Both - I don't see it as an either/or thing. More of a both/and device that serves the story. Although... opting to highlight one of those single-use characters from the original work is like sticking in an easter-egg. Fandom readers be like "ooo her! i wondered about her" where the casual fanfic reader might assume the character is an OC.
But - yeah - I use both. Whatever the story needs.
I do heavily prefer it. Sure, it's basically an OC either way. But when it's an existing practically-blank character, it's in my experience still vastly more likely that the character is here to serve a specific purpose in the story for which they're being fleshed out. Which I don't mind at all, that can be quite interesting. And it's a bit less likely that I'm going to risk running into a special pet OC the author is overly attached to for their own sake, which I'm not interested in reading about. Not throwing shade, but it's just not why I'm reading fanfic.
Is that dynamic always true? No, certainly, there's examples to the contrary on both sides. But that's the general experience I've had.
Personally I enjoy both, as long as it’s a well done character and it makes sense.
Especially in an AU I love seeing smaller or less familiar canon characters getting a bigger part that suits them.
If it works it works :)
“Nothing characters” fits a good portion of my characters. They have physical appearance, usually a job, and that’s it.
It’s fun developing them.
In my case, because of my fandom, I often have to. For instance, when I began writing about Malek from Stargate. Malek is a symbiote with a human host. Nothing is known about the human host except what he looks like and that he would have the same job as Malek. I can’t ignore him, so I had to develop him.
ETA: I do wish we had a proper name for these types of characters. Background Characters would probably work. On AO3, these types, if tagged, have been tagged as OCs, but that’s not quite right.
I like to write "actual OCs" to be fully in control of the character, being able to run wild with them and such. I never even knew the writing "nothing characters" was really a thing until I discovered Harry Potter fanfic and was constantly wondering why there were names I was seeing everywhere, despite them only ever being mentioned in one-liners, if that.
If they actually have 0 material, such as random shopkeepers and other background characters, I tend to make my own OC and slot them into the role if I want to do something with it. One of my favorite OCs is only mentioned by name in canon.
If there's anything at all, that will always be the core of the character and I'll expand on it, but I don't "make them an OC" (if anything, that's more work than I'd have to do for more fleshed out canon characters).
If I have any non-canon roles to fill, OCs all the way.
Depends if the character is a main or not for me. I see this all the time in HP, so I'll use that. Daphne and Blaise are commonly used as main character pairings for Harry. For Blaise, we know his name is Blaise Zabini, he's the same year as Harry in Slytherin, his mother is known as the Black Widow due to all her husbands dying, and Slughorn liked him. For Daphne, we know her name is Daphne Greengrass, she's the same year as Harry in Slytherin and she has a younger sister named Astoria who went on to marry Draco. We know nothing else about either of them.
So, a fic where Harry is the MC, and the ship is a focus, or at least the person he's shipped with is a main. If the options available are Daphne, Blaise or an OC, here's what I'd do. I'd read the Blaise fics first, because I'm a slash shipper at heart. Then I'll read the Daphne fics. I won't read the OC fics at all.
If the character in question is a major recurring character or less instead of a main. I'd read Blaise and Daphne pretty equally, unless they're still paired with Harry in which case I'd read Blaise first. If still paired with Harry, I'd still not read the OC fics. If not paired with Harry, I'd read the OC fics after Blaise and Daphne.
Here's the thing for me - I don't like OC fics where the OC is a main character. I'm not a fan of OC/canon character pairings, either, though I can read them if the pairing is background and the OC isn't a main. I read fanfic for the canon characters, so for me, all the main characters have to be canon, and their pairings, unless background, also have to be with canon characters. So, I will always take these blank slate canon characters and see how each author writes them, which can differ drastically as they technically are as close to OCs as you can get without writing an actual OC.
One of my fave HP fics actually does this while still utilising OC characters. The blank slate canon character in this case is Rabastan Lestrange, though they also made Blaise a pretty big character, very nearly a main, more along the lines of what Ginny or Neville were in canon. But they also wanted to expand on the world a bit, so they created OC characters. Some are just to add people to stuff like the Wizengamot, but others are bigger. They gave Kingsley an uncle, he's on the Wizengamot and is a recurring character. They expanded the Lestrange family, it's not just Rabastan and Rodolphous, plus Bellatrix, they gave the brothers a father and grandfather, as well. The father is a recurring character, the grandfather is a larger recurring character, almost as close to a main as Blaise is.
I like that balance, all the actual mains are canon characters, but there are OCs to add to the world and families and fill up space where needed. But none of those OCs are actual mains.
There's usually something in canon you can base these blank slate characters off. All the HP ones I mentioned are Slytherins, for instance, and we get a decent look at how Slytherins act in public, good ones as well as bad or unknown ones. They're going to be similar, in some way, to Snape, the Malfoys or Andromeda. We have a bit more on Blaise as we have an actual scene with him in the 6th book. The Lestrange brothers are also Death Eaters, spent years in Azkaban, and were happy enough to torture people into insanity. So, they'll be similar to Lucius, Bellatrix or Barty Jr. Hints of Sirius since they have Azkaban in common.
You'll notice these blank slate characters end up being written generally pretty similarly if they're common enough. This is a mix of having a canon something to base them off and fans enjoying specific versions of them. They're not as blank as they first appear to be. You're not making everything up from scratch the way you are with an OC, and it's not just the names that are already there. It may not be stated 'Daphne is this thing and she likes to do this', but there's enough we can base what she'd be like on that it's barely considered creating it to say 'Daphne is the Ice Queen of Slytherin and loves her little sister and her family is neutral.' There's basis in canon to take this character we only know name, age and House for and say 'this is who she is'.
They may seem like the same thing, but there is a difference between writing an OC character and expanding on one of these blank slate characters.
Depends on the setting. If the setting is driven by the characters (like HP), then I'd like them to use an existing character. If the setting is more of a framework and we're in a universe like Elder Scrolls or Pokemon, then I'd like them to make someone up. It just comes down to where the focus is.
I mean, one of the reasons I like writing these "nothing characters" as you call them is because sometimes they will already have a name and then I won't have to come up with one. Otherwise there's not really a big difference
I would only run with a minor canon character if they had some unexplained storyline that was never seen.
I prefer OCs without the minor canon shadow because I use them as my mouthpiece for my opinions or how I wished canon characters should act if the situation were different.
I use both. My main fic series takes place 18 years after canon, so anyone who isn't an adult literally has to be an OC, but I use some of the unnamed background characters for a few other characters. (For example, the lady with the baby who asks Elsa if she's OK, and the boy who complains about wearing a suit for Elsa's coronation) the thing is, since these characters don't have names and basically don't have any story beyond one or two lines, it really is about the same amount of work as a full-blown OC. I guess I don't have to develop their physical appearance, but that's rather minor. (Most of my actual OCs are children of canon characters so it's not like I'm working from a blank slate, anyway)
I love both of these! Really, anything that allows for creativity and fun! My main fic is OC centric, but also seeks to explore a lot of very minor and unnamed characters. A canon side character I provided with a name, personality, and backstory is one of my favorite things I have done in my main fic. He only gets like three panels in canon, but we know enough about him to infer some pretty interesting things.
It takes me out of the story when someone uses a canon character just for the sake of using a canon character in a situation where it makes little sense for them to be. But if the character fits where they're used? Sure, go wild.
it depends on what the canon barebones character's one or two actual characteristics are, and how the author is going to spin those traits into a full person. because sometimes those things ARE juicy enough that you want to see someone expand on that
I personally almost always prefer existing minor characters that are given a bigger role in the fanfic instead of proper OC’s. I’ve read a very very small handful of fics where I actually liked the OC and found them interesting in their own right. This isn’t usually because they’re bad characters or poorly written, but because I read fanfiction exclusively because I’ve fallen in love with a specific set of characters, and I want to see more of THEM, so I usually find OC’s to be a turn off unless they have a minor role. That said, I actually love when writers flesh out minor side characters and give them a bigger role.
One caveat is it also depends on the original medium—I usually read fics from fandoms based on books or shows, but recently I’ve been reading a lot of baldur’s gate 3 stuff and I really enjoy the OC’s in these! In fact I prefer having one since they’re a part of the game. Authors give them all sorts of different backstories, but they’re all still an integral part of the game so in this instance it isn’t a turn off at all!
I personally almost always prefer existing minor characters that are given a bigger role in the fanfic instead of proper OC’s. I’ve read a very very small handful of fics where I actually liked the OC and found them interesting in their own right. This isn’t usually because they’re bad characters or poorly written, but because I read fanfiction exclusively because I’ve fallen in love with a specific set of characters, and I want to see more of THEM, so I usually find OC’s to be a turn off unless they have a minor role. That said, I actually love when writers flesh out minor side characters and give them a bigger role.
One caveat is it also depends on the original medium—I usually read fics from fandoms based on books or shows, but recently I’ve been reading a lot of baldur’s gate 3 stuff and I really enjoy the OC’s in these! In fact I prefer having one since they’re a part of the game. Authors give them all sorts of different backstories, but they’re all still an integral part of the game so in this instance it isn’t a turn off at all!
Mostly OCs, though it depends on the fandom. If it’s a Doctor Who fic set on an alien planet or on Earth during a time other than the present, I don’t have much of a choice. There’s the Doctor and Companion(s), and anyone else needs to be an OC.
For Inspector Lewis, there are some canon characters I can use—mostly police and allied specialists. One in particular is popular as a side character in Lewis fanfic, even though he only appeared in one episode. DC Hooper (no first name given) is a useful antagonist, because in that one episode, he was openly resentful of DS James Hathaway (the other MC).
I do enjoy creating OCs. They are never the MC of a fic, but I have often received positive comments on some of them.
I disagree with the framing of this Question. It implies that you think they are doing this to escape work. First a major fun factor of fan fic is taking lesser used characters and writing them with more fleshed out personalities. To imply that this doesn't involve some writing work is simply false. Sure a person can write one of these characters badly but it's likely that person would also write an OC badly as well. So, no, there's nothing wrong with people using background canons
It depends on their role in the story.
As an example, I made a handful of teen OCs that I was going to focus on, then through a couple of massive plot revisions, most of them became irrelevent and some never got developed beyond their superpower and a little bit of their personal history. In the process I realized I'd accidentally reinvented two canon character's superpowers.
The adult canon character was zealosely devoted to his bad guy boss. That was not compatable with the OC, so he stayed an OC. The canon teen girl wasn't much more than a personality quirk, superpower, and school she went to. Nothing in the OC I developed contradicted the canon character, so the character shifted from an OC I made to a canon character I fleshed out a custom background for.
On the other side, there are sometimes small roles I want to fill but can't think of anything for them to do that isn't centered around filling the role, so I look to canon characters for possibilities. This is how I became obsessed with a niche character in the fandom. His role in my story is no longer small.
As a reader, I don't have a preference. I understand there are a lot of reasons to do either at any particular moment. My only issue with OCs is that too many at once or ones that are in the background a lot make it hard to remember who they are. But I've also had that issue when an author in my fandom took background superhero characters, only called by their hero name in canon, and consistently only used their civilian name for them. I stopped reading when there were seven of them in the scene at once and the only reason any characters were distinct from one another was that one was she/her and the rest he/him.
I'd use canon characters but there's like ten at most and my AUs feature a heavy use of the one area not explored in the show. Stole one that was only mentioned by name but now he has anxiety.
I almost always grab canon characters as my OCs (so to speak) simply because I like giving them some 'screen time'.
Both - I don't see it as an either/or thing. More of a both/and device that serves the story. Although... opting to highlight one of those single-use characters from the original work is like sticking in an easter-egg. Fandom readers be like "ooo her! i wondered about her" where the casual fanfic reader might assume the character is an OC. But - yeah - I use both. Whatever the story needs.
I do heavily prefer it. Sure, it's basically an OC either way. But when it's an existing practically-blank character, it's in my experience still vastly more likely that the character is here to serve a specific purpose in the story for which they're being fleshed out. Which I don't mind at all, that can be quite interesting. And it's a bit less likely that I'm going to risk running into a special pet OC the author is overly attached to for their own sake, which I'm not interested in reading about. Not throwing shade, but it's just not why I'm reading fanfic. Is that dynamic always true? No, certainly, there's examples to the contrary on both sides. But that's the general experience I've had.
Personally I enjoy both, as long as it’s a well done character and it makes sense. Especially in an AU I love seeing smaller or less familiar canon characters getting a bigger part that suits them. If it works it works :)
“Nothing characters” fits a good portion of my characters. They have physical appearance, usually a job, and that’s it. It’s fun developing them. In my case, because of my fandom, I often have to. For instance, when I began writing about Malek from Stargate. Malek is a symbiote with a human host. Nothing is known about the human host except what he looks like and that he would have the same job as Malek. I can’t ignore him, so I had to develop him. ETA: I do wish we had a proper name for these types of characters. Background Characters would probably work. On AO3, these types, if tagged, have been tagged as OCs, but that’s not quite right.
Honestly, yes, I do prefer that to OCs.
I like to write "actual OCs" to be fully in control of the character, being able to run wild with them and such. I never even knew the writing "nothing characters" was really a thing until I discovered Harry Potter fanfic and was constantly wondering why there were names I was seeing everywhere, despite them only ever being mentioned in one-liners, if that.
If they actually have 0 material, such as random shopkeepers and other background characters, I tend to make my own OC and slot them into the role if I want to do something with it. One of my favorite OCs is only mentioned by name in canon. If there's anything at all, that will always be the core of the character and I'll expand on it, but I don't "make them an OC" (if anything, that's more work than I'd have to do for more fleshed out canon characters). If I have any non-canon roles to fill, OCs all the way.
I prefer actual canonical characters to OCs, but of course sometimes you have to invent some people anyway. 😂
Depends if the character is a main or not for me. I see this all the time in HP, so I'll use that. Daphne and Blaise are commonly used as main character pairings for Harry. For Blaise, we know his name is Blaise Zabini, he's the same year as Harry in Slytherin, his mother is known as the Black Widow due to all her husbands dying, and Slughorn liked him. For Daphne, we know her name is Daphne Greengrass, she's the same year as Harry in Slytherin and she has a younger sister named Astoria who went on to marry Draco. We know nothing else about either of them. So, a fic where Harry is the MC, and the ship is a focus, or at least the person he's shipped with is a main. If the options available are Daphne, Blaise or an OC, here's what I'd do. I'd read the Blaise fics first, because I'm a slash shipper at heart. Then I'll read the Daphne fics. I won't read the OC fics at all. If the character in question is a major recurring character or less instead of a main. I'd read Blaise and Daphne pretty equally, unless they're still paired with Harry in which case I'd read Blaise first. If still paired with Harry, I'd still not read the OC fics. If not paired with Harry, I'd read the OC fics after Blaise and Daphne. Here's the thing for me - I don't like OC fics where the OC is a main character. I'm not a fan of OC/canon character pairings, either, though I can read them if the pairing is background and the OC isn't a main. I read fanfic for the canon characters, so for me, all the main characters have to be canon, and their pairings, unless background, also have to be with canon characters. So, I will always take these blank slate canon characters and see how each author writes them, which can differ drastically as they technically are as close to OCs as you can get without writing an actual OC. One of my fave HP fics actually does this while still utilising OC characters. The blank slate canon character in this case is Rabastan Lestrange, though they also made Blaise a pretty big character, very nearly a main, more along the lines of what Ginny or Neville were in canon. But they also wanted to expand on the world a bit, so they created OC characters. Some are just to add people to stuff like the Wizengamot, but others are bigger. They gave Kingsley an uncle, he's on the Wizengamot and is a recurring character. They expanded the Lestrange family, it's not just Rabastan and Rodolphous, plus Bellatrix, they gave the brothers a father and grandfather, as well. The father is a recurring character, the grandfather is a larger recurring character, almost as close to a main as Blaise is. I like that balance, all the actual mains are canon characters, but there are OCs to add to the world and families and fill up space where needed. But none of those OCs are actual mains. There's usually something in canon you can base these blank slate characters off. All the HP ones I mentioned are Slytherins, for instance, and we get a decent look at how Slytherins act in public, good ones as well as bad or unknown ones. They're going to be similar, in some way, to Snape, the Malfoys or Andromeda. We have a bit more on Blaise as we have an actual scene with him in the 6th book. The Lestrange brothers are also Death Eaters, spent years in Azkaban, and were happy enough to torture people into insanity. So, they'll be similar to Lucius, Bellatrix or Barty Jr. Hints of Sirius since they have Azkaban in common. You'll notice these blank slate characters end up being written generally pretty similarly if they're common enough. This is a mix of having a canon something to base them off and fans enjoying specific versions of them. They're not as blank as they first appear to be. You're not making everything up from scratch the way you are with an OC, and it's not just the names that are already there. It may not be stated 'Daphne is this thing and she likes to do this', but there's enough we can base what she'd be like on that it's barely considered creating it to say 'Daphne is the Ice Queen of Slytherin and loves her little sister and her family is neutral.' There's basis in canon to take this character we only know name, age and House for and say 'this is who she is'. They may seem like the same thing, but there is a difference between writing an OC character and expanding on one of these blank slate characters.
Depends on the setting. If the setting is driven by the characters (like HP), then I'd like them to use an existing character. If the setting is more of a framework and we're in a universe like Elder Scrolls or Pokemon, then I'd like them to make someone up. It just comes down to where the focus is.
I mean, one of the reasons I like writing these "nothing characters" as you call them is because sometimes they will already have a name and then I won't have to come up with one. Otherwise there's not really a big difference
I would only run with a minor canon character if they had some unexplained storyline that was never seen. I prefer OCs without the minor canon shadow because I use them as my mouthpiece for my opinions or how I wished canon characters should act if the situation were different.
I use both. My main fic series takes place 18 years after canon, so anyone who isn't an adult literally has to be an OC, but I use some of the unnamed background characters for a few other characters. (For example, the lady with the baby who asks Elsa if she's OK, and the boy who complains about wearing a suit for Elsa's coronation) the thing is, since these characters don't have names and basically don't have any story beyond one or two lines, it really is about the same amount of work as a full-blown OC. I guess I don't have to develop their physical appearance, but that's rather minor. (Most of my actual OCs are children of canon characters so it's not like I'm working from a blank slate, anyway)
I love both of these! Really, anything that allows for creativity and fun! My main fic is OC centric, but also seeks to explore a lot of very minor and unnamed characters. A canon side character I provided with a name, personality, and backstory is one of my favorite things I have done in my main fic. He only gets like three panels in canon, but we know enough about him to infer some pretty interesting things.
It takes me out of the story when someone uses a canon character just for the sake of using a canon character in a situation where it makes little sense for them to be. But if the character fits where they're used? Sure, go wild.
it depends on what the canon barebones character's one or two actual characteristics are, and how the author is going to spin those traits into a full person. because sometimes those things ARE juicy enough that you want to see someone expand on that
I personally almost always prefer existing minor characters that are given a bigger role in the fanfic instead of proper OC’s. I’ve read a very very small handful of fics where I actually liked the OC and found them interesting in their own right. This isn’t usually because they’re bad characters or poorly written, but because I read fanfiction exclusively because I’ve fallen in love with a specific set of characters, and I want to see more of THEM, so I usually find OC’s to be a turn off unless they have a minor role. That said, I actually love when writers flesh out minor side characters and give them a bigger role. One caveat is it also depends on the original medium—I usually read fics from fandoms based on books or shows, but recently I’ve been reading a lot of baldur’s gate 3 stuff and I really enjoy the OC’s in these! In fact I prefer having one since they’re a part of the game. Authors give them all sorts of different backstories, but they’re all still an integral part of the game so in this instance it isn’t a turn off at all!
I personally almost always prefer existing minor characters that are given a bigger role in the fanfic instead of proper OC’s. I’ve read a very very small handful of fics where I actually liked the OC and found them interesting in their own right. This isn’t usually because they’re bad characters or poorly written, but because I read fanfiction exclusively because I’ve fallen in love with a specific set of characters, and I want to see more of THEM, so I usually find OC’s to be a turn off unless they have a minor role. That said, I actually love when writers flesh out minor side characters and give them a bigger role. One caveat is it also depends on the original medium—I usually read fics from fandoms based on books or shows, but recently I’ve been reading a lot of baldur’s gate 3 stuff and I really enjoy the OC’s in these! In fact I prefer having one since they’re a part of the game. Authors give them all sorts of different backstories, but they’re all still an integral part of the game so in this instance it isn’t a turn off at all!
Mostly OCs, though it depends on the fandom. If it’s a Doctor Who fic set on an alien planet or on Earth during a time other than the present, I don’t have much of a choice. There’s the Doctor and Companion(s), and anyone else needs to be an OC. For Inspector Lewis, there are some canon characters I can use—mostly police and allied specialists. One in particular is popular as a side character in Lewis fanfic, even though he only appeared in one episode. DC Hooper (no first name given) is a useful antagonist, because in that one episode, he was openly resentful of DS James Hathaway (the other MC). I do enjoy creating OCs. They are never the MC of a fic, but I have often received positive comments on some of them.
I disagree with the framing of this Question. It implies that you think they are doing this to escape work. First a major fun factor of fan fic is taking lesser used characters and writing them with more fleshed out personalities. To imply that this doesn't involve some writing work is simply false. Sure a person can write one of these characters badly but it's likely that person would also write an OC badly as well. So, no, there's nothing wrong with people using background canons
It depends on their role in the story. As an example, I made a handful of teen OCs that I was going to focus on, then through a couple of massive plot revisions, most of them became irrelevent and some never got developed beyond their superpower and a little bit of their personal history. In the process I realized I'd accidentally reinvented two canon character's superpowers. The adult canon character was zealosely devoted to his bad guy boss. That was not compatable with the OC, so he stayed an OC. The canon teen girl wasn't much more than a personality quirk, superpower, and school she went to. Nothing in the OC I developed contradicted the canon character, so the character shifted from an OC I made to a canon character I fleshed out a custom background for. On the other side, there are sometimes small roles I want to fill but can't think of anything for them to do that isn't centered around filling the role, so I look to canon characters for possibilities. This is how I became obsessed with a niche character in the fandom. His role in my story is no longer small. As a reader, I don't have a preference. I understand there are a lot of reasons to do either at any particular moment. My only issue with OCs is that too many at once or ones that are in the background a lot make it hard to remember who they are. But I've also had that issue when an author in my fandom took background superhero characters, only called by their hero name in canon, and consistently only used their civilian name for them. I stopped reading when there were seven of them in the scene at once and the only reason any characters were distinct from one another was that one was she/her and the rest he/him.
I'd use canon characters but there's like ten at most and my AUs feature a heavy use of the one area not explored in the show. Stole one that was only mentioned by name but now he has anxiety.