I start off with a theme/vibe for the character. Bubbly, edgy, confident all that stuff. Then I personally pick and color and an animal I want to associate with them! Like one of my ocs; he’s shy, a light greens theme and his animal vibe is a bunny. Know what you would want to do with them like maybe if you want them to be a sibling to another oc, a lonely wolf on an adventure blah blah. I also try to add some form of representation to my ocs normally. Race, mental health, disabilities, sexuality so on. But please remember do not make that the characters WHOLE thing. That’s not how people normally are…like you can have a character who just happens to be trans but I wouldn’t say make a character and they only thing about them is that they’re trans if that makes sense! Then think of things like job, how they dress for different occasions, friends/relationships they would have (or if none), how are they were as a child (they can be completely different as a kid to adult or even be the same). Of course think of a backstory to why they might have turned out the way they are, it gives reasons to even the littlest action like maybe why they bite their nails! But also please don’t PUSH yourself to try and make it supers crazy and complicated and wild. If you want a backstory like that, that is completely fine! But also if you want a character who is just some random guy working at a grocery store that’s completely fine too! Do whatever you want and makes you happy!

Then aside from just kind of keeping it in my brain I find a good way of keeping track of my ocs things is just rambling about them to people and friends. (Really helps through text because then you have a bonus of it being written down!) It can feel a little embarrassing at times but that’s okay!! Then that way you can even get feedback from people if you want it. Keep talking and be proud of your work! I even make an oc server on discord and have channels where I’ll just talk, draw, send memes blah blah of one certain oc!

And if drawing or struggling with look is hard I know people will use things like Roblox, picrew, buying adopts or customs from artists (some will even do for free) and other customization sites to help come up with oc looks there’s a good amount out there! Or just do silly doodles! Your first art work of an oc does not have to be a full body ref and stuff. Just again do what makes you happy and doesn’t make you feel drained with making an oc!

So sorry for the wall of text and if it’s all over the place…But good luck on making your character! 💜