Welcome back to Jimmy's FeelingsTalk! Today's topic is: My weird OC writing habits.

Now most of you know about my dark and dastardly writer resume known as my OC book, but I bet most of you don't know the process behind them!

hab·it

1. a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

So I decided to talk about my two main weird OC writing habits, just for fun. ;) Therefore this is partially a 'feelingsTalk' and partially a 'writerTalk' as I give y'all some insight on my OC-making process. 

1. TRUMP CARDS

This one is my main one and it's kind of hard to explain, which is why I put it as 'trump cards!' I like to think of my more favored OC ideas as trump cards. Each and every one of them needs to differ in some way; I don't like repetition which is why as you can probably notice all of my OCs are different-different enough, that is, for me to throw them all into a book and them not to all go "hey we're like carbon copies of one another! What the heck!". Now I am not looking down on people who do reuse OCs, when they do it's probably 'cause that OC is like GODLY and therefore can be molded a lot. I ADMIRE SUCH OCs! The only problem with me is that my little conscience that I named Evan for simplicity's sake, whenever I try, screams at me, "JIMMY NO! YOU CAN'T! THAT WOULD BE SO AGAINST YOUR RULES OF DIVERSITY!" and Evan is really hard to ignore.

So I end up with a little problemo known as: I AM NOT. AN OC MAKING MACHINE. I CANNOT SPEW OUT OCS ON COMMAND, THANK YOU VERY MUCH (unless you give me a basic foundation and a beautiful faceclaim that inspires me) Since I don't like to repeat things, I choose very carefully which 'cards' I can lay down for a certain thing. Once a 'card' has been laid down I can't reuse it (technically I can, but I've already explained that problem) again, so I have to carefully choose which OCs to use for certain things. 

2. GATHERING KNOWLEDGE/THE OC-MAKING PROCESS/INSECURITY

Yes, believe it or not, I do in fact have insecurities, which have skyrocketed in the past couple of months due to COVID 19 isolation and other stuff which has made me 200% more aware about how my actions impact others T VT. That applies a lot whenever I'm writing an OC, like "what if they don't like this what if they think I'm being impudent about this thing what if-what if-" and so on. So usually, when I'm applying in an applyfic, I like to first look at other people's forms and use those as a kind of 'backbone' for my own form. It reassures me, in a strange way. Also, whenever I finish a form and put in in the comments, I usually distract myself in some way to not think about it that way I won't go over all the things I could've done differently and agonize over the little things I should've changed, etc.

For gathering knowledge, when applying in an applyfic, no matter what I usually do first go through everyone's forms or at least the forms that are there in the comments, for two reasons-first for the reason I stated before, for reassurance, and second, to make sure I'm not doing something that somebody else is already doing (like the same personalities, names, abilities, appearances, faceclaims, etc.) and then based on my findings I alter my OC in my head (or actually 'on paper' as they say) to make sure I don't end up copying somebody else's OC or be accused of copying. (*le shudder* Does fear of p-p-plagarization actually exist???) This especially applies in fantasy applyfics for me when there are abilities in play.

When creating an OC (an OC that I'm actually trying on, believe it or not some OCs I just through together some things and hope it turns out well but for most of them I pour my heart and soul into making an OC) I first shuffle through my deck of cards (as cited above, only my more favored OC ideas are referred to as 'trump cards') and see if there's an idea I already like and can use, as a basic formation base. Then I see if I need to change anything, then I dive into the processing part. As I mentioned earlier I hate repetitions, and so as a result I usually shuffle through my other OCs in my head and compare them (like which types of personalities have I already favored a lot, besides male and traumatized? what do their names all start with? what types of appearances? what kinds of hair colors? abilities? etc.) then choose one that I haven't done as much and put the original OC idea through that 'processor' for the second basic outline. 

After that, I usually shift through what kinds of trauma I want to give my OC (light? middle? super traumatic?) and then when I've decided that I choose a type of trauma (PTSD, bullying, abuse, etc.). After taking that into consideration I see if I have to change my OC's personality; sometimes the trauma changes them for the better and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it affects them a lot, but they don't show it and sometimes they do in their actions, etc. (I know all too well, trauma is trauma. What may seem like a really wimpy reason to be traumatized to you could be the other person's worst nightmare, so don't judge.) Usually I do the parts of the form that are easier for me; such as gender, sexuality, age, etc.. Personality and backstory are usually saved for last because those make up a huge chunk of my form (a.k.a the most important part to me) and sometimes describing their appearance or heck even likes/dislikes take forever to do! It all depends. 

In terms of giving them abilities, same deal as my 'trump cards' talk in my first point. I don't like repeating abilities for my OCs if I can help it, which can sometimes end up being inconvenient. Sometimes I've already pre-determined an ability and that makes things easier, but sometimes I take a power I really like from something I read/watched and then modify/change it so that it's not exactly the same and it actually fits my OC. That's part of the reason why my abilities end up being super varied and hella complicated because if you haven't noticed I'm terrible at getting to the point, I tend to ramble a lot Tv T'. But I also delight greatly in taking a totally normal typical ability like pyrokinesis or hydrokinesis then putting it through my processer and making it something totally different from what people typically expect! I love that surprise and divergance factor ;) However I don't like to stick to typical powers in general; I like to diverge from the 'typical' path in terms of abilities whenever I can. It's more fun that way! (It also adds on a ton more work for me, but oh whatever. I like creating abilities!!!)

And that concludes today's Feelings(Writer)Talk! Thanks for tuning in (maybe you learned something???) and see you next time!

-awakened-angel-chan