the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ how to naturally break up couples

how to naturally break up couples.

so obviously most characters in the show are in a relationship, some very strong relationships that are very hard to break up. some even have two love interests that if they were to lose one they could just go back to another (for example elena and damon and stefan and elena).

and now you're adding an oc who you want as that character's love interest and if you want to break up that relationship here's some tips on how:

1. you need to have a reason why the character loves your oc more.

at the end of season three elena has to choose between stefan or damon. she chooses stefan. she loves damon but chooses stefan. there's something about stefan that she prefers. what she prefers i don't care, it's not relevant here.

but if the character you want to be with your oc has someone that they love, you'll need a reason as to why they are no longer with that person.

it's a little bit more easy if your oc and the character meet or are even already together before the character meets their love interest.

for example, if your oc is dating kol or klaus way before they meet davina or camille it's going to be a lot easier for you because kol or klaus aren't going to be open to a relationship and if they really love your oc they aren't going to even look at them in a romantic way.

2. think strategically about when you enter your oc into the story.

if your oc knows the character from before the show even starts this might not apply to you.

but let's say you want your oc to be the love interest of elena.

well introducing your oc in season 2 or soon after stefan and elena met probably isn't going to go well, unless you're simply introducing them as a friend at first.

it's right when elena is falling in love/in love with him. is it possible? yes, but easy? probably not. you'll probably have to erase bits of their relationship and the impact he had on her life. so if you want to stay true to the show this probably isn't the best time.

thinking about when to introduce your character can help you avoid even having to break up the ship if they're not together or you can do it at a point where the relationship wasn't as strong.

3. get opinions to change.

this is a little tricky to let me give an example.

in my fanfic, my oc (elena's sister) and elena have a pretty tough relationship for the first bit of the fanfic which they rebuild over the book. part of the issue was damon who treated my oc pretty terribly and it forces elena to have to reconsider being with damon if she wants to have a relationship with her sister.

i won't go too much into detail about what happened between my oc and damon but it does cause elena to break up with him.

so my oc made elena change her opinion on damon causing them to breakup.

something like that is what i mean. where your oc somehow causes the opinion of either their future love interest or that person's partner to change.

4. what i would avoid doing is breaking them up over something that didn't break them up in the show.

obviously the relationships in the show get into trouble all the time and have fights and things happen that could cause breakups.

for example, at the end of season 3 elena didn't refuse to get back together with stefan because of what he did on that bridge. you might think she should've. and if you're writing a "what if" fanfic that's fine. but if you're writing a fanfic true to the show, it shouldn't happen just because you want it to happen or thought that it should've.

if it didn't happen in the show, it shouldn't happen in your fanfic unless you can explain why it's now happening in your fanfic.

for example, in my fanfic my oc was also in the car with stefan. now i didn't touch on this storyline because my fanfic starts when kol arrives in season 3 and my oc was compelled to forget what happened so it never really came up in my fanfic, but elena could've decided that she didn't like that stefan put her sister in danger and was more wary around him.

hope this helps.