Characters have their set patterns and ways of being written nine times out of ten. They have an established routine of how they’ll talk, how they’ll react to certain situations, and so on. Growth and character development will cause changes; understandable as one progresses through a story or story idea. No character should be absolutely static in any story that has a plot that progresses forwards. I make that distinction because there are special cases where characters are allowed to – and sometimes even should – remain the same way from beginning to end. This includes but is not limited to crossover specials, short stories or “one-shots” that don’t go too far when it comes to plot, character pieces, and other things.
The term OOC confused me for a while when I first got into the fanfiction community, because it looked a lot like the term OC, which stands for “original character” or “own character”, pretty much the same thing. OOC means “out of character”, a term used when authors alter or change characters’ thoughts or personalities blatantly for the sake of plot. Taking a character out of character happens when people either want to “experiment” or use the characters in situations that they wouldn’t normally find themselves. A character that may be good-natured normally could be taken out of character in this manner and turned into a vicious sadist or something like that for the sake of the story’s plot, themes, or characterization in relation to other characters. The reason why I talked about the terms OOC and OC seeming similar to me in days past is that my perception hasn’t really changed, even with my experiences. But they look the same for different reasons now, ones that I can explain. Taking a character grossly out of character is for all intents and purposes is making them an original character. It’s like stripping an old car of its parts, then putting in brand new parts from another, newer car inside of it and trying to pass it off as “vintage”, as if nothing much had changed at all. That’s basically what these severely out of character characters are: new characters with the shells of the old ones.
Some authors still use the term as I think it was intended to be used, as a warning that there might be some elements of a character that are changed from what the usual would be. The changes are pretty blatant once you take a look at the text, and the nature of the advertisment makes sense. Granted, the warnings aren’t even needed if the changes in a character or several are actually explained in the context of the story (they usually aren’t, which is another problem in itself). In contrast, there are many stories that abuse this label and use it as a means to do whatever they feel like with characters and their personalities. The problem was something that I really didn’t see myself at first and kind of stumbled over a few times before I got into it with one of the first stories I put on FFN. It’s also an excuse that authors use to make drastic and nonsensical changes to characters and scenarios while claiming that they’ve done “nothing wrong”.
It’s a strange divide, and might be why fanfiction writers don’t realize they’re doing it most of the time, but this is the problem. Authors of fan works write characters in situations outside of their normal boundaries. They then adjust the characters to react to said situations, as one would normally do, but this is where things get tricky. Instead of the characters reacting to their situations the ways their characters would in an absolute sense, the world influences how the characters react. In other words, the characterization is tied to the current setting instead of the basic things that make up said character(s).
An example to make things clear…let’s say that Sonic is placed in some kind of post-apocalyptic scenario where everything is ruined and shot to high hell. Stupid, but whatever. Fine. Here’s where you make a decision: is Sonic now reacting based on an environment of anarchy and darkness, becoming sick and depraved on some level so that he fits into the surroundings? Or is Sonic reacting based on his innate character traits, making wisecracks, being stubborn, helping people in need, etc.? This kind of thing is where authors stumble, because they will invariably choose the first option, thinking it is the correct thing. And on some level, they’re right. Depending on what kind of story you’re trying to tell, you might make Sonic or whoever out of character so that you can bring them up as a product of their environment, so if there’s an element of ruthlessness there, the character will absorb it onto themselves. The issue is that it’s…kind of dumb to do that. Why not make a character that is like that from the start instead of taking another character, screwing around with them, and then shoving them into a place where they don’t belong? People are going to expect certain things from that character, and it’s entirely pointless to include them if you’re going to ignore everything that makes them who they are. If you’re going to transplant a character into a different scenario, you have two viable options (if you want to write a good story): either choose a character that would actually fit into that environment in a few ways (having one or two vague connections isn’t really enough), or keep the character that you’re going to use true to themselves as much as possible. By that I don’t mean making characters completely ignorant of their situations, but having them learn to adapt in some way. The exceptions would come about if a character’s trait is to be oblivious to changes in their situation; that can be played up and used effectively in a good author’s hands. Otherwise, those two options are what make the most sense. To tie it all up, I’ll just say that if you’re going to write fanfiction with altered character traits, don’t go overboard. Changing things up is all well and nice, but lines have to be drawn somewhere. Having something like Tails shoving a Desert Eagle in his mouth and writing a suicide note or some ridiculous shit might be just a little much, I reckon.
“Theming” is something that the majority of fanfiction authors – and even some professional ones – have trouble doing. To theme something is to give it a particular idea in one or more aspects and follow that idea up until the end. Much like interior decorators have to stick to a certain style in order to model or remodel rooms, authors need to be consistent in their writing For example, if the theme of a story is growing up, then that theme should be followed up until the end in order to keep the story honest with itself and consistent in most, if not all of its aspects. Story arcs may have different content in them, but the overarching theme needs to be unified in order for the story in its entirety to make sense. This directly opposes the incredibly stupid mantra of “write what you want” that has been followed by fanfiction authors for years and has been used to justify terrible characterization, garbage plots, and all sorts of twisted shit that goes up onto the internet. Simply having a unified idea isn’t a theme nor does it constitute theming in any sense. However, we have people that also believe that if a story has a particular theme, it can’t be deviated from in any sense, which is just as stupid as putting the atmosphere all over the place. To theme a story is to give it an idea and a direction, which means that you can include different elements as long as they fit together and make sense. A serious story can have humour in it, or a few moments of silliness to get rid of some tension. There can be some sad moments in otherwise silly stories, or a heavy atmosphere in what would be a lighter story. The difference between a good author and a bad one is how they use these moments to connect with their themes and whether or not they know which elements are appropriate to use at the right time. Something like character growth doesn’t have to be a completely linear progression, but throwing in bullshit moments so that the character is forcefully regressed for the sake of drama doesn’t work. These things require thought. They require some sort of planning and consideration. More than anything, they require some sort of effort and a willingness to learn from mistakes made. Having a beginning, middle, and end to a story project isn’t going to cut it – there has to be a common thread uniting them. And maybe this could be your first time writing, and you haven’t got everything else down yet. But if you can understand this sort of thing along with everything else, you’ll be well on your way no matter what the first result is like. It will get easier with time.
If you choose to ignore it, then whatever. Good luck to you.
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Till the next one.
Questions and comments appreciated, as always. Stay frosty, yo.
Supercruise! 