DOs and DON'Ts of a Fallout fanfiction

Names

Long time no update of this, huh? Well, we've had this discussion on tumblr, and it got me thinking...

People get one thing wrong about Fallout's characters very often.

Their name. It's something so fundamentally simple that I don't know where this trend even came from, but there's a trend in fanfiction... Well, I'll just show you what I'm talking about.

And that's just to name a few. Many, many characters are getting caught up in this - most often Danse, for some reason.

And therefore, congratulations Danse, you'll be used as the example today!

I've seen people who assumed Danse is a last name and called him Robert Danse, Alexander Danse, Joshua Danse (I really hate that one, subjectively), Joseph Danse, etc...

I've seen people who assumed Danse is a first name and called him Danse Bekowsky, Danse Murphy, Danse Sinclair, etc...

But let's focus now.

In the Fallout universe, it's not uncommon for people to have just one word for both first and last name. Like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. It's just the way that world works - parents abandoning children or kids growing up without knowing their parents, or living in small communities are all factors that only count up for it being impossible for some people to know what their last name is.

I actually dare say there are more people in the Wasteland who don't know their last name than there are those who do.

So when you ask Danse who, I say just Danse. It's neither first nor last name. And it's both. It's just... his name.

And yeah, I know it looks like I have an obsession with this guy, because I have, but right now, Danse is just an example. This post might as well be about Cait, or Cross, or Charon. (Whoa, that's many C's!) The matter remains that those characters are being victim of what some people would want.

I know fanfiction is all about AUs and all that shit, but too many people are using their fanfics just to push their headcanon onto others... When in fact, that headcanon doesn't even fit into canon.

These people don't have last names.

I'm fully aware this part isn't completely professional and sounds more like rant than writing advice, but if you think about it, learning on mistakes is the best way of learning. And learning on others' mistakes is nicer than learning on your own.

So that's pretty much it for today. Apologies to all the people whose fanfics I used as examples, hope you don't sue me/just hate me. Hope I didn't scare anyone off with my little ranting back there.