#how to develop a novel idea

[rozmorris]

From flash of lightning to finished novel: a writer's survival guide

Your muse is a gift and also a curse. It blesses you with a big idea, slaps it on the desk like a mad boss and runs around cackling about how clever it’s been. ‘Build me a tower with twiddles on top,’ it says, which sounds fun and entertaining and, in that heady moment, profound. After that the boss doesn’t turn up for work. And you realise your boss’s plan is idiotic, you didn’t understand it…

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

🔪 3 Plot Twists That Slap (and 1 that should be arrested) 🔪

hello and welcome back to me yelling on main about storytelling crimes. today we are talking about plot twists. specifically: the good, the god-tier, and the why-would-you-do-this-i-trusted-you tier.

let’s go.

✨ The Twist That Reframes Everything ✨ a.k.a. the “wait. WAIT.” twist. This is when you drop a twist that doesn’t just add drama - it recontextualizes the entire story. It makes the reader go back and reread earlier scenes like “was this character ALWAYS sketchy or am I just stupid??” It retroactively changes the emotional weight of everything that’s happened. Suddenly that offhanded comment in chapter three hits like a brick. The romance subplot becomes 500% more tragic. The villain’s motive makes SENSE now. Delicious.

✅ Best used when: the breadcrumbs are subtle but real. The twist shouldn’t come out of nowhere - it should feel inevitable in hindsight. Like Sixth Sense, Knives Out, that one betrayal in your favorite anime you still haven’t recovered from.

2.🧨 The Emotional Betrayal It’s giving: “i would’ve died for you” energy. This is the kind of twist that hurts. You thought they were loyal. You thought they cared. They did care - and still did it anyway. Or they never cared, and now you’re spiraling. This twist slaps because it’s not just about plot, it’s about trust. It stabs the characters AND the reader in the same motion. Bonus points if it’s a slow burn betrayal. Bonus bonus points if the betrayer feels genuinely torn up about it.

✅ Best used when: the reader is emotionally attached. Don’t waste this one on a side character we barely know. Save it for the love interest. The best friend. The mentor figure with dad energy. Make it personal. Make it RUIN lives.

3. 🧊 The “They Were Dead the Whole Time” but Make It Interesting Listen. This one’s risky. It’s a classic for a reason but also easy to flop. But when done well? Haunting. Creepy. Unhinged in a gorgeous way. It doesn’t have to be death either - maybe the character’s been possessed. Or they’re not real. Or the narrator’s memory is lying. The KEY is to not lean too hard on the shock. Lean on the vibes. Give it eeriness. Make it a slow unraveling. Give us dread. Give us melancholy. Give us psychological decay with a side of unreliable narrator.

✅ Best used when: you’re writing something surreal, gothic, speculative, or emotionally weird. This twist isn’t about plot logic, it’s about atmosphere and emotional rot.

🚨 The Twist That Should Be Arrested: “It Was All a Dream” 🚨 I’m sorry but. no. if I read 80k words of someone’s descent into madness just to find out it was their stress dream and now they’re normal again?? I will throw the entire book into a lake. This twist erases tension instead of escalating it. It invalidates everything the reader emotionally invested in. It’s the narrative equivalent of gaslighting. don’t do it. UNLESS - and this is a big unless - you’re doing it with INTENT. Meta intent. Dream-within-a-dream psychological horror intent. If you’re gonna do it, it better haunt me. It better RUIN me. Otherwise? Into the lake.

okay that’s all. go forth and commit plot crimes responsibly. bonus points if you use all three Good Twists in the same story and then look me in the eye like “oh was that too much?”

it wasn’t.

tag me when you emotionally destroy someone with it.

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

[tricoufamily]

did my challenge <3 came up w this story about a hitman who falls in love with his boss's new fiancé and they have an affair

[cowboy-robooty]

im not going to lie i have an illuminati type theory that fanfiction has gotten so fucking bad recently as yet another consequence of the pandemic

[shinene]

HELLO~! I'm really bad at posting,, but i figured it would be good to share my visual novel here~!!!!!!!!!!!

Limbo Puppet Theatre Demo is available on itchio (click) ~!

It's a vn about being a fresh new puppet in a strange place deep at the bottom of the universe ! Limbo~!

To my fellow DCA fans, my DCA OC is a main character also um glances at you

IF YOU DECIDE TO PLAY IT I GIVE YOU MY HEART AND SOUL 💖💖💖

[vaniliens]

Im not even sticking around for the drama that stuff gives me heart diseases im just here to see where this guys gonna lead us and to make fun of him if it ends up bad and ignore it if it was good

[teh-nos]

repeated note to self: AVOID FANFIC REDDIT D: D: D:

[mothprincess]

ugh. i need to spend more hours on my personal projects and streamline them or smth. i have too many that i'm half-assing and i barely touch them. i've been doing the same unfinished projects for years and/or much of the pandemic. but at least i haven't given up on them? a bonus, i guess. i feel like you don't have to give up on these things... ever, really. they'll still be there later (but i do want to finish something, eventually) i don't think of coding as personal projects, so that eats up a lot of my time. i'm building my portfolio slowly but surely...

[silusvesuius]

i legit love when a character's gender is so integral to their personality (and perception obviously.) like so concrete that if genderbent their whole shtick would just be absolute dookie. anyways i'm just writing this text so i can talk in the tags (My beautiful safe haven)

this 14 minute song is soooooooooooo FYRE

[rozmorris]

Same old same old – how to write a novel that doesn’t repeat your other novels

I’m starting on a new novel. And I don’t want it to be too similar to my previous ones. Is that possible?   The idea began with a setting. It would be easy to populate it with characters and problems, but there’s a danger they will be very like the characters and problems I’ve told stories about before. Instead, I want to see what happens if I resist my ‘usuals’. What might I find? But how…

[ying-doodles]

me when I'm rereading tged, staring at the "read for free with daily unlock!" when I've already paid for the whole novel like:

[schreibvibe]

Me every time I watch an LS project where he shares too much chemistry with his costar that writing fics about them isn't enough, I have to create whole new OCs by combining bits and pieces from their various characters and think up a million scenarios for said OCs:

[fatelcved]

i drank some wine, got possessed with the need to write about alvina and levina bc they're gonna be important for ciaran's story as well as the overarching story, hit a lil wall bc it became more like a scene out of a book than an info post, and now i'm like. what do i do :' )

[grumpyoldsnake]

Well. So.

I did not write any of the things I planned to write today

BUT

I did write 1000 words for Taking the Long Way, and had a lot of fun with the scene I was writing :D

[kianamaiart]

IDWTBAMG CHARACTER FUN FACTS

Well, some fun facts and mostly lore or character relationship stuff. Under the cut!

AIKA

Aika became the next Star Guardian at age 13. She’s 15 now

Aika’s want to help people and relentless positivity were part of the reason she was chosen to be the Star Guardian: Guardian of the Stars in the first place. While her love for the job has fizzled out, this aspect of her character still a core part of her.

She’s very kind and gentle person but that kinda goes out the window when magical duties are brought into the equation

Her and Hoshi care about one another but their relationship is currently a bit tense. They’re usually pretty quick to make jabs at one another

She struggled to get used to the platform shoes in her magical girl outfit

She LOVES food. And her eyes are usually way too big for her stomach leading to many a food coma

Aika and her teammates worked in secret for the most part, not really being allowed to “exist in the real world”. Because of this, with the free time she had, Aika would read a lot (she’s actually very book smart)

Aika loves extreme sports and is an adrenaline junky. However, rollercoasters freak her out for some reason

Aika drags Zira into lots of new eperiences. Zira usually ends up appreciating the experiences after the fact 

Aika’s a morning person

ZIRA

Zira is smart but doesn’t apply herself in school

They have a lot of artistic interests, particularly art, music and fashion

She likes the idea of writing fanfiction in theory but writing’s sooooo much work. Any ideas she has just kinda live in her head, causing her to zone out and daydream a ton

While shy for the most part, Zira can be very blunt and isn’t necessarily a pushover

Prior to Aika, she didn’t have a lot (any) friends at school but she’s mostly content doing her own thing

They’d hang out in Miss’ classroom a lot, either to show her Moon Sailor stuff against her will or just to have lunch

Zira loves playing video games and especially loves visual novels

Zira develops a crush on Aika pretty quickly. Aika’s kindness, authenticity and bravery is inspiring to Zira. Also Aika’s the only other person her age to really give her the time of day. And also she thinks Aika’s pretty

She thinks Hoshi’s really cool and since Aika doesn’t particularly enjoy talking about her job, Zira usually goes to Hoshi for magical girl questions. Initially Hoshi doesn’t trust Zira with that information but is really flattered to have someone who looks up to them and is interested in everything they have to say. So they indulge when appropriate.

Zira’s a night owl

HOSHI

Hoshi saved Aika when she was really young and has kept her safe ever since

Hoshi and Aika started off kind of like siblings but Hoshi then became her boss, making their relationship a bit strained and more complicated

Their role as a magical mascot managerial in nature. They make Aika and her team do their jobs, follow protocol, teach them how to use their powers, keep up morale, do timecards, etc.

While Hoshi oversees this team, their responsibility is primarily to the Star Guardian

Hoshi, much like Aika, used to be really chipper and a bit more goofy but Aika’s kinda worn them down overtime

Hoshi’s not a fan of Earth, but in an effort to better understand Aika’s feelings, tries out being a human and doing Earth activities

Hoshi takes a while to get used to their human form. They’re really clumsy in it

They have a hard time making hands for their human form. Their hands are slightly different every time but equally terrifying. They eventually get better at making them though.

Hoshi doesn't use their human form too much. Most people just assume their Aika's weird pet bird

Hoshi doesn't need to eat but discovers they enjoy the act of eating

ECLIPSE

Eclipse is one of the few humans that know that Aika and the other magical girls exist

He met Aika pretty early on in her magical girl career and he was immediately enamored with her

Since finding about magical girls, he’s obsessively tried keeping track of them, leading him to start acting out in order to get their attention. They only really care because he knows their secret and they play along

He and Devoid made his current outfit together. DeVoid wanted to make it black but Eclipse was set on making it very bright and showy

Eclipse currently resides with DeVoid. He gets on her nerves sometimes but they both do care about each other

Eclipse is a pretty good cook 

Eclipse isn’t particularly hateful but he’s really got beef with Zira for some reason

It’s hard to tell if Eclipse is really in love with Aika or if he just loves the concept of their nonexistent relationship

Eclipse has a lovely singing voice

His real name is Elio

LADY DeVOID

DeVoid was banished to space by a Star Guardian. For a LONG time she lived (unconsciously) as a sort of celestial being that would spit out monsters that the Star Guardians for many generations would have to face. While not ideal it was better than fighting DeVoid before she got to full power.

DeVoid finally wakes up in the present timeline, with no memories other than being banished by a Star Guardian and wanting revenge and knowing that she’s supposed to be able to create monsters. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t remember how to use her powers. She doesn’t even remember her name, so she came up with “Lady DeVoid”

DeVoid loves human reality TV. Specifically competition shows. She loves how petty and evil people become. This is also where most of her knowledge of humans comes from

Though DeVoid is pretty stoic, her ears are very expressive

DeVoid taught Eclipse how to do his makeup

She really likes Eclipse’s cooking

When she’s out and about she’s usually wearing sunglasses because it’s simply too bright for her

DeVoid does have to work a normal job in the human world and simply goes by “Dee”

After being in the cold, dark reaches of space and since coming to Earth, DeVoid has grown to love soft things

People rarely question her appearance (because that’s just rude). But when people do ask what’s up with her horns she just says “it’s a condition” and that’s usually enough for people to just end the convo there.

MISS

Miss loves her job more than anything. She’s a very accomplished teacher and takes a lot of time to make sure all of her students succeed

Miss cares about Zira a lot. Always staying in her classroom just in case Zira wants to stop by for lunch, giving her advice or giving her extra tutoring as needed 

Because of Zira, Miss has become a closet Moon Sailor fan

Though Aika’s just started attending school, she and Miss have bonded quite a bit. Aika’s positive disposition and cheeriness bring Miss a lot of joy

Miss keeps her personal life (not that she really has one) out of work but finds herself opening up a little more than she’d like to Aika and Zira

Miss used to get really antsy during summer breaks, leading her to start teaching summer school to fill the time

Her workaholic nature was the reason for her and her ex-wife’s divorce

Miss has gone on one date since her divorce. The idea of having starting over is exhausting to her so she’s mostly okay just being single

Miss doesn’t really like coffee but she drinks a lot of it out of necessity

Miss has a ton of tattoos

[dontwaitforupdates]

Hello and welcome,

the quick disclaimer about this blog is none of the projects have plans on being produced. I may be actively working on all of them but I have 0 plans on doing anything substantial with them. Now that you are aware of it here are what projects I'm doing and the gist of them:

Alphabet Soup

This (in theory) is a romance game with 26 romantic options (ROs) for the player to date. They cover the whole expanse of the alphabet with their names, hence the title. The plot so far is non-existent, but the characters have designs and personalities

Bouquet Baes

A romance game with a classical royal fantasy setting, the blood lines are based on flowers, and there 7 ROs. Basic plot is there is a week(+?) celebration happening and it's your debut event, who will you spend your time with or maybe even court? Working on character designs have some story and route ideas.

The Blacksmith

Also a romance game it would have matchmaking and weekly planner aspects. You are the mystical blacksmith for a kingdom going to war, in preparation the monarch has found 5 sentient swords for you to fix up and pair off with his top 5 warriors. How well the pairings go will depend on you. The main character (MC) can end up with either the swords, the people, or in a poly relationship with one of the pairs you make. The fun thing about this one is the MC is not actively pursuing the characters they will just fall for them and by the end of the game have the choice to accept or reject their feelings. Working on designs and story.

Mac and Chester

My cute gay couple OCs this would be for their story of romance that ends in tragedy and also has superpower elements. Chester has basic improved speed and strength and Mac has Groundhog Day powers where when he dies the day restarts. The characters are well fleshed out. Now, I'm just working on the plot of the actual story and their romance.

Developing Shape-shifting: the All Powerful Gods Gave me a Second Life But I Can't Be Born a Man??

This in theory would be a webtoon. The main character Eli a trans man gets isekaied(?) And is still AFAB his journey is the quest of developing shape-shifting so his body can look exactly how he wants. Plot fully developed working on character design and then writing, then in theory storyboarding.

My Lucky Cleric

Would be a webtoon. The Goddess of misfortune has accidentally killed every servant of hers with her erratic powers. That is until she found a man blessed by the luck God to make her cleric. Kind of still in the idea phase would be about their travels and shenanigans.

Bolts and Screws

Would also be a webtoon. A nonbinary and asexual human inventor has done it they made a fully functional android! But why is she so horny? Would be silly and lighthearted interactions between inventor and invention. Also in the idea phase.

How Many Today's Has it Been?

A love sory between someone with unpredictable time loop abilities and their completely average best friend. Probably set in the same world as Mac and Chester. The story would be told through the POV of the best friend so the audience doesn't know how many loops its been and can only guess by how not well the other character is doing. Could maybe be a short visual novel with a good and bad end.

Spectrum

A magical world with the powers being based on colors. So far, I have only basic world building and getting the magic system together, I have one character thought of and no story yet.

That's what I have for now, will do my very best to keep this post up to date