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Van
Nov '20

I had this really now in retrospect boring character that was a part of the story, but now that the plot completely changed he didn't fit anymore and honestly seemed kinda unnecessary since I have a whole bunch of other more interesting characters now

He mainly existed just to ratio the girl and boy characters, but now I have a good amount of male characters so...I dunno, I don't think he was that important in the first place

RIP Razor, a bootleg pearl from Steven Universe OC

  • created

    Nov '20

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    Nov '20
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elyss
Nov '20

I cling to my characters so hard, so I envy you. I usually find a better place for them. I had an editor go over my script and told me there was a character who should be scrapped, but instead it made me look at my story and figure out where I could put them that would strengthen their place. It made my story a lot better overall. Still, there are others where I know they're useless and I cling anyway :sob:

alexlcuri07
Nov '20

I actually cut two characters from my original story idea, folded some of their key personality traits into other characters, and even created a character that I never knew I needed who is now a fan favorite (that's right guys, Fuchsia wasn't always a part of the plan.)

Hopefully I get to use the designs or back stories from the characters I cut as starting points for other characters that will be introduced later in the story, instead of having to make entirely new characters from scratch. For now, the story just works better without them.

milejdyvan
Nov '20

I congratulate you on doing that! Not only is it hard to delete a character, but many people can't even admit that a character is unnecessary for their story. I have done so with many of my characters, however, my roster is so long that I have since re-written most back into the story as characters with very small roles. Still, it's a really great exercise to ensure that all your characters are still relevant for the plot, especially as things change during our writing journey. There has been a time when I noticed a lack of interest in certain of my main characters too, but the moment that happened, I left a window open in my schedule to properly fix that issue with some good ol' brainstorming. Thankfully, I no longer have this issue with any of my MCs :grin:

NellieVP318
Nov '20

I usually recycle OCs and rarely scrap my OCs since I tend to forget some of the old ones I made at times lol. Since I plan to put an old collaborative series up here that I worked together with my friend, I had to make cut for certain characters. For example, in my current novel, one of my MC's aunts, Leticia Hernandez was originally supposed to have four aunts. I had to cut it down to four only merging one of the aunt into another that would fit better for the story since a couple of her aunts will be important to the story.

My rule is if I can repurposed an OC, then I can use them for another project or story. Some of the characters in my current novel were repurposed OCs from other scrapped projects but they changed from what I originally intended to do.

nickolaidas
Nov '20

Some characters simply outgrow their use and are doomed to become sideline characters. Heck, the majority of Goku's enemies in the early Dragonball days would become rivals in the next arc, allies in the next, and unimportant sideline characters in the next. This was done because they were replaced by the badder, cooler next character. Yamcha was replaced by Tien, who was replaced by Piccolo, who was replaced by Vegeta (who became so popular that Toriyama was forced to keep as the eternal rival).

There's no reason to keep a character when there's another character who fills the role of the previous character and then some. If you introduced a scheming bastard who schemes better than the previous bastard, why keep the original bastard?

AmazementComicsThe Best Fruit Smoothies
Nov '20

A lot of characters outlive their usefulness in media. As expansive as my universe of comics is, there are a least 5 OC's who I either used once or not at all and they were completely scrapped henceforth. I don't latch on to characters knowing that they serve no purpose to any narrative in the future.

It's better to focus on a select few OC's rather than trying to shoehorn in a multitude of OC's when they're barely used.

MegaRay
Nov '20

If I already included him in released episodes, I would give him one final scene, where the reader could tell he is gone for good. If he is not included yet, trash him :stuck_out_tongue:

DiegoPalacios
Nov '20

If the character is not interesting/fitting to the story, i just scrap it without problem.

If the character is interesting, but is not fitting, i save them for another story.

If the character is fitting, but not interesting, i try to make them more interesting and giving them more depth, or replace them for someone that fits the role, but is more interesting.

BitterBadger
Nov '20

If whatever character I create can't seem to fit properly into my narrative, no matter how cool they look to me and no matter how much I want to draw them, I just won't feature them. The story itself comes first!

LadyN
Nov '20

Sometimes it’s important to cut characters.

The best thing to do in this situation for me is to move them into a story where they do fit. I have this OC named Sophia, she was a medieval fujoshi. when the story changed, I moved her to a world that was perfect for her and called it a day.

Another thing that I do when this situation occurs is to change the OC or make them relevant for one situation while not having them take up space in the main roster.

Just some things people can do.

feuersichel
Nov '20

I have that problem at exact this moment. The problem is, the chara that got unnecessary is something like a voice in one of my MC head. And he already got introduced. I am kinda struggling on just kick him and edit the pages as he didn't even have that much screentime. Still, I have never kicked an OC out so far and I kinda liked him, but I feel that it's necessary.

NickRowler
Nov '20

I hate doing it and in some cases I try to rework/rewrite the character to save them. For characters I can't keep, I will sometimes file them away and use them in other stories if needed.

ChaoticConstellation
Nov '20

I’ve cut, and rewrote so many characters that I may as well have started from scratch. I’m a bigger fan of just reworking a character, they tend to be a lot better when you need to rework them into the story. Sometimes I’ll cut a character then find a spot for them in a new story later down the line.