy really likes him and he seems to be her main fannish focus. It's not really about plot development or will he work well in whatever story, it's that Jet is her main fannish focus and so he's in everything she writes.

It seems kind of like bringing your beautiful cake to a chili cook off. Cake is great but people are there for the chili not for the cake.

But there are pro authors that tend to lean towards the same type of charater or character traits. When I was reading a lot of Dean Koontz he seemed to have a lot of kid characters that either acted older than their age or picked up things before hte adults did. When I was reading romance novels there was one writer who always wrote about how delicate and small her female protagnists were compared to the love interest and invariable the comparision was that the woman could barely finish half a sandwich without becoming really full and the guy would eat 2 sandwiches. And the woman would marvel about how strong and manly he was and so different from her in so many ways.

I like Scifigrl47s OCs, but generally speaking I rarely find OCs add much to the narrative.

Yeah, Scifigrl47's OCs are charming, but I haven't ran across any others that I like.

Yeah, Scifigrl47's OCs are charming, but I haven't ran across any others that I like

Not any?

... as someone who writes a fair number of OCs (and by far my most popular SPN story was about an OC), I'm feeling a bit depressed by this conversation.

Not all OCs are toxic exemplars of fannish fetishes, and not all OCs are Mary Sues/Marty Stus, and not all Mary Sues are horrible.

I'm with Consuela (as a perpetrator of OCs myself).

I am not certain whether this helps or hurts, but I don't notice OCs unless they are bad, because I often/usually read fic for things where I am not that familiar with the source material. Right now I read Hockey RPF, Teen Wolf (only watched the first season) and Steve/Bucky (have barely seen Cap 1, have not seen Winter Soldier, have never read the comics).

I also started watching Sports Night because of the fic.

If the OC doesn't detract from the story and blends in with the world, I'd call that a successful OC.

What I object to are established characters written like Mary Sues, ie, Darcy or Willow serving as the author's alter ego, adored and protected by the other characters, especially whomever the author has the crush on. (I know that sound dismissive of authors inexperienced with handling characters, but I have been that author. I've rewritten those stories many times and burned the earlier incarnations. I'll just call it very educational and close the door on that phase of writer development.)

OK, now I reread what I wrote on the topic, it was unnecessarily condescending on the topic of OCs. I could have said that I do appreciate a carefully crafted OC, but couldn't recall any off-hand that I wanted to see become a recurring character - which would be true. I had a favorite Mentalist author's story burning brightly in my mind, and one particular OC. Of course, now that I think a bit harder about it, I can think of whole villages of OCs in Consuela's fic that I liked quite a bit and might conceivably read a story about. I'm sorry for what I said.