Making Better OCs

Did you notice this OC doesn’t have a name yet? There is no proper place or time to decide on an OC’s name. You could decide the name at the beginning, the middle or the end. (or you could have a nameless OC, but that’s venturing into Mary Sue territory) In some animes, picking a name for a character based on the character might be a bad thing, but in Bleach and Inuyasha, it’s a good idea. In fact, in Naruto (where every cannon character has ties to Japanese mythology) it’s a bad idea not only to not pick a name for a character based on the character, but also not to give the character and its name some reference to Japanese mythology.

An example of this is Okuri Okami. That is a name given to ghostly wolves said to follow people around at night. For those of you who do Judo, you may know that ‘Okuri’ means ‘following’ or ‘follower’. I interpret ‘Okuri’ in the terms of ‘hunter’.

Well, now you’re done creating your OC, but you’re not ready to write Fanfiction/make fan mangas yet. There are many Mary Sues out there, and you don’t want your character to be one. As long as you’re on the internet, try to find at least 3 Mary Sue Litmus Tests (with a 2:1 ratio for general sue tests: specific anime tests) and take all of them.