A Guide On Creating A Warrior Cat Fanfiction

Creating Your Character

NOTE: everything is based off of the opinion and observations of the author. This is just advice written by her own knowledge, and you are by no means obligated to follow any of her "rules or guidelines." They are only there to provide help if needed, or suggestions. Every author has the right to create whatever they want!

REVISED AND EDITED COMPLETELY

There are many fatal flaws to a character when the author is creating and developing them. I will include this part here because of the various amount of reasons: 1) characters build up the plot of the book, narrates the story, and gradually increases the interest of readers, and 2) these characters are what you will be stuck with throughout your whole book, so it's best to have a likable one.

To start off, building up your character is pretty fun because you can do anything you want to change them up. To other authors, it is very frustrating because they are at a loss when it comes to creating names, looks, personality, etc. I'll use a few examples of characters to help illustrate the different varieties.

TIP: Give your characters flaws!

Let's first notice Erin Hunter's own characters. Graystripe is a good example; he is nice, determined, but he eats a lot (which makes him slightly overweight, a funny trait). Something well-known about him is that he broke the warrior code to take up a mate from another Clan, but he made up for his mistakes just as he always has. Despite his slightly troublesome personality, he is overall very determined and wholehearted. We notice here that Graystripe has many good traits to his personality, but he also has flaws. This is what makes the character enjoyable, so you have to watch how far you take their good moments.

Ravenpaw is another good example. He is very cowardly, and always wants to be brave to impress his mentor, Tigerclaw,
despite his constant fear. He witnessed a vital part of the first arc's story, which caused him to have many conflicts with himself. Despite this, though, he can never turn down a cat in need of help, and he is always there for his friends. He is a great example of a flawed but good character, because he has many bad traits and makes up for them with his good heart.

Now I can go on and on about Erin Hunter's amazing characters, but let's just take things step by step. Just like Erin had done, we have to sit and think things through carefully.

Creating the personality.

Putting two-and-two together. Building the character's personality is what flaws most of the Warrior Fanfics out there (that I've read). The author of the story rarely sticks to what they made their characters become, and often give them multiple personalities because they simply couldn't choose one. One way to break apart multiple personalities is by giving them to the side-characters, to make things simple. Keep track of all your character's personalities so that your story doesn't become a huge mess!

Continuing on, creating the personality is also hard because there are countless different traits to choose from. And if you choose a personality that does not suit your cat's actions at all, the readers will get aggravated! So to make your personality fit in well with your protagonist's actions, make a chart and line together the believable pairs.

Here is an example of a character who's actions do not fit their personality:

Mintkit is very shy and quiet, silent as a mouse. She rarely likes to talk to anyone because she witnessed her mother's death when she was just two moons old, and things have been hard for her ever since. Other cats simply did not understand that.

Her brother, Leafkit, trampled into the nursery clumsily, carrying a moss ball.

"Let's play catch!" he squeaked with excitement, green eyes blazing. "It's so warm today, you won't believe it!"