High School AU, Oh My!
A long while back, I wrote a small letter-type essay for
fanficrants with a set of guidelines for writers of High School AU.
I admit, it's a cliche concept, but I'm a sucker for it and I love the concept to pieces. Because it can be done right.
So, now I feel it is the right time to share with you all.
A short bit of editing for relevance later, I bring you...
The Letter
Dear writers, or prospective writers, of High School AU's,
All right, I fully understand that the genre has been overdone, and with concepts such as this (that run in abundance all over the internet), it's hard to make a fic memorable.
But it's possible.
However, considering what has been seen, it's not very likely that authors are concerned about writing quality fics that are worthy of praise, standing out from everything else that has been done before.
As the author of a High School fic that has received considerable popularity on deviantart and fanfiction.net, I did quite a lot of research at what I was going up against, to set the bar for my own story while writing it; and let me say, I am quite appalled.
While the High School genre has potential for wonderful things, all I seem to find are sappy, often lemony, couple-centric fanfics with awful grammar, and barely any mention of the very fabric of the setting: a school, with students acting like... students.
What, do you think that school's just for stalking boys/girls, and sexy!hot sexxings? Oh, totally! And have a violent relationship with smooches and buttsecks and regularsecks and all sorts of things, while you're at it, and don't even care about grades! Sure, that's just like real life! And let's just totally disregard side-characters, and give static personalities not only to them, but to the main characters, as well! Extra points for stereotypes! Let's not give a crap about parents, either; they just exist to bother us! Same goes to teachers, just screw them! Literally, too!
*sigh*
In the words of Lex Luthor... WRONG!!
To all you aspiring and already-aspired fic-writers, here are a set of guidelines of things I find most High School fics have problems with.
1.) Last time I checked, this was a school, not a brothel.
Sorry if you haven't noticed, but there are classes, grades, testing, essay-writing, and other academic pursuits involved in school life. Why, did you think otherwise?
Of course, relationships do exist within and outside school walls, and they can be a major part of school life. Indeed, it's nice to have a cluster of friends, and a significant other, but to have that significant other take precedence in the entire story, to the point of near-obsession? I'm disgusted.
Truly, if students acted like they did in most high school AU, there would be chronic problem with not only STD's, but also teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment trials, and school-wide failure in terms of grades (except with the virginal nerds). Have at least some sense of realism; even though it's fiction, characters must have consequences for their actions, which shall be covered later.
2.) Teenagers are not nymphomaniacs.
To add to the unrealistic nature of a good many of these couple-centric fics, normal teens are not as slutty as you think!
In your fantasies, perhaps, but in real life? Definitely not.
I doubt teens want to go raping each just for the hell of it, much less know how to even perform the act correctly, much less on the first date, and/or with multiple people. Yes, I understand that sex is common amongst teenagers nowadays. But for every teenager, male or female, that has had sex with someone, there is a chaste teenager as well. Sorry if your warped little minds don't understand this, but there really are virgins out there! Whether proud of it or not, virgins exist in all sorts of cliques; from popular to shunned. So, please, show some resistance and cut back a bit; not everyone has an insatiable hunger for lust gnawing at the very core of their being.
3.) Teenagers are naturally awkward.
No matter how horny they are, nobody really knows how to be properly intimate when they're in high school. Seriously. It's uncomfortable to kiss someone for the first time, much less have sex with them. It takes time to build that sort of intimacy, and to learn what's okay and what's not with your lover; this goes for homosexual romance as well, if not more so. Sexuality is a strange thing at that age, and experiencing those sorts of emotions with other people is very, very confusing, especially with something viewed as taboo by many cultures. For a person (of any sexuality) to kiss someone, or feel intimate with someone who loves them for the first time, it must feel amazingly awkward, and should be written as such. The first kiss should not be a passionate embrace, leading directly to sex; rather, it should be a small, tentative kiss, with a hint of shyness and "Should I really be doing this...?" infused with it, etc. No first-time relationship is exempt; love at first sight may very well exist, if you wish it, but sex at first sight certainly does not. At least not in high school.
4.) Japan is not the only country in the world.
If I had a dime for every high school fic that takes place in Tokyo, or some other city in Japan, I'd be a very rich woman.
It seems that in the pursuit of writing for video games, manga, and anime series, it seems ingrained in the minds of many a fic-writer that, "since manga is from Japan, so should the AU." Hence, a fic is made with far too many errors made regarding the Japanese school system, and how Japanese people actually act. Since a good many of these fic-writers are American, with only a minimal grasp of student culture in Japan, we get students that get away with what would normally not be condoned overseas, and hence, a very bad fic. When writing a High School AU, the rule of thumb to follow is to stick with what you know; use your own high school memories as a guideline, and keep it in the country where it was located, where you know how things work, rather than embarrass yourself. Keeping with this theme...
5.) The English language is an amazing and varied thing.
Believe it or not, but dialects do exist in the English language, and high schools, much like the United States itself, are melting pots of cultures and ways of speech. Unless you're writing some insane fanfic, with a totalitarian government that brainwashes everyone and forces them to be the same, then add some variety!
Perhaps you could spice up an otherwise boring character by having them be from an area with a very distinct way of speech, like the Midwest, Northeast, or South. Find family members or celebrities with interesting accents, and listen to them talk a while, picking up the subtleties of their speech and thinking about how it applies to them as a person, then apply your learnings to your characters.
Add foreign exchange students! If you study a language, think about how the grammatical structure differs, and apply that to English; learning a new language is difficult, so add a layer of development and dynamics by showing the slow process of immersion by having the character's speech improve through time.
And, please, for Walt's sake...
Avoid suffixes such as "-san," "-chan," "-kun," "-sensei," and such like the plague. Do people really talk like that outside Japan? Truly?!
6.) Add variety in your choices of character.
Every time I see a fanfiction that uses the canon-choice of main characters, and keeps the "bad guys" "bad" and the "good guys" "good," I just sigh and shake my head. Keeping rivalries intact from the canon is far too boring. Try writing the story from the perspective of a "bad guy," and maybe even have them become friends with some "good guys" in the process! Add a little spice to the story, put a new perspective on things! Make the main character the original series a "bad guy," make your reader hate him! It's an excellent challenge, and it makes for quite a satisfying read.
Don't leave minor characters alone! I'll use KH as example, since it's the series this comm is dedicated to, and has a great wealth of characters. If you use only the original characters and Final Fantasy characters, and only reference one or two Disney characters, then you're left with a very, very small window of creativity. There are only so many different interactions these characters have with each other. However, if you add Disney characters from the game, or even those not from the game, then you can explore many more things: what if Peter Pan was the resident pimp of the school, dating Tink, Wendy, and Tiger Lily at the same time, with maybe a bit of Yuffie on the side? What if Cloud and Phoebus and Riku were all secretly members of the chess team, and worked hard to keep it a secret? What if Gaston was Meg's ex-boyfriend?
7.) It is impossible for anyone to be a walking cliche...
...unless you're writing a bad!fic.
As tempting as it is, try to avoid using stereotypes when casting your characters in the setting. Really, just... don't use them. Don't. If you really think about it, cliques, yes, they do exist, but their behavior is not that extreme.
Unless it's an absolute send-up of the High School genre, keep them out of the fic. Even in the instance of a parody, go for the non-conformist, and use unusual stereotypes, rather than the generic Cheerleaders, Jocks, Goths, Nerds, and Emos; it adds to the humor, and gives you a challenge, as the writer.
I admit, I am guilty of this stereotyping crime; one of my AU began as a satire of the Naruto series, using stereotypes. But as the story progressed, I was able to break the limitations I had imposed in the first few chapters, and create fully-dynamic characters.
8.) Stick to canon, lolz...
AU stands for Alternate Universe, an obvious fact. Since it's an Alternate, but not completely Different Universe, then stick to what's already there! Don't make characters enormously OOC; believe it or not, manga, anime, game, and other characters have personalities that are fully workable into different situations. For example, Jack Sparrow could very well have had a grudge against Barbossa for stealing his soapbox car (The Pearl) back in second grade, and still want revenge to this day. So he'll use Will Turner to build a car good enough to beat Barbossa's current “Pearl,” and lust after Will's crush, Lizzie, at the same time. Although the setting is radically different, the personalities and plot don't need to change much at all, and the same applies to High School fics. A cheerful, happy character in a game, anime, or manga shouldn't be written as an emo kid that hates life; he should be a relatively happy kid who has his share of troubles, but doesn't complain much. But there are exceptions...
9.) ...but don't be afraid to make stuff up!!
Manga, especially shounen manga, is notorious for creating cookie-cutter villains, with different appearances, but essentially the same personality as the next one.
So, make one up yourself!
As I stated earlier, add some zest to your AU by making minor characters and bad guys the main characters of the fic, and take what little details are given about them to make a fully-fleshed-out character, and complete what the original author couldn't. Say you wanted to make Yen Sid from Fantasia a teacher in your AU, but he's rather boring and doesn't have much background; so, make him the teacher of a subject that suits him, such as Video Production or Math (producing images, or exponential brooms!); give him some interesting quirks that you can connect to canon, such as a lucky hat, a penchant for humming while teaching, and a daily regiment of naps in the teacher's lounge. As you write, more personality will arise, and you'll have a fully-dimensional character before you know it!
Don't be afraid to add odd (but at least somewhat logical) traits to characters with more defined personalities, either; Mulan can be the only female member of the football team! PJ (Pete's son, for those not in the know) can be crazy for anime! Lots of things are possible, so don't be afraid to experiment! As a precaution, though, it helps to share your ideas with friends, to see if they get where you're coming from.
10.) Don't give the unpopular kids all the attention...
...it gives them an inflated ego, and that's not good for anyone.
Seriously, the "unpopular student, rising to popularity by a strange circumstance," plots are a dime a dozen; so ironically, it seems that in AU, it's better to be unpopular than popular, because you get all the attention in the story, and vilify all that is popularity, even though that's what the protagonist is (most likely) seeking in the plot.
If you can, switch the perspective around a lot between students, to get more than one point of view in, and a more interesting story.
But, if you must have a single protagonist, write the story from the perspective of a popular student, or at least a character that would be well-known throughout the school. Sliding back into the "outsider kids," genre is just as bad as stereotyping, if not the same thing, so avoid it. Too often are popular students portrayed as airheaded cheerleaders and musclehead jocks, so add some variety. Popularity can be gained with kindness to all classes and cliques, or a good sense of humor, or both, or hundreds of other possibilities. Switch up the perspective as often as you can, show your prowess at writing real people!
11.) Couplings are for the Ark, not real life.
By Ark, I mean Noah's Ark. You do not have to pair off all and any character you introduce to another; have some characters be unaffiliated! It adds to the fun.
If you can, keep your fic as pairingless as possible, but feel free to have fun sneaking hints for your favorite ships all over the place, and have dating couples present; there's nothing wrong with that, as more than one type of relationship can exist in the real world, especially in schools. Pairing-centric fics tend to read like soap operas, and are boring, repetitive, and very often predictable. Not even the Romeo and Juliet concept can spice up that old chestnut. Keep things like real life; focus more on the big picture, rather than one relationship. If anything, you'll get a wider fanbase of readers, looking for their ships to show up.
12.) Cultures = Lots of fun.
If possible, apply countries and ethnicities to characters.
It's just really cool, and it adds some background to the characters. Aladdin and Jasmine, as well as the rest of the folks in Agrabah, are canonically Muslim, you know. So do some research, see how that might affect their lives. :D
13.) You're gonna get in trouble.
Even in an AU, if characters misbehave, they should be punished justly. Caught stealing from the store? Their parents should be furious, and their friends should be "Hey, wtf," about it. Cover all aspects of the actions, or you're just using deux ex machina, and that's short for "lazy writing." Villains don't necessarily need some sort of comeuppance, however; life's not always fair, it's just how it is.
And, honestly? If characters are caught having sex in the bathroom, they are not going to get cheered-on about it. They're mostly in for school-wide mocking for at least a week.
14.) Parents! They're real!
Explore the relationship the characters have with their family! It's really important! I cannot begin to stress the importance of having a good scene at home once in a while to break the monotony and add characterization.
Just because manga, anime, and video game characters most often live alone (which is really, really dumb, considering a lot of their personalities) doesn't mean that they can do the same in real life; it's just unwise. Would you really trust a 15-year-old to pay rent by themselves? Most of them can't even keep a cell phone intact for more than a month.
15.) Plot? What plot?
Ever heard of an anime/ manga called Azumanga Daioh?
It just about has no plot, yet it's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever seen. Covering the lives of high school girls, there is no underlying quest for love, or a major goal (unless you count college entrance exams, which is quite minor in the gist of it). All it is is a recount of their adventures during the day, and the many funny occurrences that they encounter on the way.
Moving on, it just goes to show that you don't really need a plot!
An American version of this, I suppose, are the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar, which are fantastic examples of school fiction
Choose an episodic format, if you wish; go month-by-month, week-by-week, or even by holidays in the school year (like Winter Break, or Valentines Day). Smaller adventures using the same cast in the same setting are preferable to long, drawn-out yearn-sessions that are sad excuses for romance novels. Write it as you go, and only plan if you want to; either way, it's not necessary. Let the events happen as if they are real.
(And speaking of holidays, Valentine's Day isn't that big a holiday outside of Japan. Don't get uppity over it, just because it's "omg awesome in Japanzorz!!1")
16.) Stay in the Kiddy Pool, Kiddos.
If you've never actually been in high school before, just stop where you stand.
Honestly. Middle schoolers, we love you to death, but you don't know what it's like.
So don't try to fake it. We can tell you have no idea what's going on.
The same goes for high schoolers attempting to write College AU.
If there's anything I've missed, my friends, then let us discuss further.
If more High School AU followed these rules, then think about how much funner a place the world of fanfiction would be?
They'd actually be enjoyable to read.
Hugs, love, and kisses to all of you,
- Rii
In further relevance to this subject, I bring to you a fic written in response to a challenge posted here ages and ages ago, to write goodfic with cliches.
Surprise, Surprise, I went with the ol' HSAU.
I have but one thing to say about mine, before I post the link:
It has lots, and lots, and lots of Disney in it.
Ladies and gents, I give you:
A Japanese Square in a Disney Land
Read and (hopefully) enjoy!
fanficrants with a set of guidelines for writers of High School AU.
I admit, it's a cliche concept, but I'm a sucker for it and I love the concept to pieces. Because it can be done right.
So, now I feel it is the right time to share with you all.
A short bit of editing for relevance later, I bring you...
The Letter
Dear writers, or prospective writers, of High School AU's,
All right, I fully understand that the genre has been overdone, and with concepts such as this (that run in abundance all over the internet), it's hard to make a fic memorable.
But it's possible.
However, considering what has been seen, it's not very likely that authors are concerned about writing quality fics that are worthy of praise, standing out from everything else that has been done before.
As the author of a High School fic that has received considerable popularity on deviantart and fanfiction.net, I did quite a lot of research at what I was going up against, to set the bar for my own story while writing it; and let me say, I am quite appalled.
While the High School genre has potential for wonderful things, all I seem to find are sappy, often lemony, couple-centric fanfics with awful grammar, and barely any mention of the very fabric of the setting: a school, with students acting like... students.
What, do you think that school's just for stalking boys/girls, and sexy!hot sexxings? Oh, totally! And have a violent relationship with smooches and buttsecks and regularsecks and all sorts of things, while you're at it, and don't even care about grades! Sure, that's just like real life! And let's just totally disregard side-characters, and give static personalities not only to them, but to the main characters, as well! Extra points for stereotypes! Let's not give a crap about parents, either; they just exist to bother us! Same goes to teachers, just screw them! Literally, too!
*sigh*
In the words of Lex Luthor... WRONG!!
To all you aspiring and already-aspired fic-writers, here are a set of guidelines of things I find most High School fics have problems with.
1.) Last time I checked, this was a school, not a brothel.
Sorry if you haven't noticed, but there are classes, grades, testing, essay-writing, and other academic pursuits involved in school life. Why, did you think otherwise?
Of course, relationships do exist within and outside school walls, and they can be a major part of school life. Indeed, it's nice to have a cluster of friends, and a significant other, but to have that significant other take precedence in the entire story, to the point of near-obsession? I'm disgusted.
Truly, if students acted like they did in most high school AU, there would be chronic problem with not only STD's, but also teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment trials, and school-wide failure in terms of grades (except with the virginal nerds). Have at least some sense of realism; even though it's fiction, characters must have consequences for their actions, which shall be covered later.
2.) Teenagers are not nymphomaniacs.
To add to the unrealistic nature of a good many of these couple-centric fics, normal teens are not as slutty as you think!
In your fantasies, perhaps, but in real life? Definitely not.
I doubt teens want to go raping each just for the hell of it, much less know how to even perform the act correctly, much less on the first date, and/or with multiple people. Yes, I understand that sex is common amongst teenagers nowadays. But for every teenager, male or female, that has had sex with someone, there is a chaste teenager as well. Sorry if your warped little minds don't understand this, but there really are virgins out there! Whether proud of it or not, virgins exist in all sorts of cliques; from popular to shunned. So, please, show some resistance and cut back a bit; not everyone has an insatiable hunger for lust gnawing at the very core of their being.
3.) Teenagers are naturally awkward.
No matter how horny they are, nobody really knows how to be properly intimate when they're in high school. Seriously. It's uncomfortable to kiss someone for the first time, much less have sex with them. It takes time to build that sort of intimacy, and to learn what's okay and what's not with your lover; this goes for homosexual romance as well, if not more so. Sexuality is a strange thing at that age, and experiencing those sorts of emotions with other people is very, very confusing, especially with something viewed as taboo by many cultures. For a person (of any sexuality) to kiss someone, or feel intimate with someone who loves them for the first time, it must feel amazingly awkward, and should be written as such. The first kiss should not be a passionate embrace, leading directly to sex; rather, it should be a small, tentative kiss, with a hint of shyness and "Should I really be doing this...?" infused with it, etc. No first-time relationship is exempt; love at first sight may very well exist, if you wish it, but sex at first sight certainly does not. At least not in high school.
4.) Japan is not the only country in the world.
If I had a dime for every high school fic that takes place in Tokyo, or some other city in Japan, I'd be a very rich woman.
It seems that in the pursuit of writing for video games, manga, and anime series, it seems ingrained in the minds of many a fic-writer that, "since manga is from Japan, so should the AU." Hence, a fic is made with far too many errors made regarding the Japanese school system, and how Japanese people actually act. Since a good many of these fic-writers are American, with only a minimal grasp of student culture in Japan, we get students that get away with what would normally not be condoned overseas, and hence, a very bad fic. When writing a High School AU, the rule of thumb to follow is to stick with what you know; use your own high school memories as a guideline, and keep it in the country where it was located, where you know how things work, rather than embarrass yourself. Keeping with this theme...
5.) The English language is an amazing and varied thing.
Believe it or not, but dialects do exist in the English language, and high schools, much like the United States itself, are melting pots of cultures and ways of speech. Unless you're writing some insane fanfic, with a totalitarian government that brainwashes everyone and forces them to be the same, then add some variety!
Perhaps you could spice up an otherwise boring character by having them be from an area with a very distinct way of speech, like the Midwest, Northeast, or South. Find family members or celebrities with interesting accents, and listen to them talk a while, picking up the subtleties of their speech and thinking about how it applies to them as a person, then apply your learnings to your characters.
Add foreign exchange students! If you study a language, think about how the grammatical structure differs, and apply that to English; learning a new language is difficult, so add a layer of development and dynamics by showing the slow process of immersion by having the character's speech improve through time.
And, please, for Walt's sake...
Avoid suffixes such as "-san," "-chan," "-kun," "-sensei," and such like the plague. Do people really talk like that outside Japan? Truly?!
6.) Add variety in your choices of character.
Every time I see a fanfiction that uses the canon-choice of main characters, and keeps the "bad guys" "bad" and the "good guys" "good," I just sigh and shake my head. Keeping rivalries intact from the canon is far too boring. Try writing the story from the perspective of a "bad guy," and maybe even have them become friends with some "good guys" in the process! Add a little spice to the story, put a new perspective on things! Make the main character the original series a "bad guy," make your reader hate him! It's an excellent challenge, and it makes for quite a satisfying read.
Don't leave minor characters alone! I'll use KH as example, since it's the series this comm is dedicated to, and has a great wealth of characters. If you use only the original characters and Final Fantasy characters, and only reference one or two Disney characters, then you're left with a very, very small window of creativity. There are only so many different interactions these characters have with each other. However, if you add Disney characters from the game, or even those not from the game, then you can explore many more things: what if Peter Pan was the resident pimp of the school, dating Tink, Wendy, and Tiger Lily at the same time, with maybe a bit of Yuffie on the side? What if Cloud and Phoebus and Riku were all secretly members of the chess team, and worked hard to keep it a secret? What if Gaston was Meg's ex-boyfriend?
7.) It is impossible for anyone to be a walking cliche...
...unless you're writing a bad!fic.
As tempting as it is, try to avoid using stereotypes when casting your characters in the setting. Really, just... don't use them. Don't. If you really think about it, cliques, yes, they do exist, but their behavior is not that extreme.
Unless it's an absolute send-up of the High School genre, keep them out of the fic. Even in the instance of a parody, go for the non-conformist, and use unusual stereotypes, rather than the generic Cheerleaders, Jocks, Goths, Nerds, and Emos; it adds to the humor, and gives you a challenge, as the writer.
I admit, I am guilty of this stereotyping crime; one of my AU began as a satire of the Naruto series, using stereotypes. But as the story progressed, I was able to break the limitations I had imposed in the first few chapters, and create fully-dynamic characters.
8.) Stick to canon, lolz...
AU stands for Alternate Universe, an obvious fact. Since it's an Alternate, but not completely Different Universe, then stick to what's already there! Don't make characters enormously OOC; believe it or not, manga, anime, game, and other characters have personalities that are fully workable into different situations. For example, Jack Sparrow could very well have had a grudge against Barbossa for stealing his soapbox car (The Pearl) back in second grade, and still want revenge to this day. So he'll use Will Turner to build a car good enough to beat Barbossa's current “Pearl,” and lust after Will's crush, Lizzie, at the same time. Although the setting is radically different, the personalities and plot don't need to change much at all, and the same applies to High School fics. A cheerful, happy character in a game, anime, or manga shouldn't be written as an emo kid that hates life; he should be a relatively happy kid who has his share of troubles, but doesn't complain much. But there are exceptions...
9.) ...but don't be afraid to make stuff up!!
Manga, especially shounen manga, is notorious for creating cookie-cutter villains, with different appearances, but essentially the same personality as the next one.
So, make one up yourself!
As I stated earlier, add some zest to your AU by making minor characters and bad guys the main characters of the fic, and take what little details are given about them to make a fully-fleshed-out character, and complete what the original author couldn't. Say you wanted to make Yen Sid from Fantasia a teacher in your AU, but he's rather boring and doesn't have much background; so, make him the teacher of a subject that suits him, such as Video Production or Math (producing images, or exponential brooms!); give him some interesting quirks that you can connect to canon, such as a lucky hat, a penchant for humming while teaching, and a daily regiment of naps in the teacher's lounge. As you write, more personality will arise, and you'll have a fully-dimensional character before you know it!
Don't be afraid to add odd (but at least somewhat logical) traits to characters with more defined personalities, either; Mulan can be the only female member of the football team! PJ (Pete's son, for those not in the know) can be crazy for anime! Lots of things are possible, so don't be afraid to experiment! As a precaution, though, it helps to share your ideas with friends, to see if they get where you're coming from.
10.) Don't give the unpopular kids all the attention...
...it gives them an inflated ego, and that's not good for anyone.
Seriously, the "unpopular student, rising to popularity by a strange circumstance," plots are a dime a dozen; so ironically, it seems that in AU, it's better to be unpopular than popular, because you get all the attention in the story, and vilify all that is popularity, even though that's what the protagonist is (most likely) seeking in the plot.
If you can, switch the perspective around a lot between students, to get more than one point of view in, and a more interesting story.
But, if you must have a single protagonist, write the story from the perspective of a popular student, or at least a character that would be well-known throughout the school. Sliding back into the "outsider kids," genre is just as bad as stereotyping, if not the same thing, so avoid it. Too often are popular students portrayed as airheaded cheerleaders and musclehead jocks, so add some variety. Popularity can be gained with kindness to all classes and cliques, or a good sense of humor, or both, or hundreds of other possibilities. Switch up the perspective as often as you can, show your prowess at writing real people!
11.) Couplings are for the Ark, not real life.
By Ark, I mean Noah's Ark. You do not have to pair off all and any character you introduce to another; have some characters be unaffiliated! It adds to the fun.
If you can, keep your fic as pairingless as possible, but feel free to have fun sneaking hints for your favorite ships all over the place, and have dating couples present; there's nothing wrong with that, as more than one type of relationship can exist in the real world, especially in schools. Pairing-centric fics tend to read like soap operas, and are boring, repetitive, and very often predictable. Not even the Romeo and Juliet concept can spice up that old chestnut. Keep things like real life; focus more on the big picture, rather than one relationship. If anything, you'll get a wider fanbase of readers, looking for their ships to show up.
12.) Cultures = Lots of fun.
If possible, apply countries and ethnicities to characters.
It's just really cool, and it adds some background to the characters. Aladdin and Jasmine, as well as the rest of the folks in Agrabah, are canonically Muslim, you know. So do some research, see how that might affect their lives. :D
13.) You're gonna get in trouble.
Even in an AU, if characters misbehave, they should be punished justly. Caught stealing from the store? Their parents should be furious, and their friends should be "Hey, wtf," about it. Cover all aspects of the actions, or you're just using deux ex machina, and that's short for "lazy writing." Villains don't necessarily need some sort of comeuppance, however; life's not always fair, it's just how it is.
And, honestly? If characters are caught having sex in the bathroom, they are not going to get cheered-on about it. They're mostly in for school-wide mocking for at least a week.
14.) Parents! They're real!
Explore the relationship the characters have with their family! It's really important! I cannot begin to stress the importance of having a good scene at home once in a while to break the monotony and add characterization.
Just because manga, anime, and video game characters most often live alone (which is really, really dumb, considering a lot of their personalities) doesn't mean that they can do the same in real life; it's just unwise. Would you really trust a 15-year-old to pay rent by themselves? Most of them can't even keep a cell phone intact for more than a month.
15.) Plot? What plot?
Ever heard of an anime/ manga called Azumanga Daioh?
It just about has no plot, yet it's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever seen. Covering the lives of high school girls, there is no underlying quest for love, or a major goal (unless you count college entrance exams, which is quite minor in the gist of it). All it is is a recount of their adventures during the day, and the many funny occurrences that they encounter on the way.
Moving on, it just goes to show that you don't really need a plot!
An American version of this, I suppose, are the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar, which are fantastic examples of school fiction
Choose an episodic format, if you wish; go month-by-month, week-by-week, or even by holidays in the school year (like Winter Break, or Valentines Day). Smaller adventures using the same cast in the same setting are preferable to long, drawn-out yearn-sessions that are sad excuses for romance novels. Write it as you go, and only plan if you want to; either way, it's not necessary. Let the events happen as if they are real.
(And speaking of holidays, Valentine's Day isn't that big a holiday outside of Japan. Don't get uppity over it, just because it's "omg awesome in Japanzorz!!1")
16.) Stay in the Kiddy Pool, Kiddos.
If you've never actually been in high school before, just stop where you stand.
Honestly. Middle schoolers, we love you to death, but you don't know what it's like.
So don't try to fake it. We can tell you have no idea what's going on.
The same goes for high schoolers attempting to write College AU.
If there's anything I've missed, my friends, then let us discuss further.
If more High School AU followed these rules, then think about how much funner a place the world of fanfiction would be?
They'd actually be enjoyable to read.
Hugs, love, and kisses to all of you,
- Rii
In further relevance to this subject, I bring to you a fic written in response to a challenge posted here ages and ages ago, to write goodfic with cliches.
Surprise, Surprise, I went with the ol' HSAU.
I have but one thing to say about mine, before I post the link:
It has lots, and lots, and lots of Disney in it.
Ladies and gents, I give you:
A Japanese Square in a Disney Land
Read and (hopefully) enjoy!