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.

Grace and Frankie is a great show (on Netflix) that portrays issues elderly people face in a deep way as well as being fucking hilarious. Also it's gay.

4.) On the subject of elders, I'm real fucking tired of stereotypical "I'm a grumpy old man" elders. Been there, done that. If I wanted to read Mousefur 2.0, I think I'll stick to the original. On the rare occasion, I see elders in wc fanfiction, they always act like this! Not every elder sits in their nest all day and whines about their ticks and apprentices not running around after them. Respect your elders. Give them more personality traits than grumpy. If you want people to connect with your characters, give them more than one personality trait. No one wants to read about a one-dimensional character. And if you're going to make them grumpy, at least give a valid reason behind that grumpiness. My grandad is a stereotypical grumpy old man. But that's because of his chronic pain due to age. Living in pain every minute of every day is enough to make anyone short-tempered. My grandad also happens to be incredibly generous, very practical and business-savvy. Because he's a real person and there's more to him than his demeanour, just as your characters should be. Maybe your elder character feels unappreciated by their Clan or they feel they're seen as useless. Kinda like the way the canon series and you guys see them. I'd be bitter too. Maybe they're struggling to accept their old age and feel like a burden. Maybe the majority of their friends, family, and all the people they've grown up with are dead. I wouldn't expect any elder to be a ray of sunshine if they were struggling with some of those issues. Or, you know, you could take the non-grumpy route. It's really not that hard to flesh out your characters and avoid stereotypes.

5.) Some of you have never had a real conversation with someone and it shows. I see a lot of people writing dialogue that no one would ever say? People will write dialogue that is beautiful and eloquent, saying deep, poetic things. People usually don't do that. Not even really deep, serious people. I'm fully guilty of doing this. Read Saving Sable, it'll be a laugh. Y'all know I like to write poetry, but I've never said shit like "I have always searched for divinity like you." No one talks like that! Let's be clear, realism isn't always the way to go in writing. Sometimes dialogue like that works, like in dramatic moments where you need to emphasize things. You want your books to exaggerate some things to illicit emotions. But please understand, it doesn't make you sound deep or smart to have your characters talk like they just inhaled a poetry book. It doesn't make you a good writer. It makes you sound pretentious, and it makes me want to simultaneously laugh and gag when I see it. So if you're writing your characters to say some big poetic paragraph...just stop and think. Would anyone in your life say that? Would they say "I've seen laughter, I've tasted freedom. I've touched perfection, I've heard divinity. And it was those who destroyed me the most. So do your worst, Swiftear. I will let the bears shake me to the ground and I will walk out alive. Because I am indestructible, I am a god. So touch me. And maybe you can feel it too." Bonus points if you know where that's from. I can tell you now, no one would ever say that. If your characters speak like that all the time...please stop. In a big, deep, dramatic moment, it's fine to write poetic speeches and what have you, but in casual conversation, or if you're doing it too much, it sounds really stupid. Pretty words don't make for good writing, and if all you want to do is string together beautiful sounding words, stick to poetry.

6.) People inventing rules for their fanclans and societies that have no meaning behind them. I see more and more unique rules in FanClans and I'm loving it! I love the creativity and worldbuilding. But I get really annoyed when I see societies that have rules with no meaning behind them. Things like "only she-cats can become leaders." It's worse when even the characters in the society know there's no reason for the rule, or say something like "we don't know why that's a rule" when it's something really important. This isn't major, it's just lazy writing and makes no sense to me. Imagine living in a world where only women were leaders. (Would it really be so bad though...?) Or only people with green eyes, or something like that. You'd at least want some kind of explanation! Are your characters dumb? Are they sheep instead of cats? Why don't they question these random rules with no reason for them? This is something I'm seeing a surprising amount in fanfic and I urge you guys to think a little more when writing and worldbuilding. If you're not into super detailed worldbuilding, that's totally fine, but even then, big rules that determine how your Clan or society is run should have some sort of meaning behind it. If it doesn't, that's just plain bad writing. Don't worry though, it's an easy fix!

7.) A lot of writers, especially new or young writers, are scared of people disliking their protagonist. So when they give their characters flaws, they'll only go with "safe" flaws - a fault enough to stop the protagonist from being a Mary Sue, but nothing actually bad. These traits are things like stubbornness, and being hotheaded, things that can still be seen in a positive light, and may be something that the reader even likes about the character, or just doesn't really care about. No! This is just a spicy Mary Sue! An interesting protagonist is far better than a likable one. In The Young Elites series, the protagonist turns into a villain. She isn't likable in the slightest but damn is she interesting. That's why I love her, not because I think she's nice and I agree with everything she does. That makes a juvenile, boring protagonist. You have got to stop being scared of giving your characters real flaws out of the fear that it'll make people dislike them. Actually, it makes them more human - even if they're a cat - and relatable. People will be more invested in them and it really limits what you can do with your character. There will always be people who won't like your protagonist. Some personalities rub people the wrong way. Don't focus on likability. If you want to write a good fic, you can't write for approval. Write interesting characters, not likable ones. People will connect more with those characters. You can explore their development and themes through their character much more. For example, in my fic See You Alive, Greeneyes is extremely controlling and is enforcing cultural assimilation on another Clan. Those aren't likable actions, but it makes Greeneyes a much more interesting character than one who always did the right thing, save for being a little hot-headed or stubborn. For clarity, I'd like to emphasise this doesn't mean that a dislikable character is inherently more compelling than a likable one, or that you should make all your protagonist's assholes. No, in fact, I have issues with optimistic and likable characters being infantilised and treated as shallow. I just hate seeing writers dull down their characters to make them likable. I see a lot of warriors fics where it's obvious the writer is too scared to give their characters any flaws, or have them make mistakes or poor decisions out of fear that the audience will dislike them. That makes the character bland and boring. Basically, don't make your character boring at the expense of them being likable!

8.) Protagonist telling readers about relationships and little tidbits of history in their inner monologue, almost directly addressing the reader. Other than being tell not show, it leaves no room for imagination! Good writing needs to leave holes for readers to fill in. It isn't important that two side characters are siblings or had a big dramatic fight in the past. If it is important, it should come up in the plot naturally! Work it into dialogue, character reactions, etc. Your readers are smart! Respect them and their ability to fill the gaps! You don't have to spell everything out for them. This is something I've done in my writing. I love my characters and I just want my readers to know every little thing about them! But a lot of those little details aren't important. I get so annoyed when a character tells the audience things in their inner monologue. It takes me out of the story and makes it harder to connect with the protagonist and the story. It feels so unnatural, you know?

9.) No mentor/apprentice relationships. Okay, we can blame the canon series for this too. The first series makes a point of mentors and apprentices have a special and deep relationship. And then that gets forgotten later on in the series. Apprentices and mentors are assigned randomly with no thought for personality or skills that match, or teacher skills. The moment apprentices become warriors they forget all about their mentors. Come on, guys! Your mentors should be an important part of your protag's life! Or your protagonist's previous apprentices could still be really close to them. It's just a cool and underutilized relationship dynamic. A mentor and apprentice that don't get along, making the apprentice feel so jealous and hard done by because they don't get the beautiful relationship everyone else seems to have with their mentors. A character who's a great mentor and has an army of past apprentices on their side. Warriors and apprentices who have had the same mentor becoming like siblings. Come onnn, it could be so interesting!

10.) Adding onto that, a general lack of interesting relationships and dynamics. I see the same basic relationships over and over again. The protagonist has a best friend, maybe two, one sibling, parents they barely interact with if they're lucky enough to have them, a love interest, and that's it. I want to see diversity in relationships. A protagonist who already has a mate, and maybe some past lovers. That means you might have to write some characters who aren't the warriors equivalent of a teenager or a 20-year-old. Diverse ages, how scary. I'd love to see a protagonist with a group of friends and the dynamics within the group, a protagonist with kits, more mentor-apprentice relationships that have survived into adulthood, interesting relationships with parents that don't fall into the "my parents were shitty to me" or "my parents were super loving but now they're dead" stereotypes. I want to see old friends with beef, grudges against people who have hurt the protagonist, unrequited crushes, characters still getting over each other, rivals and enemies between side characters.