Here are my personal do's and don'ts of writing a TWQ fanfic. One again keep in mind these are mainly just my own opinions and I've done a lot of these in my own books!
THE DON'TS
- Woodville OCs that are witches. Don't get me wrong, the concept of this is very interesting, but most of the people I've seen write this don't understand how the magic works. I've read a book where the OC cursed almost everyone and yet she never had any repercussions???????? Just no. If you're going to write this kind of OC, you have to make the magic have a price. Make the OC feel immense guilt for something, make them lose something that was important to them and have them think it's because they used their magic. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT have them go around casting fireballs out of thin air. If you know you're making your OC a witch simply to have them be overpowered, you probably shouldn't write that.
- OCs that are not Woodvilles, but are witches. The show made a big point of saying the Woodvilles are supposedly descended from a river goddess named Melusina and that's where they got their powers from. Your Neville OC won't be casting magic lmao. Your characters are not Gandalf.
- sexual assault for no reason. I'm sorry but if you add SA to your story for literally no reason other than shock value... stop. For most people it's uncomfortable to read and the author's I see doing this almost never handle it well. I understand if the SA is a big part of their character, but most of the time it's truly there just for shock value. This is my reaction every time a SA scene just suddenly pops out of no where, with no TW and with no actual fallout in the future plot:
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- Adelaide Kane as the faceclaim. She is so overused that I make a face every time I see her as the main characters face claim. There are so many other beautiful dark haired actresses you could use. I don't think she's a bad faceclaim for side characters, but for main characters she is definitely overused.
- the Mary Sue character. If your character has no flaws, never makes any mistakes, is everyone's favorite for no reason, even the villains are actually secretly in love with them or admire them, then I will click of your book faster than I fail my math tests. It is uninteresting and boring to read a story like that. Make them have flaws, make them make mistakes. Your OC shouldn't just be there to fix the plot points you don't like with the flick of their wrist like some fairy god mother.
- the secret marriage trope. It's been used so many times that I can't stand it anymore. The first few times I've read it was ok, good even in some stories, but after the third story that had this plot, I began to hate it. It's also somehow always with Edward as well 💀 like give my boy more credit than that. He secretly married Elizabeth in the show and he actually made her his queen, I doubt he would just abandon your OC after marrying her, especially since during this point in the story he's always in love with the OC and she's almost ALWAYS pregnant. And if we're talking about the other York brothers, it would not work for them because George would never lower himself to a dull secret wedding with no one to give him attention at the feast and Richard is far too bound by honor to abandon your OC for shits and giggles.
