On My Own | A Guide to Writing Warriors Fanfiction

Research, research, research

You know that saying, practice makes perfect? Usually followed by the overly-enthusiastic: practice, practice, practice! Well, this is kind of the same thing. Except different.

Let's start with this:

The first Clans I ever created were named after the elements: FireClan, IceClan, AirClan and EarthClan. Not terrible names, though perhaps slightly overused, but the thing that stood out to me most when I looked back at them five or six years later were the names of their members.

There were four major problems:
1) Each Clan had one or two cats with the prefix Raven- and Night-.
2) There were way too many warriors with the suffix -heart.
3) Both the prefix and the suffix were capitalized.
4) Many of the cats had fur/eye colour pairings that were genetically impossible.

Now, why were these four things such major problems? Simply put, they showed how little research I did into the original series before creating my own spin-off. As fanfiction writers, we are tasked with building off of an existing world and creating our own stories with it while still adhering to some of the basic rules of the original. If we wrote any differently, our stories would no longer be classified as fanfictions!

So, to correct the problems, I had to do some more research. Believe me, I understand how unexciting research can be (especially when you're incredibly excited to start writing), but it is worth the effort afterwards. Plus, sometimes you end up learning things that you might have never known otherwise, and some of them are rather awesome (like how cat genetics work, for example).

To understand the workings of the Warriors world, the best resources are the original books themselves (I recommend the first and second arcs mostly, as those were the ones that started it all), the guides created by the Erin's, and the Warriors Wiki online (perhaps the most accessible resource). Using these resources, you can learn all about how naming works, how the ranks are divided, what battle and hunting techniques are taught, which herbs are used to heal certain illnesses, and many, many more things.

The above mentioned points are important to any Warriors fanfiction, but even more research is required if you plan on writing within the canon world or using canon characters (to specify, 'canon' means pertaining to the original, Erin Hunter-written books). That means if Firestar is one of your characters, or Brambleclaw, or Squirrelflight, or Jayfeather, Lionblaze and Hollyleaf - you better have read the original books and payed close attention to how those characters have developed. A character's appearance, personality and the way they react to certain situations are instrumental to making them believable on paper (or, in our case, a screen), and including canon characters in your writing means you should at least attempt to make them similar to how the Erin's envisioned them. (This can be completely overlooked if you plan on changing all of their personalities, or purposely changing a point in the history of the Clans, for example).

Fanfictions that do not use canon characters can still get nailed for not doing their research by including words that warrior cats simply wouldn't use. Words like winter, car and dagger simply do not exist in the Warriors world; instead, they have their own vocabulary which is widely available throughout the internet and in various guides on Wattpad. Some of the most basic ones are the seasons, passage of time (moons), Twolegs and monsters.

I have not seen very many problems with hunting, fighting or herbs in fanfictions, which is a great relief. The techniques themselves seem well-researched or well-described, though sometimes characters might learn them too quickly to be believable or catch too much prey/defeat too many enemies at too young an age - something I will discuss later in the 'Characters' section.

Appearances and genetics, however, are a little bit of a sore point. In my original four Clans, I found a lot of my warriors had blue eyes rather than the more common amber, yellow and green. In condensed explanation: blue eyes are only possible on cats with white on them; gingers, greys, tabbies and blacks without white spotting are nearly never going to have blue eyes. That's just how genetics works! And, as a side note, red and purple eyes are never possible (unless it's a genetic disorder, which is highly unlikely in feral cats), just like how green, pink, and rainbow-coloured fur is not natural.

Now that we've looked at some important parts to be researched, let's look at the original four problems once more:

1) Each Clan had one or two cats with the prefix Raven- and Night-.
2) There were way too many warriors with the suffix -heart.
3) Both the prefix and the suffix were capitalized.
4) Many of the cats had fur/eye colour pairings that were genetically impossible.

To fix the first problem, we must look to the original books. There are never two cats with the same prefix in the same Clan. This is to keep them from getting confused (especially by readers, many of whom follow more than one fanfiction at a time). Cats in different Clans can have the same prefix, though I personally like to keep them all different to avoid the aforementioned confusion.

The second problem is not too major, I suppose, but again might cause confusion. There are so many suffixes to choose from, each pertaining to different skills or personality traits exhibited by the characters, so why stick with just one? If you're stuck, check out 'I Dub Thee', my guide to naming in Warriors.

The third problem is rather major, on the other hand, and I know it has turned me away from reading fanfictions more than once. The names of cats are only capitalized in the beginning: Firestar, Sandstorm, Cloudtail, etc. Clan names, however, are capitalized twice: FireClan, IceClan, AirClan, EarthClan.

The fourth problem, as mentioned before, is hard to explain a solution for in a short time. If you're interested in learning more about genetics, check out my other guide, Far From Home | A Guide to Clan Creation, for more information.

In closing, I leave you with this: if you do not wish to return to your fanfictions in a couple of years and find yourself shaking your head in misery, wondering what in StarClan you were thinking when you wrote it, I suggest you do your research now. Before it's too late.

Remember to research, research, research!