Postby Transwarp » Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:40 am
Like others here have said, my OCs are originally created to serve a specific plot-driven purpose. And like others here, once they have fulfilled their original purpose they could very well be conscripted to fulfill additional purposes based on the needs of the story (why reinvent the wheel?). And like others have said, they sometimes take on a life of their own and head off in directions I never imagined.
Sometimes all I need is a character to act as a cardboard cut-out, more a piece of scenery than a character, really. They may have one or two lines of dialogue, but that's about it. An example of this is Crewman Delgado, the other six-pack pusher who worked alongside Moose. His job was to add some window dressing to the scene, and to watch in horror as Moose drifts away. I am happy to report he performed his duties admirably, behaved himself, and didn't once try to upstage any of the main characters.
I usually don't start with someone I know. Most of the time I don't even have a firm idea of what they look like. I do know a little something about their background and motivation, usually no more than I need to accomplish the immediate purpose.
One of the main reasons I have for creating an OC is to provide information to the reader. For me, revealing important information through dialogue is preferable to just telling it or having the character thinking it. Of course, you have to be careful to avoid the "As you well know" trap, where one character will lecture another about something both characters should already be fully cognizant of. (For example: "As you well know, T'Pol, the maximum range of our sensors inside this nebula is only thirty thousand kilometers...)
Lieutenant Ashcroft was created for this purpose. Enterprise was going to be the flagship of Second Fleet, and I wanted to let the reader know that the Admiral and his staff would be taking over Enterprise's science labs. I could have just said it in a paragraph of exposition. Instead, I had Ashcroft mention dialogue about his feelings at having to remove the scientific equipment from the labs. He served the additional purposes of fleshing out the scene and helping set the atmosphere I was striving for.
Later, I needed a character to die to put some emotional stress on T'Pol, and there was Ashcroft, ripe for the taking. The poor guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Interesting aside: Linda reviewed this story and accurately predicted Ashcroft's demise several chapters before the fact. I was quite impressed--I didn't even know he was dying until I started writing that scene!)
<Caution--dirty little secret revealed> I talk about the importance of keeping the plot moving, but sometimes I throw in a scene or a section just because I think its cool or interesting. For example, I had Trip and T'Pol discussing Vulcan music in a recent chapter. It had absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Other examples are Trip's talk with Kov about the nature of a Human-Vulcan mating bond, and the flashback to the USO show. I created Moose for the purpose of instigating a discussion with T'Pol about her childhood nick-name. The nick-name came first (I thought 'Moose' was distinct and interesting), then I fleshed out the character based on her nick-name. As the story progressed, Moose kind of took charge and expanded her role. I didn't plan it.
I've always had a problem with character names. I can't think of good names off the top of my head. Back in Dallas, I went to the US Census Bureau and downloaded three files for last names, male first names and female first names (ranked by popularity), then I wrote a pearl script to automatically generate a hundred male names and a hundred female names (by randomly picking from the first name and last name files. Needless to say, this results in many odd names, but I can usually find one or two that I like. I didn't bring that script with me when I came to Afghanistan, so now what I do is walk around the PX or dining facility and read names off the soldier's name tags. Sometimes I even use their faces as a mental picture for how the characters look. (This only gives me last names--I still have to make up the corresponding first names.)
So there you have it. All the secrets of my craft laid bare. Feel free to use them or ignore as desired. As someone said earlier, writing is a craft, and there are as many ways to approach it as there are writers.
Now go forth and write!
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
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OH and there was a selfconcious ship!!! That was another impressive original character. 
, caught the similarity between my descriptions and Distracted's in Secret Service (great story BTW!). Although the similarities are only of function and somewhat in clothing, it was enough to feel uncomfortable.
). Then, somehow, there was that Human female so "interested" in Trip, in "Shore Leave", and I think also the Bannerdas and "The King" in "In the Hall of the Mountain King" could be intended in this way, and, still in the same story, Major Dougal is fated to to have a very peculiar destiny (I hope I am reawakening your attention 
).
