WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 31 -- Tuesday

[linaewen]

Hello on Tuesday! What kind of a writing day has it been today? Or, if you haven't gotten down to writing yet, how did it go yesterday?

• I thought about my fic once or twice
• I wrote
• I did some planning and/or research
• I edited
• I've sent my fic off to my beta
• I posted today!
• I'm taking a break
• I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Discussion:  Let's continue talking about our original characters. Once you figure out their names, what else is involved in coming come up with a good OC? Do you create a back story for them before they appear on paper? Does their history get researched after they appear and you realize they are going to be important? Or do they develop as they please and you hope they will tell you how it's going to go from one chapter to the next? Do they ever become more important to you than the main characters?

Comments

[linaewen]

The only writing I got done yesterday was typing up some notes I wrote. Progress, but not enough!

I have a couple of OCs that have become pretty important to me, and I love it when they get to be in the story. A few of them have had short stories written where they are the main character, but in the main stories they take part in, they are still on the sidelines. They haven't quite gotten to the point yet where they are taking over, but I suppose it could happen! One OC has a back story because it is important to the plot of the story he is in; the other OCs don't have anything written down or researched until the story demands it. I have a good feel for their characters and how they think but not much else in detail.

[the_rck]

I did a fair amount of writing yesterday, but I'm not sure if I'll keep any of it. The scene I'm working on may not serve the function I meant it to and may need to be eliminated entirely. I'm just not sure it makes sense or if it's just there to add angst for my point of view character.

[insignia]

I am thinking... but not much else.

[samuraiter]

Back story is important for OCs, so I cook that up first. It's vital that they have tangible, believable connections to the canon characters, or the readership won't buy into it. (Then again, even if you do the homework, there's a good chance they still won't buy into it, in my experience.)