the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ piece of advice

before i begin i would like to give one very important piece of advice that i think helps a lot (sorry for the mini rant at the end).

write what you want.

write the story for yourself, not with the hope of getting views or what other people will think.

for one, we are writing fanfics on wattpad not trying to publish hard copies of a book. have fun with it, it's your take on a story. don't worry about what other people think.

for example, something that i have heard a lot about is how you shouldn't write a fanfic where the OC is a sibling because there's so many of them and they can be cringy.

so what?

if someone doesn't like a certain type of fanfic, they won't click on it. chances are, no matter what you write, there are going to be people who don't like that type of story. that happens with any book.

for example when you walk into a book store and you pick up a book, read the little summary and decide you don't like the genre so you put it back down. let's say you aren't the only one who doesn't like this book. let's say there's a thousand other people like you. does that mean the genre of that book shouldn't be made? no. not everyone is going to love your book and that's okay. chances are they will simply click off (some feel the need to comment it. please don't be that person).

in defence of fanfics where the original character is related to a main character, i think that they're much more interesting. i actually don't read fanfics where the OC isn't related to them.

a bit off track here but to me, i sometimes have a hard time connecting with OCs when they aren't related to a character on the show. it adds a little bit more drama.

we've seen how characters in the show reacted to their friends dating people they didn't like. but we don't really see it as siblings.

off track again, but one thing i noticed in fanfics where it's an OC who is just let's say a friend of the group, sometimes the friends will be so controlling over who they're dating and want them to stop but ignores the OC and to me, this didn't really seem to fit the main characters. we saw caroline actively dislike damon and elena's relationship or elena dislike stefan and rebekah but they didn't make it their life mission to ruin their relationship and control each other.

but if they were siblings, i think they might be more inclined to do so.

also, sibling fanfics seem to always be the most popular so there's a pretty good chance that people enjoy them to some degree.

back on track now.

it is your fanfic. have fun with it. enjoy it. do what you want. be proud of it. if your story really is "cringy" so what? if you're happy with it, be happy with it. those who like it will continue to read and those who don't will stop. cringy also isn't a synonym for bad. real life can be very cringy. people have moments where they mess up or feel embarrassed and that's normal.

of course writing can also be "cringy" when we are new and inexperienced. that's okay. you can improve. not everyone is a "great" writer right away and it can take a long time to improve. we learn more about the flow of our stories, how we want them to be interpreted as we write.

i'm currently editing a fanfic i wrote in about 2017. i cringe at almost everything i wrote because i've learned so much just from practice. other people liked it and didn't seem to mind. i kept writing because at the time i really enjoyed it. i'm sure that to some it was too cringy and they liked off. for me it wasn't. i was happy and now i still am. i hope that you'll be happy with what you write too.