#writersociety
I have waited long enough to feel you, the animal inside me has become restless since the day I saw you.
let me unleash my darkness onto you, take you, pull you in and devour you.
Writing believable friendships
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
Even without taking their backstory into account, your characters’ friendship in the present should be believable enough to allow your readers to root for them.
1. Both ways
This is the number one rule for the friendship to be healthy and believable - affection, communication, help, and everything else should go both ways. You can’t have one character always asking for help and the other always helping while never getting anything in return, or a character always showing affection while the other never reciprocating it - the friendship needs to go both ways.
2. Similar or different
Friends can either be very similar or different, and both are interesting to write about! If they’re similar, they will usually get along pretty well. However, it also leads to the potential of more bickering with each other, since their personalities will clash. Just imagine two equally stubborn or talkative characters in a disagreement
If they’re different, they’ll be able to complement each other well (eg. the troublemaker and responsible one). However, you will still need to give them a common similarity to bond over. Maybe it’s a shared hobby or favorite animal!
3. Communication and trust
Friends can either be all giggly and soft around each other or bicker 24/7, depending on their friendship dynamic and the personalities of the characters. However, a constant thing to keep in a healthy friendship is the ability to trust and communicate with each other.
Friends should trust each other, not leaving each other for a love interest or some whack reason. They should also know the best ways to communicate with each other. Even with friends who bicker a lot, the arguments should be playful. They should always know and avoid the topics that are off limits and would truly hurt the other.
4. Flesh them out individually
Most of the time, there’s only one main character in the friend group, and the rest only act as their friend and nothing more. They don’t have any other role in the story besides being the main character’s friend.
While you can’t always dive into the backstory and depth of the other characters, especially if your story is only from one pov, you should still fully flesh them out. Give then strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, goals, quirks, etc. Make sure that everyone in their friend group are their own person, not just a supporting character for someone else.
5. Reason to stick together
Your character will meet so many people throughout their life, but they can’t keep in touch with all of them. Chances are, they’ll “abandon” old friends for new ones they just met. If you want to write a long-lasting friendship, you’ll need to find that key reason why they choose to stick together despite their hardships.
Maybe they ever saved each other’s lives in the past? Or maybe they live close to each other, so it’s easier to maintain their friendship. There are lots of possibilities!
6. Different friendship dynamics
- Chaotic x chaotic
- dumb x dumber
- grumpy x sunshine
- talkative x shy
- goofy x serious
- cinammon roll x cinammon roll protector
- Playful & friendly rivals
- sarcastic x blunt
- calm x always angry
Today Celebrate World Rose Day And Know Its History, Importance And Theme
Today Celebrate World Rose Day And Know Its History, Importance And Theme
“Nothing ever ends poetically. It ends and we turn it into poetry. All that blood was never once beautiful. It was just red.”
Kait Rokowski
His brain was perfect; it must be the fault of the world then - that he could not feel.
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
You are more to me than all art can ever be.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
For someone who has typed upwards of 200,000 words for their novel, taken advanced English all their life, has a family of multigenerational English teachers, and has a formidable library in their room, I sure can’t spell worth a damn.
I spent a length of time I will not disclose cursing spell-check, more confident than I had any right to be that “paid” was actually spelled “payed.”
A list of winter aesthetics
- Holding hands under blankets
- Listening to old songs and letting them carry you to an another time
- Owning a journal and filling it with your favourite moments of the season so you won’t forget about them because they will become moments from your past one day so they are important
- Picking up a random book from your dusty shelf and daring to finish it
- Covering yourself with tones of clothes from head to toe
- Sleepovers with friends
- Having lunch dates with friends in their car while the rain is pouring outside
- Hydrating and moisturizing
- Drawing symbols on the windows covered with humidity
- Spending your free time napping or getting cozy under your blankets while watching your favorite movie
- Making handmade cards then sending them to your dearest people
- Rescuing stray cats and giving them shelter
- Romanticizing your life by thinking that everything you do is worth the care and admiration
- Reading, reading and reading
- Going to art exhibitions of artists you’ve never heard of
- Long walks alone or with your friends and making up back stories for people you see on the street
- Waking up early than usual when the world is still asleep
- Listening to some playlists made by strangers on the internet
- The agreeable warmth of your cocoa cup between your hands
- Feeling the delicate coldness of the snowflakes on your skin
A list of useful synonyms
- Argument:altercation, squabble
- Chaos: disorder, confusion, pandemonium
- Collect: assemble, cumulate, stock
- Difficult:arduous, strenuous
- Easy: effortless, painless
- Effort: elbow grease, expenditure, labor
- Happiness: contentement, cheerfulness, joy
- Help: assist, aid, succor
- Love: fondness, tenderness, adoration
- Money:capital, finances, currency
- Pain: affliction, agony, suffering
- Power:ability, potential
- Pleasure:delight, satisfaction, fulfilment
- Prejudice:preconception
- Pride:self-esteem, dignity, honour
- Purpose:motive, cause, impetus
- Reason: aim, objective, incentive
- Rich:affluent, moneyed, wealthy
- Strong:powerful, brawny, strapping
- Useful:handy, nifty, convenient
- Understand: comprehend, perceive
The most heartbreaking tropes in my opinion
@bluebxlle_writer on instagram
Just a warning : the title is hella inaccurate because most of these aren’t even tropes - just super specific scenarios
1. When one person is fated to suffer, and their friends try everything in their power to prevent that from happening, but the person still gets their worse case scenario ending because fate is absolute. (Specific, I know. No I am not okay.)
2. RIGHT PERSON WRONG TIME!!!
3. Best friends into strangers into enemies
4. Someone dying with an unkept promise
5. Strangers to friends to lovers to strangers again (yes this is based on that one song, it’s in like every single Our Beloved Summer edit and it HURTS ok.)
6. C o r r u p t i o n a r c s . (bonus points if they got corrupted because of themself)
7. Being forced to let go the person they love most (platonically or romantically, both hurt.)
8. A villain going through a redemption arc, joining the good side, and finally becoming a better person and getting new friends, BUT they later sacrifice themself for the protagonist :“”“”“
9. Two characters in love promising each other to officially get together "once everything is over”, but they never did because one of them died
10. A cheerful and always beaming character slowly losing the light in their eyes as the people they love most leave them, one by one.
11. Taking someone for granted until it’s too late to thank them… hug them… or save them
12. Abusive parents. I don’t care how many times it’s repeated or overdone - it never fails to break my heart. *casually stabs Hinazuki Kayo’s mom*
13. Look idk it’s nearly 11 pm here I can’t think of anything else
14. Nvm I got more
15. A CHARACTER GETTING KILLED BY SOMEONE THEY LOVE whether it’s by accident or on purpose - both hurt.
16. Alternately, a character killing someone they love and having to live with the guilt.
17. FRIENDS WHO ARE WILLING TO DIE FOR EACH OTHER. At first glance it’s an “awwwwww” trope, but I assure you, there won’t be much awwwwww-ing when they actually die for their friend.
18. Look, any form of the “character A sacrifices themself for character B” trope hurts. A lot. Especially when A died with a smile on their face - to assure B that they’ll be okay, and because they love B so much that if they had a hundred chances to rewind and change their decision, they would always choose to sacrifice themself a hundred times, because they just love B that much (im not crying wdym)
19. Characters blaming themselves for a loved one’s death even if they weren’t directly involved in it
20. Ok uhh why are the last few points all deaths im sorry- im not sorry at all
Writing believable friendships
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
Even without taking their backstory into account, your characters’ friendship in the present should be believable enough to allow your readers to root for them.
1. Both ways
This is the number one rule for the friendship to be healthy and believable - affection, communication, help, and everything else should go both ways. You can’t have one character always asking for help and the other always helping while never getting anything in return, or a character always showing affection while the other never reciprocating it - the friendship needs to go both ways.
2. Similar or different
Friends can either be very similar or different, and both are interesting to write about! If they’re similar, they will usually get along pretty well. However, it also leads to the potential of more bickering with each other, since their personalities will clash. Just imagine two equally stubborn or talkative characters in a disagreement
If they’re different, they’ll be able to complement each other well (eg. the troublemaker and responsible one). However, you will still need to give them a common similarity to bond over. Maybe it’s a shared hobby or favorite animal!
3. Communication and trust
Friends can either be all giggly and soft around each other or bicker 24/7, depending on their friendship dynamic and the personalities of the characters. However, a constant thing to keep in a healthy friendship is the ability to trust and communicate with each other.
Friends should trust each other, not leaving each other for a love interest or some whack reason. They should also know the best ways to communicate with each other. Even with friends who bicker a lot, the arguments should be playful. They should always know and avoid the topics that are off limits and would truly hurt the other.
4. Flesh them out individually
Most of the time, there’s only one main character in the friend group, and the rest only act as their friend and nothing more. They don’t have any other role in the story besides being the main character’s friend.
While you can’t always dive into the backstory and depth of the other characters, especially if your story is only from one pov, you should still fully flesh them out. Give then strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, goals, quirks, etc. Make sure that everyone in their friend group are their own person, not just a supporting character for someone else.
5. Reason to stick together
Your character will meet so many people throughout their life, but they can’t keep in touch with all of them. Chances are, they’ll “abandon” old friends for new ones they just met. If you want to write a long-lasting friendship, you’ll need to find that key reason why they choose to stick together despite their hardships.
Maybe they ever saved each other’s lives in the past? Or maybe they live close to each other, so it’s easier to maintain their friendship. There are lots of possibilities!
6. Different friendship dynamics
- Chaotic x chaotic
- dumb x dumber
- grumpy x sunshine
- talkative x shy
- goofy x serious
- cinammon roll x cinammon roll protector
- Playful & friendly rivals
- sarcastic x blunt
- calm x always angry
My writing advice for new writers
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
1. Write for yourself
This is the #1 tip I will always give to writers, so you’ve probably heard me say this a few times. Don’t write for others, but write for yourself.
People have different tastes. There will always be some who dislike your book, and some who consider it their favorite. Lots of people hate famous books like Percy Jackson or Six Of Crows, and I’m sure you’ve disliked a popular book before. So instead of writing a book that others would read, start writing a book that you would read.If you end up liking your book, I can assure you that many others will too.
2. Flesh out characters
When you’re excited to write a new WIP, you might delay your character building process and decide to start writing while trying to figure out the characterization on the way. I’ve done this a couple of times, thinking that it would speed up my writing process, but trust me, it did not. It actually slowed down my writing instead.
If you start writing your wip without at least finishing 80% of your character building process, you’ll find yourself getting stuck in scenes, not knowing what your character would say or do, which is very inconvenient.
If you ever get bored of character building and really want to start writing instead, I suggest writing one-shots unrelated to your WIP. By doing this, you don’t have to worry about writing your characters out of character, and its actually useful to their characterization process.
3. Experiment!
If you feel like there’s something off with your writing, or you’re beginning to feel that writing is a chore for you, experiment with different writing techniques. Switch up your genre, time period, plotting method, etc.
For reference, I used to be a pantser who writes plot-driven mystery stories. But now, I’m more comfortable with being a plantser who writes character-driven low fantasy stories! Basically, don’t be afraid of change, because it might help you later.
4. Know your ending
In my opinion, the most important thing to consider while writing a story is your ending - not your beginning or middle. You can rewrite your beginning chapters anytime, and you can always figure out your middle chapters later, noone knows how to write the middle of a story anyway.
But if you don’t know the ending of your story, you’re screwed, buddy. Without knowing how your story ends, you can’t write the events that build up to that ending.
You’re unsure about your novel’s ending at first and decided to throw in a last minute plot twist? That means you’ve been foreshadowing the wrong ending the whole book, and you gotta rewrite. You don’t know how your characters will develop throughout the book? You won’t be able to write the journey of their arc throughout the story. Hassling, right? That’s why, try not to start writing your WIP without having a possible ending in mind.
5. If you write, you’re valid.
Nowadays, the standards of being a writer is that you have to write a full-length novel and be traditionally published. This isn’t true, not even the slightest.
You write poetry? You’re a writer and valid. You’re a screenwriter? Bro, look at the word. ScreenWRITER. valid. You write fanfictions? Valid, and you’re not cringey. You have NO idea how much I worship fanfiction writers for writing what canon won’t give us. You’re writing but don’t want to be published? You’re still valid. As long as you write, you’re valid, because that’s the whole point of being a writer.
6. Don’t follow every single tip
There’s a reason why they’re called writing tips, not rules. You’re not meant to follow every single one of them, they’re only meant to guide you on the way. Some will be useful, some won’t, depending on yourself. So please, don’t be pressured to follow every writing tip you see.
Hero x Villain prompts
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
These can be taken as both platonic and romantic!!
1. Villain realizes that Hero’s superior had been abusing them, and decides to take matters into their own hands
2. Whatever tf Doctor Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus had going on
3. Villain aims a gun at Hero and fires. Hero flinched, only to realize that Villain shot the other villain about to strike them from behind.
4. Hero has Villain on knifepoint, but stabs the blade into the wall beside Villain’s head instead.
5. Villain sneaks extra food to Hero’s cell when they were being held captive in the main villain’s lair
6. Villain had once saved Hero’s life when they were kids but has no recollection of it, while Hero immediately recognized Villain as their childhood savior.
7. Hero and Villain runs into each other during a normal day while grocery shopping, and both aren’t sure what to do, because are we supposed to fight?? But it’s our day off and we’re not in a mission tho?? But that’s my enemy right there, I can’t just stand here and do nothing?? But if I attack first it’ll seem rude-
8. Hero and Villain being ex-childhood friends
9. Even worse better, EX-LOVERS
10. Villain helping Hero escape from the evil lair, but then getting punished and tortured by the main villain for it.
11. Grumpy Hero and sunshine Villain. That’s it.
12. It’s always badass female hero x morally gray male villain WHERE TF IS OUR SOFT MALE HERO X MORALLY GRAY HOT LADY VILLAIN
13. Or just make them the same gender and let the gays win
14. Or just yeet gender and make them non-binary that works too
15. Hero and Villain looking so so similar that people always mistake them as siblings, which enrages them both
16. “I am NOT related to this idiot-“ // “WELL AT LEAST I DIDN’T TRY TO DESTROY A WHOLE CITY”
17. “…and that’s how my mom abandoned me and I ended up in the evil side.” // “Ight screw prison, I’m taking you to therapy. I got the bills covered dw.”
18. Villain burning Hero’s home like their boss ordered them to, but then changing their mind and dragging an unconscious Hero out of the burning house at the last minute while cursing to themselves
19. “You shouldn’t have helped me.” // “Oh, so you want me to throw you into your burning house again, you ungrateful bish??”
20. Villain sacrificing their life to help Hero survive and escape, but Hero never knew about it because they weren’t there and nobody had the heart to tell them
21. Hero and Villain having the same religion and somehow going to the same church/temple/mosque, therefore always meeting there and it takes every ounce of their self control to not start a brawl in their praying spot
22.But they fought once anyway and they were permanently banned
23. Hero and Villain bonding over a common favorite animal
24. But the fighting again a second later over who’s gonna adopt the animal
25. “What do you MEAN you wanna adopt this cat- you’re too busy protecting the city and shiz, you won’t have time for it!” // “Well at least I don’t rob banks for a living-” // “WELL AT LEAST I CAN BE USEFUL AND ROB SOME CAT FOOD FOR IT AND BE A GOOD PARENT”
Writing cynical characters
@bluebxlle_writer on instagram
Cynical characters are one of my favorite types of characters to write about, because there’s so much potential for their depth and backstory. However, these types of characters often get reduced to basic “evil” and “rude” characters whose only purpose in the story is to hurt other people, which is a waste of potential.
1. What cynical characters are
First off, let’s understand what cynical characters are.
Cynical people believe that human beings are only motivated by self-interest and greed. They are distrustful of human sincerity or integrity, and are usually very negative.
2. Cynical vs selfish characters
Some often confuse cynicism with selfishness, so let’s settle the main difference between cynical and selfish characters.
Selfish people are driven by self-interests, while cynical people believe that everyone are driven by self-interests. Cynical people aren’t necessarily selfish, and vice versa.
3. Backstory
Like any type of character, the base for your character’s depth is the backstory. You have to establish why and how your characters became cynical. Some possibilities are :
• They were taught from an early age that people are naturally selfish beings, and that nobody goes through all the trouble to do or give something without expecting another thing in return.
• They had a first-hand experience that lead them to believe that people were only driven by self-centered goals. Maybe they’ve been deceived, abandoned, or betrayed by someone they believed was kind.
4. Perception
Cynical characters judge people based on the assumption that they always have ulterior motives, so they’re usually more perceptive than others. They’ll be able to tell when someone’s acting kind in order to use them.
But this isn’t always the case, because it entirely depends on the character’s other personalities. They might have a low perception level instead, because their mind immediately registers any action as a disguise for selfishness, causing them to never realize a person’s true motives.
5. Refusing help
They might often refuse help from others, since they’re convinced that everyone has motives for offering kindness. They wouldn’t want to accept insincere actions.
BUT!! Again, it depends entirely on the character themself. Consider this. Someone buys you your favorite food. You’re pretty cynical, so you know that this person is just doing it so you’ll pay for their meal next time. Will you take the food? I don’t know about y'all, but if someone offers me pizza, I’d take it even if I know it’s not sincere. It’s mf pizza.Just because someone is cynical and doesn’t believe in true kindness, it doesn’t mean they’ll refuse help 24/7.
5. Relationships
Especially for cynical characters, I think it’s important to give them meaningful relationships with other characters. In fiction, they’re often portrayed as highly aloof and cold, never accepting kindness from anyone.
While those type of characters are complex and I love them so much (THE ANGST???), there are more approaches to handling their relationships :
• They might surround themselves with people, in hopes of finally finding someone who truly cares about them without any hidden motives.
• They have friends who they genuinely care about despite the fact that those friends might have ulterior motives, because they know that selfishness is a human nature that can’t be changed, and thet decided to just accept it.
• They’re cold and skeptical to everyone except one person, who they truly love because they know that the person is genuinely kind. GRUMPY X SUNSHINE???
A Guide to High Fantasy Worldbuilding
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
1. Subgenre
One of the first things you need to establish in your story is the subgenre of the high fantasy story you’ll be writing. But Azura, high fantasy is already a subgenre?? Yes, it is, but what type of high fantasy?
Different types of high fantasy will require different types of worldbuilding. For instance, dark fantasy needs horror elements and an eerie setting, while steampunk fantasy will have complex machinaries instead.
Here are some examples of high fantasy subgenres :
• Epic fantasy
• Steampunk fantasy
• Dark fantasy
• Medieval fantasy
• Heroic fantasy
• etc!
2. Magic system
Most high fantasy stories will have a magic system, so if you’re planning to include one, you’ll need to do loads of planning.
Who can or cannot use magic, and why is that? Is it inherited, learned, or both? Are there any taboos in using magic? Are magic users praised or feared? What’s the limit of using magic? Are there any incantations or magical tools involved? There are countless questions to tackle while coming up with a magic system, so make sure you plot it in detail.
3. Culture
Where there’s people, there’s culture. Although it won’t be too frequently mentioned, having certain cultures in your world will make your worldbuilding more realistic.
Are there religions? Do people worship God(s)? When are the holidays? Are there any unique traditions? What gestures are considered impolite? It’s little things like these that bring your story to life.
4. Type of government
Naturally, your world will have a government system. Decide what yours will be. Republic? Monarchy? Democracy? Theocracy?
Your government should also reflect your time and location setting - maybe using an emperor or empress to reflect a more medieval timeline, and using a president for a more modern setting. If your world is going through a war, you can use a system governed by the military. I have a post about writing a fictional government, you can refer to it for more info!
5. Language
What language do the people in your WIP speak? Is it fictional or not? If your setting is in a single region, they’ll probably have the same language, but if it’s set in different parts of the world, it’s only natural to have more than one language.
Different languages can also be used to indicate diversity. If you’re wondering how to incorporate multiple languages in a single language book, try reading Six of Crows as a reference - it shows the contrast of people speaking in different languages perfectly, even though the book is only in English.
6. History
Having a history of your world will help you understand it better. Has there been any previous wars between nations or disputes between the government and civilians? Or has the land always been peaceful, for some reason?
A great way to record your world’s history is to make a timeline of main events that affected the plot. I also suggest creating a history for your magic system - how magic was discovered and normalized.
How I create my characters
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
I’ve been getting questions on how to create characters recently, because apparently lots of y’all don’t know where and how to start creating a new character. I don’t think this post will help everybody, since everyone has different methods on creating characters (eg. some come up with names first, others come up with appearance first), but in this post I’ll be sharing my character creation process. I hope it will help! <3
1. An iconic line
This is a less well-known method to start creating a character, but for some reason it’s always how I do (and it always works lmao). It’s hard to create a character from scratch, so instead, I think about an iconic line that the character could say, which is usually related to my wip’s theme or mood. I came up with this line for an oc :
“I’ve been trying so damn hard to make everyone smile, but I get it now. The world would be happier without me, wouldn’t it?”
Justfrom this single line, I already know lots of things about this character :
• They always put the happiness of others before their own.
• They’ve probably been told that they need to have a positive effect on others in order to have the right to live.
• They’ve been trying to please others, but end up worsening things.
• They’re determined and desperate.
• …They probably had a corruption arc and won’t get a happy ending :“D
• The moment when they say this line is their breaking point
See? Just from two sentences, I already have an idea of their personality and backstory. Sometimes, I even get an idea for their appearance too. This is way easier than not knowing what to do first to create a character from scratch.
2. Appearance
Lots of people come up with character names before their appearance, but I always need to generate their appearance first, because otherwise, I can’t visualize or imagine them. I usually play around with picrew.me (an avatar generator website) to generate their potential appearance. I don’t spend too much time on this stage tho, because I’ll end up changing their appearance again after figuring out more details about my wip (that’s why I said potentialappearance).
3. Personality & backstory
After having a rough idea of how they look like, I’ll imagine them in various scenes in my wip and come up with their personality. If there are already other existing ocs in the wip, I always be careful to not repeat too much aspects from the other characters, so each character will be unique.
Then,asking why the character has a specific personality will create their backstory. For instance, if a character has trust issues, ask why. Maybe they’ve been betrayed by a loved one before? Or they live in a dangerous world where everyone double crosses people to survive?
4. Name
After I know their appearance, personality, and depth, that’s when I decide a name for the character which fit their vibes or has symbolism. For example, my character Bayu’s name is symbolic because it means "wind”, reflecting how he’s a thief who moves as fast as the wind.
Sometimes, I don’t immediately search for a permanent name if I’m out of ideas. I’ll just choose a random placeholder name that fits their vibes, and remember to come up with their real name later.
5. Character arc
After knowing all the general information about the character, I’ll begin plotting out their character arc - their development throughout the book/series and whether it’s a positive or negative character arc. This stage is the hardest for me, because I need to figure out its starting, breaking, and ending point, and also the factors and people involved in the arc. I have a post series about both redemption and corruption arcs, you can check my masterlist to find them!
Just once, can somebody please
tell me how broken I look under these dim lights,
tell me they noticed the dark bags under my eyes.
Just once, hold my hand and whisper ever so softly
that you see them - all the demons battling
underneath the fabricated smile everyone believes.
Just once, can someone please
look beyond my flawless facade?
Villain redemption arc prompts
@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram
1. Realizing how dumb the protagonists are and becoming the mom friend
2. “I wasn’t that bad.” // “Yes, you were.”
3. Deciding to change after the death of a loved one
4. Joining the good side and finally reuniting with a loved one
5. Waiting at the corner during the protagonists’ gatherings, because they don’t feel like they deserve to be accepted so easily.
6. Before joining the team, they let the protagonists attack them without them fighting back, because they know they deserve it.
7. “You don’t have to forgive me-” // “Are you stupid? We forgive you. Welcome to the family.”
8. Them sacrificing themselves for the very protagonist they were trying to kill before their redemption arc.
9. Not being used to kindness and affection - blushing profusely whenever anyone gives them a compliment or a pat on the head
10. Not knowing how socializing or friends work and ends up being that one socially awkward mf in the friend group (yes this is a big callout to Zuko)
11. Crying themselves to sleep because they keep on getting flashbacks of the horrible things they once did
12. Getting adopted as the precious smol bean of the group even though they once tried to kill the protagonists
13. Becoming the weird uncle/aunt that everyone secretly loves
14. Still having nightmares about their trauma or their past mistakes
15. Everyone in the group being lowkey in love with them because they used to be the hot villain
16. Playfully being blackmailed by the protagonists because of their bad decisions in the past
17. “There is NO WAY I’m wearing this lame outfit-” // “Wear it right now or I’ll tell everyone how you tried to set me on fire.”
18. Seeing the protagonists’ full potential while fighting the other villains and going, “Bless the Lord I decided to switch sides on time.”
19. Being rivals with one of the protagonists
20. Ohohohohoho rivals to lovers? Jkjk- unless…-?
21. The heroes not trusting the villain until realizing that they’ve truly changed
22. Alternately, the villain refusing to trust anyone until the heroes teach them what it means to have and trust a family.
23. Always hiding behind the back of that one protagonist they’re close to during meetings, because are they even supposed to be here? What if they get evicted?
24. Being tempted to go back to the evil side but realizing how much the protagonists mean to them
25. Convincing their old friends on the evil side to also switch sides, which may or may not end well
#1. The setting
What place is being looted? What are they trying to steal? What’s the layout? What’s the path they are going to take? All of these are super essential questions if you want to have a fully-fleshed out heist. Know the barebones of your setting, make a map if you want to - and figure out how your character’s are going to break in.
#2. Whose coming along, and what are their roles?
Everyone should have a role - the sniper, the fighter, the strategist, etc. It gives a good division of their strengths and weaknesses, and also some kind of structure to your heist. Some possible roles could include:
Distraction/Bait
Spy
Weapons expert
Strategist/Strategy expert
Healer/Medic
Sniper
Base operations
#3. What goes wrong?
How do your characters screw up? It is extremely important to know what goes wrong andhow your characters overcome it. If everything goes to plan, its boring - there need to be surprises and mishaps that happen along the way. Some ideas could be:
- An additional defence line that wasnt accounted for
- Having to go to a “last resort”
- Someone dying
- The “thing” they were looking for wasn’t there after all
#4. The character development shouldn’t stop
The character’s should keep developing - their personal stories for why they chose to come on the heist should come to a head for at least a FEW characters, particularly the main characters. Their stories and arcs should progress significantly as you get closer and closer to the climax. The plot and character arcs should NOT be seperate.
