NOTE: everything is based off of the opinion and observations of the author. This is just advice written by her own knowledge, and you are by no means obligated to follow any of her "rules or guidelines." They are only there to provide help if needed, or suggestions. Every author has the right to create whatever they want!

REVISED AND EDITED COMPLETELY

There are many fatal flaws to a character when the author is creating and developing them. I will include this part here because of the various amount of reasons: 1) characters build up the plot of the book, narrates the story, and gradually increases the interest of readers, and 2) these characters are what you will be stuck with throughout your whole book, so it's best to have a likable one.

To start off, building up your character is pretty fun because you can do anything you want to change them up. To other authors, it is very frustrating because they are at a loss when it comes to creating names, looks, personality, etc. I'll use a few examples of characters to help illustrate the different varieties.

TIP: Give your characters flaws!

Let's first notice Erin Hunter's own characters. Graystripe is a good example; he is nice, determined, but he eats a lot (which makes him slightly overweight, a funny trait). Something well-known about him is that he broke the warrior code to take up a mate from another Clan, but he made up for his mistakes just as he always has. Despite his slightly troublesome personality, he is overall very determined and wholehearted. We notice here that Graystripe has many good traits to his personality, but he also has flaws. This is what makes the character enjoyable, so you have to watch how far you take their good moments.

Ravenpaw is another good example. He is very cowardly, and always wants to be brave to impress his mentor, Tigerclaw,
despite his constant fear. He witnessed a vital part of the first arc's story, which caused him to have many conflicts with himself. Despite this, though, he can never turn down a cat in need of help, and he is always there for his friends. He is a great example of a flawed but good character, because he has many bad traits and makes up for them with his good heart.

Now I can go on and on about Erin Hunter's amazing characters, but let's just take things step by step. Just like Erin had done, we have to sit and think things through carefully.

Creating the personality.

Putting two-and-two together. Building the character's personality is what flaws most of the Warrior Fanfics out there (that I've read). The author of the story rarely sticks to what they made their characters become, and often give them multiple personalities because they simply couldn't choose one. One way to break apart multiple personalities is by giving them to the side-characters, to make things simple. Keep track of all your character's personalities so that your story doesn't become a huge mess!

Continuing on, creating the personality is also hard because there are countless different traits to choose from. And if you choose a personality that does not suit your cat's actions at all, the readers will get aggravated! So to make your personality fit in well with your protagonist's actions, make a chart and line together the believable pairs.

Here is an example of a character who's actions do not fit their personality:

Mintkit is very shy and quiet, silent as a mouse. She rarely likes to talk to anyone because she witnessed her mother's death when she was just two moons old, and things have been hard for her ever since. Other cats simply did not understand that.

Her brother, Leafkit, trampled into the nursery clumsily, carrying a moss ball.

"Let's play catch!" he squeaked with excitement, green eyes blazing. "It's so warm today, you won't believe it!"

Mintkit, suddenly excited, stood up. Her kit fur was fluffed up and her tail lashed playfully. "You're on!" she challenged. The two kits raced to the center of the camp, and they had a rough battle of moss-ball-catch. Playing these fun games made Mintkit forget about her mother's dreadful accident, and she had a great time.

So as you see here, Mitnkit is supposed to be 'shy and quiet as a mouse.' She witnessed something heartbreaking, something we'd all never want to see. And she was playing moss ball like a normal kit, as if nothing happened with her past. Her personality of so quickly forgetting her mother and suddenly becoming outgoing enough to play with her brother does not match her backstory or how she is described at all.

So please, if your cat is shy and quiet, they won't be accepting fun offers too much. Shy and quiet beings often tend to gain observant traits, and they are better listeners than talkers. Let's say that Mintkit was hot-headed. If she lost the game, she'd be enraged. Sad personalities fit when the character is so engulfed in their past or with things happening around them; they tend to often lose themselves in their thoughts. So you get the gist of it, right?

Stick with one personality, and base your character's actions off of it.

Mary Sue's have got to stop. Definition of a Mary Sue: the character that is too perfect. No, that is not a good thing, actually. It means that the protagonist is too much to handle, to be honest with you. A Mary Sue is far from the perfect character, my dear readers. You must understand this concept.

What happens to a Mary Sue:

-receives a lot of undeserved attention

-good at everything

-nothing bad will ever happen to them

-unnaturally beautiful

-unnaturally talented.

I am pretty sure you know that this list goes on, but this is as much as I will jot down. Please listen to me: do NOT do any of those things listed in that list I wrote. Character flaws are VITAL to creating a good Fanfiction, because I'm pretty sure that nobody else likes these so-called "Mary Sue's" either.

Here is an example of a Mary Sue:

Robinpaw has just been named an apprentice a day ago. She trembled with excitement as she awaited for her mentor, Sparrowtail, to return. The break of the dawn light has filled the camp, and shone down onto her beautiful, glossy white pelt, warming it up pleasantly.

Finally, his scent reached her and she jumped with excitement, knowing that soon she would finally leave camp for a second time.

"Sparrowtail is here!" she eagerly told her denmates, who were half-asleep.

One of her denmates, Blossompaw, sleepily heaved herself up. Mosses and feathers clung to her pelt messily. The older apprentice looked at her with dull eyes, full of exhaustion. "What? I don't smell anything. The only scent clear to me is the apprentice den." Robinpaw set her jaws part, tasting the air for the senior warrior.

Then, Blossompaw's brother, Treepaw's, green eyes flicked open. They sparkled at the sight of Robinpaw. He quickly took his eyes off of her and glanced at Blossompaw. "Robinpaw obviously has a better sense of smell than you," he meowed between a yawn.

Blossompaw shrugged. Robinpaw's head then whipped around as she looked at the entrance of camp, eager for the arrival of her mentor. The ThunderClan warrior's gray tabby pelt soon came into view. He gave Blossompaw and Robinpaw and warm smile, and beckoned his tail to the two of them.

"Come on," he said to the two apprentice she-cats. Then he added, looking to Robinpaw, "Today will be your first hunt, and I am determined you will catch something on your first try!"

He turned, and began to trot away. Blossompaw eagerly squeaked as she ran ahead of the warrior, but Robinpaw ran faster than a WindClan warrior out of the camp, shooting right past Blossompaw since she was much quicker than her anyway.

Soon when they were deep within the ThunderClan forest, Robinpaw parted her jaws, seeping in the scents around her. Scents of mice and birds filled her throat, but she was determined to catch something great; a squirrel! Suddenly, what she wanted hit her nose. Ahead of her, she saw the gray fur of her prey, gnawing on nuts under nettles of a bush for shelter.

Robinpaw knew she could catch it, and darted forward. She felt Blossompaw's eyes shoot in her direction with worry. "Why is she going straight at it?" she hissed to Sparrowtail, keeping her voice as quiet as possible. "She doesn't even know how to hunt yet!"

Robinpaw turned around and saw him shrug. Then she turned back to her prey and crept forward. Her lean muscles rippled beneath her smooth pelt, and when she was close enough she leaped, catching the gray squirrel between her claws. The creature barely struggled as her thorn-sharp claws pierced into its neck, instantly killing it before it even felt the pain. She gasped with excitement. It was her first piece of prey ever!

Everything went well at the end of their hunt. Robinpaw bounded back to camp with an exciting catch of two mice, a vole, and a squirrel, while Sparrowtail carried a starling, and Blossomfall with a shrew that almost escaped her reach. Dropping it in the fresh-kill pile, the Clan took interest in her as Robinpaw boasted out about their hunt.

So, that was painful to write. It really annoyed me. Yeah, I was over-exaggerating a bit but I'm sure you guys got the point by that example. I'm pretty positive you agree with me, because a story is rarely interesting without the struggles of the main character. Readers generally enjoy a story about someone who is realistic. Unique personality traits are also really good eye-catchers. But readers do not enjoy a character with no misfortunes, side-conflicts or even emotional conflicts.

Perfect characters just ruin the story.

Building the traits.

You've got to look your best, right? People are never creative when it comes to designing the looks of a character. Here's basically every main character in Warrior Cat Fanfiction novels: blue or green eyes with white fur or light gray tabby fur; red eyes and a black pelt; green eyes and a ginger pelt; extremely unrealistic designs such as lightning bolts and stars across their fur, and as well as a looong fluffy tail. Yep, basically it. (Okay, not so much anymore, but back in my day when Warriors Fanfictions were booming on the Wattpad site, there was barely a variety of characters!)

I. Hate. This.

Using common looks is never interesting, because readers will instantly think, "Oh, this story might just be like the other two-million, so I guess it's not worth it." Do you want your readers to think like that, and then loose potential fans? No, I'm guessing not. So let's get started on the proper way to "dress up" your cats.

Mix and match a bunch of different kinds of looks. Ginger pelt with black or tan spots and gray eyes; tawny pelt with amber eyes; silver tabby with brown eyes, etc., and REDUCE THE FLUFFY TAILS. I am sick and tired of these fluffy tails, because for some reason every she-cat protagonist has to have one. I know they're cute, but they're not necessary!

Most importantly, do not forget the realism of the look. Cats cannot have various lightning bolts, a crescent moon on their forehead (if you get my reference on this, I love you), and star-shaped fur patches on their chests. They do not have weird dots above or under their eyes. They can't always be fluffy. I beg of you to understand my point here.

Make the look realistic, so that means no purple eyes, red eyes, black eyes, white eyes, pink fur, light blue fur, yellow fur, or red claws. The amount of different possibilities is almost endless, so I am pretty sure you all get the idea already.

(There's such thing as albino cats, where cats have white fur and red eyes. But this is extremely uncommon. What I mean by using red eyes is, most cats do not have the capability of having the sort of pigment. Albinos are super rare and red eyes are not a natural phenomenon. Hope you understand).

Oh, and don't forget, cats can be ugly too! That was a major conflict in the book "Crookedstar's Promise."

My name is Normal. Every character has such a boring name, I cannot even pick up their books. Everybody basically forgets how important naming your characters are anymore. People randomly just throw in names most of the time to get it over with, but others like to think it through. Yes, people waste time on this stuff; those who name their cats weird things are too much.

(My protagonist has a boring name but I made that name up when I was 10 and it just stuck XD).

Avoid names such as colors they do not often use, such as "Pink, Purple and Tan." There is a Pink Eyes in the Dawn of the Clans ark, but he is not considered a Clan cat because the groups haven't formed the Clans yet in the first place. I just really did not like it because it did not sound right . . .

Also, don't use names such as "Tornado, Panther, Cheetah, Horse, Sheep, Dog"—tornados would probably be called the Great Winds or something like that, cats do not know what tornados are. Also, they do not know what panthers and cheetah's are either, because they are not mentioned once throughout the books (but if your Fanfiction is not based off the canon Clans, then by all means use those names! Who says your personal Clans don't know what panthers or cheetah's are?). The only big cats mentioned are lions, tigers and leopards (in the canon books).

Continuing on, names starting with Horse, Sheep and Dog is so ridiculous that I might puke. Cats never named their kits after a dog, and they never will. They are too scared of horses, sheep and dogs to honor them within a name, so it is highly doubted that they will name their kits after any of those creatures. And the name starting with Wolf, I guess it is acceptable, but try to limit the use of the name wolf as much as possible because they never made an appearance in the books, and there was only one cat with a name starting with "Wolf" in Yellowfang's Secret. Also, avoid long names like "Mountain or Butterfly."

(Again, do whatever you want, but those are just my opinions. I'm highly unattracted to books with characters called Mountainflame or Butterflyleap).

Now time to get with names starting with "Wind, Shadow, Thunder and River." It is highly recommended not to do this, even though I can't stop you (if you're writing about the canon Clans—WindClan, ShadowClan, ThunderClan and RiverClan). It is rare for the Clan cats to name their kits after their Clan or even another Clan, and it had only happened once throughout the entire series—Windflight in Bluestar's Prophecy (twice now, if you've met Shadowkit in the latest books). I didn't really like it much because it does not make much sense, but alas, I obviously cannot stop you.

Okay, time to cover one more thing about naming your character. Do NOT name your character something starting with "Autumn, Winter, Summer or Spring." NO EXCEPTIONS. They do not know what these terms mean since they call the seasons "leaf-fall, leaf-bare, greenleaf and newleaf." In that order.

Maybe "Spring" could work out if you're naming a kit after their "springy" demeanor, but it still doesn't make much sense. 

I think you understand how to name your cats now, right? Now you are all set in creating your character!