The worst thing in CATS Fanfiction are cliche plots and cliche characters. They're unrealistic and two-dimensional, with no real depth, and therefore no real interest to the reader. Within this section is information about what makes a cliche plot/character, how to recognize them, and how to avoid them.
Original Characters (OC's) are the plague of the CATS fandom. Seriously. All of the experienced writers who know more than a few things about writing (the ones who will give you awesome advice) get sick and tired of reading stories about original characters. This causes them to leave whatever place they're putting up their stories (such as Fanfiction.net), and then there is no example for the new authors, so they'll never improve, and thus the quality of the CATS fanfiction crumbles. AVOID ORIGINAL CHARACTERS! The ONLY exception to this rule is when a canon character would be acting out of character (OOC for short). However, I'm not saying that OC's shouldn't exist at all. They can bring interesting new perspectives to characters and whatnot. But do not write OC's with anything but a minor role until you have a few years of writing under your metaphysical belt.
Mary Sues and Gary Stues are the name for badly written original characters. In the CATS fandom, these pests classically include odd fur color that is strangely attractive to felines of the opposite sex, super shiny/sparkly eyes, are kind, forgiving, have a normal "human" name or a Japanese/Chinese name, see the potential of someone neglected, fall in love with canon characters, can kick anyone's butt in combat, magical, are related to any of the canons (whether they know it or not), and are more powerful and better than a canon at something (like someone who's a better dancer than Misto or Victoria, or a better singer than Jemima). Please, include a few important flaws in OC's, such as being selfish and rude, exceptionally greedy, or anything else you can think up.
So How do I Avoid Mary/Gary Sues/Stues? A difficult question, to be sure. For one, do not create an original character in order to write a story based in real life (no matter how loosely). This is called self-insertion, and lets face it: people CAN NOT see their own flaws. In a staggering 100% of all self-insertion stories, the OC is perfect. Writers with very little experience often unwittingly insert themselves into their fanfiction through the use of OC's. That is why it is recommended that you do not write an OC until you are an experienced writer. Do not have the OC fall in love with a canon character. Have them be perfectly normal cats. They might be envious of one of the canon's abilities (an OC could be jealous of Victoria's dancing or whatever).
So... if they're normal... how can they possibly be interesting? Well, give them a "quirk". An interesting OC might like to garden, or might be schizophrenic. Do not give your OC a life-threatening disease or something cheesy like that. If you're going to give them some sort of disorder (like Multiple Personality Syndrome), do your research so that you can accurately portray it. An example of this is that I thought Schizophrenia meant that someone had multiple personalities in their head... but after researching both Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Syndrome, I found that they were completely different.
Canon Mary Sues and Gary Stues: Sometimes an author tries to do the right thing by not writing a love story about an OC and a canon character. Instead, they write their OC and just use a canon's name instead. In other words, they turn a canon character into an Mary Sue/Gary Stue. If you're writing a Demeter and Munkustrap love story, don't make either character perfect. There is NO SUCH THING as "true love" or the "perfect couple". All couples have arguments and fights, and how they resolve them will either bring them closer together or force them to drift away. And remember to include flaws to keep the characters realistic.
Most importantly, keep your characters in character! It's annoying when Demeter is brave and Macavity is timid (even if it is their past). If you want a character to do something they wouldn't normally do, you have to put them into a believable situation and make them react believably. An ultimatum (do this or this will happen) is a great way to go. Munkustrap might resort to working for Macavity and stealing, or even killing, in order to weasel his way in and rescue Demeter (and secretly finds that he likes it), for example.
Keeping Your Canons In Character is harder than just watching the video a couple times or seeing it live once or twice. There's a difference between canon (what happens in the actual show) and fanon (stuff that's been written about so many times that its become fact... such as Macavity being a conjurer). Inexperienced authors should characterize their canons by what goes on in the actual show; it will be far more accurate that way. As they write more and read more fanfictions written by experienced authors, they will see how you can use fanon and even twist a character's personality. Only highly experienced authors can effectively put "twists" to a character's personality and make them act completely different yet still seem in-character (like an evil Rum Tum Tugger who is Macavity's partner-in-crime).
To help, try making little character studies for each character that includes important information, and can be modified for different stories. Don't ever post them along with your stories, but they're good to refer to while writing to make sure your characters are interesting and have depth.
This example character study was provided by Aithilin:
Name: (since this is CATS, you can include how they got that name)
Age:
Age they act: (Misto's cute when he runs around like a kitten)
Why they act that way: (dropped on his head a few times?)
Family:
Relationship with father:
with mother:
with siblings:
Family history: (the terrible truth of how Deuteronomy became the leader?)
Pet peeves and why: (Munkustrap secretly hates the word "leash" due to some five year-old human dragging him around on one as a kitten)
Favourites and why: (Tugger has a soft spot for sci-fi novels because he wants to be a Jedi)
What no one knows: (Alonzo likes to wear tutus when in the privacy of his den...)
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