Does anyone read fics that are centred around OCs at the expense of canon characters? Like a story about an OCxOC pairing where the canon characters are only on the side or background to the core pairing?
I'm trying to figure out if it's worth posting a story I have an idea for (that won't get out of my head & demands that I write it next).
Having OCs does not come at the "expense" of canon characters. I read OC stories where there is none of the original cast. I read OC/OC. Do I go out of my way to read them? Depends on the fandom!
You can make a guess on how well your fic will do in a fandom by seeing what works get to be celebrated. Some fandoms all people want are OCs. Some fandoms become toxic hell houses just suggesting having an OC show up for a chapter. But you really, really cannot know how a fandom will react until you post.
My most popular work right now is a 99% OC cast. However the reason I thought the work would be ignored/hated by the fandom wasn't because of the largely OC focus (it is a very OC friendly fandom). It was because the work is a deconstruction of the fandom's favourite genres/themes. Escapism, power fantasy, that sort of thing. (So bad to the point that me having blatant warnings of a main character dying and the exact page it was happening so people could avoid it I still got a lot of shocked/angry comments)
For a couple of years, my prediction was mostly correct. Then on the third year my work exploded in readers! Every once and a while I get compliments about my work and in general it makes me sad. "your work is so original!" It's only original because the atmosphere of the community has made it unfriendly for this kind of work...
I had a chat with another author in the broader Star Trek fandom after reading their OC/OC fic & based on how that got received, I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll still write it though (& probably post it regardless). And it will have some canon characters as secondary characters (& it'll be set on the Enterprise) so it won't be completely unknown to fans.
Love that your 99% OC story got so big! 😁 There's hope for OC-centric stories yet. Pity about the unfriendly community atmosphere though - like, you don't like the premise, don't read it. No need to give grief to the authors about it. 🤷♀️
Glad you have those in your fandom you can refer to. It gives me better comfort when dealing with unreasonable readers. Sadly "don't like, don't read" has been a lost art for awhile. I hope one day it will become trendy again.
Sometimes fandoms that used to be unfriendly to OCs will turn around because a couple of fanfic managed to become super popular. The English fandom of Naruto has a few well documented cases of this.
Post the story. Not everything is for everyone, but most everything is for someone and the rarer the interest the more valuable it is to those looking for it.
Goodness, this post took a while to show up for me!
Personally, I prefer OCs around to support the canon characters I'm interested in. Unless I'm reading Pokémon stories, because I like all OC casts in those. Nothing against OC/OC pairings, but it wouldn't draw me to the story. If there was a really interesting premise for the setting of the fandom though? That might drag me in to read about an OC. The romance would have to be secondary.
I don't know about other people. There are loads of people out there who love reading and writing OC-centric stories, but I don't know how much that changes if the OC isn't paired with a canon character.
😂 I was starting to think the lack of responses was the answer in itself to my question (i.e. no-one likes OC-centric or OC/OC pairings).
I totally get the love for OC-centric stories so long as there's a core character in the mix, as I tend to be there myself, but I do think I'd have to stretch myself to take a chance on OC/OC with no canon characters in the main pairing or group. That said, the fandom I want to write it in (Star Trek TNG-adjacent) has no characters that work for my idea & really has none I'm interested in writing as core characters. So I guess I might just be writing this one for myself if other people aren't willing to take a chance (& I can't blame them because I know exactly where they're coming from). 🤷♀️
Still trying to get more people to interact here, to be fair, but the occasional glitch which doesn't give out notifications for posts sure doesn't help. XD
I say go for it! There have been stories I've written where I do have two minor characters (OCs) I've come to love writing. I would definitely write OC/OC for those in a heartbeat. Even if it was just for myself. You have nothing to lose by posting it anyway! You never know who might find the premise interesting enough to give a chance and who might fall in love with your completely OC filled story.
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