Fanfiction writing advice: Tips for all fanfic writers

Tip 2: Creating a plot for your fanfic

TW: Mentions of eating disorders, self harm, bullying, and ableism

Spoilers for future chapters of "Ich Liebe Dich, My Lavender"

Like regular fiction, fanfiction has a number of tropes that are easily recognized; The Coffee Shop, crossovers, omegaverse, fan-created offsprings, genderswaps, high school AUs, the list goes on. To my knowledge, there is no fanfiction that can exist without having at least a few tropes, as those become the first basic ideas of how a story is played out. Here is where I point out one issue that I usually see with some tropes: a bunch of stories where they are used in pretty much do it the exact same way as the ones beforehand, with only at least a couple of diamonds in the rough that did something at least a little bit different from the others.

The first thing that comes to mind with this are Hetalia diary reading fanfics, most of the ones I've read have a similar formula to them that it feels like I'm going down memory lane to the fifth grade where I wrote a Captain Barnacles x Mermaid!Self-Insert fanfic as my submission for a legend-related assignment while everyone else plagiarized off of previous works from the past.

Anyway, some of the repetitive things I usually find in these types of fics include (but aren't limited to):
•America having an eating disorder
•The book of nations' diaries being made by their parents (aka the ancient nations) as a way for them to better understand and sympathize with one another
•The book in question consisting many of the same headcannons used time and time again, rather than each iteration having the writer's own.
•At least one nation harming themselves
•America and Canada bringing their children into the meeting (aka all fifty American states, ten Canadian provinces, and three Canadian territories)
•Everyone having to stay in the building (Seriously though, how does that work? Wouldn't it be crowded at this point?)
•At least one angsty moment having to do with any of the Italy brothers
• One of the nations' bosses (aka the leader(s) of said nation(s) having on-and-off phone calls with said nation(s)

So on, so forth. You might be asking "What's wrong with people using certain aspects of an already existing story and putting it into their own work? After all, everything in the entertainment industry is pretty much shared with one another." You're right, but I usually have a gripe with such cause some people seem to forget the number one rule of writing a story, which is, say it with me folks: TROPES. ARE. TOOLS. They're essentially there for you to put down the basics of what it's gonna be about; it's how you, the writer, use them that accentuates how well-executed the story is.

So, what would I recommend to someone who's struggling with making an original plot for their fanfiction?

Well, I have a few things that I would recommend for those who do, those being:

1. Consume various pieces of media from multiple genres
A lot of stories usually have two things that help reach an audience; the main genre as well as any sub-genres that are present. Consuming media that don't share a genre with one another can help bring out ideas for any points of the plot and/or subplot(s).

2. Think about stuff going on in the world that affect you on a personal level
A lot of iconic stories (Les Misérables, The Jungle, etc.) are based off of events that have occurred in the author's personal life. Think about the circumstances going on and/or have occurred in your life; how do/did they affect you as a person, as well as those around you. This'll help build some sort of connection between the story itself and the people reading it, especially if the conflict(s) the character(s) face are ones not usually talked about in real-life and/or entertainment media. (One example being how neurodivergent and disabled people are more likely to be bullied than their neurotypical and able-bodied peers)

3. Plan out the main points of the plot by using the six Ws of writing (Who, what, where, when, why, how)
Here we have something that everyone should be familiar with via middle school English: The six Ws of writing. For those not so familiar with it (or don't really remember), the six Ws of writing; who, what, where, when, why; how, is a writing method used for writers to identify the motives, location(s), and character(s) involved in a certain plot point. These include:
Who: Who is/are the character(s) that a certain point of the plot mainly revolves around?
What: What is happening in this moment of the plot?
Where: Where does this scene take place?
When: When does it take place?
Why: There are a couple of questions that could be answered here, whether it be one or the other; perhaps both: "Why is it happening?", and/or "Why is/are the character(s) doing this?"
How: How will the character(s) get out of this scenario?

So yeah, here's some small descriptions of each of the six Ws. Still confused as to what I'm talking about here? Well, allow me to demonstrate by using a future scenario for one of my fanfics, "Ich Liebe Dich, My Lavender", to which I'm gonna warn everyone beforehand that there will be spoilers ahead, so if you don't want to know beforehand, feel free to scroll past this part.

Scenario: A list of names of all members of the Axis Rebellion was given to Savannah "BV" Beilschmidt-Vargas via Sammy "LJ" Laitinen-Jones, causing her to start planning a siege on the Lunime Empire (who she assumes is the one responsible for said list)
Who: BV and LJ
Where: The school when it starts, with most of it taking place in BV's bedroom
When: Most of the scenario takes place a few hours after BV was initially given the list
Why: BV is afraid of the outcome that might happen if she doesn't plan the siege right away, specifically the thought of losing the rest of the rebellion; her family, the same way they all did with her Uncle, Gilbert "Prussia" Beilschmidt, the former leader, and she doesn't want to risk that.
How: She and LJ are going to work together to make all the factors needed for the siege as immaculate as possible by summer (which is when BV is planning for it to happen)

So yeah, what I'm trying to say here is planning out a good plot for your story takes time and with the right steps taken, can be very memorable by many readers.