the vampire diaries fanfic writing tips

✧ elijah mikaelson as a love interest

elijah mikaelson as a love interest.

oh where do i start.

i'm going to start with elijah in the vampire diaries because in my opinion, he's a completely different character in the originals. i think they're all written pretty differently, but elijah stands out the most.

in the vampire diaries, he actually scares me more than klaus. he's very serious, he's determined, he moves swiftly.

i personally think this would be the best time to introduce him to a love interest. not saying you have to, i just personally love elijah in season 2 of the vampire diaries.

i think for him, an oc would have to really do something to catch his eye.

this was why i was always disappointed with hayley as a love interest for him to be honest because it just seemed like a lazy idea to put them together. that's just my opinion.

because if you look at characters like kol, klaus, rebekah, etc they're all pretty flirty. elijah isn't. no one really catches his attention. the only person who did was katherine but that was also when she was human and i'll talk about that in a second because even she does something that catches his attention which is asking him about love. she makes him think. she challenges him in a way that hayley just didn't in my opinion. not that they didn't improve along the way (though i'm still not a big fan but that's for other reasons) they're meeting just didn't do anything for me.

and to my knowledge, i could be wrong, but i think elijah only got back together with katherine because the actor was filming another show and they needed him to go be somewhere.

i think elijah needs someone who challenges him. someone who is different. someone who makes him do things he otherwise wouldn't do. because he's very serious and very focused, i don't think he takes time to think about himself or what he needs and i think he needs someone who would help him do that.

oddly i think that the way hayley was written in the vampire diaries would've made for a much more interesting meet for the two. or maybe any other way of them only meeting because she was pregnant with his brother's child.

i also think that he needs someone NOT tied to his family. i think he needs someone that he can go to to get a break from his family. which he couldn't do with hayley since she lived with them and was close with the family they were always around each other.

elijah clearly struggles with moving on from his family in the originals.

however, in the vampire diaries, he doesn't. i think the writers in the originals forgot that elijah showed up ready to kill klaus in the vampire diaries. the only reason he didn't was because klaus revealed he didn't drop his siblings in the ocean. if klaus actually did that, elijah would've went through with the plan and klaus would be dead.

anyways. in the vampire diaries elijah wasn't tied to his family so i think that plays less of a role in his character than it did in the originals.

i think this is a time where he'd be a good love interest. he's clearly good to people he cares about. he's obviously very busy in the vampire diaries and i think that could pose a problem.

i'm not sure about this with elijah but i think he could go one of two ways.

1. he's very attentive. he can't always address his own needs but can notice when the person he loves isn't alright.

2. he's oblivious and unless the person tells him something's wrong, he wouldn't know. i think this is because of how focused he is on his goals. in both the vampire diaries and the originals.

but i will say that as an actual love interest (if he had the time and wasn't so focused on Klaus)

i think he would be a really good boyfriend.

he strikes me as a romantic, but not someone who necessarily does these big flashy gestures, you probably wouldn't catch him doing something that gets a lot of peoples attention.

he strikes me as someone who is a classic romantic.

roses, fancy dinners, gives the person his jacket, dancing that type of thing.

but he probably doesn't get a lot of time to do that.

so if you want a love story that is very romantic, i honestly think you might have to start it in the vampire diaries. i think that this would be a good idea because then you have two options:

1. your oc teaches elijah not to focus so much on klaus' redemption and by the time the originals starts, he doesn't, and so he can be more developed as a romantic love interest and as a character.

2. if you want to be very bold, he listens to your oc so much that he doesn't even go to new orleans

in my opinion, in terms of a love interest for him, i think he'd benefit from someone who is very different from him.

but not like katherine different. i don't mean "noble" and "evil" as opposites.

i mean other characteristics of him. he's stoic, he's reserved, he's calm (usually), patient.

i think having someone outgoing and fun and energetic might be really good for him. very interesting too.

however, let's say none of that changes and he is like he is in the originals.

good luck.

he can't separate himself from klaus which is really difficult. when they got the hollow put into them, he had his memories wiped. he's very dependent on klaus.

and well where does that leave your love interest?

this might just be my personal opinion but if you're together with someone (and it's going to be a long term relationship) they become your #1 unless you have a child. they are your new family.

rebekah and marcel couldn't do that and they didn't work until they were able to.

caroline and stefan struggled over it.

kol and davina worked because kol did do that.

if not, you're probably going to run into problems in a relationship.

realistically, they probably won't work unless your oc is able to get elijah to take some time for himself and his own relationships. so the sooner you could introduce your oc the better.

this is all i have for now. if i think of anything else i'll make a part 2!