How to Write a Wings of Fire Fanfiction That Won't Cause Pain and Misery

1. Death to the Mary Sue

First of all, hello, and welcome to the first chapter of this guide. I hope to be able to give assistance in the field of WoF fanfiction. Happy reading. =)

Secondly, to the actual guide. Most fanfiction authors will be familiar with the term "Mary Sue," and lots will also know the term "Gary Stew." In case you are not familiar with these terms, here are some traits shared by both (Gary Stews are simply male Mary Sues):

1. Dramatic backstory that somehow trumps all other back stories with its depressingness.
2. Constant reminders of said back story.
3. Immense physical beauty, most of the time with completely unrealistic traits (such as a SkyWing with purple eyes--although this can be okay if done right and if it has an actual reason--same with the scars and such). Sometimes a supposedly "ugly" trait will be mentioned, such as a scar, a birth mark, or a disfigurement, and this trait will be flaunted to the point of annoyance but will usually somehow not affect your mental view of the character or keep them from being unrealistically beautiful.
4. Abilities that are "over powered," unrealistic, impossible, get the hero/heroine out of literally every situation possible, et cetera. These abilities will be flaunted, sometimes over-extensively justified, and sometimes treated like a curse despite them obviously not being like that at all.
5. Everyone likes them except that one guy who's obviously a complete jerk with no possible reason for hating said Mary Sue and the villain who hates them probably for some either inexplicable reason, or some reason related to the aforementioned dramatic backstory.

I'm sure I could find more traits but you get my point. My point is this: give your characters flaws. Normalize them--but of course, don't make them too normal or your reader will hate them regardless of them not being any form of Marg Sue. Unless your character is brutally normal to the point of abnormality which makes them quirky, but that's another story.

Flaws make the character. Good characters have them. Some WoF-canon examples here:

Clay: A bit thick, loyal to a fault.
Starflight: Cowardly, annoyingly knows everything.
Tsunami: Anger issues, impulsive.
Glory: Prickly personality.
Sunny: Immensely physically weak.
Moonwatcher: Not gonna lie, Moonwatcher's kind of a Mary Sue. But she's pretty timid and shy so there's one thing. I'm sure she has more flaws and she never came off as overly annoying to me, but she does sort of have that "dramatic, pretty, everyone loves her" vibe.
Winter: Dramatic, prickly, angry.
Peril: I think you all know Peril's problems and I really don't feel like listing them all. XD
Turtle: Cowardly, odd personality, normal.
Qibli: Secretly insecure.

I really love Tui T. Sutherland for this. Her characters are never pretentious (and the dialogue follows suite, making the story very real) and her storylines have lots of twists and there are so many things that are amazing about the world she's created.

Enough about Mrs. Sutherland's amazing writing though. My advice would be to review your character closely, perhaps make a chart of their pros and cons, and maybe even run them by some people who will give you honest opinions. The Internet is just brimming with honest opinions. XD