Advice for Writing Fan Fiction - Comments

As a writer of fanfics for around five years, I do have some insight into the works of things. I think it's handy to know quite a bit about the characters you'll be using, but not everything. For example, in Febuary, I got into the band Black Veil Brides, and had an idea, but didn't know a lot about the singer, Andy Biersack. So all I really did was look up one of those lists on google (something like facts about... ) and read up on that, watch an interview or two to get a grasp on how their voice sounds and their mannerisms, like how often they use hand gestures, what they do when nervous or thoughtful, look at what kind of wardrobe they generally wear, and then a few pictures to get a feel for how many tattoos they have, their hair style, eye color, all that stuff, then just go into it. And since I didn't know everything about Andy at the time, and I wanted to deviate from his real-life story by going paranormal with it, I just wrote a warning in the summary saying it was not going to be spot on, and that there would be major changes to adapt his character to the world I'd created. No one seems to mind you changing stuff, as long as you warn them.
I changed major things, too, like where he's orignally from, from Cinncinati, Ohio, to Pendant, Utah (A small town I invented for the sake of avoiding research on what kind of people live there, etc.) what jobs he'd had, and tailored a few additional stories for him to fit into stuff from real life.

So like mentioned in other comments, it's great to understand your character and who they are in real life, while also having the wiggle room to tailor them to the individual needs of your story. Hope this helps!

@ AJDWriter
Yeah, it's happens but it's like a 1/10 chance it does. I was that 1/10 haha same with my friend everythingburns (it was the same user who wasn't very nice) but mostly everyone is pretty great when it comes to making it your own!

@ LoveAmongOtherThings

Yeah, I'm definitely apprehensive about all the die hard fans calling out what I might get wrong. I get what you're saying about mirroring their real life experiences. My ideas have them in fictional environments, though. I don't know. We'll see how this works out, haha.

@ Mr. Darcy

Thank you! That makes sense. I was going to watch interviews and read other fan fictions. I just hope my ideas won't be too crazy.

@ AJDWriter
If I ever write something with Kim Kardashian, I fully give you permission to kill me. !!!!!

@ disgust

Good luck with that version, hahahaha!

As a writer of fan fictions, my best advice is a mix of both commenters below me.

When I write my stories I tend to do a little research on the famous person to get a jist of their personality, i.e. what Mr. Darcy said, read or watch some videos on youtube. Thats the best way, especially videos of the famous person being themselves and no forced to sit there lol

And like digust said, make them your own! Mind you, when you're saying what their favorite thing is and its not what it is in real life, sone readers who are huge fans of the person you're writing about might mention it. But there has been lots of times where I made a famous person different than themselves and most didn't really care. Like, that famous persons name was there, thats all that mattered haha.

Sometimes it's good to follow a time line of a famous persons life, for example some people like to read stories when you post about said famous persons interviews or known trips. They wants to read what was happening during those interviews and trips. (does that make any sense? Lol)

But for me, I like to mix and match! Haha if I see a gif or a video clip of a funny moment, or a melt-your-heart-moment, I put it in there not caring about if it happen two years ago or last week. If you want to write about it do it! I do it all the time.

But honestly, whatever you write, that's just it, you wrote it. It's your story and you do what you want with it. Basically just have some facts about the person here and there and you're good!

I dont know if this helped or gave you some advice but I hope it did! Just have fun fan fictions are awesome to write!

While I agree to write them as you think they'd be, you've always got to be aware that writing a fictional character or real life person as too OOC can turn readers away from the story. You tailor them to your setting, yes, but also try to draw on how you've seen the person portray themselves. Like, you wouldn't write a Johnny Depp fic and have his personality that of Jack Sparrow. You do write them as how you envision them in that situation or setting but I'd suggest always checking out a couple of interviews, if they're real people, or watching the film again if they're media fictional character. I've also found it beneficial to read other people's fanfics of the people I want to write about in an attempt to try and gauge how other people do it. I've read Tom Hiddleston fan-fiction where he's not all that nice of a guy (he's lovely in real life) but the author had drawn from his portrayal of characters who wasn't all that nice to connect the reader with him. You can change things about them in your story but if it ends up being a story where the character feels like the only thing they have in common with the person is the faceclaim, then you know you've done it wrong.

@ AJDWriter
yes! that's how i was trying to word it. I'm so tired but at this point im just winging it, lmfao! but yes, word them how you see them. Not how the media portrays them. so If I wanted to write a Kim Kardashian fanfic, then i'd write her as nice, and maybe not so fake.

@ disgust

Yes! That makes sense, thank you. That was kind of the way that I was leaning: writing them the way that I see them and how I would want them to react in certain situations. I guess that's kind of what makes them "fan fictions," haha.

Whenever I write fanfic, I kind of write them how I want them to be. I never really thought of writing them as they are in real life. I get creative and kind of use them in my own way. I think that made sense, lol