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The curse of throwing OC idea spaghetti at the wall
7 months ago
Feel like I'm kind of spinning my wheels in place as far as OC and setting building goes. Maybe writing a ramble journal about it will help me work through my thoughts.
I've been trying to build up my furry OC cast since early 2020. Pandemic countermeasures and unpleasant home life kinda threw a wrench in those plans for a couple of years. It wasn't until I got a chance to stay with relatives in a different city in 2023-- and on top of that, got a new laptop because my old one's charger plug port broke-- that I really had the chance to decompress and feel comfortable writing down and organizing OC concepts.
Unfortunately, I feel like I've been stuck in the "throw concepts at the wall like spaghetti and see what sticks" phase of creation for the past year and a half. I've made at least 7 different spreadsheets trying to build up the cast. None of them have turned out quite right. Recently I tried making flowcharts on draw.io to make a "world map" of significant places to the cast and their backstories, with just relative compass directions so as not to overwhelm myself with distance scaling and landform shaping. It felt rewarding, but I still haven't hit the sweet spot of what I want the setting to be like.
There are some core groups of OCs I'm 100% sure I want in my cast. Problem is, I'm not sure how to accommodate all of them in the same setting. There's a giant mixture of Pokémon and IRL animal-based furries, as well as a mixture of fantasy and modern-day-with-sci-fi-elements. It's something I'm sure can work, partly in thanks to a wonderful and supportive furry stream community I recently joined. They also have OC settings with similar mixtures. I just want my setting to be a bit smaller scale than an entire planet. That's the tough part.
Unfortunately, there comes a point where there are a bunch of animals/Pokémon I really want to incorporate, but my meatbrain starts yelling at me that I'm hoarding OC concepts. Then I start comparing myself to an overly demanding child wanting to collect toys, and I lose a lot of my motivation. This is especially frustrating because I feel like I'm on a tight time limit. A lot of people in the fandom got their start making their OC settings very early in young adulthood, sometimes even carrying things over from earlier in their lives. I only just started this in my late 20s. I'm now in my early 30s. If I don't end up with a fleshed-out cast and setting within the next several years, people are going to be creeped out at someone older than 37 (arbitrary number my meatbrain picked) making self-indulgent OC adventures with their sona being in an earlier stage of their life than they are IRL. I don't want these hypothetical people to be right in being creeped out at this, but the possibility that they might be right scares me.
I know the counterargument of a lot of artists and authors finishing their first works in their late 30s and/or their 40s. But it feels different when it's a professional and/or published artist who can be self-indulgent, but it feels like they're showing restraint to at least some degree; vs. a random internet person, out of practice with creative pursuits due to IRL struggles, where it's kinda obvious that they're being super self-indulgent.
You can understand why I'm feeling kinda desperate to make progress here. But I'm still stuck in the spaghetti-throwing stage in a lot of places. Beh.
If you made it all the way through this ramble journal, thanks for letting me get my thoughts out there. I appreciate it.
I've been trying to build up my furry OC cast since early 2020. Pandemic countermeasures and unpleasant home life kinda threw a wrench in those plans for a couple of years. It wasn't until I got a chance to stay with relatives in a different city in 2023-- and on top of that, got a new laptop because my old one's charger plug port broke-- that I really had the chance to decompress and feel comfortable writing down and organizing OC concepts.
Unfortunately, I feel like I've been stuck in the "throw concepts at the wall like spaghetti and see what sticks" phase of creation for the past year and a half. I've made at least 7 different spreadsheets trying to build up the cast. None of them have turned out quite right. Recently I tried making flowcharts on draw.io to make a "world map" of significant places to the cast and their backstories, with just relative compass directions so as not to overwhelm myself with distance scaling and landform shaping. It felt rewarding, but I still haven't hit the sweet spot of what I want the setting to be like.
There are some core groups of OCs I'm 100% sure I want in my cast. Problem is, I'm not sure how to accommodate all of them in the same setting. There's a giant mixture of Pokémon and IRL animal-based furries, as well as a mixture of fantasy and modern-day-with-sci-fi-elements. It's something I'm sure can work, partly in thanks to a wonderful and supportive furry stream community I recently joined. They also have OC settings with similar mixtures. I just want my setting to be a bit smaller scale than an entire planet. That's the tough part.
Unfortunately, there comes a point where there are a bunch of animals/Pokémon I really want to incorporate, but my meatbrain starts yelling at me that I'm hoarding OC concepts. Then I start comparing myself to an overly demanding child wanting to collect toys, and I lose a lot of my motivation. This is especially frustrating because I feel like I'm on a tight time limit. A lot of people in the fandom got their start making their OC settings very early in young adulthood, sometimes even carrying things over from earlier in their lives. I only just started this in my late 20s. I'm now in my early 30s. If I don't end up with a fleshed-out cast and setting within the next several years, people are going to be creeped out at someone older than 37 (arbitrary number my meatbrain picked) making self-indulgent OC adventures with their sona being in an earlier stage of their life than they are IRL. I don't want these hypothetical people to be right in being creeped out at this, but the possibility that they might be right scares me.
I know the counterargument of a lot of artists and authors finishing their first works in their late 30s and/or their 40s. But it feels different when it's a professional and/or published artist who can be self-indulgent, but it feels like they're showing restraint to at least some degree; vs. a random internet person, out of practice with creative pursuits due to IRL struggles, where it's kinda obvious that they're being super self-indulgent.
You can understand why I'm feeling kinda desperate to make progress here. But I'm still stuck in the spaghetti-throwing stage in a lot of places. Beh.
If you made it all the way through this ramble journal, thanks for letting me get my thoughts out there. I appreciate it.
I'm surprised to get a response to this, but I'm glad to see it! It feels really supportive. I think you make a good point about working at it piecewise and gradually. Thanks!
I also super appreciate the offer. I'm taking some time to decompress for a bit, but I might try and reach out soon, if that's okay :D
But yeh, I appreciate the solidarity. Current Events™️ are indeed scary in that regard :')
That being said, I've gotten some really helpful and supportive comments in the meantime. And if early 30s still leaves plenty of time in life for creative pursuits, mid-20s should as well! Best o' luck with your own OCs 👍
that and I'm still trying to think of what the "magic number" of characters I wanna have is lol
(it's probably somewhere between 7 and 12...)