MLP:FiM - How to Make a Good Backstory for Your "OC" - w/ DR Wolf 

USEFUL TIP: instead of making as character THEN a backstory, write a backstory first, and imagine how it would shape the character in ways you might not have thought of before, and then continue making it!

"At the age of 6, I was born without a face."

I've made quite the plethora of original characters. Do I have any tips? hm... Work on a character's personality first, How would this character respond to certain situations? One I typically use is a little girl falling over on the street next to them, Would they help her up? Would they let someone else do it? Would they ignore her? etc. After you define that character's personality traits, make up some interesting events. For example, Boy and a girl fall onto each other, and an another person walks in on them, ask yourself "where would my character be in this situation? Would he/she be one of the characters that fell over? Would he/she be the onlooker? Would they be mad? Would they be embarrassed? Would they laugh it off? How did they get into this situation? How do they know each other? Do they know each other? -etc. There's really no "wrong answer", just different variations you think sound more interesting. Hope that helps, let me know if you would like any more advice. -Kryssen

And remember: You don’t always have to make the backstory dark and depressing

I have to admit, this is a very adorable style for DRWolf. Thank you kindly for including me Tyandaga.

I have been working on my oc for about five years and I'm still changing how she looks and her back story

Ugh... I remember I almost made a Mary Sue my MLP OC..... Here's the back story: *Ava was a filly who lived in a castle with her father, who was the king. She got everything that she wanted, including a trampoline, and her own servants **-oh god-**.* *One day, she was captured by some ponies, and when she escaped, she ran away to Ponyville.* *There, Ava met Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle.* *Yadda yadda yadda... Ava soon becomes an alicorn filly and defeats Discord, somehow.*

Someone told me my OC was shit because he was a crystal miner from the crystal empire. I don't see the problem. Help?

My tip (besides what you gave) is that not only should defining events impact the characters personality, but should boost relationships with other characters if possible. Like maybe your sibling saved your life somehow, that could make you love them more/idolize them, while the sibling becomes more cautious and protective.

creating an oc is like drawing, one must start with the outline or beginning to eventually create the character

One tip I have is to base your OC's backstory off yourself. My OC is loyal. Why? Because I am. why? Because i want to be there for my friends. Why? Because I once had a time where no one was there for me. Build their key personality traits from you and what makes you like that then add or change certain things to fit a more fantastical environment.

I'm looking for names -> personality. I'm looking for backstory -> personality. Ok, so now I got to make it.

I would like to try provide some input. Please try not to make your backstory overly dark and sad, if everybody was orphaned, abused, bullied, etc. then nobody was, ya dig?

I would like to quote the youtuber ProJared when talking in one of his videos about starting a character in Dungeons And Dragons: "Don't try and make the best character, try and make the most interesting character"

"At the age of 11, I smoke herbs and drink burning liquoir" PLZ SOMEONE JUST GET THIS THING XD edit: excuse me this comment is 6 years old and it's still getting likes???

when you make a character they become a part of you. whether it be the dark evil bad guy, the hero or the little guy that comes in every 5 chapters to say a terrible pun. They may look different on paper but they all came from you and in some way they are based off you. So love them and if you can't are they really that important?

Or they could take the lazy way out and make their OC have amnesia so they don't remember their past.

If there is a visual of your character, incorporate aspects of themselves into their physical appearance. For instance, when I had to draw a picture of myself for English, I drew a star on my hoodie because my last name means "star" in German. I also portrayed the hood up due to introversion and the hoodie about 3 sizes bigger than I need it to be due to feeling small in a large world.

The backstory is one of the best aspects of an OC

Well, my OC was created as one of the main characters, so I based her backstory on the events of the main story, and it resulted in a pretty epic but relatable character :D

*Tibia* honest, this video helped me to get more in depth with my character, Neptune, who's one of my Undertale OC's. I put a *skeleton* of work into her before, but I decided to put even more *backbone* into her backstory after seeing this with my own *eye-sockets*. Btw, I have no regrets making these puns. HA.

I'm not so good at Ocs myself, but I guess I'll give the tips I have that actually kind of helped me :P 1| Make sure your character's backstory isn't completely horrible, or completely happy. If it's horrible then it will be very expecting and unsurprising. If it is happy, it will not be so surprising and wouldn't really change the personality so much. 2| Make sure your backstory makes sense. Backstory you don't want| Sugar pops | X3 | was a crystal pony with a terrible background. Her parents died in a fire, she doesn't have friends, she's bullied, and she has to keep a secret. The secret of her being a alicorn for no reason what so ever! 3| Make sure your backstory tells you or others why they're at the place they're at now. 4| If your character is a alicorn or part other creature, like lets say dragon, make sure it makes since why. A good example is that they live in a area not known to Equestria that this is normal. Another good example would be if they just lived in another universe where this is normal. But if you want it to be in Equestria, you could say you traveled from somewhere else and ventured into Equestria. I know these are probably bad tips, but I think they helped me so . . yea :P

I feel like I've fallen into the trap of making everyone's back story have some sort of tragic event that shaped them into who they currently are. But each event varies in how tragic it is in the grand scheme of things, and one of the main points I want to get across is the ridiculousness of the whole "somebody has it worse than you so don't have the right to feel bad" mentality. And they each deal with their pasts differently; one became depressed and traumatized, his sister copes by forgetting and has extreme emotions when reminded, [a different] one blamed herself for something she's hardly responsible for, ran away, and lied about it to her new friends (the siblings) all the while feeling increasingly guilty about it upon discovering they had it worse than her (and don't know that they do because she lied to them about it); another one snapped and became a killer. Only one has completely gotten over their past, but he has the (physical) scars from it, as opposed to everyone else's emotional wounds. ...This is unrelated to MLP, though.

Thanks for the help! Now I'm making my characters backstory not only easier but more interesting

As a roleplayer (With nothing to do with ponies) I was going to highlight alot of this before I finished watching. Such as Why. However I prefer to start with an end result and work backwards until satisfactory rather than at the beginning and work up to an end result. My only addition to this would be, way to many people want to 'godmod' be uber powerful and well liked, much like what you two said a key component in the universe/adventure. Power is fine but again, why, define it, and more specifically, it needs limits. I go by the old adage 'Constraint creates creativity' by limiting myself and the scope, it opens way more options I didn't consider to begin with, clever work arounds. The method when determining power (Personally) I go by this, what was sacrificed, if I am excelling in say... Archery, a savant even, what was sacrificed, can my character not use swords due to fully training with the bow? If my character is a powerful mage what did they give up to study, lack of communication skills, sociopathy, inability to pick up on euphemisms and metaphors? People often forget that there needs to be a trade-off to gain abilities, sure within reason some things are fine to skimp on. People often forget even in real life to train ones self to be 'the best', the Olympian, they have to sacrifice friends, family, time, endless training on end to reach a goal. Plus quirks and negative traits/ability's and mental hangups makes your character more alive, no one is perfect, plus it makes them far more interesting to be around, plus the need for help creates more interaction between characters, your character needs help, so you seek help. Personally I come up with an idea and spiral outward, why this, why that, what are their goals in life, why do they draw breath,, what keeps them going in the morning, what is the opposing force, where do they excel, where do they lack? I keep asking these question's till I am personally satisfied, then a whole new set of questions and needs will arise when interacting. Hit the big parts in life, key events as in the video, but life is a long process, you need to be malleable. Life is never about you, there are others involved, friends, family and they are the focal point in their own stories you will never be apart of. as$-pulling is a completely valid to come up with events, even more so when your in mid-roleplay, but keep it reasonable, and once you say it, it becomes cannon, (Less it is a fast and loose kinda situation or a 'for fun' roleplay.) But, yeah, good video! Great place to start.

My OC (Midnight Wonder) was born the daughter of two hybrid ponies/Draconequus in a land far away from Equestria and was quite different from others around her since the very beginning (and not because she was a hybrid). Having been born on a cold winter night, her parents decided to name her after the night and, upon seeing how curious she instantly was of her surroundings and seeing the wonder sparked in her eyes, added the name Wonder. Growing up, she was a late bloomer in just about everything that most babies learn with ease. However, she did develop a great talent and love for art at a much earlier age than most, both amazing and worrying her parents. When they took her to the doctor, they learned that she had a mental disability called Autism which caused her mind to develop at a much slower pace and for her to learn basic skills much differently. However, it also allowed her to access certain traits and abilities at a much earlier and advanced stage for her age. Knowing that she was limited, Midnight Wonder mainly focused on her art skills to remain happy, although felt a bit limited at times as she was not very good at speaking. Eventually, when her father began reading her stories, she found a great love for stories and began creating stories to go with her drawings, inspiring her to become an author and illustrator at an early age. But she was still very shy and insecure around others, the only one she ever truly felt comfortable and safe around being her brother (he's a year younger than her but she always considered him to be a big brother instead). When she was six years old, her parents had a newborn baby girl who, like her brother, looked more pony than Draconequus. After a year or two, Midnight Wonder lost control of her powers when feeling greatly depressed after a rough day at school where bullies constantly picked on her for her disability and reserved persona, accidently hurting her baby sister in the process (don't worry, her sister is fine). Horrified by what she had done, she ran away from home out of fear that she would hurt somepony she cared about. She eventually found her way to Equestria where she became lost in a snowstorm, eventually being found by the Crystal Empire. King Sombra saw the potential she held for magic and decided to teach her how to used dark magic. However, she always refused to use it to hurt others and was thus deemed a traitor. She ran away from the Crystal Empire and to the Everfree Forest. Still a young filly who had yet to earn her Cutie Mark, she wondered the forest scared and alone until she crossed paths with some animals. The animals took her in, accepting her despite her oddities. During a stormy night and all the animals become frightened, Midnight tells them a story, drawing scenes of the story in the dirt ground. Her story eases the animals and helps them remain calm and brave throughout the storm. By the time she finished her story, the storm had passed and the moon was shining down on them. Gazing up at the moon, Midnight finally earned her Cutie Mark (a sideways crescent moon with an X in the middle (X representing her unlimited potential)). Centuries later, having aged only a few years due to her Draconequus bloodline, Midnight meets a Pegasus named Dock Moron who invited her to come live in a town where all sorts of outcasts and freaks are welcomed with open arms: Bronyville. Midnight soon moves to Bronyville and takes up residence in the Bronyville Museum, working as a guide for visitors to teach them Equestria's vast history while also working on her stories on her off time.

I imagined an oc who on the surface seemed like a calm colt with an expansive knowledge. But beneath it all, He's suffered losses, felt absolute lost in life, and has seen the world, the *whole* world, for how it is... "One has truly no say in what life has in store for you. What you can only hope for, is to understand why the world is as it is. Only when you understand it, and come to terms with it, may you learn all the world has to offer. Learning takes time, and time is the essence that holds this world together. Impatience leads to reckless behavior, which leads to shortsightedness. shortsightedness lets you become blind to what lies in front of you, and you may never find what you seek. Never become blind"

My characters backstory is: when she has was around 4 or 5, she realized everyone was "dead" except her older sister and her sister ended up having to take care of her but then she left her to die and my character barely survived, the only reason she did survive is because scientists found her while she was trying to survive i guess. So they tried doing experiments on her so she could survive and it worked, but not in the way they wanted. She ended up turning into the furry she is now (yes she was human before.) only to almost murder everyone. And the skulls on her cheeks and antennas turned into hearts because she then realized she didn't want to be the person that murders everyone she wants to be the nice person. Plot twist: her parents aren't actually dead they're overseas and her sister ended up moving with her boyfriend to kill people. (and my character ended up calling herself derpy even through her original name was charlotte uwu)

I worked a bit on my OC, Koan. It may be best if I explained in his words. "I'm Koan, but I suppose you already knew that. I needed an introduction though, and I've never found anything more useful than giving a name. Sure, there are other names ponies have called me: Who's That Buckhole, Hipster Trash, Ice Cream Koan, The Sack of Manure Wearing a Fedora, among others. I never liked the last one. It's a Trilby. Are they that dense or is that just the norm for Earth Ponies? Would have been nice living with the Unicorns. Now those ponies know art. But I guess that's what I get. You speak your mind one time and they act like being an Alicorn is a privilege. Sure, descent to the Earthworm ranks can be a nightmare, but once the process is done, the hard part is over. Sure, I got a set of bones sticking out of my back, and yeah, the prosthetic horn only has enough magic to keep my brain from shutting down, but the bones look good, and the horn is easily covered. I'm sure I'd be fine if THE WAITER WOULD BRING ME MY SOUP ALREADY" Oh...I see he's reached Season 2. I guess I have to introduce Raw Noise now. I'm so sorry for this. "YOU WANNA KNOW ME? YOU DON'T KNOW! YOU CAN NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT SHINGLES! I! AM! A! GOD! EXCEPT ON WEEKDAYS! I DON'T LIKE WORKING FULL TIME! WEEKENDS TOO! I NEED MY REST! THE HOUSE WON'T PAINT ITSELF! AND WHY? BECAUSE IT HAS! NO! TALENT!" I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry.

I'm working on a non mlp related story rn, and these tips are very helpful thank you

How to make a Mary Sue backstory! My parents died I got unlimited by rain/grass/etc She is so cool Everyone starts to like her And she becomes queen And then God And then the ruler of the universe Then dies by birth Wait what

My OC's backstory Isn't crazy impressive. He's a changeling that grew up in a large hive, he'd aspired to serve under Chrysalis. He had trained and pretending to be a soldier with his good friend Wasp. After 12 years, he went into the soldier boot camp of the hive along with Wasp. All his training and practicing as a kid helped him ace it and become a soldier under Chrysalis. His friend doing the same. He spent years fighting for the hive. But, he was once retaliated against, teaching him that their are consequences to things you do. From this experience, he developed a devastating fear of ponies. This makes it hard for him to get close and make new friends. He eventually fled the hive and lived in the Everfree Forest to hide away. One day, Fluttershy found him and taught him that not all ponies are scary. But, he never got the best at judging which are the good ones. So, he just spent his time, disguised as a pegasus and tried not to let hid fear get the best of him and live in Ponyville. However, his fears sometimes win, causing him to burst into rage at random moments. This makes it even harder to make friends, but he tries his best with what Fluttershy taught him.

3:50 - The backstory I had in mind is the absolute *OPPOSITE* of that: a villainous protagonist. In fact, the pivotal event of his life was what turned him into the arguably the biggest threat to Equestria. And no, he's not an Alicorn. He's an Earth Pony. Any suggestions?

One tip you forgot to mention is to make your OC a little realistic. Don't make them this godly being that has ultra powers and can do anything they want (unless that's what the story is going for). Make them have strengths, of course, but also have weaknesses.

This made me start raising the necessary questions about my own OC and what I need to do since, despite being pretty normal, he's underdone.

Crystal Canvas (my oc) Is a Unicorn who loved art but nobody else thought it was a valued trate. She got her cutiemark by winning an art competition held in ponyville. Her confidence came from hr friend who always pushed her to improve! I will add much but this is the foundation.

I'd say one, but I honestly have too many to choose X3

Wow... all your OC advise videos are so helpful! I'm currently making the back story for two of my newest oc's : Jason and Felix (who will be a gay couple- don't ask) and i've found all you ideas very helpful, and some of them even helped inspire some of my finished oc's

My oc is actually from a completely different universe. She is from the Gravity falls universe actually. She fell in love with Will Cipher (I did not misspell Will Cipher, I am talking about Bill's brother), but Bill, to make sure his brother never had true happiness, through her through a portal to some random universe. Giving her the ability to travel through different universes. Losing her love made her depressed. And by being in a completely different universe she became extremely introverted and a very big liar. But she did make friends. And eventually she went to the MLP universe, turning her into a fox because of her now sly and introverted nature. She had a portal as a cutie mark as well to represent her being able to travel between universes. This is not all her backstory, but can some random people tell me what ya think?

Thanks for the tips. One tip I have is to include more open ended questions and include not just why in your questioning, but also who, what, where why and how. If you want to avoid making a Mary Sue in a popular fiction try to involve your character as little or not at all with the main characters or cannon story line. In other words you can create a "what if" world, where you ask yourself what if of many different aspects of the world or timeline. In the story of Hearts Warming Eve the historical re-enactment by the Main Six, Twilight is re-enacting a story of long ago ponies who where just like them in lots of ways, so you see that you don't have to make the main six be your friends because there is a huge portion of unused timeline and places that you can use to your advantage. It does not even have to be about MLP too, any good continuum is vast and has room for likely events to happen, even the history of the world-why do you think there is so much historical fiction? I hope you enjoy my comments and can make use of them.

One way I've found OC characters to be interesting in a story is to be very vague about their backstory at first, gradually hinting at it as the story progresses and giving out more and more details until the full thing is revealed much later One of the most interesting OCs in a story I've read used this tactic, and it made me a lot more interested in him and glued me in enough that I read the entire 200,000-word fic in a single sitting

How to create a good backstory for you OC: Don't. Tell the story itself.

My OCs backstory is pretty good, what do you think p.s. plz don't steal! SilverStream grew up near AppleWood, the city where movie magic happens. She dreamt of being many things as a filly, a sculptor, an artist, an animator, a writer, a musician, and even a singer, all these things have one thing in common, art, or to put it simply, creativity. So, at seven she and her mother where reading her favorite book series( you can guess what it was😄) when she told her mother she wanted to show her something, she ran into the other room and quickly back, to show her a beautiful picture of the characters in one of her favorite scenarios, her mother adored it and told her how good she was, when SilverStream realized how good it actually was after showing to her friends and even strangers, she felt a slight tingling on her flank as she turned over to see her cutie mark! She had realized her destiny, her passion, her own self, was art. So, she spent the next few years in public schools.

My OC and comic I'm making are both kind of dark and aimed at older readers. My OC is name Lucinda (who goes by the name Black Rose) was born from the unusual union of a dragon and a unicorn. Her father(Gilded Rose or Gil for short) was a knight for Princess Celestia who original job was to hunt and kill dragons to keep Equestria safe until he met Lucinda's mother... Lucinda grow up with her mother and around dragons but was rejected because of her apprentice and relationship with ponies. She was eventuly forced to live with her father in Canterlot but things didn't get much better for her as the ponies feared her. But there was a small ray of light in the form of a young unicorn named Stardust. The two fillies became fast friends and Lucinda met two more friends Sky Dancer (a pegasus) and Peaches (an earth pony). She even became one of Celestia's students due to the confident her friends gave her and her natural magical talent. But everything came to an end on that faithful day when she lost her only friends... Sky Dancer moved back to Cloudsdale and Peaches to her family farm, but what hurt her the most was Stardust who told her they can't be friends any more because her parents didn't like their daughter hang out with a freak. All alone with no one left in her life, Lucinda's anger grow and erupted with a burst of powerful magic as Lucinda took out her grief on all of Canterlot. Her power was so great on Celestia could stop her and after Lucinda was taken down she was banished from Equestria. The only thing she got out of all this was her cutie mark a black rose... Anyways sorry this was so long but I would like your option on this and if you want to check out my comic I have the first three page alraight out with more on the way: serenaelric.deviantart.com/gallery/59869048/The-Return-of-Black-Rose

My main pony OC "Techie" has a personality of a Southern Pegasus Tinkerer Colt who acts clumsy and bizarre. He was adopted and raised by the Apple family, but eventually moved to Cloudsdale to work with weather machines. My other pony OC, a Unicorn Mare named Scarlet Moon, is a Fallout Equestria character. She's rogue-like and quick to anger because she's a recovering Raider.

I love those OC tips you've provided. Thank you Tyandaga.

This was really helpful. I am going to share this with my friends so that we can develop out characters a lot more. We haven't really made the backstories yet, just the personality. And I think we can make our characters a lot more interesting if we make a set backstory.

Yeah, development of a good, balanced backstory is a crucial, vital part of an oc. I see a lot of backstories which follow this outline: When they were younger, their parents died. They were left on their own but became awesome afterwards. This will also give you an Mary Sue. Instead, this is a much better backstory: When she were younger, her parents were very busy with work, so she barely ever saw them. She ended up learning and growing on her own slowly, and never gave up. Ten times better.

I created a character where at a young age she was kicked out of her kingdom for killing her father but what they didn't see is that she was only defending herself. And from all that hatred and rejection she became an assassin. It's sort of like how Maleficent or Nick Wild from Zootopia was. She believes the world won't see her as anything but an uncontrollable killer so that's what she became. And while in the background of it all her brother, who also tried to defend her from their father but got very badly injured on his eye causing him to be scarred, is trying to find her only to lose track of her after a simple glimpse of her. A tip from me when creating back stories is to incorporate moments from your own life, that's what I did with THIS characters story

when it said because they never learned how to swim I'm like Me: Say my name Say my name! XD

tako is octopus in japanese XD

you know, this video is actually a pretty good start for character creation in general, not just MLP. I wish I could have shown this vid to my D&D group back in the day.

Started off as a bat pony, she wants to be an artist but she finds it hard to draw with the pencil between her teeth. So her aunt promised her that if she can get a good grade in art, she will give her a horn. Since her aunt isn't too powerful, Pencil Vania's magic turns out to be weak.

I now know why my atempt at writting a fanfiction didn't work: I had my story, but I didn't have characters that would make the story go that way so I couldn't advance the story as fast as I needed to.

Thanks for all the tips you guys. I've been trying to make a good back story for my OC for years but I can never come up with anything I like. Right now the best I have is that he was a changeling that one day got tired of Chrysalis' treating him terribly so he left the hive and set out to make his own path in life. The queen served as his inspiration to figure out a better way in life than serving a queen who just wants to take all the love they gathered for herself.

The way the oc acts around people is helpful when writing a backstory!

Thx for da tips tyandaga and dr wolf

These videos you make are so helpful, loving this video, it has helped me so much with oc personality designing. Subscribing! :D

My Character Jack is based off of a book character in a book i was writing but eventually scrapped. He is an Orphan on a Ice Planet and grows up without parents which makes him sad, he had friends there and went to community events (such as festivals) and had fun, but when it was discovered he was stronger than the king (just enough to beat him in an arm-wrestle) who is narcissistic and cant accept the fact that there will be some people with more arm muscles than him, Jack was banished and ended up crashing just a bit away from Pony Ville, When he arrived the other ponies thought he was evil and going to hurt them based entirely off his looks and the only ones who accepted him was my other Oc's. Jack worked hard to make a prosthetic wing as flying to him was the best feeling in the world, and after many failed attempts he did it and although it wasnt the same it made him feel happier. whenever he goes out the other ponies talk behind his back and so Anya (my other OC) goes out instead causing problems on its own its the best option. Here are some things about him: he is scared of spiders, dentists and the dark, he also has a tendency to be awkward in conversations. now good points, is relatively strong, welcoming to others (gained from his past experiences) and a great flyer. i spent a while on this and the story isnt finished . also i know it is a bit sad but im trying to make a tormented soul character (its hard) that hasn't gone evil or bad. it may be cliche that he is an orphan and gets bullied but only because i want to make him isolated and need a reason to why he is like that.

I like this video, I've been running into a lot of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, they're pretty common and I can remember as a kid making some myself. I'm rewriting a story I've been working on for about six years, and it I've devoted a lot of time and effort to, and one of my biggest fears is creating Mary Sues or Gary Stus. So while the world I've written is involved with magic I've tried to stay rational and create a good explanation for why things are the way they are. Also including flaws in my characters that seem believable, and without giving them too many as well. This video has really good points, and I hope people watching take away a good lesson with them into making a great character. Even if you do make a Mary Sue or Gary Stu don't be discouraged, you will get better with time and reconsideration of your character. With that I wish you all the best of luck on your endeavors! (>w

Tyandaga is that your REAL backstory?

You're pretty cool at whatcha do!

Oh my Celestia the way you designed Doc is so cute! It reminds me of how I drawn him sleeping. I also included Silver Quill

One thing this video reminded me of: my aversion to writing characters that interact with the main story or any canon characters of Equestria, outside of say, buying a dress from the Boutique or such. The closest I created was a royal guard, and even then when I did any roleplays or such with them it was usually focused on the unit itself and not the actual castle they were apart of. I don't want to put a character in any situation where thehy would have a massive grand impact on the world at large; it gets harder and harder to create believable backstories and not turn your character into a Mary/Gary Sue. There's a delicate balance there, and the video reminded me of that.

Question, can this work for a any or just mlp ?

my character from the beginning was used for RolePlay. I didn't want to put much work onto how she looked so I just made it be myself in a different world. first RP I used her in was literally her being born, family RP n stuff. the person playing the mom named the Character Kat, probably had to do with my username being pritty kitty. sense then I used the character in almost every RP I do. I changed up the back story some though because what I came up with back then was sorta stupid, I was little-er so I'm not sure what I would expect xP

I love how this does not just apply to MLP but many other types of ocs

this helped me tweak my already existing oc and make his back story more lengthy how ever i find writing random ideas down then seeing wich idea fit with my character for instance one idea i wrote down was allergies what would my character be allergic to and why sure it seams like a small amount information but you add all of those ones together and soon you got a good background started with interesting facts about your character

I have an oc that I think is a good one, but I dont know.....here she is: The character's name is Void.She is a batpony.She has a navy blue coat, and a dark greyish-blue mane/tail.I have part of her back story done but not all of it, when she was a filly, she lived with two pegasi, The only parent figures she ever had. The onn she called mom,her name was Stormy. The one she called dad was named Windstar. Void never knew her real parents, they left out when she was born and nerver came back. Void lived with Stormy and Windstar until she was old enuf to love on her own. Thats all I have so far, please let me know if I should change/add anything on. Let me reminde you, its NOT done. Oh yeah, and this is not the same universe as the real mlp show. Thanks, Chloe

Is it okay if your character doesn't really have much of a special backstory? Like, I know it sounds lazy, but his personality doesn't warrant any sort of coming-of-age, learning adventure. He's just a normal Joe. I mean, he's pretty special, but nothing too special has really happened to him. Compare him to Rainbow Dash, because that's where I took my inspiration for him from. Normal life until a certain point, and he ended up with all the same character traits as she did, just in different amounts. He's cockier, more egotistical, and more stubborn, while also being less understanding, quicker to jump to conclusions, and less laid-back.

One of my tips is basing your character around a particular theme or archtype. It could help with their backstory. For example, I made a character named Boombox Bling, an Earth Pony who by appearance, seems to be your typical street hustler/swinder, with a Hip=Hop motif and a big, bombastic gold chain to match, but there's more to him than meets the eye, including his tragic past and love of dancing and music.

Though I'm not very familiar with the MLP universe, I enjoy watching your videos about OCs. They have made me think more about how I construct my character. My main OC is in fact not from MLP at all, but from a book series called Warriors. The tips and tricks you present have helped me find ways to make Amberflower, my OC, more original and appealing!

OC bear is best bear, bear saw fish when little ... bear never forgotten fish, fish flop flop splash splash floop ... bear have moment of deep thought ... are we not all fish? ... bear thinks too hard and flops ... and it was good c:

I have a another story about my alicorn oc Named WinterRose she was abandoned as a filly and Princess Luna took her in

I have a habit of making the character and their personality, then shaping their past based on how they act in the present. It works, but I guess I could use a few other methods instead

I take back what I said 3 months ago, Speckles is a small dragon race that grow up to be pony size dragons. Speckles was not able to become friends with the other bigger dragons, do to them being bigger, rude and mean dragons. while Speckles' race were not none of them, but he did meant a few dragon friends near the unknowns of Equestria and Speckles also meant super hero ponies into the unknown of Equestria were they had a future city, but it is unknown if Speckles would go into Equestria and meet Twilight and her friends to learn friendship. what now +Tyandaga

Um, Random Question Dude: Why is your character mute? Me: Because she was missing her vocal cords. Ramdon Nuestioq Eudd: Why is your character missing vocal cords? Me:.. I dono, birth somesing

Serenity lost his brother and tried to bring him back using dark magic, and failed. because of this he searched for the unicorn who created dark magic, who teached him how to perform a resurrection, but his brother refused to cross over since it's the pony's choice to cross over not your's. after this Serenity continued to learn dark magic to force his brother to cross over. and eventually started creating dark magic spells, such as his brother: Starswirl the bearded, created magic spells. And that's about it.

hi this advise helped a lot! I was making a charater design for a really calm and kind personality and rememberd that she was gonna be clumsy as well. I also watched the other video about mary sue and it helped me realise that I can't make all character's to perfect, because it would have made the to story boring, anyways it really helped thanks :D

My oc's backstory changes depending on roleplay. For Charlie he may have a happy backstory making him bubbly and less shakey. If he's in a less than happy setting for roleplay his backstory will be tragic but not enough to break him

In My Fanfic I'm making: In the future of Equestria, there are a few more naturally born Alicorns. Problem is, they were severely bullied because due to other ponies' jealousy, Racist stereotyping, etc, all the other kids thought alicorns are automatically better at everything when that's just a misconception. There's a natural Alicorn I created who sucks at magic and is a slow flyer. She was bullied into doing other kids' homework because they though she was the smartest in the class when she only has an average I.Q. Ponies would fight over her to have her on their team, only to shun her for causing the team she's on to lose. Her magic mentor was a racist, narrow minded piece of shit; Because he believed Alicorns are better at everything, he though she was flunking her lessons on purpose. He only got persecuted after his constant verbal abuse caused her to accidentally snap her horn as he was making her do a spell only advanced unicorns can do. The only ponies who understood her were her family and her only friend, who moved away because he thought she was dead. ----- All my characters have physical and/or mental flaws that affect them in life.

Just a simple silly tip if you're making a backstory of your OCs... Don't make them 100% perfect...

I have a tip. Remaking the backstory can really help! I've personally gone through three back stories and two designs that I've changed. I went from having a yellow unicorn/alicorn, to a griffin with magic (I don't know what I was thinking, sadly this was less then a year ago), a changeling rebel, and am currently remaking it to be a small town Pegasus who dreams of getting big on PonyTube (basically MLP RU-vid 😄)

I remember watching this a while ago and this did help me with making my ponies' backstories and of course it still does.

CRAP DID I UNSUBSCRIBE BY ACCIDENT Sub again

Well my oc isn't a mlp character but is a crossover character between sonic(art style) and assassins creed (story) my character is a italian dire wolf born in 1752 italy whos father is a pirate dire wolf and her mother a dire wolf as well who is the daughter of an important Italian general. My ocs father actually saves the generals daughter during when a British man-o-war ship attacks the Italian ship in which the generals daughter was in. Damos(my ocs father)saves her and eventually both fall in love and have a child.(aka my oc) the general rewarded Damos by making him the new general.(here comes the villain of the story Exscar) exscar had been a soldier who had been chosen to be general first but was now replaced by a pirate (damos)exscar grew angered and created his own army of soldiers to attack and burn the village along with anyone in it. Every dire wolf including damos died as exscar remained,or so he thought. Luckily my ocs mother (Caroline) survived and was now escaping from the chaos with her 1 week child in her arms. But sadly she too was wounded and would not be able to raise her child . So she searched and searched until she found a manor house and left my oc in an empty stable and left never to be seen again. The next day the owner of the manor house,an old echidna found her. At first he was gonna leave her but he could not so he took her in and decided to raise her as his own.but to be known the echidna was a retired assassin from the brotherhood ,which he now was raising the young wolf to be one. As time past the wolf grew and so did her love for the sea. She did not know why though,perhaps its beauty captivated her(she got it from her real fathers love of the sea).so with hard time and work she was able to own a ship called the immortale. And now she sails the seven seas with her crew seeking answers and assassinating the templars that seek order over the world.(so yeah that's about it for now I'm too lazy to write the rest)

Ayyyyyy Tyan :D I had a character from a hard home, as a result, they have issues facing others. They overcame this from the support of others that they were close to, but never came out of that stage fully. Not being able to trust made the a cautious character, and made them overthink things most of the time.

im currently working on my oc. its my first one and ive been looking at a lot of your videos and they are really helping. but i also feel very overwhelmed. maybe im just taking it too seriously, as before i even started on my character i borderline studied a shit load of equestrian history for several days and its timeline to try and make my character awesome, but also lore friendly. but also not too awesome so i can avoid being labled a mary sue lol. right now still developing his back story. and im forming his motivation at this point for him to later become a villian. been an mlp fan for a very long time and ive hardly felt more included in the community. its really great ^~^

I have an OC her name is Donut🍩

Me: *sweating because i realized i made a ton of mistakes

Omg, thank you guys so much! I've been struggling on what course my character's backstory would take. I've been trying to plan it for well over a year, and this helped so much! You two are officially one of my life's heros. ;o;

Actually, let me refraze the sentense "Don't make more than you need to" - Explore the OCs backstory and character as much as you can, especially if they are of the mane cast. By doing that, you'll make the universe more realistic, and it'll be much more easier to avoid plotholes. Then think about what you want to hide from the readers, so they'll always have questions, making them curious for answers.

I remember I was playing D&D as a play-by-post. The DM was simultaneously amused and glad that I basically made a "mini-novel" for my character. He hadn't figured out the entire story yet, and I had given him a number of NPCs he could use. My rogue had an unstable CN alignment, and depending on his experiences he had a high potential to change alignment to any alignment except neutral (true) good or neutral (true) evil. I could explain why, but it would be difficult to do so without repeating most of the "mininovel."

I just created this character today, they aren't from the mlp universe, but one more like ours. Her name is Chris Lavather and she is 17. I wanted to get some outside opinions about her backstory, so here it is.Chris’ parents worked at a Morgue which desensitized her to corpses and death. In fact it made her curios to as what happened in these people’s lives and how they died. She quickly became fascinated with murder mystery and general history (Which is quite extensive causing her rambling problem). This led her to take a liking to the horror and mythology genre. Because of the extensive reading this caused her to find many strange and complicated words, but she never knew exactly how to use these words. Through research and introduction form the education system she discovered poetry. Poetry opened up a new way for her to use these words she acquired. This caused her to talk in a descriptive manner with the touch of modern slang. If you ever wish to have an in depth conversation with her, then you better read the entire Webster’s Dictionary. In short she is a sesquipedalianist. Chris also has fears of heights, fish, and the common stage fright. This is because… 1. She is afraid of the fact that she might fall and die. 2. Fish don’t blink. This freaks her out to the point she claims fish do not have souls. 3. Judgement or she thinks people will not like her work. She finds children’s nativity and quickness to judge a person annoying and same with most of their actions. She also finds yellow, no matter what the shade, an annoyingly bright and ‘strained’ color. She has lived a normal high schooler's life with the exception of talk of dead bodies at the dinner table.

I'm still working on my oc sunny's backstory I'm so glad I am so glad I found this!

I like making OC's that are kind of like me. Like a new one I'm still working on, she lashes out at others sometimes because she fears being picked on. And her story is like mine, at school (or for her, in public spaces) she used to be picked on, and as a result acts tougher around others so nobody picks on her. But underneath, she's really a nice person who doesn't want to be hurt or have their feelings hurt.

In truth, I think your reindeer oc is really good Tyandaga! I have actually been to Canada. It's beautiful there! I was mainly at Vancouver to say Hi and have a trip with my family.

My OC is a character that grew up normally, but has a voice in her head that is later found out to be her "physical form of bipolar" and is mean and outrageous, while she is shy and hardworking. She decides to live her life normally trying to keep this other person out of her life, and struggles to stop her from almost "possessing" her and telling her what to do and to just let all her anger out from the anxiety of her peers expectations.

This video helped me to come up with fears and flaws and a good backstory behind those fears and flaws for my earth pony OC! I've and so decided to name her Cactus Rose, based not only on her personality, but her cutie mark and such. Your videos were so helpful to me, because now I've created my earth pony OC's backstory, and I've come up with a name for her!

My character so far doesnt have a full backstory but ive figured out a main part of it that has caused her a lot of life problems; her name is Crystal Paw, shes a natural born alicorn but not of royalty. Her mother was a unicorn while her father was a pegasi. She lives in the Crystal Empire but not as a royal princess or leader. She is a citizen of the city but was bullied as young filly do to her inability to lay, sit, or touch clouds even for being part pegasi. Her magic is not as great as an alicorns or a natural born unicorn but she is able to most magic abilities considering her mother helps her learn. She is very shy do to the bullying and can be very protective if you talk bad about something or someone she cares for. She loves animals and is under training with Fluttershy to learn how to be a good animal trainer/caretaker. Though she has no friends in the town her only one real friend is the princess Flurry Heart. They have a strong bond for being the two natural born alicorns.