How To Write An Alex Rider Fanfiction

Writing Girlfriends

Okay, so I'm taking a momentary break from writing characters to writing ships. 

The problem I see with most fanfictions when writing ships is that people write the girl ship as so perfect. So normal. So beautiful, strong, pretty, intelligent etc. etc. etc. And of course, Alex likes them! Like, adores them! Kisses them, says how he loves them, makes love to them blah blah blah etc. etc. etc. 

That, people, is a Mary Sue. No one likes Mary Sues in writing. Sound familiar to you? The Golden Girl? Perfect slim body, perfect makeup-free face, perfect eye shade without eyebags underneath them, even when the said Mary Sue has spent an entire night awake? Perfect parents. Perfect past. Really rich. All the boys want to be her boyfriend, but she has eyes only for Alex. 

STOP RIGHT NOW OH MY GODS MY EARS ARE BLEEDING! Don't write Mary Sues! No girl is perfect. No boy is perfect. Most authors write Mary Sues as themselves. They make a character based on themselves, except they smooth over their own faults and flaws and write themselves so that Alex loves them. I would not recommend this. Sure, you could write a character based on yourself, but give them flaws. Perhaps your own, perhaps ones you invent. Give them strengths, weaknesses, but whatever you do, don't make them perfect! When Alex first meets Jamuti in my fanfiction, he thinks she has a perfect life, but he forgot that she's been in more pain before the age of twelve then most people will expect in their entire life. Not only that, but her mother used to abuse her because she didn't want her, and her father literally trained her up to kill people. She killed at the age of eight. She has severe PTSD, self-esteem issues and to add onto that, really messed up relations with a lot of other people. When Alex finally finds that out, he learns to accept it because it's obvious she's not going to change her ways. So flaws are good! Perfection is bad! Faults are great, and strengths are mirrored with weaknesses. 

Also, I know a lot of the fandom hates Sabina. For whatever reasons (jealousy, Mary Sue etc.) I won't judge. I'm not particularly fond of Sabina either, but that's because of jealousy. However, when writing Jamuti, I kept in mind that Alex does like Sabina and he would have to have a good reason to ditch her for another girl. In my story, I chose that Sabina got another boy, Blake, as in Never Say Die, which was a peaceful, non-violent approach. Other fanfiction authors have done: 

-Alex ditching her for seeing the true 'monster' she was. 

-Sabina tragically died. 

-Alex met another girl. 

-Sabina was in a very bad accident. 

I won't offer my opinion on what I thought of these methods, but let's just say you might want to try a safer method than killing her off.  By not killing her off, people can't blame you for hating her. They'd have to blame Sabina for her choices or Alex, not you as the fanfiction author. 

Also, remember that by writing in another love interest for Alex, you are under even more pressure for making your love interest appeal to the fandom. So do not, I repeat, do not write another MI6 agent named Alexia who's been working for MI6 her whole life and is even better than Alex at everything and the whole purpose of them working together is to fall in love and have lots of little spy babies. 

No. Absolutely not. Think about it. If you were in a situation like this, from Alex's perspective, wouldn't you be a tad bit creeped out? I don't know about you, but if I'm forced to have kids with a random stranger I will most likely refuse. Just refuse, because hell no, I don't think so. 

If you're going to write an alternative love interest to Alex, then at least make them original. And while you're at it, since almost all of the fandom is girls, make them someone girls and women can look up to. Don't make them the damsel in distress, unless that's a story plot. One of the reasons I don't really like Sabina is because she's basically all beauty and nothing brain or brawn (at least not that I've seen in the books). I have nothing to look up to her for (in my opinion) and therefore, I didn't find her that appealing. If you create a character the reader not only likes but can morally learn from them, kudos to you! That's even better. 

Also, if your writing a slash fanfiction with Alex and Yassen, consider it carefully! Like I said, I have nothing against gay or lesbi fanfictions, but Alex and Yassen have a complicated relationship and I highly doubt that Alex is going to easily warm up to Yassen. So remember to have a good reason for whatever you do. 

I think I covered everything. Remind me if I missed anything. 

Until next time!

-Amber