How NOT To Write FanFiction

Chapter 2 || Character Aim (Pasts, Goals, Cliches, etc.)

“...and here's your new team. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto.” my gaze focused upon Naruto, my mouth falling into a frown. His yellow hair, his blue eyes. He looked like my brother. Tears began to aggressively fall from my eyes, and a sob escaped my throat.

“Eh, what's wrong?” Naruto asked me, leaning forward. He comforted me, and I accepted it. It didn't matter if I literally met him a minute ago, he was my comfort.

“You see, it all started when I was born, my mom ran away. She hated my brother and I. My Dad raped me, and it was so humiliating. One day, my brother tried to help me from the evil snake man. But he killed him! He killed my brother!” I cried, clutching Naruto’s orange jumpsuit.

“Um…..why did you suddenly reveal this?” the blonde asked uncertainly.

“Well, you see, my author needed something to sate their need for romance. And since they have no idea how to advance the plot, they shoved in my sob story as a sudden climax.” I explained, wiping my tears. Sasuke stood there behind Naruto, staring at me with disgust.

“Ew, you're ugly. Go kill yourself emo.” he growled. Nobody decided to correct him for being a hypocrite.

“Oh my god, how could you? Bullying? On top of my rape and death of sibling? You're just terrible. I'm now going to wallow in my own self pity and wait for prince charming to comfort me.” I sniffled.

“How about no.” Naruto released me and backed away. “I don't communicate with cliches. If I did, you’d transform into your ultimate form, ‘THE MARY SUE’!”

HAAAALT

Mary Sues are in another chapter. Any further into this mini story and we may have a 10k chapter on our hands. And excuse me for my laziness, but I’d rather not spend an hour raging at people’s shitty characters.

Anyways, it's time to discuss one of the stupidest issues yet.

Cliches and Pasts.

These two mostly link together, since people tend to make overused back stories that loose their meaning once used more than once.

Personally, I do have a few characters with sob story pasts, but I tend to add an unique twist to them, and I often don't reveal exactly what happened. I like to make a rule where the reader can interpret what happened to the protagonist/main character. By doing this, it creates a sort of mystery to the character, and also makes them seem unique in their own way.

Now, to those who still want a sob story past. That's okay. Just do me a favor and don't fucking reveal it to a stranger.

I once read this Naruto FanFiction where this girl killed her entire clan (which btw, is stealing mah sexy Itachi's past). She travelled to Konoha after abandoning the Akatsuki (*coughs* uncreative Itachi remake *cough*). There, she talks to Sarutobi and basically asks him to stay. He acts all kind and old-man-like and asks why. The character LITERALLY reveals that she killed her clan. The old man is like, “Bish, aren't chu that S-rank ninja or whatevs?”

And then she's like, “Ya batch.”

And then he just…..PITIES HER! Of course, you gotta make it worse. The girl gets pissed because he pitied her (even though that's basically what she made him do), and he lets her stay in the village.

This was an Itachi x OC.

Oh, and she totally got put on Team Seven.

And just saying, I read to like…..chapter five and then realized that the author actually abandoned the story. I would complain about this, but that'll be for another chapter.

Please people, don't do this.

While I'm at it, don't give your character practically the same past as an actual person. Just like the cringy Itachi-twin, doing this will make your story ameture.

If you want a unique past, make it simple. Focus your character on one single event. An example of this would be the death of an older sibling. Although this idea is used fairly often, it can easily center your character.

Not that I'm one to talk, my main OC’s past literally goes like this;

-Trained with this old guy.

-Step-dad hates her, mom is dying of loneliness.

-Boom! Demon comes out of nowhere.

-Old guy seals the demon into my character.

-Boom! Skip like….200 years.

-Omg, the step-dad killed my character’s mom.

-Revenge is sweet.

-Oh shit, the character lost control of the asshole demon.

-Welp, the village she lived in is gone now.

-Oh look, she's homeless.

-She made friends with a runaway slave.

-Friendship.

-They live in a secluded mansion and live happily ever after.

-The end.

Yeah….

I mean, it's not that bad.

Shut up, okay?

At least I have meaning to the whole story. My character is particularly unlucky, not all that strong, and has a sort of understanding to her. She doesn't have some unrealistic goal or stupid mission of revenge. She focuses on the present, and tries to merely protect her friend with the best of her ability. She stays enthusiastic, laughs, and makes jokes to make sure that those around her don't fall into depression or darkness. That is her goal.

I like how my character has depth, something that separates her from all the other unfortunate souls out there. To someone who hasn't heard all the details, she may seem basic, cliche, annoying. But to me, it's a representation of what I would love in a friend. I don't want a perfect, strong, and pretty sidekick, I want someone with experience willing to make me laugh.

That just got deep. Oops?

I like intense and emotional things.

I just realized I was talking about a lot of personality in this chapter. We might as well call it; character development.

And by the way, this character is from a rough draft of a book. It takes place in a world where magic and demons are quite common. I occasionally transfer her to Fanfictions, but then I change it a bit.