Things I Hate About Warriors Fanfiction

Small Things That Annoy Me II

1.) The disproportionate amount of female protagonists to male protagonists. I swear there are no male protagonists in Warriors fanfics. They're rarer than unicorns. No, commenters, I don't need to hear about your male protagonists. Every time I complain about something, you all come out of the woodwork "oooh, look at my character!" It's fine when you're talking about specific parts of your fanfics and how they relate to each chapter, but if all you're doing is saying you have an lgbt+ character like you're special among a sea of people commenting the same thing...you get the idea. If you have a male protagonist, congrats, here's your award.

Maybe that's a bit harsh. I'm glad my chapters validate some of you. It's much better than make people feel awful! But back on topic, seriously, there are so many female protagonists compared to male ones. I'm guilty of this. Saving Sable has a female protagonist, See You Alive has two female protagonists (fun fact: Greeneyes was originally a male character called Slightspark) two fics I'm planning have female protagonists...at least I have Eyesore to show for myself. I understand why people do this - it's easier to connect to and write characters similar to ourselves. And as this community is very female-dominated...VERY female-dominated...it's only natural there are more female protagonists than male ones. I know I connect more with female characters in my own writing. That's something I need to work on.

But it's annoying all the same. If you want to become a skilled writer, you need to be able to connect with and write a diverse range of characters, not just ones like yourself. If you don't want to take your writing that seriously and just want to write for fun without challenging yourself, you can ignore this advice. But for people wanting to grow their talent and skills, you need to challenge yourself! You can't write the same character over and over again. It gets boring for readers and stifles your skills. It's like an artist drawing the same pose over and over again. You have to challenge yourself to grow as a writer. I think we also have to evaluate why we struggle to connect with characters of other genders. It could all boil down to the way we're taught to think of boys and girls being alien from each other, the different things we're taught and our worldviews based on gender roles, and how most of us aren't taught about nonbinary people at all. That's a long discussion for another day, just food for thought.

2.) I'm sick, sick, sick of the Clans! One of the best things about Warriors is that it provides fanfic writers with so many opportunities. Warriors has some incredible concepts, many of which aren't fully explored. Especially the societies in Warriors. There's the Tribe, The Sisters, rogues, loners, kittypets, and whatever WarriorClan is. Don't beat me up but I haven't read Graystripe's Vow yet. You guys could even be creative and make up your own cat societies set in the Warriors universe. I have, and I'm planning out that fic right now. Or stick to the Clans and make your FanClans original and unique. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if your FanClan has no worldbuilding or culture and are just copies of the canon Clans with different names, just stick to the canon Clans!

3.) Why are there no elders in fics? It's like they don't exist! No elder protagonists, supporting characters, or relatives. There are barely any casual mentions. Elders are so underutilized, it's criminal. Maybe it's because elders in the canon series became less relevant and less respected and the fandom adopted that attitude, and now everyone sees them as boring. But I'd say this comes back to the idea that you guys like to stick to your little bubble of comfortable writing. You need to challenge yourself! Sure, it's easy to write a "relatable" young protagonist like yourself, but good writing doesn't come from taking the easy route. Diversify your fucking protagonists! Try to get into the head of an older, experienced character. It'll strengthen your ability to create characters. A while ago I talked about some future projects in my smb and one of them was a standard prophecy/journey book with a twist - the main cast were all elders. There are so many interesting and unique issues you can explore with elders - ageism, the struggles of getting older and having your mind and body betray you, feeling useless and alienated from wider society, a burden on your family, having relatives and friends die, dealing with your own mortality. Doesn't that sound interesting? But y'all would rather write the same boring high school struggles about who likes who with your apprentice/young warrior protagonists? Couldn't be me.