the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ fanfic with no love interest

oh this is going to be difficult i think.

in my personal opinion, i probably wouldn't look for a story with no love interest, and i probably wouldn't read it. when i look for a fanfic, i'm looking for a specific character who is a love interest. klaus, kol, stefan etc. i never just look for one without it.

i think the love interest gives readers an incentive to read. it's what they're looking for.

even in stories where the love interest doesn't come soon enough i'll leave. like if the fanfic is for kol or rebekah who don't come until season 3 and the fanfic starts at season 1 with no flashbacks or anything, i won't read it.

that's just me personally.

that doesn't mean you can't do it or people won't read it.

i'm sure it can be great.

but i think you need a really interesting character to pull it off. and i think you need a good plot.

what's the point of this character? what do you want to show with them? how do you want them to affect the story?

i think with a love interest it's less about the plot (plot is still important) and more about the relationship which pulls people in.

but if you don't have that, you need to give more to the plot.

i think it might help to really lean into their friendships with other characters or even people who are their "enemies". i think focusing on that could help a lot. because then you have them engaging with other characters.

i think giving them ties to something or someone too would be helpful. for example, being a sibling, cousin etc of a main character or maybe they're a part of some coven, like the gemini coven, or a werewolf pack. i think that would definitely help.

i think you need to have a really good developed character too. you can't hide behind a good love story, i've seen people comment things along the line of "this character annoys me but i ship them so i'm gonna keep reading".

you don't want that. you need to have a strong character and the character needs to have a clear purpose. make your character interesting, but don't make it so obvious.

for example, having your character be a vampire, siren, werewolf, witch, supernatural hunter, traveller all in one just to make them interesting. that's overdoing it.

really spend a lot of time on developing your character. get a clear idea of what you want from them and what you want the story to be.

now that i think more about it, there are some stories like this.

for example, a lot of fanfics where klaus has a daughter prior to arriving in mysic falls have either no love interest or don't get one for a long time and they keep people captivated. but i think there's something that holds readers on here. seeing klaus be a father and the oc bonding with other mikaelsons.

so i do think it's important to really focus on their relationships with other characters and develop them super well because there isn't as much room for error as there is in a fanfic with a love interest.

i would really start by getting a good sense of what you want. what do you want to write? what story do you want to tell? figure out where you want your oc to fit in and then spend a lot of time thinking about your oc. if you look up character templates or questions you'll get a lot of guides. take some time to go through as much as you can. then carefully go through the relationships that you do want your oc to have (non-romantic). and see how your oc fits into the plot and what you want them to accomplish.