30 Days of Fanfic Writing Meme - Day Seven and Eight

[desertvixen]

 I missed yesterday, so here we have two days' worth.

 Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

 If the question is referring to while I was writing a character, the answer is no.  I think I've probably changed a few people's minds myself, though.  I have changed my minds about a few ships, but that mostly comes from really examining canon while writing for Yuletide.

 Every Yuletide, I run into a fic or two that challenges how I think about a character.  This year, one of them was Pretty as a Doll, which basically let Snow White have a brain and be calculating.

 Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

 I don't write them as much as I used to.  I still use them where appropriate (ie, Helena from my long Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys story) and where I'd have to do cartwheels to find someone to match up in canon.  I don't think they really count as an OC if they're sort of background (like all the greenshirts in GI Joe).  As far as avoiding Mary Sue, I just try to not make characters either perfect or super tortured, and you're usually okay.

 I also trust my beta readers to shoot straight with me on whether characters are taking the trip to Mary Sue-land.

The rest of the meme is here.