the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ ten positive character traits for elena gilbert

10 positive character traits for elena gilbert. who should i do next?

1. bravery.

elena is very brave and its something that i think is very overlooked by the fandom, but she does stand up for herself and if she is scared, she does a good job at hiding it for the most part. and she doesn't let her fear stop her from doing what she thinks she needs to do.

other characters on the show are brave too, but what i think is unique about elena is that they're bravery is pretty linked to their skills as a vampire or witch because they know that they (usually depending on who they're facing) can defend herself. elena can't do that. she's human. and yes she did learn some self defence stuff from alaric, but she is still human. she knows she can't take on someone like elijah for example, but she still faces him knowing what she wants and doesn't back down.

examples (some examples for different things will be used more than once since they do show a lot about her character)

- she stabbed herself and risked dying just to dagger elijah.

-  she stands up to damon despite knowing he's a vampire on a few different occasions (this is back in season one where they aren't friends and she only knows him as stefan's bad brother).

- she looks klaus straight in his eyes and tells him to "rot in hell" (couldn't be me, i would not be trying to piss this man off).

- she goes into a home filled with the tomb vampires to save stefan

- she willingly goes with klaus and even though she is scared she doesn't break in front of him

2. strong.

i really don't think i have to go into a lot of detail here. she lost her biological parents, adopted parents, aunt, brother, best friends, and boyfriends multiple times and still kept going.

3. determined.

she is very determined to do what she thinks she needs to do. i think in season two is when this really showed. she wasn't giving up on making deals with elijah and trying to save her friends from klaus despite everyone trying to convince her not to. they had to use a magic spell to lock her in her house.

4. nonjudgmental (not sure if this is the best word for it maybe just keep reading)

in the fanfics i have read, she's always written as being judgmental when she is arguably one of the least judgmental characters on the show. there are very few moments where she is judgmental. she was accepting of almost everyone's relationships and choices and at the very least she respected them.

- she never said anything about klaus and caroline once she learned. i think she laughed it off when damon told her but i could be wrong.

- she never said anything about katherine and stefan. in fact she goes to forgive katherine despite everything she's done.

- she never judged stefan for what he did as a ripper and she barely judged damon either.

- caroline made all sorts of terrible comments about her in season one and elena never judged her for it. she never said anything back either. they were still friends.