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No. 89104
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Ooooookaaaaay, where to begin?
Firstly, I could have sworn there was a guide of some sort around here, but I think I had some issues with that as well. I think, OP, your guide puts too much emphasis on physical appearance--important, yes, but since fic writing isn't an image-oriented medium, you need to focus more on the character's personality and whatnot than their physical appearance (but if you describe your pony as having bat wings and being red and black, I will murder you). I think that first part really is something more appropriate for /art/ and, somewhat, for /rp/ (but /rp/ already has a character guide...somewhere).
To that end, personality is the biggest part of an OC. A good OC has an interesting personality--whether they're a good guy or a villain, a badass or a loser, a school kid or an office worker, there's got to be something about them that draws the reader in, lets them connect to the character, let's them give a rats ass about them, even if they hate the character. Now, there are multiple ways to go about having an interesting personality, but you have to remember that, like a real person, an OC must be balanced. They have to have beliefs, quirks, pet peeves, fears, goals, philosophies, shortcomings, strengths, and so forth. No one wants to read about a perfect character, or even one who has it all together (by which I mean that they're self actualized or something, not that they're a functional member of society without a bunch of deep-seated neuroses) because perfect characters aren't interesting at all; the reader can't connect and, to be honest, without some sort of trouble or potential for trouble, it's boring.
When making your OC, consider all of the things that go into a person and shape who they are. Where do they live? What kinds of friends do they have? What were their parents like, if they knew them? Did something really bad happen to them? Have they had it easy? What species are they (remember, not all OCs are ponies)? Background and backstory like this have a huge effect on the OC. A tragic or really ridiculous backstory is not inherently bad but must be handled with tact--it must add to the character in a logically consistent way, rather than just be there to make them "special". Your character's backstory may not even have to be all that exciting, or have any really outlandish events--small things in life that seem petty to others can seem dear to the individual. Think about those personal memories you have of small things that mean much to you but maybe not to anyone else. Your character should have those. In fact, you may think up tons of backstory for your character that never gets into the fic, and that's okay; you'll have a solid base of reference to judge your character's actions. The only thing I would warn against is making your character have an established relationship with any of the main characters, as that just screams Mary Sue--by this I mean saying your character is the brother of Twilight Sparkle, or son of Celestia.
Going back to appearance, again, don't make things too gaudy, and if you can, have your character's appearance tell something about their personality. I don't give a crap if your character has the prettiest lavender mane this side of Equestria, but I most certainly care if she's missing a leg. It's a fine line between purple prose and meaningful description, and what decides that line is relevance: does your description give more insight into the character or otherwise important to the fic at hand, or is it just there to make them seem special?
Most people are going to be making pony OCs so I should point out that one of the big things about pony OCs is cutie marks. Most ponies have one unless they're foals or just really suck at life and it tells a lot about them. Choose a cutie mark that really tells a lot about the character--even if your character doesn't know what it means, you should. This is really more of a personality thing than anything.
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