the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ character headcanons

i'm running out of things to write you need to leave some requests lol.

i know people like to include their headcanons about characters already in the show in their fanfics and that's totally fine. however, if you do this too much you can risk losing what the character is like in the show.

so how to avoid that?

base your headcanons on some facts. on things we actually saw in the show, no matter how small.

for example, in my kol fanfic, one of my headcanons is that he was kind of a nerd growing up. what did i use to support it? well, he was said to be a witch prodigy growing up. prodigy is synonymous with genius. his knowledge of magic was more than most characters we saw in the show, even those that were witches. he created spells and dark objects even when he wasn't a witch and says that there isn't a form of witchcraft that he hasn't studied. he's clearly very knowledgeable and this seemed to stem from when he was a kid. he's not shown in the scenes with elijah, klaus, and mikael when they're out fighting or hunting. so that's one of my head canons.

it doesn't matter how small, but you should base it in some fact in the show, it'll make it seem a lot more realistic.

i think it also helps when thinking about their interests too.

because it's not your character, you don't want to just say they're interested in x y and s when they've never been shown to be interested in that before. it doesn't mean they aren't or they can't be, but explain it well. think about their characters in the show.

for example, thinking about something as simple as what their favourite colour is. think about it.

i notice that elena doesn't wear a lot of bright colours. neither does stefan. but caroline does wear brighter colours. maybe she likes bright colours. maybe stefan and elena like darker colours.

another example. that's a spoiler for my fanfic. haven't even released the chapter with it. but i don't think it's important or a big spoiler so i'll just include it.

in my fanfic, elijah hates fast food and refuses to eat it. based on his personality on the show, i think it's pretty accurate. he prefers "finer" things. however, i could also see it being the opposite. maybe he really likes it because it's the one thing he allows himself to indulge in. it's not necessarily about the choice you make, but the direction you go in. can you make it seem true to the character? can you make justify it?