I remember way back in the day when I used to call all of my characters OCs. But going by the logic you present, it is definitely a misnomer to call them as such when you put them in a completely new world.
However, you have to take into account that the community at large is going to go by the terminology that is widely accepted, no matter how inappropriate it is to use it. It's been so ingrained into the online writing community that you'd be hard-pressed to snap people out of it at this point. =/
"I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon--perfect." -Harry Dresden
But I get tired of hearing about people's OC's as well. If not for the fact that about 85% of them pick traits from already established characters in whatever genre they're righting for.
"OH YEAH MEET MY OC! HE'S KINDA LIKE EDWARD ELRIC ONLY HE HAS TWO AUTO-MAIL ARMS INSTEAD OF ONE. HE CAN ALSO FLY LIKE GOKU AND HAS A GUN LIKE TRAIN HEARTNET. DID I MENTION HE TALKS JUST LIKE OROCHIMARU, ONLY DEEPER?!"
I understand that people draw from other people's works or ideas when they're writing stories or fan-fictions, but the amount of thought that some people take when dreaming up an OC varies. But I also take into account a few things, such as the age and maturity level of the writer in question. A 13 year old who is hooked on Bleach may or may not understand what it is to construct an entirely original character in an already established universe without sounding corny.
While I do have to agree with you that the acronym is thrown around rather loosely, to say the least, amongst groups of people that are less-than-reputable writers, I do have to defend "OCs" as a piece of fan fiction jargon.
Right, and like I said, I understand where it comes from and how it came to be widely used. No real issue with that.
It's personal preference of mine to say "Saya is an original character in this storyline" as opposed to saying "Saya is an OC". There's no difference in literal meaning, but I always end up looking at words and phrases and acronyms along side their counterparts in a denotation/connotation manner.
In denotation, as I just said, the two mean exactly the same. However, connotation uses the surrounding environment of the sentence as well as characteristics of the word/phrase itself, so where as "Saya is an original character" says merely "this character does not belong to the published media", the variation "Saya is an OC" automatically relegates her to a category of things because abbreviating to OC shifts the function of "original" from an adjective to a noun.
So instead of being an aspect of the character, it is now a totally separate entity, and the focus of the reader has been shifted from the story in total to Saya, which removes her from being tied to that story at all.
Or more clearly (I do that a lot, don't I?), it's "I added a character to this universe and her name is Saya" versus "Saya is mine and I am putting her in this universe". The focus is different: story for the former and character for the latter.
While I do have to agree with you that the acronym is thrown around rather loosely, to say the least, amongst groups of people that are less-than-reputable writers, I do have to defend "OCs" as a piece of fan fiction jargon. To me, "OCs" and "original characters" work interchangeably and the concept doesn't bother me at all. It's the aforementioned people who ruin it, applying the term to any character they think they made up, even if it is just a thinly-veiled avatar of their dream selves or dream significant other, no matter what the situation. I would have to blame this all on the people how overuse the term incorrectly because they're too thick to distinguish between writing a fan fiction and writing a legitimate story with even a semi-original plot and--gasp--no building off of other folks' things.
...and I say this between writing paragraphs for an original character-heavy fan fiction. >>' Well, at least I know this thing I'm writing isn't the pinnacle of literary achievement... I guess. It's a start, at least.
...and yes, an apostrophe where there is neither a contraction nor a missing letter can get really annoying. Some of the stuff out there's a total nightmare. -3-
Allamorph
Spiritus Memorae (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
@Kei:
Oh trust me, I'm hardly going to try. You can't fix stupid. =P
Kei
Hell-bound Heroine (Ceiling Cat) | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
I remember way back in the day when I used to call all of my characters OCs. But going by the logic you present, it is definitely a misnomer to call them as such when you put them in a completely new world.
However, you have to take into account that the community at large is going to go by the terminology that is widely accepted, no matter how inappropriate it is to use it. It's been so ingrained into the online writing community that you'd be hard-pressed to snap people out of it at this point. =/
"I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon--perfect." -Harry Dresden
Korey
Gambino (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
@Kimmeh:
Right, they're all named the same thing.
Shirtless man (insert number here)
Korey
Gambino (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
Quite an essay for such a minor annoyance.
But I get tired of hearing about people's OC's as well. If not for the fact that about 85% of them pick traits from already established characters in whatever genre they're righting for.
"OH YEAH MEET MY OC! HE'S KINDA LIKE EDWARD ELRIC ONLY HE HAS TWO AUTO-MAIL ARMS INSTEAD OF ONE. HE CAN ALSO FLY LIKE GOKU AND HAS A GUN LIKE TRAIN HEARTNET. DID I MENTION HE TALKS JUST LIKE OROCHIMARU, ONLY DEEPER?!"
I understand that people draw from other people's works or ideas when they're writing stories or fan-fictions, but the amount of thought that some people take when dreaming up an OC varies. But I also take into account a few things, such as the age and maturity level of the writer in question. A 13 year old who is hooked on Bleach may or may not understand what it is to construct an entirely original character in an already established universe without sounding corny.
Kimmeh
The Beautiful German | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
I don't really have any 'OCs'... >>;;
XD
"This is Schweinsteiger fashion. ZIS IZ FASHUNN."
Allamorph
Spiritus Memorae (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
@Nehszriah:
While I do have to agree with you that the acronym is thrown around rather loosely, to say the least, amongst groups of people that are less-than-reputable writers, I do have to defend "OCs" as a piece of fan fiction jargon.
Right, and like I said, I understand where it comes from and how it came to be widely used. No real issue with that.
It's personal preference of mine to say "Saya is an original character in this storyline" as opposed to saying "Saya is an OC". There's no difference in literal meaning, but I always end up looking at words and phrases and acronyms along side their counterparts in a denotation/connotation manner.
In denotation, as I just said, the two mean exactly the same. However, connotation uses the surrounding environment of the sentence as well as characteristics of the word/phrase itself, so where as "Saya is an original character" says merely "this character does not belong to the published media", the variation "Saya is an OC" automatically relegates her to a category of things because abbreviating to OC shifts the function of "original" from an adjective to a noun.
So instead of being an aspect of the character, it is now a totally separate entity, and the focus of the reader has been shifted from the story in total to Saya, which removes her from being tied to that story at all.
Or more clearly (I do that a lot, don't I?), it's "I added a character to this universe and her name is Saya" versus "Saya is mine and I am putting her in this universe". The focus is different: story for the former and character for the latter.
Nehszriah
Hits Self With Axe (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 11/24/09 | Reply
While I do have to agree with you that the acronym is thrown around rather loosely, to say the least, amongst groups of people that are less-than-reputable writers, I do have to defend "OCs" as a piece of fan fiction jargon. To me, "OCs" and "original characters" work interchangeably and the concept doesn't bother me at all. It's the aforementioned people who ruin it, applying the term to any character they think they made up, even if it is just a thinly-veiled avatar of their dream selves or dream significant other, no matter what the situation. I would have to blame this all on the people how overuse the term incorrectly because they're too thick to distinguish between writing a fan fiction and writing a legitimate story with even a semi-original plot and--gasp--no building off of other folks' things.
...and I say this between writing paragraphs for an original character-heavy fan fiction. >>' Well, at least I know this thing I'm writing isn't the pinnacle of literary achievement... I guess. It's a start, at least.
...and yes, an apostrophe where there is neither a contraction nor a missing letter can get really annoying. Some of the stuff out there's a total nightmare. -3-
Be true, be you and of course, be otaku.