The infamous Out Of Character Syndrome. Sometimes, it's really hard to cure, but it's always possible.

You might be wondering, Are my characters OOC?

First, let me explain what OOC means. If a character is OOC, that means they're out of character. They are exhibiting traits that they were not their previously, and are not in their character. They are basically doing actions and thinking thought that are uncharacteristic of them.

Anyway, characters being OOC is a huge problem in PJO fanfics.

Some common examples are:

First, Annabeth does have her prideful moments, but most of the time, she keeps it under control. And being prideful isn't her fatal flaw, hubris is. (Not hummus, Percy! Anybody catch the reference?) Well, that leads me to my next point.

Now, people act like Percy is an idiot, but he is actually pretty intelligent. We don't actually know if he likes reading or not. We've really only seen him do work or read in English, except for a few sentences or other things in Greek.

Now, compared to Annabeth, he doesn't seem like the brightest, but he's not immature. In The Lightning Thief, whose face went red and embarrassed when Percy and Annabeth had to go down the tunnel of love?

You guessed it, Annabeth's!

Now, people take this Percy likes blue food thing to another level. And can anybody prove Percy doesn't like fish or likes Nemo?

For one, fish eat each other frequently in the circle of life.

Second, is there literally any mention of Percy liking Finding Nemo in the books?

Now, people exaggerate them, but mostly for laughs, and that's okay. What I hate to see in a fanfic is Annabeth treating Percy like a toddler.

An example:

You see?

Now, Percy having baby seal eyes, while not being canon, is a nice detail to put in your book. What you don't want is Percy having a tantrum and saying "I want my blue cookies NOW!"

Now, I have a challenge for your readers. The challenge is to either make or find a Chaos fanfiction where Annabeth doesn't die or turn evil. You have unlimited time to do this.

Now, it was stated in Mark of Athena that Annabeth had a crush on Percy when they were twelve. Percy is also extremely loyal to all of his friends, so I don't see them having a huge, loud, throwing stuff break up.

And Annabeth definitely isn't going to cheat on Percy. If they broke up, I imagine it would be a mutual decision, not some huge fight. Now, Percy will probably be really sad for a time period, but eventually he'll get over it.

Now, here's the OOC checklist for Percy Jackson:

Is Percy at average smarts?

Is Percy loyal?

Is Percy a show off?

Is Percy slightly sassy?(Not too sassy, really just saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.)

If you got Yes, Yes, No, Yes, congratulations! You're Percy is most likely not OOC.

Now, it's time to address the Persassy issue.

Yes, Percy may have sass at some times, but he isn't really that sassy in the books. Sardonic, yeah, Sarcastic, definitely. But sassy? He cracks jokes, and he is funny and sarcastic. At some points, yes you could call him sassy, but not too much.

I just can't think of a better word for it.

I really hate when a book has Percy or Annabeth, or really any of the characters OOC. Now, if you make an OC(Original Character), it will be really hard to make them OOC, because everything they do is building into their characters.

Now, if in one book the character is moody and dark, and really sarcastic, the next book should not have them all sunshine and happiness, and full of good words. It takes time for Character development to happen.

Remember Nico? Bianca dying was a big hit for his character. In my mind, whenever somebody dies to give another character character development (Example: (SPOILER FOR HP) Sirius Black dying to give Harry some character development) I call them a Bianca DiAngelo, or a Bianca D.

Speaking of Nico, I have another thing. WE DON'T KNOW IF HE LIKES HAPPY MEALS!We've only really seen him with one once, and he was giving it to the dead! So please, do your research, he's never eaten a happy meal in the books.

But Character Development is going to be a whole different chapter, so I'll stop there.

Tune in next time!