I've been having trouble writing a couple of my stories.
First, I've been working on the pretty ambitious project of novelizing every Touhou game to date, starting with HRtP. However, given the general lack of plot in the game, I've basically used this as a sort of freebie, introducing characters that didn't exist until the Windows games (or didn't exist at all). My main concern is how I'm using Kasen... I'm guess the best analogy would be she's Reimu's Gandalf. She'll appear and disappear throughout the early stories, helping when it's needed then sort of fade away. I'm conflicted about what to do with Rin - she's going to play a BIG role in the early stories, and might even show up in the later ones, though it's more likely she'll get written out and make small appearances occasionally.
Connecting the PC98 and the Windows storylines is a major theme here, but there are elements that I'm not sure about... for instance, Ruukoto. Should Reimu get her, and what purpose should she serve? I've thought briefly about changing her to a robot combat maid, (lol). I've also been thinking about how I should handle the narrative of the later games, with more than one leading character. Should I keep it first person, or maybe make only Reimu's parts FP... this was a major issue for me with August Star, which was originally all Maribel's POV, and I wanted multiple plot threads going.
Next, I was writing a Reisen origin story called Mare Desiderii. After reading Ruroto's White Rose, I wanted to try my hand at a war epic, but I soon realized that while I knew how I wanted to start it and how I wanted to end it, I knew very little about the in between... this actually tends to be a problem for a lot of my work. There was also an problem with characters. This was to be set on the Moon, during the Lunar War, so apart from Reisen most of the characters would have to be OCs. And as most people know, OCs can either make or break a fic. Usually the latter.
I guess my question here is what do most of you do when you absolutely must use an OC?
Wow... this turned out to be a bit longer than I thought it would be. Thanks to anyone who reads it.