Kuroshitsuji Writing Guide:

Chapter 3:

Characterisation:

The subject of the this chapter is characterisation. Writing in character is often very difficult to get right and feel realistic as is making an original character believable. There is a lot of Kuroshitsuji fanfiction where no one is acting in character or an original character just comes across as nothing but annoying.

OOC stands for Out of Character and IC stands for In Character.

To help write in character you need to know the canon characters well. There is no use in watching a couple of episodes or reading a couple of manga chapters of Kuroshitsuji and jumping straight into writing fanfiction because you simply will not know the characters well enough. There are some people that do this and respond to criticism by claiming that they can't be expected to keep characters in character because they have only watched five episodes.

Example of an out of character scene involving Ciel who is a 13 year old boy that has issues with being touched and is allergic to cats.

"Sebastian," Ciel called out. "Come over here and ravish me. I love you so much and I have suddenly decided that I love cats after all and want to adopt 50 with you."

What was wrong with that scene?

It might possibly be that Ciel would never say anything like that as none of that has ever been suggested by canon. From canon it is evident that Ciel hates being touched due to his past experiences and will not go anywhere near a cat because he is allergic. If you are going to have him undergo character developmental changes, make them gradual and not occur all at once.

Next is Sebastian. We have less information about Sebastian because most of what is known about him is his life as Sebastian Michaelis, his life before that is not known so there is less reference. That said, some things he does in fanfiction are clearly out of character.

I hate to say it, but he isn't going to ravish your OC or some random female unless they are useful in some way. In Book of Circus he obtained information from Beast whilst he was seducing her and he did not do it out of personal motivations that were not linked to Ciel.

In addition, Sebastian and Ciel recruited Bardroy, Mey-Rin and Finny to protect Ciel, your OC is not going to picked by him as a servant unless they are good bodyguard material.

He may like to tease Ciel, but he is not going to suddenly decide that he wants to sleep with him one day.

OCs:

For those that do not know, OC stands for Original Character. These characters can be difficult to get right as there is something called a Mary Sue.

A Mary Sue is a little difficult to define, but the general consensus is that it is a female original character a female that is nothing short of an idealised version of the author and is mostly used for wish fulfilment.

Consider the summaries below:

Katharine Ebony Dementia Way is just a normal girl that's part demon, vampire and fairy with hair that changes colours. She's the secret twin sister of Ciel that no one ever knew about. Watch as all the popular male characters of Kuroshitsuji take a liking to her, including Ciel. Pairings: OCxSebastian, OCxUndertaker, OCxSnake, OCxFinny, OCxJoker OCxCiel, twincest.

Katharine is just your average fan of Kuroshitsuji when one day she meets Ciel and Sebastian on the streets of modern day London and lets them live with her and her step parents. Read on to find out her tragic past and her real parents' fate that is somehow related to Sebastian and how Sebastian and Ciel decide to adopt her and take her back to Victorian England.

Katharine is just your average fan of Kuroshitsuji until she gets magically transported into the world of Kuroshitsuji. How will Sebastian and Ciel ever deal with the spunky raven haired girl with red and purple high lights that spouts wisecracks like an malfunctioning fountain?

I made all those summaries up after checking through a selection of OC fanfiction. The most obvious Mary Sue one is the first one as it ticks the exotic name box, the hair colours one and the exotic origin one. The second summary contains the tragic back story cliché that is also considered a trait of Mary Sues and the getting canon characters to love her one. The third story summary is more subtle as it only contains the hair trait, the character may not be a Mary Sue in the actual story, however the summary makes it sound like she is.

Methods to improve your original characters:

· Give them flaws, genuine flaws. Mary Sues are known to be flaw free or the character flaw is very superficial and only makes other characters love them more. Do not make them perfect either.

· Use the Mary Sue litmus test.

· Be careful with names. Do not give them three middle names and make them correlate to the country they come from (see chapter 1 for the reason).

· As tempting as it may be, do not have every character fall in love with them. It is unrealistic and hints heavily of an author insert.

· Do not use your pen name for your OC name, it also reeks of author insert.

· Do not go over the top with hair colours, this is open to interpretation.

· Avoid cliché back stories.

· Avoid making them more than one part supernatural creature, it borders on making them sound too exotic depending on the severity. Half demon or Grim Reaper is fine, it's more about bringing vampires or werewolves into it.