SOME MORE TIPS.

1. Bad guys don't have to appear bad physically or in their movements. Some bad guys are secretly bad. Like serial killers. Some bad guys look nice. Some bad guys look pretty. Some bad guys are girls. Some bad guys are not what you would expect.

2. "Short" stories, where there are 200 chapters all 10 words long, are really really overused. Shoutout to the og short story warriorzlove tho bc Thoughts was incredible. So incredible she started a trend of murderous/very dark short short works.

If you have a cool idea, why make a short story when you can make an entire fic? Like... it doesn't have to be long. It can just be ten chapters or something. Easy peasy. By the time you're at chapter five you're half-way through if you go to ten chapters. It's a month or two of work, and you really feel proud of yourself and accomplished when you finish.

3. Medicine cats are cool. I don't know why people write medicine cats off as kind of side-characters in more canonic clans that are small, have prophecies often, and are closer to StarClan in general. Medicine cats are the literal bridge to StarClan. Medicine cats are how they contact their dead ancestors, they're how they get future guidance. Medicine cats should be almost more respected than the leader in a clan that is StarClan focused. Being medicine cat apprentice would be something envied, not "oh god I have to be a medicine cat...??"

Like... imagine we're back in the Middle Ages where religion is the shit. Everyone is Catholic and everyone wants their kid to be a monk, the people dedicated to religion. You see where I'm going with this, where in place of Catholicism we have StarClan and in place of monks we have medicine cats? Yeah. Also medicine cats literally keep everyone alive so there's that too. Medicine cats = cool and respected position. Not just somewhere to put all your disabled cats. WITH THAT IN MIND

4. DISABLED CHARACTERS DONT HAVE TO BE SHOVED OFF INTO THE MEDICINE DEN FOR LIFE. Being a medicine cat is a very respected job. Just because a person in human life is blind doesn't mean they get forced to become a priest or a nurse,, like,,,, that's noT HOW IT WORKS. Just because you get a disability, for instance a cat is deaf or blind or something. Work with that shit. They don't have to be the greatest fighter. Deaf cats can hunt. Blind cats could probably do whatever tf they want if they're trained. Home slice... just because a cat has a disability doesn't mean you throw them into the medicine den. If they become completely unable to perform warrior duties, then they can help out in the nursery and be a permanent queen, or become a cat who looks after and keeps the camp fixed up. Being a medicine cat is a hard job. Don't think "ah, well, Ravenwhisker was just blinded guess he has to be a medicine cat :-//" I feel like it's an even more interesting story if they have to try and find a place in their clan or work harder to achieve their goals.

5. If you're doing an alternate universe (au) think about everything. Especially if it's diverging really far from canon. Every change you make will have an effect on dynamics in the clan. Different ways of living can occur just from one simple change. For example, if a clan is lives in cold weather, cats with short fur may be considered cursed or unlucky. That's just a simple example, I'm sure you can think of tons. Au's help you be creative and you can go as far into an au as you want. Just remember to plan things out and think about how Clan culture will change, so that your au is more coherent and seems thought out. Also it's more interesting just... cool. Like aus are really really cool. But non-aus are also cool, don't get me wrong.