Open Novella Journal 2024

Brainstorming With Old Prompts - 2018 (1-7)

As I wait for the prompts for this year to drop, I am going to have some fun brainstorming with the older prompts, starting with the 2018 prompts. Brainstorming may contain spoilers for some of the fandom. If you want to tackle an idea here, even if it is for an original fiction piece, feel free to do so, knowing I'm allowed to come back to any of these ideas myself.

More importantly, some of the brainstorm places the word pass in bold. That isn't because I'm taking an actual pass on ever using that prompt idea for that fandom in that way, but because had I brainstormed the idea during ONC that year, I'd take a pass on it being an ONC project for that year.

Prompt 1 ~ "You have been chosen to be part of a secret government project. Soon, you discover the reason you were chosen is that your genetic code includes a recessive vampire gene. You are the latest subject in an effort to weaponize vampirism. You plan your escape, along with a "turned vampire" that has been retained by researchers since the 1970s."

Akuma no Riddle - Playing along with Haru's in-canon genetic inheritance, she would fulfill the role of the "you" in this project, while Tokaku Azuma would be the "turned vampire" who is helping her escape. The rest of the Class Black would be agents sent after them, but instead of killing them off, they end up being recruited and stronger. to decide which Class Black member is next, I am going to use a dice roll. However, I'd also take a pass on this one for an ONC project because I suspect this would be novel-length once I got done with it as I suspect each character stage would involve at least 4k, and I'd need at least 4k to wrap things up which would be at least 52k in length, if not more. It would contain romance

Angel Beats - Angel takes on the role of being the one whose got the genetic heritage, while the turned vampire is Yuzuru. Of course, this may end up sounding familiar to the above story as it's romance between the two main, however, the other characters aren't agents. In fact, I'd go for a more slice-of-life vibe with them hiding from the government at a high school, but I also might reverse the roles of Angel and Yuzuru. This is one of those pieces I'd be unsure of the length of by the time I'm done, which is one reason to give this one a pass for ONC, but the other issue that results in me taking a pass is the time needed for world-building.

Anu Natsu de Matteru - I know for this fandom Ichika would take the role of being either the turned vampire or the one with the genetics, but where the others fit in I'm not sure of. I think one of the things that stands out to me is I'm thinking of having her escape the facility beforehand, perhaps even be a control for vampires because of her genetics, possibly immune. At the same time, her love interest is the turned vampire, but he needs to be near her for things not to go wrong. The government is looking for them, with the MIB taking a different role in this. This is one I might roll with for an ONC as I think I could stick the word count, and despite the changes, the prompt is still recognizable.

Arifereta - Instead of falling into another world to meet his love interest, he ends up part of the government experiment. I'm not sure which character would fill which role of the two, which is one reason to give a pass, but the second is I'd be losing the vampire being there from the seventies if he's the vampire, keeping her origin, where it makes more sense for her to be the vampire turned, yet she's also narrative better fit for the role of the one the vampires are derived from. I could possibly use another for the turned vampire, or have her sealed away in the lab for a long time, longer than the turned vampire's been there, which would make the dragon character the turned vampire, or I'd have to introduce an OC, or switch up whose been there forever and have him be the first weapon. The other reason for the pass is the fandom because the vampire character is also looks younger than she is because of a curse and that would likely be drama the ambassadors would want to avoid.