How NOT to write a Vampire Diaries Fanfiction (including TO & Legacies)

AU's, to do or not to do

this is a requested chapter, i forgot who requested it, so whoever did, yay!

now, there are two ways of going with an AU in my own opinion

1. rearrange the past to change the future yet the future still has similar elements just different so your story is still unique but stays in the box of TVDU

2. you go absolutely apeshit and do whatever you want bc its your story and no one can tell you different 

(except for me in which case i shall be roasting you on this book)

now, let's focus on number 1 shall we?

the most accurate AU i can offer you isn't even a book, it's a show

if you've heard of the book series The Mortal Instruments and maybe also heard of its TV adaption, Shadowhunters then this'll make sense to you

when i first watched Shadowhunters i was glad they were going the same route as the books but then near the end of the first season everything started to change up until i said no to watching it bc it wasn't following the books anymore.

but then a couple years later i decided the watch the whole show since it was over already and give me full opinion (you can find it on the last chapter of that heinous shadowhunters fic in my profile, i wrote the chapters when i was 13-14 ok) but the opinion is much more recent.

what i saw in the show is that is more like an AU of Mortal Instruments. certain characters had different paths and it balanced everything out.

i don't want to give spoilers so i won't use names

Person A was supposed to live while another one, Person B was supposed to die. This was switched.

Person C was supposed to be afflicted by this curse/power thing but Person D got it instead.

Person E was supposed to forget everything that happened to them in this world but instead Person F was made to forget.

There was a whole ass restaurant that was like this local diner that everyone went to but it didn't exist up until the very last episode. So, something that existed for years in the books came to be in the moment.

what I'm trying to say is that if you want to make an AU that is still within the borders of TVDU then go along like this show, pick out certain characters and change their outcome with another.

i like to call it balancing it out.

you can't just have Caroline not be a vampire and let her live a happy human life, someone has to be a vampire in the start of season 2

you can't just keep all the Originals from dying in season 3, Finn dies so at least a different one should die to let them know that it is very possible for them to go as well. and also to learn about how when an Original dies their whole sireline dies with them.