This message is my response to the anon that signed their message with “Q” on my story poll, but this is also my general response to how readers feel about my OCs. 

First of all, thank you to Q for taking the time to ask/write a long question. I did see your message on Tumblr, and I apologize for responding rudely here. I thought it was coming from a place of hate. People send me hateful things under the guise of it being “criticism,” so I lashed out. Thanks for elaborating later, though! I really appreciate it. I hope you don’t mind me quoting you either.

Anyways, Q said:

So, there’s a lot to unpack here, but let me start simply before explaining my OCs and why I write them like so + the relationship between these characters.

You don’t need to relate to characters at all or whatsoever in order to understand them - which is the main thing that you need to do when you read a story.

Trying to “relate” yourself to every character is actually detrimental. Why do you need to relate to them? You are not the OC; they are not you. They are someone else entirely. You don’t need to project your own traits onto them.

Indeed, not a single OC is indebted into exhibiting the same characteristics as the reader reading about them. Relating to an OC is a bonus, not a requirement.

Most of my stories involve an original female character as the main lead, and most of the time, I try to portray them with distinct, realistic personalities. I do not purposely try to write “self-insert” stories where the female OC is a perfect, beautiful, goddess-like person that I can project myself onto; I try to write about people who can potentially exist. Sometimes, these people are likable, and at other times, they’re just loathsome.

But that’s the point.

I know I write fanfiction, but I don’t see fanfiction as a means of escapism. I don’t see it as a land of only fairytales and happy endings. I see it as an extension of what reality can be.

The OCs I write aren’t just people that you can step into. They have their own personalities, quirks, annoyances, etc.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR AMOROUS DESIGNS, RED MERCEDES, AND BLIND SPOT HERE!

Now, moving onto the specific questions that Q mentioned...

Recap: you said that you didn’t relate to Miyoung, “the girl” in my story - Amorous Designs. You essentially said the same thing about Ange in Blind Spot, stating that you felt like Baekhyun was disrespected or disobeyed by them in both stories. You then convey confusion as to why Baekhyun ends up liking each OC in each story in what feels like “sudden movements.” Lastly, you ask if you’ve missed the point in what I was trying to convey.

To answer your main question, yes, you missed the point I was trying to convey.

Let me take a step back to explain this.

In Amorous Designs, there’s a 12-year between Miyoung and Baekhyun, so yes, she’s a lot younger than him. She’s an 18-year-old high school student when they first meet, and he’s a 30-year-old lawyer acting as her temporary tutor. Miyoung develops a crush on him, and as a very outgoing and headstrong person, she naturally tries to get to know him more.

Miyoung is naive, persistent, and illogical. That was the point. She represents young, illogical, idyllic love - and it’s her personality to go after what she wants. In her mind, what is she supposed to do when she forms a deep crush on a seemingly perfect tutor? Miyoung tries hard to be logical. She knows Baekhyun is her tutor. He’s older. She’s his student. She wasn’t naive in knowing that her crush was stupid.

Even Baekhyun approaches her crush with a lot of logic and thinking. But if you’ve read Red Mercedes, then you know he’s a bad boy at heart no matter how much he has changed himself. He knows a relationship with his student is dumb, inappropriate, and unprofessional, yet he still pursues it because he admits that it thrills him - and he likes her too. He likes her personality, her flair for showing off, and how much she loves literature and poetry.

In my mind, Baekhyun is just as dumb as Miyoung in Amorous Designs. He’s just as naive, persistent, and illogical. What kind of 30-year-old man who is sane in the head would try to date an 18-year-old high school student? There were so many times when he could have broken their relationship off as it happened, but he didn’t. Miyoung didn’t want to break it off either.

Baekhyun and Miyoung both end up messing with each other’s life terribly as a result.

And that’s the point.

One of the themes in Amorous Designs (it’s in the title since “design” also means an intention) is the naive and illogical desire and will to make love work despite the circumstances. On the surface, it’s just about a student-teacher relationship that has gone too far, but at its heart, it’s about knowing what’s bad for you and wanting it anyways.

If you read Amorous Designs correctly, you should have been annoyed at both Miyoung and Baekhyun at one point. However, it’s up to you to decide if their romance is distasteful in its nature or commendable for its endurance.

(Before I start talking about Blind Spot, I just want to say that multiple people have pointed out that Miyoung from AD is very similar to Ange in BS. I can confirm that both of them have similar characteristics, so maybe that’s why you don’t relate to either one of them.)

In Blind Spot, I introduce Ange as someone who’s curious by nature because she doesn’t know what she wants. She has gone to multiple schools that specialize in different things. She thought she wanted to be a lawyer, then a chef, then a fashion designer, etc, so she tried out all of those ventures. I think that’s why Ange comes off as “prodding.” When she’s curious and interested about something, she won’t hesitate in trying to find out more - even on a level where she shouldn’t be going.

(Quick note: Ange is 20 and Baekhyun is 26, so yes, she is younger than he is, though their ages aren’t that relevant to their relationship and its nature.)

On the other hand, Baekhyun is closed-off and extremely lonely. As revealed later in the story, everyone in his family is dead. He doesn’t consider himself to have normal friends. While he doesn’t want to be alone, he also doesn’t want to drag anyone into his illegal world of street racing and crime. That’s why he initially tries to distance Ange away from himself, but he can’t keep her away forever.

“Slow and steady” wins the race, and in this case, Ange’s persistence (or her tendency to become prodding, if you see it that way) makes Baekhyun become drawn to her. While Ange does disobey him several times, she does so out of the desire to know everything there is about him - even after he has made it clear that he is not a good person. Due to this, Baekhyun feels like maybe she cares about him; maybe, just maybe, there is someone sweet like that can like someone so awful.

Someone mentioned this before, but essentially, Baekhyun has been deprived of genuine care for so long that he doesn’t know how to handle it at first - but he yearns for it in some form anyways.

Like in Amorous Designs, Baekhyun and the OC - Ange - end up screwing each other’s lives up tremendously. Baekhyun is an objectively dangerous figure that knows better than to drag an innocent girl into his mess; Ange is an objectively naive person for wanting to know more about a person who pointed a gun at her and threatened her.

But...that’s the point.

The title is “Blind Spot.” Ange has been going through life with her eyes closed (curious, blind to the danger, and jumping into situations without foresight); Baekhyun has been going through his life with a careful eye for what his blind spot (his weakness) may be when he’s ironically hit in the places he didn’t know existed. It’s about what you didn’t see coming.

I know you can’t relate to Ange or Miyoung (or any of my characters) at some points, but you don’t need to, if that makes sense. You just need to understand them.

You don’t need to relate to characters at all or whatsoever in order to understand them.

I don’t try to create likable characters all the time. Likability is subjective. What I want is understandable complexity. What I want is for a character to be distinct and realistic.

Relating to a character is a bonus - completely optional. What you should prioritize is understanding them because it will help you appreciate them, maybe even like them.

Don’t try to insert yourself into the shoes of every character you read because you are simply not them, and they are simply not you. Some characters are not relatable whatsoever, but that’s okay because all they have to be is real.

I hope that answers your question, Q, and clarifies things for you (and others as well)! Feel free to reach out to me on any of my platforms if you’d like more of a discussion.

Until then!

—Skye

Twitter, Curious Cat