the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ common mistakes when writing elena gilbert

common mistakes i see when writing elena gilbert.

i know that i said i would write character outlines and i will, i'm just trying to figure out a general outline for how i want to do that so for now, i thought this would be helpful. i'll do them for other characters too.

1. elena doesn't want everyone to risk their life for her. she is willing to sacrifice herself to save those she loves.

common examples?
she gave herself over to klaus so that he wouldn't kill anyone.
she made a deal with elijah to not fight so that he would protect her friends.
she asked stefan to save matt over her not knowing she had vampire blood in her system.
she accepted staying asleep for several decades, meaning she wouldn't see her brother or a few of her friends again and even her vampire friends could eventually die so that bonnie could live.

if you are trying to write her accurately, making it seem like she wants everyone to die for her is wrong. whether or not you like her is irrelevant. she does not expect everyone to give up their life or happiness for her.

2. for the most part, when elena does something "bad" it is usually because she thinks it will help someone.

does that make it any less "bad"? i don't know and i really don't care. that's your opinion,

but you should understand that she doesn't do things just to hurt people.

for example, when elena had jeremy sent away, she took away his choice. was it bad? again, that's up to you. but did she do it because she wanted to hurt him? no. she wanted to protect him. did it actually protect him? that's up to you (he became besties with kol so probably not, but it also shows you how elena doesn't necessarily think through her decisions because she did end up putting him in danger by taking him away from people who could protect him or maybe she did but weighed her options.)

again, this is how you can sometimes play with the character. we don't fully know elena's thought process when she makes decisions, we can make assumptions based on what she says, but you can play with it.

yes people do help her a lot, but she helps them too. for a good part of the show, she was human and had to go against stefan, damon, and caroline who were all vampires and bonnie, a witch, if she wanted to do things her way. it wasn't easy and they were obviously stronger so they could do more. but that doesn't mean she didn't

3. elena isn't weak. not as a vampire and not as a human. no she's not going to be kicking klaus' ass any time soon, but she did train to hunt vampires with damon and alaric. i think stefan taught her too.

4. this is not as much about elena as it is about her friends.

they don't blindly follow her. i never really understood where this idea came from in fanfics where she gets everyone to turn on the oc and gang up on them. they don't really listen to her. she's overruled a lot. they leave her out of a lot of things like when they were planning on killing katherine and making the white oak stakes.

5. elena isn't nearly as judgmental about relationships as people make her out to be in fanfics. she kept her opinions to herself for the most part, if she even had them. of course this could change if, for example, her sister is dating klaus in a fanfic. if i remember correctly, she didn't care about rebekah and matt or klaus and caroline.

6. elena isn't a bully. i don't know why i've seen so many fanfics where she is. before her parents died, it was said that she was a lot of fun and everyone liked her. after, she kept to herself a lot more, but she still was kind to people.

7. elena isn't going to have a whole affair with damon behind your oc's back when they're meant to be best friends. i notice this a lot in fanfics and it is incredibly out of character. a kiss? maybe. a love confession? possible. a whole affair? probably not. elena wasn't shown to not care about her friends. she was incredibly protective over them, kind, and caring. she wouldn't do that. there's no evidence of that in the show. her falling in love with damon while her and stefan were broken up is not evidence of that.

8. elena isn't really a violent person. i don't know why i see her always attacking oc's in stefan or damon fanfics. she's not violent and she's not going to be trying to kill them.

9. elena is not possessive over the salvatore brothers.

if she broke up with one and one of them left her would she be upset? yes, probably. is she going to become incredibly angry and jealous because they moved on? no, probably not.

she didn't care when damon was dating that reporter (i forget her name).
she didn't care about stefan and caroline (if i remember correctly, she pushed for them to be together).
she didn't care about stefan and katherine.
she told damon to date while she was under the sleeping spell.