Creepypasta Fanfiction Guidebook: Dos And Donts

Bringing Your Characters To Life

One of the most common things that negatively impacts a fanfiction and keeps the plot from reaching its fullest potential is a One Dimensional Character. 

A One Dimensional Character is simply a character who lacks depth, does not change throughout the course of the story, is mundane and lacks interesting qualities, and is really nothing more than an idea on a page. 

Many Creepypasta fanfictions are riddled with One Dimensional Characters who have zero substance and are just there to fill the space. Having background characters who are One Dimensional isn't a problem because they are, after all, just background characters. 

The real problem happens when your protagonists (i.e. the main characters of your fanfiction) are One Dimensional and are nothing but acknowledged presences on the pages. 

One Dimensional Characters are more acceptable in the case of self-insert fanfictions and similar types of stories (Choose Your Own Adventure stories, Otome  etc.), but when you're writing a story about independent characters that are working their way through a set series of events and, perhaps, learning a few lessons as they go along, then you absolutely cannot rely on vague ideas and abstract personalities when writing these characters. 

When writing any kind of story, a writer's main goal should be to grip the audience and engage with them on many different levels. A writer should always strive to appeal to the emotions of their readers in order to communicate whatever message they're trying to get across. 

It is extremely difficult to do this with unrelatable characters whom your readers know nothing about, nor care to know anything about. 

Unless you're up there  in the ranks of  the great American novelists, and you know how to manipulate your readers without them even understanding who your characters are and what the actual John Boon they're trying to accomplish, then having characters with believable personalities and backstories is important. 

So, how do you go about making these characters?

It starts with the understanding (or rather, the belief) that your characters aren't just characters. Once you create them, they take on a life of their own. They become a part of the wider world for as long as they exist on a page and people read about them. Despite being ideas and words, they can have all sorts of power over real people if you allow them to. If people can't understand or connect with your character, then they won't be memorable or special.

That being said, I want to address a few things some fanfiction authors throw into their stories to try to make their characters "relatable":

Depression- I'd bet my mom's house that at least 75% of the Creepypasta fanfictions on Wattpad deal with an MC who suffers from depression or suicidal thoughts. Now, I am by no means saying that you can't write about depression, or that talking about depression is taboo. My problem is that most of these fanfictions either portray depression unrealistically (and yes, I am aware that depression can be different for everyone) or simply use  depression as a substitute for an actual personality trait. I understand that you might want to up your Pathos factor, but throwing in depression and suicide just because you think it will make people care about your character more is a huge no-no. Especially if you know absolutely nothing about the subject and just "wing it out." There are plenty of other ways to get your readers to sympathize with your characters.

Teenage Angst- I will start by saying that teenage angst is a real thing, and that a lot of teenagers go through a phase in their life where everything seems hopeless. But at the same time, it hurts to see so many stories riddled with this trope. It's always something like: "Oh, I hate school. I hate my family. I hate my life. I just want to run away and live with the Creepypastas. Even though I'm priveleged and have a myriad of opportunities ahead of me, I just wanna throw it all away to go live in the same house as a bunch of psychopathic murderers."

(That's how mafia works ).

Honestly, I feel like characters should be a bit more hesistant about surrendering their future to evil strangers they just met. 

Emo(ism)- While I absolutely hate seeing this trope at this point (unless it's done well), I do admire one thing about the people who use it: they are aware of their target audience. Most of the time, people reading Creepypasta and Creepypasta fanfiction have a lot of other interests in common. These interests revolve around music, fashion, and overall aesthetic. So it's safe to say that a lot of times, these authors hit the nail right on the head when it comes to what music they throw into their book or what sort of bands their character likes. They sort of anticipate that most of their readers will know what these things are. They guess that they're "emo".

It's true that not everyone who reads Creepypasta is "emo", but this seems to be the common guess that leads writers to make their characters "emo" to appeal to the audience.

While this may make your character more relatable, it will still flop if your execution is poor. I talked a bit about this in one of the previous chapters (see: Living Vicariously Through your Characters- Don't). Need I say that "emo" is not a personality, and that it's lazy writing to let that title completely  embody your character?

Characters, emo or not, need a personality. Everyone has their own distinct personality; your characters should too.

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My advice to anyone reading this: before you even begin to type a word of your story, consider your favorite book character. Consider all the things you know about said character and why they're your favorite. Think about how the author of that book portrayed the character. How did they allow you get to know the character? What made you sympathize with the character?

It is vital that you think about your characters and what makes them unique individuals before you write the story. You should not only think about their likes and dislikes, but their flaws, their habits, their aspirations and their personal morals. In order to craft a well-rounded character, you have to work your way from the ground up. While your character will eventually reveal things about themselves to you while you're writing, you should at least think about who they are and what they want out of life first.