I'm SO not the first person to rant about this, and lord knows I won't be the last,... but let me just start with the quote I read that got me thinking about 'writters' and their 'original characters'...

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
-Henry David Thoreau

A writter has to live before they can observe and examine... you have to love before you can disect it, you have to hate before you can understand it, when a character is created they have to be real, they have to be human, and they have to have a soul... They can't be who you want them to be at the time you're writting the story... they have to be themselves, unabashed and uncompromising... just like those of us on this plain of existance...

I have seen characters that people manipulate according to what the writter wants at the moment, happy for the sake of happiness, angry for the sake of anger, sad for the sake of sadness. Is that how YOU as a human being function? Can you switch emotions off and on like a light switch? That's a characteristic of a sociopath, and unless you intend your character to be like that (which most don't) you have to consider not what you want your character to be, but how you've already established them to be...

If your character is Egyptian with a proud Egyptian heritage, then for God's sake... LEARN ABOUT EGYPTIAN CULTURE! You can't change millions of years of history to your whim to make a story 'better'... If you're going to include a backstory then PLEASE, I'm begging you to think it out and be accurate; don't just do it because you think it's cool... And please remember that the world doesn't revolve around your character,... you might think they're the shit, but they are not the only person in your world... minor characters teach life lessons along side the main character; malevolent or not; a strong collection of secondary characters acctually help your main character develop and shift mood changes...

I've encountered thousands of o.c.s and I've only truly liked about 1% (that's right I lie about liking your characters, but as to which ones is my secret)... I'm not saying that my characters are better than yours or that I'm a better writter, but what I am saying is that my characters are consistant and I know them better than I know people I interact with everyday... The tragic heroes, the misguided antagonists, the indiffrent minors... a great story doesn't just happen...it requires experiance and a message, and if you don't have a reason behind your actions or beliefs, then nobody cares what you have to say, and nobody cares about your character...

People think that they can just pick up a piece of paper and write,... that it's just that easy... Stories just form in your brain and translate onto the paper... but the truth is a story needs soul, it needs sorrow and anguish and rage and joy... the writter needs to put themselves into every word, every punctuation, every page... if you aren't high where your character is high, or low where they're low, then neither am I...

It's called character development and if you don't think about it everytime you write, then your characters will be unpredictable and unrealistic... which makes for a shitty story...

I saw it best on one of my favorites,... I'll find it so y'all can see... but it's a stamp that says "I'm not anti-O.C., I'm anti-crap....

and if you get mad at me, take a long look at your O.C.s before you even think of calling me a bitch... and if you can tell me their back stories and their purpose and their take on life without hesitation, then I will apologize to you personally,... but how many of you actually can? As crappy as my o.c.s are, I still know everything about them BEFORE I start writting... and they stay who they are just as I stay who I am,... I've changed, I'm still changing, I change everyday, and I'll keep changing... but who I am is who I've always been, is who I'll always be,... people change, sometimes it takes a swift kick in the ass and other times it takes a holocaust... but the foundation of who you are remains...

and if you don't understand what I'm talking about then maybe you should put the pen down and go outside and live until you do understand... life can only come from life... don't live through your o.c.s, let your o.c.s live through you...

Let them be but small facets that pay tribute to the overall gem that is inside you... a mere stepping stone to the tabernackle of enlightenment... I've lived a fuller life than any of my o.c.s, how many of you can say the same thing?

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