Good Morning, all! (or evening to those on the other side of the planet)

*giggle* I find it interesting that two takes came from this question. A 
list of origional characters and advice on introducing new characters. 
The power of the written word and all that...

It was written: 

This is something that I've been doing alot of, that is, introducting new
characters into various fanfics, most notably, Megumi Shirow, who is featuered
in a good number of my Ranma fanfics.

        Is there any guidline on new characters or what?

[snip]

1) Don't overload the fic with too many characters at once!

 
[snip]

 If you have several original characters, introduce them gradually
and decide which ones are going to get more focus overall than the others.
Also, switch focus now and then if you have more than few original characters.

Excellent advise!

2)  Make sure the characters have something to contribute to the story and fit
in with the setting.

Hummm...Def. make sure they contribute to the story, otherwise why have 
them there in the first place? ^_-
Fit in with the setting. Interesting word choice. My thought on this is 
that it is up to the author to make the chosen character fit. Though as 
an author, one should keep in mind that certain character types are 
going to be much harder to write and justify in certain settings than 
others. The Lobo/Kasumi thread comes to mind here. It was done as a 
paradoy, the only way it COULD be done. *and was really funny*

[snip]

3) Make sure the characters are good ones.

Def. a must, whether protagonist or antagonist. A few things to keep in 
mind. Don't have your origional character/s overshadow, in airtime or 
power level, the established characters. Especially in a Ranma fic. In 
some of the other storylines readers are more forgiving of this, but in 
Ranma, it's normally the death knell for a fic.

(As in all things, there are exceptions to this rule. Twister comes to 
mind. The first couple of parts of this were lots of fun. I did it in 
one of mine where there was only one Ranma character and the whole rest 
of the cast were origional. *Well, Ranma, Akane and Tofu had a cameo...* 
But I guess what I'm trying to say here is that origional characters 
that aren't pure ex machina are risky and need to be worked carefully. 
Most origional characters that aren't pure ex machina are avitars of the 
author and therein lies the trap. You need to be able to divorce 
yourself from the character enough to let it get hurt, fail, do stupid 
things, die in an unglorious and inane way if necessary, whatever.)

Most origional characters are/should be ex machina, devices to move the 
plot and for the established characters to work off of. Now I'm not 
saying here that origional characters don't and shouldn't have a 'life' 
(for lack of a better description) of thier own. In fact, a good measure 
to see if you've done a good job with an origional character is if the 
readers begin to care about it, like it enough to say at the end of the 
story, "Boy, I'd like to see that character show up again in another 
piece!"

O.K. Enough rambling. These are just my thoughts on the subject, based 
on my own reading habits and own small writing skills. Maybe they'll 
prove insightful to some. ^_^ If not, just hit the D key and wave as you 
go by!

Laters.

Windlily
(dragoncritter@wherethehellisthecelestialtemple.com)