Cenonn's How to Holofic and Writing in General

Let's talk about Hololive characters!

So... We're going to write about Hololive characters in your fanfic. It's a given that you'll write about them. I mean... A Hololive fanfic without Hololive characters is like a coffee shop that doesn't sell coffee.

Anyways, you've signed up for this. You ain't got a choice but to write Hololive characters. You could write about your favorite girl interacting with your main character and whatever. I don't care what the Hololive member would be doing in your fanfic. I'll just tell you how to write them.

You got two options in writing Hololive characters and these are in-character and out-of-character.

I'll talk about the easier one first. The out-of-character (OOC) is writing a character that is acting in a way that they don't usually act. For example, you can write a very seiso Coco who doesn't swear and very very reserved and modest.

This one's a bit tricky because you wouldn't be able to please everyone on how you portrayed their girls. Let's go back to the Coco example. Fans love her for her unrestricted language and crass personality. If you start writing her as a very shy and modest girl, some of her fans would say "That's not our Kaichou!"

One example I can give you about an OOC character is the Fubuki from Phanzuru's Holonatural Occurrences. She is depicted as a very shy fox girl who is wary of strangers. However, Phanzuru said that he made her that way as sort of a "prologue" to her more famous cheery self. In other words, his OOC depiction of Fubuki was justified and such.

Another example I can give you about an OOC character is the Amelia Watson from my fanfiction, From Another World. Amelia is our lovable gremlin who groundpounds moms. However, she is a competent detective with a strong sense of justice in my fanfic. Well... I haven't received complaints about my depiction of her and there were even some who liked how I gave justice to her detective persona.

Now then... I won't tell you to avoid making characters act OOC. Writing in OOC is like wielding a knife. It can be useful or dangerous depending on how you use it. I'll just warn you that writing in OOC is a bit tricky and you won't be able to please everyone.

Anyways, I'm done with OOC. Writing in OOC is pretty easy since you're like writing an original character except that their names and appearances are already set. I'm going to talk about the harder part: writing in-character.

I'll give you one word which you'll always encounter when writing fanfictions or even stories in general and that word is "RESEARCH."

Whenever writing about a character in fanfiction, no matter what fandom, you have to research if you want them to act in-character. And I'm not just saying look at popular clips and base around it. Nope.

You have to dive deep. Find as many clips as you can. Watch their streams. Go to forums or group chats and interview long time fans. Do your best in gathering information. The more information you gather, the more "in-character" your Hololive girl would act.

For example, you might know Marine to be a girl who is horny. One pitfall is that authors would just take that character trait of Marine and revolve her entire personality around it. That's no good. You'll end up writing about a flat character who only has one trait.

While it's good that you would exaggerate some of their traits, it's never good to just define them by that trait. If you do so, you might annoy some of their fans. For example, you can't have Marine talk about being horny all the time or else, her fans would think you are insulting her and would drop your fic. Or worse, they will call you out.

Now then... How to fix it? The answer is just one word and that's "RESEARCH."

If you research enough, you'll find out that Marine is a pretty sensitive girl. She understands other girls' social anxieties and respects their boundaries. A few more research would reveal that she has a sister who has a communication disorder so she understands the other girls' fear of social interaction.

See? Marine no longer sounds like a bad girl who is always horny. Instead, she looks like a real person who is pretty understanding of circumstances of the other people around her. And if you write her in that manner, her fans would appreciate what you did and boom! You got loyal readers! Congratulations!

It works in other fandoms as well. You want to write about Zenitsu Agatsuma from Kimetsu no Yaiba? You wouldn't want to just write him as a screaming coward. You have to research him. You'll find out that even if he was a coward, he has a sense of honor and justice as well. And if you write about it, you'll please the Zenitsu fans.

Now then... You finished deciding on how to write a Hololive character. Here's the next question: What should their roles be?

Are they going to be part of the good guys? Then you'll please their fans. Are they going to be the MC's romantic interest? You'll attract their loyal fans' attention.

One warning though: Be very careful if you're going to make them into a villain. After all, no one wants to see their favorite girls be depicted as a villain. If you're going to make them a villain, be reasonable with how you portray them.

For example, if you make Marine to be an evil pirate who plunders ships and raids towns, you'll have to be very careful with the execution. Do it right like making Marine look like an understandable villain, then her fans would forgive you. But making her downright unlikable? Good luck with having a bad name among her fans.

Now that you're done planning their roles, decide on their screen time.

Are they going to be important characters who will appear every now and then? Are they going to be just a one-time character who will appear in a few scenes of a certain arc?

Decide how important they are in the plot and base their screen time on that. You don't want to create filler scenes and risk boring your readers just because you want to give more screen time to a Hololive girl. Make sure that any screen time you'll give, it's justifiable.

Also, don't worry about writing all Hololive girls in your fanfiction to be in-character. After all, you don't have time to research every single girl. You can balance the in-character and the OOC depictions of each Hololive girl.

And don't worry about not being faithful to her personality. Don't pressure yourself to be able to accurately depict her. Heck. Psychologists even have a hard time fully understanding their patient's personality and they have years of academic training. It's understandable if you can't fully write about them.

In-character and OOC are both legitimate ways of writing as long as you know how to do it. There's no "superior" way. Some OOCs make other characters to be way more interesting than their real personalities. In-character would always please that character's fans if you do it well enough. Just make sure that there is balance.

Now that I'm done with talking about writing Hololive characters, I'll discuss how to write Original Characters in the next chapter! Look forward to it!