Creating a Passive Creepypasta OC

What words strike fear into the hearts of readers? If I may quote Patrick Star, “He’s just standing there! Menacingly!” Think about it. You never see Slenderman ripping people’s heads off, and you don’t know what he does with the children he takes, but it’s precisely because of his dull disinterest with the world around him that he’s made scary. Slenderman wouldn’t be nearly as well-known if he just ran around stabbing people like a certain other famous pasta. Nothing against Jeff, but subtlety is not his forte. In keeping with this theme, in today’s Pasta for Dummies article I’ll be getting into how to make a careless, quasi-submissive pasta who can inspire terror without even needing to lift a measly finger. Sounds cool, no?

First off, while it’s not on the required reading list, I highly recommend you read up on ’s Rainmen as an example of what I’m talking about. These guys are freaking terrifying in my humble opinion, to the extent that I wrote a story about them (appropriately titled “Calm”) which I would also advise you to read. Links to both of these can be found in the description below.

Now then, on to the meat of the matter. I’ve said the same in my other guides at various points, but it bears repeating. The unknown is always scarier than the explained. And that doesn’t just go for creating a mysterious, brooding OC, but for creating OCs in general. Of course, if you’re hoping to make the next Slenderman or Zalgo this is doubly true. Leave enough unexplained and open to interpretation that people will fill in the blanks with their own fears and anxieties without even realizing it. You may not have noticed, but when you read a horror story you are instinctively applying your own traumas and negative experiences towards what you are perceiving. It’s just human nature, and you can take advantage of it by leaving key parts of your OC’s facets “up in the air”. Of course, this is no excuse for lazy writing. None of that “they look so scary mere words can’t describe them” or “REDACTED” crap I’ve seen so often with SCPs.

So with that outta the way, let’s discuss the three most common types of passively threatening creepypasta and horror OC’s.

“Observation” OC’s are by far the most common in the “passive” sub-niche of creepypasta characters, since proxy OC’s fall into this category (and we all know how many of those there are). They are typically the easiest to relate to and might even have redeeming traits, since they are often human, at least originally. Their methods are also often the easiest to understand. To put it simply, in a military setting they would be a recon or scouting unit, gathering intel on the enemy and reporting what they learned back to their superior(s). If you feel iffy about writing about something with a totally alien or inscrutable manner of thinking, then a proxy/observation OC is probably the easiest to write for.

“Stalker” OC’s include literal stalkers who often appear in creepypastas tormenting some hapless victim they have developed an unhealthy obsession with, as well as more mysterious beings like ’s aforementioned Rainmen. They are typically single-minded, persistent, and good at avoiding detection. They are also very likely to be malicious, although this isn’t always the case. Many urban legends deal with stalkers, so those can be good to read for inspiration or ideas. Stalker OC’s also tend to work better in one-shots or short-term story arcs than as long-running characters, although if you feel otherwise don’t feel like that should stop you from doing so.
“Enigmatic” OC’s are the ones everyone is familiar with, and everyone loves them just as much. Slenderman, Eyeless Jack, my very own Stillborn Midwife (I’ll provide a link in the description if you wanna read more about them), Zalgo, Smile.jpeg, you name it. If they’re a popular pasta, chances are there’s some element of them left unexplained, floating around in the reader’s head, eating at them throughout the day and tormenting them when they try to sleep. How do you make an OC like this? The best advice I can give you is to come up with a wholly original idea and run with it. The one thing all these famous pastas have in common is, paradoxically, that they have nothing in common. They’re all fresh, unique, and inventive, in their own way. So I can’t really give you a winning formula for coming up with the next big trend in creepypasta, other than to offer a few general bits of advice for coming up with ideas.

First, ask your friends for ideas. Not for them to do your work for you, mind you, but just for something to use as a springboard to the finished product. If that doesn’t work, pick an emotion, object, event, or person personal to you, and use them as a prompt for a short pasta. Then see if you can’t extrapolate the themes you touched on in the story into something greater. Finally, when all else fails, use your own nightmares as fuel (a different kind of “nightmare fuel” to be sure).

Think about what scares you, what makes you feel insecure or insignificant in an ocean of fantastic dread. If you succeed with your pasta, you can share that nightmare with world. To be sure, a well-crafted nightmare is beautiful in its own way.