@Markus wolfe:

I'm glad I could contribute to the discussion! Feel free to use that ideas. Another article on character development would surely be welcomed - at least by me.

One more thing: Though a character may be incredibly powerful in terms of combat, that doesn't automatically qualifies him/her as a Sue. It depends on the focus of the story. If it's an action story, having a protagonist who can beat up whoever shows up is just lame... But making him face a romantic relationship, family's issues or anything else that can't be solved through combat can actually be very interesting.

An example? Souzuke Sagara from Full Metal Panic! He's the perfect soldier. He is proficient with any kind of weapon, explosives, heck, even mechas! But his social skills are just a disgrace, and that's what makes the series so good, at least for me: in the episodes focused on his life disguised as a student, his "war-driven" way to think only creates hilarious situations. Now, when the series turns onto the "serious" part of the story, it's actually weak, because Souzuke is just too perfect for a those situations.

That's a very good reading! I'll surely pay attention to those tips from now on, when creating and developing my characters.
Though I would just like to add that I think that almost every writer begins with Mary-Sues (unless you're Shakespeare reincarnated, and I guess even he had his share of Sues when he started). I think that's because, when we're young, we have only ourselves as reference, so every character ends up as a projection of the writer, his/her flaws and fantasies. An experienced writer evolves from that point, and develops more solid, interesting characters. I hope to be on that path, and I'm sure your article will help me with that.

This is awesome! I sent this to my friend, and she thinks so too. Both of us have these OC's who have some Mary Sue traits, so we can use your guide to fix them. I don't usually comment on these, but I had to tell you how awesome I thought this was.

cool article. I didn't read the entire thing,but what I read was good. I'll admit...but I do think most people on the O don't know how to make a good character. Most of the OC's or fan characters (you sort of lumped those two together in this article) on this site are only means to create a melodramatic and poorly thought out romance with naruto, sasuke, inuyasha, and any other popular anime bishounen you could think of. In that respect, I'm sort of against fan characters all together.
OC's however, I can relate to.
I think that when it comes down to it. A true OC has to have a connection with the artist. The artist/author has to know that character like he/she would know a friend. Sounds geeky, but a really good OC is a character that the author has to take time to develop and get to know. It can't be a character that's thought up overnight or over the course of a couple days.
*Ahem, getting off my soap box* I also like your points about powers and stuff like that. On the first page I read your description of Inuyasha and it sounded like Spiderman, excluding the claws and fangs lol. On the powers thing, I think that the more common powers are okay if they're used in the right way. For example, elemental powers and teleportation. Telekinesis is fun too, but it's hard to pull it off in a comic. As for things like strength and invulnerability, they just make the character and the comic more boring.
well I should stop this is turning out to be really long.

@:

yes, all those weird markings are showing up on mine as well, it's actually pretty distracting. v_v

haseo

this was an interesting article i have to say.

i myself agree with most parts of the article, but i think the "name" game should've been placed in a bit more degree. it is a bit unoriginal for everyone and their mother's name to be sakura (in a non-naruto related fanfiction), and full metal alchemist typically does not use japanese related names. i state that only because i have read some fanfictions (or fan mangas) that have japanese names for EVERYTHING! i was reading a harry potter fanfic and the person's name was japanese, and their character wasn't...very very odd.

and just a few points i wish to make in general to anyone else that wishes is trying to make an oc.

please consider your back story for your character!! please! using naruto fanfics as a basis (unfortunately, naruto fanfics are where i read all the bad ones...v_v) if your character likes sasuke, please don't make her/him an emo kid who's clan got destroyed and she has no family and she bent on revenge upon someone. i mean, reading that, she/he sounds exactly like sasuke! sasuke might as well date himself! (and as silly as it sounds, there are countless fanfics like that) also, the "new kid" in town, is getting kinda old. while in some cases it can't be helped, if you do resort to it, then make it a little more interesting then just them showing up randomly.

but i guess the biggest point i want to make is, despite what people tell you about your fanfic, write the fanfic for yourself. don't write it to please other people, the advise that Markus wolfe and others give you is not set in stone rules that u MUST follow, but help so you can make it better. but always have fun. don't forget that. not everyone is going to like your character. and your always going to have oc haters, don't let that discourage you.

so yah...great article, i really like how you showed us the creation of your character as a great reference. any newb to writing fanfics should read this. ^^

haseo