Help writing OC story

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chase251
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Hey guys I need some advice. I'm working on a SHIP story with my own OC (original character) and I'm wondering if I really need to do an origin story or if I even need to mention a background at all to the character since she mostly will be in peril after all. Don't get me wrong she will have characterization aside from being a super heroine getting in sexy trouble but its just, as I'm writing my story as it is now I'm just not feeling it if you will. I'm wondering should I just exposition that aspect of her character especially since many great SHIP OC artists like Uroboros, Mr.Bunny Art, Crimson Valkeryie on deviant art don't put much focus on it either. What do you all have to say?
Last edited by chase251 4 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
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Abductorenmadrid
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Ok, so I can understand your point, you want to get to the fun part and not have to go through her life story sequentially eg. Origin, mastery of her power and fighting crime before the inevitable peril. Totally reasonable.

What you could do is have stuff set in your mind about her origins. Is she a regular human that becomes empowered, or perhaps she is the offspring of someone who has powers. Is she an alien.... Is she a lab accident....

Figure all that out and you can drop origin bread crumbs into your current story or stories if you can make it work. Just give us a hint. Then when you've done enough revisit the origin story. Link up the trail of breadcrumbs you've already set out and have the reader go "aaaah that's what that meant!" when they see why things are the way they are. I don't think you need the origin right now for sure, but you might need to leave hints at least to get a sense of your OC
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chase251
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Abductorenmadrid wrote:
4 years ago
Ok, so I can understand your point, you want to get to the fun part and not have to go through her life story sequentially eg. Origin, mastery of her power and fighting crime before the inevitable peril. Totally reasonable.

What you could do is have stuff set in your mind about her origins. Is she a regular human that becomes empowered, or perhaps she is the offspring of someone who has powers. Is she an alien.... Is she a lab accident....

Figure all that out and you can drop origin bread crumbs into your current story or stories if you can make it work. Just give us a hint. Then when you've done enough revisit the origin story. Link up the trail of breadcrumbs you've already set out and have the reader go "aaaah that's what that meant!" when they see why things are the way they are. I don't think you need the origin right now for sure, but you might need to leave hints at least to get a sense of your OC
Thanks for the insight. As of right now she's kinda like a hybrid of Captain America and Batman. She has some powers (enhanced strength, stamina through some means haven't quite decided on which just yet) but she will be using gadgets/vehicles mainly, so she won't be too powerful to be dealt by the criminal element. She will be susceptible to drugs/gases and other forces that can take her down.
Last edited by chase251 4 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Damselbinder

chase251 wrote:
4 years ago
Hey guys I need some advice. I'm working on SHIP story with my own OC (original character) and I'm wondering if I really need to do a origin story or even need to mention a background at all to the character since she mostly will be in peril after all. Don't get me wrong she will have characterization aside from being a super heroine getting in sexy trouble but its just as I'm writing my story as it is now I'm just not feeling it if you will. I'm wondering should I just exposition that aspect of her character especially since many that have done great SHIP OC artists like Uroboros, Mr.Bunny Art, Crimson Valkeryie on deviant art don't put much focus either. What do you all have to say?
You absolutely do not need to give an origin story to start with. Like with any character in fiction, you don't necessarily need to know their origins and histories and everything. Take a look at Han Solo: in A New Hope we learn very, very little about his past. But his actions and his dialogue tell us all we need to know: he's rough around the edges, he's a rogue and a scoundrel, he's boastful, but he has a good heart buried under the snark and sleaze.

Your character can be the same. Let us learn about her by what she says and what she does. We don't need a backstory, unless your narrative demands that we know about it.
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chase251
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You absolutely do not need to give an origin story to start with. Like with any character in fiction, you don't necessarily need to know their origins and histories and everything. Take a look at Han Solo: in A New Hope we learn very, very little about his past. But his actions and his dialogue tell us all we need to know: he's rough around the edges, he's a rogue and a scoundrel, he's boastful, but he has a good heart buried under the snark and sleaze.

Your character can be the same. Let us learn about her by what she says and what she does. We don't need a backstory, unless your narrative demands that we know about it.



Good point about Han Solo. Thanks for the insight Damselbinder.
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You can create the first story without an origin story. You can give us small context clues to help us understand your characters. Then, you can create an origin story at a later date. There are many stories with prequels of origins. Don't feel pressure to please us with an origin story.

Now I am curious about your heroine who gets into sexy trouble.
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Yeah, when I first started writing I started off the Pariah stories with a massive infodump about who the character was, where she came from, how she was trained, what motivates her, what her current setup looks like - and I cringe down to my toes when I read it back now. I did that at the time partly because it was just a doodle and I was fleshing it out for my own benefit, but also partly because it felt somehow important that all this stuff I knew about the character should be immediately presented to the reader so that we could all move forward into the actual story having a clear picture of the heroine (and even the city we were in). I wasn't totally wrong to want that outcome - the character's backstory is pertinent in a lot of ways - but I raced right to it and clumsily hammered it all in on great dump before we even meet the character, and that's so awful for the reader. I STILL do like setup at the start of stories, but more of the showing variety than the telling. Establishing character, world, themes, and so on is still important for me.

I would say it is important that you know who the character is and what her backstory is before you start writing, but from that starting point it is actively much, much better to drip-feed that story to the readers organically as the story plays out, and avoid the infodump as best you can. As DB says, we find out so much about the character by just watching her work and seeing how she interacts with people. If she has a POV, then how she regards her surroundings, what her personal thoughts are about it all, and even offhand references to her past as if the reader knows about it (when they don't yet) all quickly paints a picture of the character that your readers can piece together for themselves. You can also sneak small infodumps into the story telling as greater events are unfolding early on to convey some key nuggets of information. If there are really important, defining features of her past or her motives - things that enrich and inform our experience of her as we read - then those elements are the ones you might want to weave into the storytelling early on.

Good luck with the story! A hybrid of Cpt America and Batman sounds sweet.
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OMG, the consensus ... it's overwhelming! I'm at the superheroineforum right? What is happening?!? So confused ...
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chase251
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Thank you all for the comments. So, I'm definitely putting the story back to the drawing board since I don't like it in it's current form. Keeping my fingers I can get this done in a few days.
Damselbinder

Abductorenmadrid wrote:
4 years ago
OMG, the consensus ... it's overwhelming! I'm at the superheroineforum right? What is happening?!? So confused ...
That, AEM, is clearly because the writers' section is the most civilised section of the board. Eh wot?

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chase251
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Damselbinder wrote:
4 years ago
Abductorenmadrid wrote:
4 years ago
OMG, the consensus ... it's overwhelming! I'm at the superheroineforum right? What is happening?!? So confused ...
That, AEM, is clearly because the writers' section is the most civilised section of the board. Eh wot?

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Is this what you call 'a fine how do you do?'

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Hard not to echo much of what has already been said.

Let readers imagine what they will but the character and her background must definitely be crystal clear in your mind.

Honestly, it sounds to me like you’re having a structural issue. I would say decide on the type of story you want to tell and that will help you figure out what pieces to add and, just as important, which to take away.

Less can be more. You want to give the reader a push, not hold their hand through every twist and turn. It’s worth spending the time needed to find the most exciting version of your story. This will help you find your starting point.

And, if possible, try and think cinematic. It can be painful but figuring out what to leave on the cutting room floor is a necessary part of the gig.

Someone mentioned Star Wars. Well, George Lucas didn’t originally start with Episode IV. Some might even argue he should never have gone back to flesh out I through III. He began where he did because it was simply the best starting point.

Good luck. Can’t wait to see what you come up with.
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Damselbinder wrote:
4 years ago
Abductorenmadrid wrote:
4 years ago
OMG, the consensus ... it's overwhelming! I'm at the superheroineforum right? What is happening?!? So confused ...
That, AEM, is clearly because the writers' section is the most civilised section of the board. Eh wot?

Image

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Echoing what others have said here, I don't think you need to start with the origin story. I struggled with the same question with my character. I ultimately had so much trouble keeping the minutiae of the backstory straight when writing the non-origin story, that I decided to go back and write the origin story so I could use it as a sort of reference in the future. But if you can keep it straight, I don't think that's necessary.
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TIEnTEEZ
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Write the story you want to write. :)

For any kind of writer, it's probably a good idea for YOU to have a good idea of your character's history and origin. J.R.R. Tolkien apparently filled several binders with maps and detailed histories of the races and characters in his world and the vast majority of it never made it into the published works. But just having it allowed him to bring his world to life in a way that it would not have otherwise been.

On the other hand, Steven King famously does NOT do a lot of research and doesn't create intricate backgrounds outside of what you read in this books.

So you don't NEED to write an origin story in order for your writing to be interesting, compelling, or sexy. :)

It's kind've a pet peeve of mine that Hollywood seems so resistant to learning this lesson. They keep making and re-making the same fucking origin stories over and over. If I have to see Peter Parker get bitten by a radioactive spider one more time, I swear I am gonna lose it. This, I think, is one of the reasons the Hulk movie with Edward Norton was the best Hulk movie. They skipped repeating the same original story for the 50th time and just got on with it.

I understand they are rebooting the Fantastic Four movies for the... what is it now, the 4th time? This time with Dwayne Johnson as The Thing. I am looking forward to seeing it, and I think he will be great in the role. But I really hope they skip ahead and just pick a story from somewhere in the 50 years worth of comic-books they have to draw form rather than telling the same original story yet again. Because I really don't think I could take seeing it yet again.
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