the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ how to not overpower your oc

because tvd is a show about supernatural beings, a lot of ocs are also supernatural or become supernatural over time. sometimes they're a supernatural being already introduced like a vampire of werewolf, but sometimes they're something we haven't seen, they're a hybrid, or just incredibly powerful to be unique.

that's perfectly fine, however, you don't want to fall into the trap of having an overpowered oc.

this was a problem in the show for me so i'll pull some examples to better explain it.

the mikaelsons were incredibly powerful, the strongest vampires. yet they got their asses kicked by young vampires, witches, and humans who shouldn't have been able to even get close to them.

i understand why this was. if the originals were as ruthless as they were described, the salvatores, elena etc wouldn't stand a chance. however, that doesn't mean the audience wasn't confused at some point. like how easily kol was taken down by elena and jeremy or how they were able to even outsmart klaus at some point considering he was supposed to be some evil genius who saw everything coming from miles away.

imagine if elena was meant to be the most powerful being in the world. katherine? klaus? silas? she'd take them out in seconds. they wouldn't be a threat or have the ability to be interesting villains because hey, she's the most powerful being in the world. what could be a threat to her? she defeats them with ease. anything less and you have fans complaining that she's underpowered.

to put it quite bluntly, the show would suck. half of the content would have to be removed because no one could beat her and it would be boring to watch. the only fix would be to weaken her, but again, fans complain.

so what do you do? how do you let your character be powerful but lose? how do you avoid this?

here are some tips.

1. give your character weaknesses.

you should make sure your character has a weakness. many are better in my opinion. and i don't mean "this is the only weapon that can kill them and it's super rare and they destroyed it!" i mean weaknesses that you can't get rid of.

to explain i will be using an oc of mine. spoilers for you'll find me here forever if you ever plan on reading it.

my oc is a psychic. very powerful, but not invincible. her powers have limits.

for one, she only gets stronger with age and experience. she was very weak in the beginning.

there is a herb that weakens her and stops her from being able to use her powers.

the stronger/older the person, the harder it is for her to get into their mind or use her powers on them at all. for example, she can't get into klaus' or elijah's mind.

she can over exert herself is she uses too much at once, to the point where she can almost die.

what these allow for is for her to face threats and struggle realistically. yes she's powerful, but her power has limits and she can be weakened. then it makes sense that she can't easily defeat all threats. she can't take on someone like klaus because it would require her to use a lot of her power so if she isn't successful, she'll be weakened and he can easily take her in a fight (not that she would fight him, they're best friends).

2. give them struggles that all the power in the world can't solve.

yes they are supernatural beings but they still have humanity. they still have emotions. they can be vulnerable. they still have people they care about and can lose or maybe have had a tough life somehow. this will allow you to write a character who, even though they're powerful, still has dilemmas that they might struggle to over come.

it can also mess with their powers. if they're fighting someone who caused them emotional harm in someway, they might easily get distracted or lose control,

3. let them be defeated.

they don't have to win every single time. let them lose. it will make it more realistic. let them have a loss every once in a while.

4. let them care about people who aren't that powerful.

it's very difficult to protect everyone, no matter how strong they are. your oc can be incredibly powerful, but what happens when the threat to them now extends to the people they love? the people they can't protect 24/7? make them have something to lose.

5. let their personality affect how they use their powers. let your character have flaws!

whatever personality traits they have, let them affect how they can use their powers. no one is perfect.

maybe they're really arrogant so they underestimate their enemies. maybe they can be easily outsmarted.

here is a list of potential weaknesses, not specific to any supernatural being.

- herbs that affect them.

- certain spells that bind their powers.

- limit their powers.

- have them become stronger with age. don't let them reach their full potential right at the start.

- tie their powers to their emotions somehow.

- introduce a specific material that weakens them.

- study more about the supernatural creature you're introducing, see if you can find any weaknesses. sometimes you have to make things up, but some might have weaknesses if you don't want to completely make something up.

- don't let them have complete control of their power.

- give their enemy some type of leverage over them.

- let their power come under specific conditions. for example, if they're a special type of vampire, maybe they can only use whatever ability they have after they drink a certain amount of blood or as a witch they can channel a lot of magic, but can't hold it for long.