Hello Everybody, so I have noticed that many people seem to have trouble with filling out tribute form. So, using my last chapter, I am going to give you some pointers on how to fill out a great tribute form.

Sample Tribute Form

Name: Remember, this is based on district pretty heavily, while the name Noah is fine for any district, the name Coral doesn't work for district 6. PLEASE avoid the Mary-Sue names: Rose, Diamond, Ruby, Bruta(ugh).

Gender: Not a rule, but just a note that most people on this site are girls, and because of that submit girls, so if you want to up your chances of getting submitted, send in a guy.

Age: If your tribute is young or old, they'll have certain qualities to them most likely, if their young, they probably wont win. Be prepared for that. Also, and I blame Suzanne Collins for this, but twelve year olds are not super innocent little things. Twelve year-olds swear, get into fights, bully, etc.

District: Rather simple question, if you want to submit a career, don't send them to twelve. If you want them to be rich, don't send them to 12. If you want a poor, orphaned tribute, feel free to send them to twelve.

Eye Color: No purple eyes, no changing eye colors, no 2 different eye colors, be meta to your district(see previous chapter). I realize these conditions are possible, but they're honestly so rare, the odds of finding them in a group of 24 kids is so low that you should just pass on this. Your character shouldn't be using appearance as a crutch for the reason their interesting, that's what personality and backstory is for.

Hair Style: Same as for eye color, don't go too crazy.

Hair Color: Somewhat district dependent, don't do anything weird. No one has blue or purple hair naturally. Most have brown, many have black and blonde. Some are redheads. I've never seen someone with purple hair, much less natural. Also, be a bit more descriptive. Brown hair could mean a lot of things. Brown hair could be considered practically dirty blonde or indistinguishable from black.

Height: Be careful here, I had 9 year olds submitted to my SYOT, and some were 4 feet tall. My 9 year old brother is one of the smallest in his grade, at 4'6". There are some 14 year olds who are 6'0". Look up a height chart on google if your unsure

Build: Dear god, don't say beautiful/sexy/hunky here, or I will kill you. Slim, hourglass, well-built are all fine, don't need to go off-the-walls.

Family/Friends: Make sure to be DETAILED. Don't just say their names and relation. Say relation, name, age, and some minor personality and appearance. And above all, state how they are connected to that person. Can they talk to them about anything or do they just crack jokes in English class.

Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Crush: Not so much for you guys but for SYOT writers(myself guilty of this), please avoid romance in the games. Your being forced to kill each other, not exactly a time to start lusting over the hot chick from d1. Also avoid couples going into the games, it's overused AF. Just keep them at home, gives your character a good motivation to come home.

Personality: This is the backbone of your character. Other aspects are used at certain parts and often discarded or only mentioned every once in a while. This is CONSTANTLY THERE. If your personality is bad, your character sucks, no matter how good the rest is. Always give full, detailed sentences. Also don't just say their personality, explain why their like that. If their shy, explain why he is shy if it isn't already in your history. Avoid going too crazy though, The SYOT form should be an inspiration for the writer to make your character, if they're still having to keep the form open while they write once the games have started, you're not giving them enough freedom with the character. If you want to control every aspect of the character, write their story yourself.

History: I swear if you say your an orphan taking care of your younger sibling, have one abusive parent, the other dead, or your loved by everyone and no one dislikes you. I will kill you, and it will be bloody and painful. Come up with something unique, or, this sounds crazy I know, make them have a fairly normal backstory. Having a good history is nice for reaping chapters and flashbacks. But their main focus should be to show why their personality is the way it is. Your history should be an accessory to your personality, not a crutch for it.

Hobbies: There is no sports such as football in the districts. Those are expensive, the districts are poor, yes even district 2. Even district 2 lives in poverty compared to our lives. If you want them to play some sort of sport, try something like street fighting or running, something that costs nothing to do. Even sports like soccer are possible, just avoid things like tennis, golf, and baseball.

Prior Training?: Dear god, no twelve your old starving kid in D12 practices swinging sticks for his free time. And even if he did, no that is not training. Keep this to either career training, or something very useful, such as(calling back to hobbies) street fighting or running.

Reaping outfit: If your an orphan from district 9, you will not have fancy clothes for this okay? You don't need anything fancy, hell, this question is honestly stupid and can probably be skipped. Either way don't worry much about this, it's really not important.

Reaped/Volunteered?: Please don't say you volunteered for your younger sibling, it's really unlikely, and be honest. If your little sibling was sent into the hunger games would you volunteer? I sure as hell know I wouldn't(sorry dude). If your volunteering make it career or other VERY good reason. Think to yourself, how far would you need to go to play Russian Roulette with 23 other kids where only one survives.

Reaction/Reason: Nobody is fearless, everybody will be scared, or at least nervous.

Token: Be unique, and give the meaning for it, if it has one. IE, to remind him of home. If you don't have anything, don't force it and just put nothing, 99% of writers completely forget about this and never will mention it.

Chariot outfit: I swear, don't you fucking dare say you got set on fire. If you do that motherfucker is going to the bloodbath and staying there. You know the drill by now, be unique, but not too unique. And stay true to the district, don't give your tribute for 12 a blue dress. It makes no sense.

Allies(PM me for specific allies):

Career: This doesn't mean your job, it doesn't mean if you've trained. No guys, see, it means are you allying with the careers. I would suggest against it for outer districts, as you will most likely end up like the boy from 3.

Favored Weapon: Give a damn good reason why he's good with it. If you train with a sword for 3 days, even if you do it nonstop, you're still gonna be more likely to stab yourself then you are to hit the broad side of a barn. 99% of kids without prior training should be picking knife, as it's the only weapon you can learn in a short period.

Worst Weapon: TBH, this is a really stupid question that can be ignored.

Training score/why(realistic guys): Don't even make me rant this guys. 3-7 is average for non careers. Yes rue got a 7, she made it to the final 8. Yes Thresh got a 9, freaking look at him. Yes Katniss and Peeta got 8 and 11. THEY WON FOR GODS SAKE. If your character has no experience or is below 14, they will 99.99% not get above a 5. If your a career, you get 8-10. 11 has happened like, 6 times, and Katniss was the only one to win with the score. It's really just a target. Rant aborted.

Strengths: Your poor, malnourished kid from twelve shouldn't have strong here. Be a bit unique, everyone uses the same ones. Maybe try something like: Can take a beating and stay on his feet. Much more realistic from someone in that situation and gets the writers some ideas flowing.

Weaknesses: If you list weapons, I will cut you up and I will do it with your 50% left side serated 6.72" knife weakness

Fears: Be unique and give reasons. Don't just say, fire, spiders, snakes, losing family unless they have legitimate reasons. They're boring as crap because of how overused they are. Go through your characters history and personality and find something that would scare the crap out of them.

Interview Outfit: This is fancy, not casual, and is usually just a suit or dress, nothing district related.

Interview Angle: Be specific, don't you dare say funny or any crap like that. Also, have it fit your character. Your 7 foot tall, 300 pound pessimistic arse from district 1 who kills kittens in his free time isn't going to go up and be funny and charming.

Interview Quote: This isn't optional guys. Half of my people didn't fill this out. IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. BLOODBATH FOR YOU ALL.

Romance(PM me for specific): See crushes, love doesn't happen in the arena for no reason. And definitely not with some random other person that just looks hot. That's not a crush, or love, it's just thinking someones hot. That's really all. I mean, Romeo and Juliet is all about that exact fact, but people tend to take it the exact opposite way and run with it. So please, no. Just. . . . no.

Arena Strategy: Be specific here guys. Just...please, again it's not optional. If nothings here I assume it's because your character is a bloodbath. If he doesn't have a strategy for the games, write that. Just. . . . write SOMETHING.

Fight At Bloodbath?(raises chance of death, but you get weapons/supplies): Just because you say no, doesn't mean their not going. And you can't say, gets an axe and leaves alive. NOPE. Imagine your actually in their shoes and decide whether they would take the risk. Also, as an aside, if your character dies at any time, don't bitch about it. You're one of 24 tributes, odds are they're gonna die, if you don't want them to, again, make your own story.

Ok, thanks for reading, next chapter will have example characters that I've seen, and how they could be made better. Or why they were good, and how they so easily could have been made horrible, but were done right. I also might do something about how to use the characters you get submitted to you.