How to make a good OC

Part 1: Species

Welcome! So you wanna make a character to call your own? Or did you find this and thought this could be interesting, despite not wanting to make a character? No matter why you're here, I hope you enjoy!

Be aware that there is no specific order on where you begin. An idea for a plot point could spark before you dive into specific characters, and you play with that first, for example. It has happened to me. You can also already have decided on a specific setting, like taking place in an Asian forest, or a huge city, etc. So feel free to skip to another part.

But to start with here, let's decide your new OC's species. First, ask yourself: what kind of species do you want? There are a couple types:

- Human, either ordinary or with fantastical qualities such as magic

- A real animal species, like the ordinary but fun dog, or the exotic axolotl

- A fantasy creature, such as a dragon, or a hybrid of species that could not mix in reality

All of these options can be chosen for a character based on books, movies or series. At the end of this part, I will go over a few basic rules for making an OC within a fandom.

If you want a real animal:

If you've chosen to make your new OC a regular animal, then the next step is to know which exact animal you want. There are many options! The most obvious, canines and felines, then there are more uncommon ones like ungulates, bears, and sea creatures.

While choosing your species, you could wonder what type of story you want, so you know if the species would fit in. Will they be anthro or feral (as in still on all fours)? Will it be all realistic or with a twist of fantasy? If you've already imagined which enviroment you want your character to live in, you may wanna look up which animals are capable of staying there. For example, there aren't any fuzzy rabbits that I know of that live in the deep rainforest. But if you plan on having them as anthropomorphic animals, this does not matter as much. Just make sure there is a reason you've put that specific animal in that place that isn't it's natural enviroment. Maybe they're traveling?

You can have furry animals of different species go to school in a huge city as if they were humans for no reason except that it's a fun idea. Disney's Zootopia handled it well, by making the big city have unique things for all the different kinds of animals, so no one has to wonder, "but how does that species do in this city? Are they just left out?" The manga / anime Beastars also used this idea and did great. But hey, if you add in a twist of fantasy, you could make the enviroment be entirely different from the one in the real world, and you don't have to worry about if the species can live there or not. Have trees with purple leaves if you wanna! Have blue grass! Pink clouds! The only limit is your imagination!

A little more advice on choosing a species: consider what their personality might be, and in what kind of universe they'll be in. If the character is shy and anxious, it could be a prey animal. If they're aggressive, they could be a predator, or if they're snappy, make them a crocodile. Or to represent something, like freedom, or wisdom, maybe choose an eagle, or an owl! Of course, it is also possible to twist this trope. Imagine a prey animal that is bold! Could be used to represent people fighting for something important to them despite having a disadvantage.

If you want a fantasy creature:

So if you want a made-up species, what do you do then? There are three options here; make your own, choose a mythical creature like dragons or the pegasus, or look up original species that are made by other people on the internet! There can be both closed and open species. Closed ones mean that you cannot make one whenever you want. You need permission from the owner / associates themself. Open ones however, you can make whenever you want, but they often come with rules.