How NOT to write a Vampire Diaries Fanfiction (including TO & Legacies)

legacies fanfics so far

^Me, not wanting to even try to understand these ridiculous accusations

and now that we have a saltzman triplet, she's also treated badly like she isn't as good as her sisters? or she was abandoned or unwanted? what is this world? why do her sisters single her out and treat her badly or why is she bullied? and why does it always gets fixed for her the second she gets a love interest??

you wanna write about a kid that was unwanted by their parents? fine, go do it, make some shitty parents but don't make Alaric, Caroline, Klaus, Hayley, or any other perfectly capable parents bad or unloving. Sure, maybe they make mistakes, maybe they overreact, maybe they send boyfriends and students to Prison Worlds or sometimes worse, but one thing they'll never do is stop loving their children. Y'all need to get that through your head.

So make up the worlds shittiest parents, make up the worlds most unloved kids but don't mischaracterize characters that aren't yours to begin with as something they aren't.

okay, next on my list is:

Descriptions

Okay, can we talk about descriptions for these fics?

guys, where the hell has your creativity gone?

most of the legacies fics i find start like this:

"When we're young, we're taught the distinction between a hero and a villain. Good and evil. A savior and a lost cause. But what if the only real difference is just who's telling the story? My name is (supposed to be Hope Mikaelson but insert OC's name out of no sense of creativity.) I come from a long line of (insert something familial to do with the OC) in the tales you've heard."

Guys?

What?

What were you thinking when deciding to use that opener?

When was this decided? At the start of your idea or after like five chapters?

Who has done this before? And don't you dare walk out of this book and erase it and change it, I've got them down in my notes.

And finally,

Why? Just, why? Why do this? It's not original, everyone literally knows this is Hope's opening line, her opening Stefan Salvatore-esque voice over (cuz those two are hella sad little babies i swear). So, why take something from Hope? Why not make something up? I've already said this before in a literal chapter titled 'descriptions' but if you guys actually wanna be writers and make books one days, you gonna have to learn to make descriptions. Use this time to learn how and get better at it. You even need a description to submit something to the Watty Awards.

let's see, whats next?

what's the problem with a character that has no familial relation to any character on any of the shows?

Legacies is based in a school, so there are dozens of children and teenagers based that they don't have to necessarily be related to any major characters from either of the other shows it came from. It's practically Hogwarts mixed with Xavier's School for the Young and Gifted (Alaric has even been refered to as Dumbledore meets Prof. X). So, I mean, what the hell, why do your OC's have to be related to Hope, or the twins, or Landon, or MG? Why? You get the opportunity to come up with a whole new character and make them whatever you want and give them one of three supernatural creatures.

Please don't make your OC another tribrid, or a hybrid, or a heretic.

While a heretic is the most likely out of the other two, it's still upping your characters powers, why are you making them so powerful? Why not just start them off as a regular witch, werewolf or vampire and then actually develop them into something awesome? Give them a storyline, give them a plot, give them a backstory, give them a love interest(s). But it isn't necessary to make them have five different magical creatures in one.

welp, that's it so far

let me know if anyone wants my thoughts on the actual Legacies show because I have plenty to say about it

again, im not telling you what to write or what not to write, these are my opinions and half the time im either exaggerating or trying to be comedic

this is also a guidebook where im trying to help anyone reading this in their journey to writing a TVD Universe story and trying to make them aware of some of the more outlandish overused plots as well as try and push them in the direction to actually challenge themselves and make something awesome and get people to read their awesome work

because a lot of the time a good idea is lost in the sea of overused relations, plots, descriptions, etc. and makes readers actively avoid those stories.