Notebook Pages #1: Moodboards
In which I share some mood boards (aesthetics, if you will) of some Urban Fantasy Romance WIPS and would-be WIPS. Ideas I plan to turn into novels in the next few years.
So, I like creating aesthetics and putting together visuals that project the vibe or themes of a thing I’m working on.
I’ve already mentioned in a previous post here how my writing and illustrations seemed to work in tandem in my creative work. An idiosyncratic process I sometimes have in stumbling upon a plot point for my novel is to ‘sketch out’ a scene between two characters, and eventually the dialogue pops out in comic form. It’s a ‘get to know you’ stage of the work, where I slowly discover new things about the characters, their dynamic, and their world.
I’d like to think that I cover character development thoroughly and early on in the process, that coming up with an aesthetic to help entice me to keep working should be creative play.
The final Rewrites phase of Love and Justice didn’t just lead me to the completion of a Book 2, but it also unlocked pathways in my brain towards new book ideas. Most were in the same New Heroes universe. A few others were towards stories I’d come up with in the past, had archived, remembered suddenly while I was seized by creative motivation, dusted off, and lifted up in the light once again.
It’s still too early to say whether I’d get to complete a plot for them, enough to write a novel out of these ideas. But some have come as fully formed and ready as Athena. I will admit, some characters from Love and Justice have personalities so distinct and loud that they’d practically yelled and yanked at me to make them their own books.
It’s an exciting thing for me as someone who just went through years of an on and off creative dry spell. I’ve been making notes and separate folders on my note apps for these story ideas. There is so much potential. I haven’t felt this prolific in years!
I tend to gravitate towards Urban Fantasy, but I know that, somewhere down the line, I might venture into Contemporary Romance and full Fantasy. I have gotten ideas for those, but for the meantime are left in my archive.
I won’t be emphasizing which characters and which aesthetics, but to those who have read, or are reading L&J right now, consider this a mild SPOILER warning.
MOOD BOARDS for my CURRENT NOVEL IDEAS
CURRENT WIP
My current work-in-progress is obviously a continuation of the New Heroes Series. I’ll make an announcement for the Title of Book 3 and how it fits into the overall series in a few weeks after this post.
I’ve already fully drafted one of these, began outlines for 4, and have begun writing another. They’re all interconnected to the Timeline of Books 1 to 3, and one in parallel to Book 4, of the New Heroes Series, just with different POV characters. Some years before, a year before, or happening at the same time as Heart and Hero.
This excites me a great deal because writing in the point of view of different characters opens up the different aspects of the world around Andre, Karla, and Curtis. It helps me figure things out for the main series, while I also get to explore the love between certain side-characters. Some are new characters I’ve only ever mentioned vaguely in the first two books, but have had weight in my mind even then.
Another interesting fact about these stories is how I get to play around with the Timeline and History of the story’s world, and how that has a direct or indirect impact on the mains of the NHS.
More New Heroes Series Extras here.
Other Stories
This idea has actually been in the backburner of my brain since even before I came up with that first doodle of Andre in 2013. I came up with the characters in this story sometime in my Senior Year of Highschool.
The myth the story is loosely based on is the one about Haliya and the Bakunawa.
It’s about star-crossed lovers, another prophecy (because I’m drawn to these as a theme, what can I say?), and the weight of duty over heart. Is it ever selfish to want to chose the one you love, rather than follow a violent tradition? As usual, I’ve also been building on the idea around gender norms and expectations. So it’s one of those Soft Boy x Tough Girl stories.
This is the idea I’m leaning towards querying someday.
Elites - Unusuals: Another Unhinged Superhero-based Urban Fantasy World
There’s no use trying to be vague about these. I’ve drawn concepts for these and shared them all over my Art IG. I’ve already talked about wanting to serialize them here on my Substack.
The world of the Elites and the Unusuals are separate novels, tied together because they’re parallel universes of each other, but are not immediately connected. Could be read separately (if I managed to pull it off).
These stories came about because of my ongoing fascination with Superheroes and how else I could explore the concepts of ‘power = responsibility’, of who gets to be the villain versus the hero, and of why it’s always depicted as difficult to establish a romance that doesn’t end in doom.
If I can be so bold as to be vulnerable in writing in my Substack, I think that, unlike the New Heroes Series and the Philippine Myth story, I honestly don’t know if this idea is marketable. I call it my experimental writing. Something I just want to do because the story is good and interesting to me.
These stories started as Otome Games I tried to write based on a prompt in the Dorian App in 2021, but with writing Heart and Hero at the time, I’d abandoned the game and just considered writing the story as a novel.
I did manage to get a few good comments from people who liked the stories. But what it tells me is that I could maybe try to serialize them as a web novel series somewhere online, aside from this Substack.
In any case, you’ll first hear about it here. I intend to share character development and world building stuff for this in the Notebooks Section!
These are the ideas, the vibes, and aesthetics. They keep me motivated and wanting to write. If you made it this far, feel free to let me know in the comments or with a DM on my Author IG.