Just a random piece of fanfic advice that popped into my head as I finally made some headway on the story I’ve been procrastinating: even if you’re writing something non-canonical, establishing your own canon is still extremely helpful and important. What I mean is, even if you’re writing an AU, or working with details that aren’t confirmed in the canon of whatever fandom you’re writing for, making a set list of what’s ‘fact’ in the universe of your story is great for building yourself a baseline and reference point that you might not otherwise have. For example, in the Hazbin Hotel fandom, we no longer have a canonical answer for exactly how old Charlie Morningstar is or when she was born. As far as we know, she could be 25 years old, or 200 years old, or anything in between. It’s really up to each writer to make their best guess or choose what works best for their story. Even if her age is never directly relevant, I still choose a birth year for her and write it down somewhere in the story plan, purely so I can use it as a reference point if I ever want to allude to events in her life, especially seeing as the rest of the cast are all from various different times. Charlie’s born in 1820? She could definitely mention how she was obsessed with human fashion in the Victorian era. Charlie’s born in the year 2000? Of course she doesn’t really know who these overlords are or what their business is– they were old news by the time she was born! Regardless of what I choose, having a date and treating it as canon for the purpose of that one story does wonders for consistency. It stops me accidentally flip-flopping around, and has the added bonus of giving me something to fall back on if a reader has a question (because, trust me, the questions are never about what you expect them to be). I recommend doing this for any relevant detail you’re creating or interpreting for your story. Vagueness in canon is great for creative opportunity, but it’s way too easy to get muddled up if you make it the entire basis of your fic without giving yourself at least a little scaffolding. Even if your readers never know about it directly, the groundwork will help the quality of your story.