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.

Mostly I read fic because I want to read more about characters who caught my attention in movies or tv shows. I usually only notice OCs if they're in a plot space that I'd expect to be filled by the canon characters. Otherwise they're just other characters in a fic, which you often need to make it realistic. In Rageprufrock's "Least of All Possible Mistakes" there are a number of original background characters as Lestrad's coworkers, but I don't really think of them as OC's because they're not overshadowing the main characters' storylines, they're making those characters and their storylines richer. In Scifigrrl47's fics, Shaun and Drew didn't seem like OCs (as I define them) when they were introduced, but became OCs when they got their own fics, with various Avengers as supporting characters. I guess that's my dividing line between fic and non-fic reading. In the latter I'm in it for the story (at least at the beginning--after watching him grow up in Bujold's books I'd read about Ivan Vorpatril chosing a recycling container) and hoping new characters (or characters unique to that story's world, if it's part of a series) will bring it to life.

... 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.

Much like Sophia, I don't really notice OCs unless they're badly written, so my statement of not running across OCs I like is, now that I think about it, probably wrong.

I read mostly bandom RPF these days, so any OCs tend to be glaringly obvious and clunky. Which usually leads me to back-buttoning out and rereading Bandpires or To Die Will Be An Awfully Big Adventure.

I usually only notice OCs if they're in a plot space that I'd expect to be filled by the canon characters. Otherwise they're just other characters in a fic, which you often need to make it realistic.

BING BING BING.

That explains why I can't immediately bring to mind other OCs that I like. Of course there are OCs in fic I like, but they feel like a natural part of the story.

Hey, so the Narnia Fic Exchange for this year just opened, and there are some awesome stories in it! (There are also 2 stories by me, one of which is so obviously by me it should have a blinky sign on it.)