RotG/GoC Fanfiction Writing Tips

Centers

I've read a lot of RotG and GoC (Guardians of Childhood series—the books the movie is loosely based off of) fanfiction. Like, a lot a lot. And as I've read and read, some common problems have emerged.

A fanfiction's quality can really dictate its readership. When I compare, say, on Quotev, the favorites on one fanfiction that's fantastic, and another of the same type (ex: a certain ship) that isn't written so well, the more well-written one has many more favorites. Sometimes fanfictions have more than others because one story's about a more popular topic, but if you want to earn as many readers as you can while writing what you want and get those precious comments, you'll want your fanfiction to be the best quality it can be.

In this guide, rewritten for 2023, I'll be going over some common problems I find in RotG and/or GoC fanfiction. I'll begin with centers.

Part 1: Choosing Your OC's Center

If you have a Guardian or Guardian-to-be OC (original character, a character you make up and insert into the canon universe—what you're writing fanfiction of), one of the main things you'll have to figure out is what their center's going to be. There are many ways this can go wrong and result in a poorer story. Let's start from the beginning.

What is a center? It's what a Guardian protects in children. In the canon universe, only Guardians have centers, not beings who are only spirits. And because it's something Guardians protect in children, it should be something that can help make a good childhood. For examples from canon, "wonder" and "dreams" do this. From fanfictions, I've seen good examples like "laughter" and "imagination." But make sure that you get to the heart of the center. Something like "snow" doesn't capture why snow helps make childhood great. For example, Jack is the Guardian of Fun, not the Guardian of Winter. His winter gives children fun. In general, if your OC's center is a verb, season, or tangible thing (like "painting," "autumn," or "snow") and not an intangible idea (like "fun" or '"imagination"), it's probably too on the surface.

However, there are some more cliché, or overused, centers you should avoid, or else your OC's center could take readers out of the story—clichés can make the reader remember they're reading and not watching a real event play out in front of them. Two centers that I believe are major clichés are creativity and courage/bravery. While they're good centers in and of themselves, I've just seen them so much that they rub me the wrong way. Some that I still find cliché but to a lesser extent are light, love, and joy/happiness. Light seems superficial to me anyway—Is the light happiness? Innocence? However, everyone has different ideas about which OC centers are cliché to them. In my old guide, one commenter said they found imagination cliché, while I do not. So you won't be able to please everyone. Read a lot of fanfiction, or take a lot of "What Would Your RotG Life Be?" or "What Is Your Center?" quizzes on Quotev, and avoid the centers that strike you as being used too often.

There is one way you can make your OC's center seem less cliché, however. It's not required, but if you're extra worried your center may seem overused, look up synonyms for it. Say you want to have your OC's center be imagination. One synonym that can come up is "fantasy." Another is "vision." Just make sure that you know the synonym's definition and connotations and shift what your OC brings to children to match them.

Another thing you should avoid when choosing a center is making it the same as a canon Guardian's, unless it's used for plot reasons, and you explain why they're the same at some point in your story. But otherwise, don't make your OC have the center of wonder, hope, dreams, memories, or fun, or else you can turn readers off or just make your OC seem unoriginal.

One last thing to avoid is giving your OC more than one center. If it brings conflict to your story, or your OC is two people combined or something, more than one center might work, but it's not something to decide lightly. One of the unspoken rules in the RotG universe is that someone can only have one center. Again, if you give your OC more than that, you run the risk of turning readers sensitive to this thing off, or in this case, making your OC seem overpowered.