Assistance In Finding The Best Way To Write A Kingdom Hearts Fanfiction

[isaac223]

Original Characters. The mention of such, especially if the Original Character is one within the universe of one of one's most beloved works, begets cringe and chills. However, despite the bad rap they have, even Original Characters can be done well if given the utmost care.

...

Unfortunately, however, as I do not claim to be a competent writer in any sense of the word, I cannot say I am totally capable of crafting a well-enough OC for one of my favorites "verses," Kingdom Hearts. As such, that is one of the first questions I wanted to ask: What is the best way to craft an original character for Kingdom Hearts that acts as the main protagonist?

Furthermore, what would be the best way to merge some canonical characters and organizations into this so that it doesn't look like a sorry amalgam that is the failed attempt at some child writing a literally acceptable crossover fan-fiction of some of his favorite non-Disney worlds (DISCLAIMER: I also will not limit myself to the worlds of Disney in this fan fiction) while not making my OC look like some kind of Mary-Sue due to having any relevance in the overarching universe of Kingdom Hearts as it is.

And... new antagonistic monsters? Yes, I will include Heartless and Nobodies (probably not Dream Eaters or Bugs, however), yet we can all agree that fan-fictions can agreeably extend upon the lore of the previously established canon if done well and can even take place in alternate timelines(though this method is arguably more contrived if not done well), and as such it would prove interesting to try to craft new antagonistic monsters that either are or aren't related to the Heartless and Nobodies, or at the very least "suit" Kingdom Hearts -- and what exactly is the best way to go about making such a relevant creature?



Thank you, if you took the time to read and answer these questions and though I'm sure there are countless more things I'd need to know before creating a half-way readable Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, however these are the only questions that came to mind.

 

[halfmango]

Sup. Although I don't really dwell on fanfictions (nor am I that good of a wordsmith ), I do enjoy in devising characters & plots, and let me try to tell you about my personal opinions.

First, OCs. It's horribly important that, as you said, that he/she doesn't become a 'Mary Sue'. Whatever you write, fanfiction or not, it's important to 'expand the world', but you must not mindlessly throw in everything you think is good because that will exactly lead to an amalgam of failed attempt like you said. In addition since this is a fanfic, you'd better have a thorough understanding of the universe. No doubt you're familiar with it since, well, you're in a kh forum, but you need to understand it REALLY WELL. Not the canonical characters, but the world itself. For instance, if he/she is someone who hails from twilight town, then you'd have to 'input' in his/her background about twilight town itself. It's an advantage from writing a fanfic that you have somewhere to start with. Since you're not making him/her from scratch, you give her the basic background, add the 'personality' that you think he/she would have, and a little bit of spice here and there.
TL;DR: chose a world/background, start there. Then you add the 'personal' stuff.

Now you're going to add the 'canon' stuffs. For this, you need to decide the timeframe of the story you're going to write. For instance, if you're going to write a fic from the time around bbs' period, then it would be nonsense for someone like xigbar or roxas would be walking around. Quite a no-brainer, but you have to think this through. And make sure you REALLY understand about those canonical characters/organization/etc. If you add mistaken details or your personal taste to those canonical characters, then it fails as a fanfiction and becomes an orginial story. You've got to make it so that it feels like the canon characters will actually act in such a way if they were in such an event.
TL;DR: make sure the characters are from the right time period, and don't mess with their personalities. Know their character and how they act.

The last one's pretty hard, especially considering Nomura's already added like a bazillion kinds of 'monsters' in this universe *cough dreameaters cough* this is perhaps harder than making an OC, since you're adding an element that would 'mess' with the universe itself. I personally would not dwell on this, since it's so delicate in the world of KH, but if you do want to add a new 'race' into it then the only advise I can think of is that you think of something, and sincerely ask yourself 'does this make sense?'. At first you would obviously think it makes sense, but that is because it came from your head. If you give time and a sincere thought, then flaw will show up if something's wrong with it. If not, I guess it's good to go.
TL;DR: don't make any nonsense. Think through before you make something like this.

I don't know how much help I was, but I tried to answer you the best I could. If you have any more question, feel free to ask, and I'll try to help you in whatever way I can.
Good luck.

 

[isaac223]

Sup. Although I don't really dwell on fanfictions (nor am I that good of a wordsmith ), I do enjoy in devising characters & plots, and let me try to tell you about my personal opinions.

First, OCs. It's horribly important that, as you said, that he/she doesn't become a 'Mary Sue'. Whatever you write, fanfiction or not, it's important to 'expand the world', but you must not mindlessly throw in everything you think is good because that will exactly lead to an amalgam of failed attempt like you said. In addition since this is a fanfic, you'd better have a thorough understanding of the universe. No doubt you're familiar with it since, well, you're in a kh forum, but you need to understand it REALLY WELL. Not the canonical characters, but the world itself. For instance, if he/she is someone who hails from twilight town, then you'd have to 'input' in his/her background about twilight town itself. It's an advantage from writing a fanfic that you have somewhere to start with. Since you're not making him/her from scratch, you give her the basic background, add the 'personality' that you think he/she would have, and a little bit of spice here and there.
TL;DR: chose a world/background, start there. Then you add the 'personal' stuff.

Now you're going to add the 'canon' stuffs. For this, you need to decide the timeframe of the story you're going to write. For instance, if you're going to write a fic from the time around bbs' period, then it would be nonsense for someone like xigbar or roxas would be walking around. Quite a no-brainer, but you have to think this through. And make sure you REALLY understand about those canonical characters/organization/etc. If you add mistaken details or your personal taste to those canonical characters, then it fails as a fanfiction and becomes an orginial story. You've got to make it so that it feels like the canon characters will actually act in such a way if they were in such an event.
TL;DR: make sure the characters are from the right time period, and don't mess with their personalities. Know their character and how they act.

The last one's pretty hard, especially considering Nomura's already added like a bazillion kinds of 'monsters' in this universe *cough dreameaters cough* this is perhaps harder than making an OC, since you're adding an element that would 'mess' with the universe itself. I personally would not dwell on this, since it's so delicate in the world of KH, but if you do want to add a new 'race' into it then the only advise I can think of is that you think of something, and sincerely ask yourself 'does this make sense?'. At first you would obviously think it makes sense, but that is because it came from your head. If you give time and a sincere thought, then flaw will show up if something's wrong with it. If not, I guess it's good to go.
TL;DR: don't make any nonsense. Think through before you make something like this.

I don't know how much help I was, but I tried to answer you the best I could. If you have any more question, feel free to ask, and I'll try to help you in whatever way I can.
Good luck.

You helped quite a bit, thank you. Some of these I'm somewhat embarrassed about not thinking of myself. And as for your first line, I don't typically do fan fictions either. However, I'm an aspiring novelist and, as such, I need to practice my writing in any way I can. Typically, I'll do that by writing a fan fiction, since it can be considered easier to write in a predetermined canon than to make one up. I use fan fictions as "side projects" of which I use to practice my writing, so I can improve, while I work on the world of my "main" projects. In fact, when I was 7 (7 years ago) I was inspired to write on one of the projects I'm working on to this day by Kingdom Hearts. It started off as a poor amalgam of Kingdom Hearts monsters with a Final Fantasy setting and characters but I developed upon it enough that I feel its quite original (I hope, though I dunno) and feel almost proud of it. In fact, I hardly kept any themes from the original so it isn't really inspired by KH anymore is it...?

 

[KingdomKey]

I've written fanfiction a few times in my life and plan on doing so again relatively soon. What's important is to make it a believable story with your twist on things.

Original Characters: You need to make your protagonist feel like a human being too. You need to give them emotions and expressions without making every obstacle course they come across easy for them. Especially if you're trying to avoid making the protagonist into a Mary Sue. Give them hardships and fears. Make them earn the right to wield a keyblade or someones trust. You definitely want to follow halfmango's advice about choosing a world and a background story too. However, I'd like to point out you don't directly have to literally start from your own home world or Twilight Town for that matter because, you can involve your home world at a later date and slowly hand out your background story, if you want to jump right into the adventure and be mysterious. Although, you'd have to be really good at pulling it off, explaining how you got the keyblade, assuming your protagonist has one, and going from there with whatever goal you've set out for your protagonist. And keep in mind you don't always have to make your protagonist fall in love with the first girl he/she encounters. You could also leave them platonic. Oh, if you do give your protagonist a love interest, you'll need to choose if it's a childhood crush or somebody they have adventures with and it builds up over time. Or they're already a couple from the start. Furthermore don't try too hard because, your protagonist will shine on its own and might turn out differently from what you had in mind for them. They might end up being you in the flesh of the story too.

Antagonist Monsters:

Heartless = Hearts. Nobodies = Souls. Inverse = Emotions. Dream Eaters = Mind.

^ This has been Nomura's formula in creating them. It seems like you'll want to follow it with taking something that involves being a human being and extracting it from them. I can think of maybe something like "Energy". Where a monster could sap your protagonist energy? I'd have to give it more thought in order to help you out.

 

[isaac223]

I've written fanfiction a few times in my life and plan on doing so again relatively soon. What's important is to make it a believable story with your twist on things.

Original Characters: You need to make your protagonist feel like a human being too. You need to give them emotions and expressions without making every obstacle course they come across easy for them. Especially if you're trying to avoid making the protagonist into a Mary Sue. Give them hardships and fears. Make them earn the right to wield a keyblade or someones trust. You definitely want to follow halfmango's advice about choosing a world and a background story too. However, I'd like to point out you don't directly have to literally start from your own home world or Twilight Town for that matter because, you can involve your home world at a later date and slowly hand out your background story, if you want to jump right into the adventure and be mysterious. Although, you'd have to be really good at pulling it off, explaining how you got the keyblade, assuming your protagonist has one, and going from there with whatever goal you've set out for your protagonist. And keep in mind you don't always have to make your protagonist fall in love with the first girl he/she encounters. You could also leave them platonic. Oh, if you do give your protagonist a love interest, you'll need to choose if it's a childhood crush or somebody they have adventures with and it builds up over time. Or they're already a couple from the start. Furthermore don't try too hard because, your protagonist will shine on its own and might turn out differently from what you had in mind for them. They might end up being you in the flesh of the story too.

Antagonist Monsters:

Heartless = Hearts. Nobodies = Souls. Inverse = Emotions. Dream Eaters = Mind.

^ This has been Nomura's formula in creating them. It seems like you'll want to follow it with taking something that involves being a human being and extracting it from them. I can think of maybe something like "Energy". Where a monster could sap your protagonist energy? I'd have to give it more thought in order to help you out.

I honestly can't stand reading a series with a shallow love as the most prominent couple in the series (I.E Main protagonist's relationship) and I honestly think it'd be more interesting if the love interest for the protagonist was someone other than the other protagonist/deuteragonist of the opposite gender -- someone the protagonist meets later on and may not have played as important a part in the plot as the "more important" character but comes to be relevant regardless and plays a part in character and plot development. Unless the relationship was there before the plot began which I've NEVER seen though maybe I've forgotten it, but that even leaves the protagonist open to developments involving doubt of his partner and the like. So I totally agree with you there and am way ahead of you.

As for the formula for the antagonistic creatures, I've already taken that into account was thinking of something like an "Id," an amalgam of all of the feelings, emotions, thoughts and memories that were suppressed deep within the psyche of an individual and/or thoughts and/or feelings that they somehow weren't even aware of and/or even parts of their personality that they've forsaken for some other purpose, be it their dreams, a particular goal or simply a personality trait they didn't approve of themselves having, that manifests in the form of an Id when the person becomes a Heartless. Though I may need to work a bit on it for it to be very good. A lot of my ideas actually revolve around the subconscious (in fact, with how many things I'm writing that revolve around it, I may be starting my own little cliche...).

And thank you for the tips on writing characters. You both were quite helpful. If you don't mind, I'd like to work on the protagonist a bit and when I finish him/her I could perhaps post him/her here (as well as perhaps the refined premise of the "Id") so to hear your feedback?

 

[KingdomKey]

I'm glad we see eye to eye on the romance because, it's been done so many times now with the traditional stuff that it's grown a bit stale. Especially in novels. I like the idea of it being a different protagonist being in love with somebody else while the main protagonist goes on adventures without it affecting the main protagonist directly. It'd be sort of cool if the main protagonist had to help the secondary protagonist save the love of their life in some grand scheme of things, or maybe step in to help settle an argument or create one. Idk. Anything non-traditional aka love at first sight and ect. would be way better. So I'm pleased to hear you're ahead of me on that department. (xD)

It's good you got some form of a formula for your antagonistic creatures. So I'm eager to see your own little cliche as you put it. ;3

And thank you for the tips on writing characters. You both were quite helpful. If you don't mind, I'd like to work on the protagonist a bit and when I finish him/her I could perhaps post him/her here (as well as perhaps the refined premise of the "Id") so to hear your feedback?

^ Absolutely. I'd be more than happy to give you some feedback on your protagonist. And your welcome, isaac. :3

 

[Arcana-Key]

Ah, one of my favorite things about reading KH fanfictions is if they have a particularly strong Original lead. As I'm working on one set a particularly distant time, I can share the troubles and trials that I have had with getting everything ironed out ( like working on another chapter, and pacing...haha. )

You'll need to decide the four basics - who, what, where, when - establish who they are as a person in your head. Write down character notes, potential flaws, and potential hurdles to overcome. The best way to craft an original character for the KHverse is hard, because you don't want to come off as copying the established protagonists, but the three protagonists in Destati focus on a theme individually - familial bonds, memories, and self-worth You want to have some sort of element that can motivate your lead and can give rise to a few faults for them to slowly overcome.

The when comes in when you ask 'where in the universe do they take place in'. The past? The present? In my case, I chose the distant future - I wanted to explore the Worlds after the Xehanort saga by touching on the potential effects that the second Keyblade war could plausibly have on the denizens of the world. Of course that's touching on an entirely different subject entirely, but when incorporating canons and canon organizations into your story, you would want to consider the potential dynamic that they may have. I go by the general rule of thumb that canons are meant to be used as something to use as an influence at best with interactions. I've seen far too many stories where people are the fourth best friend of Sora, which kinda throws off the dynamic. I'm kind of a hypocrite though, because the protagonist of Destati has questionable ties to the main cast.

World-wise, I can't say much. I've written out plots that include a few Final Fantasy worlds, as well as Chrono Cross ( oops spoilers ), so I see almost any property by Square and Disney as fair game.

Monsters...also pretty hard. But it's entirely plausible, as my focus will eventually fall onto the dangers that Light can hold towards people if allowed to go rampant. So long as you work with lore, and again, it's completely plausible in the universe, I'd say that anything is fair game.

Basically, you just want to establish a strong foundation to work on, and working around canon instead of going against it generally helps with that. Think of the cause and effect, but also strive for something unique. Maintain a solid thematic element, and good pacing and you'll have an excellent story on your hands. If you need to know anything else, do feel free to inquire!