How to Make Your Fanfiction Characters Feel Just Like Canon

For fanfic writers struggling with out-of-character blorbos, this video will help you make your fanfiction characters feel true to canon 💖

Chapters:
0:00: Why writing in-character matters
1:08 Chapter 1 - The Pillars of Canon Characters
7:42 Chapter 2 - The Blank Spaces
9:28 Chapter 3 - There Are Multiple Correct Interpretations
11:13 Chapter 4 - Marrying Canon Characters With Your Desired Plot
12:53 Chapter 5 - Alternate Universes
15:14 Exclusive 'Break Down Your Blorbo' Worksheet!

Sources/Credits:

Characters used as examples:

Katniss Everdeen from 'The Hunger Games'
Toph Beifong from 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'
Ganondorf from 'The Legend of Zelda' series ('Tears of the Kingdom' in the clip)
Link and Midna from 'Twilight Princess'
Mane 6 from 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'

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! 👇

Logo designed by @illustratornow on Twitter and Instagram.

[CoraMaria]

What was the best example of a fanfic you read that truly captured a character you love? I'd love to know!

[tsifirakiehl]

Honestly, the way I’d write a fic where Prim ends up in the Games while keeping Katniss in character would be to not have Prim initially reaped. Instead, I’d have Katniss get very sick right before the reaping, to the point that she’s barely able to get out of bed and make it to the ceremony, then have her reaped and Prim volunteer to save her instead. Prim usually wouldn’t be the type to put herself in such a dangerous situation, but if it was that or send a possibly deathly ill Katniss to certain death, I think that would be enough to drive her to volunteer.

[heroics]

I go backwards often. I will write an action, then ponder why the character might behave like that. Recently I was writing Hermione Granger in an argument with her parents (age 13) and I decided she was a brat when she was a young child because it actually fit so many of her canon behaviors. Does canon ever tell us that? Nope, but sometimes a gap in canon is something we can walk ourselves into backwards and when it all works it is very fun.

Of course, I usually make a critical change in any character that I have as a primary in one of my fics, I want them to 'feel' right, not be a carbon copy.

[fluxbird]

a lot of this feels like it could be good advice for writing consistent and believable characters in original fiction, too

[EstherVikström]

when you have exactly 4 pieces of information about the characters backstory, and only 1 is before college. it's literally just "she spent a lot of time in the ocean as a kid. she met her husband in college. she went to a university in singapore. she used to work for an organisation that appears a bit in the show but quit at some point" that's it🥲 she's one of the main characters too😭 i gotta make up *everything*

[ZampanoCatalogues]

I'm actually in the middle of making a fancomic and was struggling with how I wanted to portray a character in it. It is a parody/crack comic, so it is going to be a bit out of character intentionally, but now I have some advice to get a more of a baseline for her before I start to incorporate the parody. And then I can get to the fun/hard part of trying to figure out how to work with the parody ideas I have (based primarily on gameplay) with her somewhat varying depictions in the story

[EyeBallWritesStorys]

Thats one of the things i was worried about when writing fanfiction because I want to stay true in character. Thanks for making this video it help a lot!😁

[chiliwithonel]

I'm writing my first ever fanfic right now, and it's a prequel fic, so I have to reverse-engineer their character development. What would it have taken to get them where they are in canon?

[Raccoonboi]

I love just binging videos like these and silently putting all my attention to it like I’m in a classroom but for fanfics lol

[doodleplayer]

"Sometimes we focus on certain details or project our experiences onto characters"
Not me headcanoning literally any slightly relatable character as autistic... (this is slight hyperbole, but still)

[stellagetreuer]

I loved that video and agree with everything. You give such valuable advice!

I must admit I only write characters who ’talk’ to me. I did a fic exchange once where I ended up with characters I would NEVER have written myself, and found I could write them quite well.
But others will just outright refuse. And I must accept that.

Funny story from my own writing ’in-character’-experience. My MC is the fandom’s punshball (as I’ve previously mentioned) and the amount of completely ungrounded fanon that is made up around him is incredible. And also firmly embedded in the brains of fandom.
Obviously, I don’t write him like that, and am therefore often accused of writing him ooc. Only, I gave him about three characteristics that hardly anyone else sees in him, and that are actually confirmed by background material I haven’t (!) read prior to writing my fics. (Or be it with a grain of salt, because the mentioned background material are posthumously published notes by the original author)
It goes without saying that fandom still feels I’m writing him ooc. Ah well, 😅

[ktcaliber]

your makeup in this video is giving mabel pines i love it

[jackqueslack]

Thank you for this, this is my biggest struggle during fic writing

[muffinman_]

the number one thing i hate in fandoms is mischaracterization i think every fanfic writer and reader should watch this

[DensestThingAlive]

Hello, just wanted to say thank you for creating these videos. Writing fanfics has always felt like a dauting mission to me despite the amount of stories and premise lines Ive been saving to write for years. You make me feel very inspired to take my art to the next level, beyond simple visuals. Again, thank you and I pray for your success.

[littlesunshine]

this really helped me, I’ve been really struggling with a fanfic I’m working on. I always can’t see my characters as canon and just edit them over and over, so now I see what’s wrong lol. Thanks!!

[YW_FromOutterSpace]

Hi Cora, thanks for another informative video! I have just finished my 1st ever long fanfic (300k+ words, gosh I am so proud of myself😭) on AO3 a few days ago, and have received comments saying I have great characterisation and have great character arcs. I totally agree with your advice saying readers are more likely to accept "close enough" characters for AUs. My situation is a bit different though because I write RPF and it's always in AUs. What I like to do is to develop plot around my character's personalities (similar with considering your character's wants, needs and misbelief while world building). I like to imagine how they would act in my AU's scenarios, and also inserting their real life interactions in the story when similar encounter happened. Anyway, thank you for the awesome advice! I will definitely try them out next time 🥰.

[lee-chan]

You're videos make me want to write rn, even if I can't!!!! Your advice is so good and feels very accurate to what I like in fic

[shuttingdown]

Watching your videos as some help before i start a hsr Aventurine centric fic! He is a pretty complex character so im taking extra care to understand him and understanding fanfiction itself before i tackle it.

[virtualbubbles]

Have you ever made a video on texting/technology segments in fanfics?? They end up being pretty awkward sometimes and I was wondering if you had any tips on how to implement them into fics smoothly. Another great video btw!!