THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF FANFICTION

» development

RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT

I'm a sucker for 'Enemies to Friends to Lovers' fanfictions. They're awesome.

In (almost) every relationship, there has to be development moving from enemies/strangers/friends/etc. to lovers. Otherwise, it would be so awfully rushed and would come out of no where.

How long have they known eachother before they liked eachother? Who liked the other first? What made them like eachother/see eachother in a different way? Did they hide their feelings at first/were in denial? How long until they realised the feeling was mutual?

There is no such thing as two friends admitting they like eachother, then dating without any weirdness or awkwardness due to it being something new/out of the ordinary.

Neither is there such thing as enemies kissing (or whatever) then suddenly the next day, they go from hating to like each other and date with no conflicts.

BUT if the male abused her (aka 'bullied by ___' fanfics where they apologise for bullying the girl a few years later after she changes her name and magically turns pretty.)
It's bad. Abusive relationships are triggering and overall problematic and should be stopped from being written.

If you're going to do a enemies to lovers relationship in your fanfictions, DO NOT RUSH IT! It is extremely unrealistic that a pair goes from enemies to lovers in the span of fifteen chapters.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTS

SO IMPORTANT. If you're writing a character that goes through a huge development, do it SLOWLY!

Make parallel scenes.

Example:
Chapter one

"I'm not here to make friends.
I'm here to take the power that
belongs to me."

And in the seventeenth chapter or something, she gives up here powers to save one of her friends and says something like. "I'm not here to fight i'm here to save ___"

The story should end with the main character changing, even if its in the slightest. Make the events affect and change your character. No story should end with the conflict being resolved, then the main character going back to exactly how they were in the beginning, as if nothing has happened. [ it depends on how big the conflict was, though]

HIDDEN INTELLIGENCE

A perfect example is Lydia Martin.
For a long time, there was breadcrumbs that showed that
she was actually pretty clever.

And in season three, aka the highlight of her development (because it was when she really began to develop)
She showed her braveness and intelligence and how badass she is!

GOOD TO BAD

The development doesn't always have to be from bad to good. Even though thats what I personally prefer.

The OC can go through a hard time and feel like she needs to break out of her shell and just explore the dark side

After that is usually the period where she is trying to fix herself and her life
Then eventually does, //or doesn't.

EXAMPLES OF GOOD
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Alison Dilaurentis

Malia tate

Lydia Martin

Derek Hale

Isaac Lahey

Mona Vanderwaal

Toby Cavanaugh

Caroline Forbes.

Bellamy Blake

Brooke Davis

Juliette Ferrars

Rachel Green

Alec Lightwood

Blair Waldorf

Rosa Diaz

Nathan Scott

Allison Argent

Etc.