You've finally decided to create a Percy Jackson fanfiction! Yay! But one of the most important things to making a fic, is the main OC themselves.

Here are the basics:

1. Your OC's name

2. Your OC's gender

3. Your OC's species (are they a regular demigod, are they a nymph, etc)

4. Godly parent (if they're a demigod) and powers

5. Height

6. Age and date of birth

7. Appearance/Faceclaim

8. Some personality traits 

9. Flaws

10. Weapons

STEP ONE: NAMES

I swear to god if you name your OC some shit like "Marina Pearl Oceana Butterfly Seahorse Jackson" I will laugh at your face and then maybe throttle you if I'm bored enough.

Make the name short. Just do a first name, a middle name maybe, and then the last name.

Find a name that's actually meaningful and relates to your character. Some people like to pick names that relate to their OCs godly parent, like Daisy for a child of Demeter or Marina for a child of Poseidon.

A lot of the character's Rick wrote about—whether they're minor or major—have names that are pretty thoughtful. For example, there's Sherman Yang a son of Ares and one of Clarisse's half-brothers. He's either named after William Sherman, a Civil War general, or a literal tank called the M4 Sherman Tank. Either way, the name 'Sherman' has to do with war and relates to him being the son of Ares.

If you don't want your OCs name to be connected to their godly parent (because you don't want to spoil it or you just don't like it), then maybe have it connect to a personality trait. Or maybe a physical trait. My OC's name, Esmerelda, means "emerald" because her father is always reminded of emeralds whenever he looks at her eyes.

OR, an even cooler idea, is to name them after a figure in Greek Mythology and give out a reason why. Percy's name is a wonderful example of this. Sally named him after the Greek hero, Perseus, because Perseus is one of the only heroes to have a happy ending and judging by how Percy's life has been going so far since all the wars ended, it looks like he might actually get that happy ending :)

Unless your OCs mortal parent is supposed to be awful or they have no idea that the Greek myths are actually real, I don't suggest naming your OC after a monster, some Greek figure who was an awful person, or a Greek figure that died horribly... No decent sane parent would do that if they were aware that the Greek myths were real. If you knew that all the Greek myths you've heard of were real, would you really name your kid, let's say, Ajax? The guy who's known for raping Cassandra? Or maybe Cassiopeia, the vain mother of Andromeda who was eventually tortured by Poseidon? 

No, I don't think so (hopefully...)

STEP TWO: GENDER

Pretty simple. Male, female? Transgender? Neutral? Non-binary? The list goes on, but you get it.

STEP THREE: SPECIES

Also pretty simple. I've read stories where they OC is part god and part nymph (like Zoe basically).

You can make them mortal, a demigod, a nymph, whatever.

STEP FOUR: GODLY PARENT AND THE POWERS THEY GAIN FROM THEM

The part about the Big Three will be further explained in a separate chapter, so I'll just give you the gist of what I mean in here.

If your OC is a demigod, then obviously you need to give them a godly parent. We've learned from Kayla Knowles (a character from The Trials of Apollo), that it doesn't matter if both parents (mortal and god) are the same gender, they can still get a demigod outta that.

But anyways! Pick your godly parent! You've got a shit ton to choose from, but I would advise you to just... stay away from the Big Three. I'll explain why in a separate chapter, but just... try not to make your OC a child of the Big Three. If you do take the risk, then that's fine too.

People usually choose to make their OC a child of an Olympian god. That's perfectly fine, but there are many other options. The minor gods are just as cool as the Olympians (there was literally a whole war about how minor gods deserved rights so yeah).

The only ones I don't advise you to use, are some titans. I think, so far, Hecate is canonically the only Titan to have a demigod children in camp. And before you ask, Hecate is a Titan. She is a third(?) generation Titan, and she sided with the gods in the first Titanomachy. But the Olympians kinda screwed her over and demoted her to a minor goddess smh.

But anyways, most Titans do not like mortals. They look down on them, they enslaved them, they ate them, etc. etc. So I don't see any of them "falling in love" with a mortal and getting a demigod child out of it.

I'm unsure about the Primordials. There's not enough information that tells me whether they treated mortals similarly to how the Titans did, but they're literally older then the gods AND the Titans so I kinda get the feeling that they're just... bored? They probably don't give a shit about mortals and just dismiss them, but maybe one of them would get bored enough to mate with a mortal? Who knows.

Moving onto powers now! This is pretty easy. It all depends on who your OCs godly parent is. Are they a child of Demeter? Then their power is most likely chlorokinesis. A child of Hecate? Then magic and Mist manipulation, etc. Just look at the godly parent's wiki page to see what powers your OC would have. And if you want more details about it, then just go to the superpower wiki I told you guys about in the "PJO: Resources" chapter.

Oh and uh, extra note: I don't know if people still write these kinda fics, but PLEASE do not make your OC a "child of all the olympians" or "child of the Big Three". Please don't, I'm begging you.

STEP FIVE: HEIGHT

Yeah, you guys can figure this one out. Make them short, tall, whatever.

STEP SIX: AGE AND DATE OF BIRTH

Same as the previous one.

If you're planning on doing following each of the Percy Jackson books, then your OC is obviously going to age. This is where the date of birth thing comes to mind, so be mindful of that.

STEP SEVEN: APPEARANCE/FACECLAIM

I usually think of my character's appearance first, before searching for a suitable faceclaim that could match that.

Your OC can actually inherit physical traits from their godly parent. Children of Aphrodite are drop dead gorgeous. Children of Dionysus, from what we've learned from Pollux and Castor, inherit his violet eyes, etc.

In my PJO/HP book, I did something similar to that too. Sometimes Hecate's known to have three heads or three entirely different forms. I incorporated that idea into my story. So in my fic, Hecate has three different forms: a morning form (blonde hair and black eyes), a noon form (red hair and blue eyes), and a night form (black hair and green eyes). I made it so most, if not all, of her kids inherited one of her three forms. My OC, Essie, inherited her mother's night form, so she has black hair and green eyes.

So anyways, yeah. Sometimes you have to take into account who the godly parent is before deciding on your character's appearance.

STEP EIGHT: PERSONALITY TRAITS

YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LIKABLE! They don't have to be a pure angel with heroic traits. They can be an asshole, they can be dumb, they can be full of anger issues, etc. It's okay if they're like that! But just like with every other good character, they have to show growth. As long as they're well-developed, then you've succeeded in making a good OC.

And sometimes they can develop negatively too! That's fine as long as you show the readers how they became that way. Stories don't need to be sunshine and rainbows. Have you read Macbeth from Shakespeare? The main character, Macbeth, becomes obsessed with greed and power and it eventually leads to his downfall.

So yes, think of a list of personality traits that your OC would have at the beginning of your story/series. And then maybe try to imagine how they would be at the end of your story/series. Would they still have those traits? Do they become better? Worse?

STEP NINE: FLAWS

Flaaaaaaws, yes, yes, yes. Flaws are very important. They are what makes your character's realistic.

And I don't mean flaws like being clumsy, shy, or awkward. Not that lame shit. Those are minor flaws at best, I guess.

I mean flaws that can actually impact your story. Flaws that can hurt your OC or the people around them, and make sure the flaws are actually addressed too. Don't be like Rick and let Piper McClean's internalized misogyny get unnoticed and un-addressed by literally every character in his book. The only people who noticed what was wrong with her were the readers themselves. Piper being internally misogynistic would've been fine if it was actually addressed in the books. It was not. Only the readers addressed it.

Not pointing out a flaw in your story is basically saying "I don't see a problem with this, this sort of behavior is perfectly fine!".

NO IT IS NOT FINE! YOU HAVE A FLAW RIGHT THERE, YOU GOTTA MAKE IT SEEM LIKE IT'S AN ACTUAL PROBLEM!

Make the flaw obvious! Make it an actual problem that has a huge impact! Don't just... not do anything about it.

One example is my own OC, Essie. She's got a whole list of problems. Her fatal flaw is loyalty, and if you put that together with her abandonment issues, you get a whole mess. She is fiercely loyal to those she cares about, but while it sounds like a great thing, it actually makes her obsessive and even possessive over those people—and that's because of her abandonment issues. She does not want to be left behind again, so she clings onto everyone she has a bond with to the point she might even defend a psychopath just because he's her brother (Eudaimonia readers, you probably know who I'm talking about).

It's harmful. She's not only endangering herself (and destroying her already crumbling mental state), but she could potentially endanger others too.

So you get the point. Make a flaw for your OC and make sure it's actually talked about in your story.

And in the end, you can either write about your OC overcoming that flaw, or your OC getting devoured by it. Your choice :)

And with those list of flaws you have, you can then decide on what your OCs fatal flaw should be. Fatal flaws are an actual thing in the PJO books by the way. If you don't remember, "fatal flaws are the mental or physical weaknesses that humans, demigods, and immortals possess. These flaws can often cause the downfall of the being, but are particularly dangerous to demigods". (PJO wiki, back at it again in being useful 😌)

Examples include:

Percy: his fatal flaw is loyalty.

Luke: his fatal flaw is excessive wrath, and that flaw actually lead to his downfall.

Whatever your OCs fatal flaw is, it has to be the most dangerous flaw for them because it can literally lead them to their death.

STEP TEN: WEAPONS

Ahhh, the fun part. Weapons!

I feel like Camp Jupiter is very strict when it comes to choosing a weapon. So far everyone there either uses a sword or a spear. Frank's the only one who uses a bow and arrow and from what I remember from my history class, the Romans actually considered soldiers using that weapon as cowardly so...

Anyways! If your OC is from Camp Half-Blood, then yay! They get more freedom in choosing their weapon. You can stick with a sword, but a lot of people use that so let me give you a list of other weapons to choose from:

- Spear

- Labrys

- Bow and arrow

- Javelin

- Dagger/knife

- Sling

- Throwing knives

- Gauntlet(s)

- Flail

- Whip (omg you can use that cool whip-sword thing like Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses!!!!)

- Lance

- Staff

- Machete

- Gladius

- Sickle

- Katana

There's more, but that's all I could think of for now. There's more modern weapons too like a gun, but the campers don't really use them because, you know, you'll run out of bullets. And sometimes they're not strong enough to kill more tough-skinned monsters

AND THERE YOU GO, EVERYONE! The basics to making an OC 😎 I don't think I missed anything, but if I did then... oops?