Are You Making These Out-of-Character Mistakes in Your Fanfiction?

If you're a fanfic writer, watch out for these 6 out-of-character mistakes that can creep into your story! Stay true to your characters to keep your readers engaged.

Chapters:
0:00: What does 'out-of-character' mean?
1:06 Mistake 1
2:22 Mistake 2
4:11 Mistake 3
5:54 Mistake 4
9:13 Mistake 5
10:35 Mistake 6
13:03 Can't Wait for Part 2?

You can watch Part 2 - How to Write In-Character on my new Patreon right now! And it even comes with the exclusive 'Break Down Your Blorbo' worksheet: a 16 page guide to writing canon characters accurately. Join today and these perks are all yours!

Sources:

Characters used as examples:

Camila Noceda from 'The Owl House'
Jar Jar Binks from the 'Star Wars' prequel trilogy
Kylo Ren from the 'Star Wars' sequel trilogy
Ashei from 'Twilight Princess'
Nora Valkyrie from 'RWBY'
Luz Noceda from 'The Owl House'
Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley from 'Harry Potter'

A little about me: my name is Cora (she/they) and I'm a creative writing graduate, professional copywriter, and self-proclaimed fanfic writer extraordinaire with over 10 years of experience here to help you live your best fanfic writing life! Subscribe to my YouTube channel for your fortnightly dose of dreamy fanfiction tips. 💞✍️

Want to follow me outside of YouTube, as well? Check out these links! 👇

Outro music: music box cover of 'Bolero' by Maurice Ravel.

Logo designed by @illustratornow on Twitter and Instagram.

[CoraMaria]

Hello, fellow fic-writers! Kudos for watching this video 💖 Don't forget that this is only the beginning. If you want to learn how to understand your blorbo better than ever, you can either find out in two weeks by subscribing, or you could join my Patreon at the Extra Kudos tier and find out today!

In addition to early access to my videos, you'll also get these delightful perks:
📑 Exclusive worksheets and bonus video content
✍ The original scripts for all videos published so far (perfect if you love to take notes)
✂ Cut script content and unfinished drafts
🎬 Your name in the credits so everyone knows you're the reason why they get to watch more Cora Maria videos
💖 My endless gratitude for your generosity~!

This video is stuffed full of great tips and tricks that you could be using to improve your fanfiction *right now* and it also comes with a Patreon-exclusive worksheet to help you nail your blorbo (not in that way, sorry).

If that sounds like an offer you want to jump on, kudos to you! Check out the link below and see if it's right for you 😁

[tsifirakiehl]

Having canon characters in name only is one of my biggest pet peeves. If you’re writing an AU, there are naturally going to be some differences, but nothing is actually recognizable as what it was in the source material, you may as well just change the names and call it an original story.

[sparklesandstuffs]

One thing I'd like to see more is characters opening up about their feelings without being replaced with a sobbing marshmallow.

[Ilsezwarts]

Character bashing is always hilarious when you have no beef with said character yourself haha

[Silliestbilly]

Man, this is off-topic, but your aesthetic scratches the good part in my brain

[moonlikessplatoon]

In some danganronpa fics on THAT side of the fandom, Kokichi either gets woobified or character bashed and it depends on what ship the author is writing

[a.c.]

Another way I try to avoid excessive self projecting is by putting a little bit of myself in *every* character (maybe it's easier for me since my fic is very OC-heavy, though). This I find really helps me avoid protagonist centered morality as well

[Notfallkaramell]

And then there is me who intentionally writes OOC.

[hourofberries]

This is super helpful! I would like to add that this advice works if you genuinely want to avoid mischaracterization. If you want to experiment with characters, for example in an AU or for canon divergence reasons, you're free to do this. If you don't care about your fic getting attention, and you just want to have fun writing, you obviously can still do that.

HOWEVER, it certainly wouldn't hurt to acknowledge this in your notes or tags. And of course, be aware of implicit biases when writing certain characters who belong to minority groups.

[romacrunch]

but what if the character gets flanderised in canon? I’m in the Ace Attorney fandom and a character called Larry Butz in the first game is a person who is down on his luck in general, especially with romance, thus he has several girlfriends across that game. He’s goofy, and weird, and somewhat obnoxious, but the main character Phoenix literally calls him his ‘best friend’ for a reason — his heart’s in the right place and he does what he can to help his friends.

After the first game, however, he is reduced to being a skirt-chaser who literally blackmails one of the girls he’s fallen in love with, and both of his friends always go on about how insufferable he is. Then why have you been friends with him for so long???

Justice for the Butz. He’s even written the way he is in game 3 in fanfiction.

Edit: typo.

[velocidragon]

I'm so glad someone's talking about this!!! My biggest turn off for OOC characters is when they use swears in their dialogue that aren't canonically used in their world. This happens way too often in fantasy-centric fics and it seriously pulls you out of the world real quick.

[whilenya]

Personally, I really like to tackle skewed priorities on purpose! Like, _the protagonist_ believes their end goal is (almost) always the end-all be-all. Yet either the narrative itself condemns them for it via other characters, or the character themselves realizes that this is kind of a messed up attitude on their part, or both. Oftentimes both — and sometimes the protag will just keep doing the thing regardless, either because the pros ultimately outweigh the cons in their eyes or because they think the end justifies the means. It's just fun for me to try and get into the head of someone who thinks this way.

[Acedragoncakeeater]

I don’t write fan fiction but commenting to boost for those who do. Good luck out there writers!

[heroics]

I've certainly written a fic where a character was 'acting' in a role, because the character isn't as fleshed out in cannon as I was hoping. Also, bashing is a great way to get me to click off a fic.

[Grilled_Lemon]

okay, so I enjoy this one character a lot and sometimes I like to see his heart ripped apart in front of him (as one does), though I have to click off of SO many fics because of it not being "this has hurt me on a deep level" and being more "OwO, I'm jus a lil baby who cries a lot bc everyone hurts meee and EVERYTHING happens to lil ol' me{>~<}". it's so cringey every time and I just can't take the level of OOC that radiates off of those types of fics, oml.

[kdup-hpzm]

the worst case woobifed is from the invader zim fandom zim is written as a sad nerd forget the whole "dark harvest'
i have to ament to doing it to it's to hard to write him as like able otherwise but it has to at least be explained

[StarScar-]

7:45 Funny thing is, that's exactly the thing I'm working with.
Canon material: The character is a dad getting the only known cure for his dying kid. When the protag gets him the cure, he decides to just have the cure sent via caravan through a lawless land and sticks with the protag.
Meanwhile, I'm rewriting it so that he does think he should stick around the protag out of gratitude (especially since they're also dealing with trying to save their son), but the protag insists he goes and makes sure the cure works, and that he can come back if he wants.

A big OOC fanfic issue I have is PJO. Especially Annabeth. She may be slightly possessive of Percy because of trauma, but she's not one of those Yandere like the fanfics make her be. Like, it's seriously insane how people villainize her. Worst she did was be a little competitive towards Rachel, what I recall.

[bruhmcbro]

I just wanna say that all your videos are really interesting and its super cool to see writing advice that's specifically tailored for fanfiction. It's just fun to see how different fanfic is as a medium compared to other types of writing. Also, your visual aesthetic is awesome. In summary: great vibes, great video!

[thatoneflowergirl]

So… who wants to send this video to Thomas Astruc for his own show?

[ChristineSG]

I find that I don’t really mind OOCness in other’s works but I really try not to do it in my own works