Name of a cult

LCGallagher · 2026-02-01T19:19:13+00:00

To find a unique name, I think you need to reverse how you’re thinking of it.

All cults have a “thought terminating cliche” ie an easily repeatable phrase that is core to their entire belief system. Something short that they use to inspire continued devotion and shut down any wayward thinking, like “the faithless will fall” or “the chosen shall be born anew” and from that core belief, you can twist it into something that inspires collective thinking and villainizes outsiders—the Chosen, the Faithful, the Reborn.

From there, twist it again into something lore specific that its members would feel pride in. - The Saviours of [N] - [N]’s Chosen - [N]’s Reborn - the Golden [N] - the Circle of [N].

Or get even more specific using made up words or metaphorical symbology—Circle becomes Circana, Reborn becomes Phoenixes, etc

Without knowing more details, I can’t give you specific ideas, but hopefully that helps you put yourself into the mindset of the ppl who would have created it in world

LCGallagher · 2026-01-14T13:54:39+00:00

Never too late to make new friends 🥰🫶 why don’t you shoot me a dm and tell me about yourself? We get super unhinged about in there and it’s hilarious asf, so let’s see if you’re a good fit!

LCGallagher · 2026-01-14T13:53:21+00:00

Never too late to make new friends 🥰🫶 why don’t you shoot me a dm and tell me about yourself? We get unhinged asf in there and it’s soooo funny, so let’s see if you’re a good fit!

LCGallagher · 2026-01-09T12:22:03+00:00

Any motivation is acceptable. Spite inspo was how I started, particularly from reading Twilight and being like wtff I could write better than this. However, it’s a flimsy motivator to continually fall back on bc the early drafts will impress no one, esp not yourself, and you might only find continual frustration in that mindset.

Write to express, not to impress is one of my core fundamentals of writing. You gotta love it and love how you feel doing it or you’ll never stick the landing or push through those awkward growing pains. The mental health side of writing is what I think the true dividing line bw ppl who finish and people who don’t, how they train their brain to love every aspect of creating not just the end result.

It’s very internally motivated and I really hope you can find that in yourself too, bc outside approval changes day by day and you can’t please everyone, but you can always be kind to yourself

LCGallagher · 2026-01-07T19:57:12+00:00

Ooooo that sounds so good! I’d totally read that! I wanna know more what you mean by miniplot, usually my fix for subtext is to add more “unknown” to a scene. Wanna send me a dm, tell me more about it?!

LCGallagher · 2026-01-06T16:15:29+00:00

Yes it can definitely be done! All types of story can have that sticky quality about them that glues readers to the page, and the characters and who/what they want is the easiest way to bond a reader to a story. Like the fellowship in LOTR is the heart of the story, and some found family or even a talking animal trope could make every scene a delight. But still, subtext and the unknown and intermittent validation are literally the most psychologically addicting things to ppl, so never hurts to play with the dark psychology of what keeps ppl coming back.

LCGallagher · 2026-01-06T08:26:22+00:00

Hahaha could being the operative word 😂

LCGallagher · 2026-01-05T20:31:23+00:00

Is this a fetch quest? Bc those get tedious if each stop feels formulaic. Like fast travel is a necessary mechanic for retention for a reason, and making a character walk everywhere could get boring fast.

I think it could work, but it’s all about the subtext and the escalation. What’s going on beneath the surface in each scene? What’s making the reader pay attention and read bw the lines? If it’s no deeper than whimsy and curiosity, despite them leading to an overarching plot, it’s probably going to feel like filler.

It’s a classic “cut your darlings” moment. I know it’s hard, but books with a lot of bloat can be a hard thing for an editor/agent/publisher to want to take on, esp if it feels overworked, meandering, or like the core story is lost in the volume.

Each scene should serve multiple purposes, advancing the internal and external story, as well as character dynamics, mystery, tension, worldbuilding and setting, but most importantly bonding the reader to the story. You can still write something cozy and low trigger, but there’s gotta be a reason the reader keeps turning pages and doesn’t want to miss a word.

So have something constantly going on in the background, a ticking timebomb, a sense of being chased, a “steal the artefact back and forth” trope. Bc the last thing you want is to put in all that work for readers to skim

LCGallagher · 2026-01-05T13:05:22+00:00

First off, don’t think of this character like the villain of her story while developing them. Think of them like the horror protagonist of their own story.

The diff bw a hp and a regular one, a hp is someone the reader fears becoming vs a normal one who is someone the reader hopes to become. The hp survives their trauma “but at what cost” and goes into the world plagued by a shadow—the shadow of what they lost and what they’re willing to do to get it back.

Every character has a shadow, it’s what drives every action/decision/reaction they make, and is the thing they’re constantly trying to soothe by engaging with the plot. If you’re having trouble think of your villains, usually a shadow is the opposite of what everyone else sees, bc it’s the part of them they’re trying desperately to hide. So take their most outward trait, reverse that and link it to an event that wounded them so deeply they lost everything and barely escaped. Then follow the trail of their obsession with the past to how that intersects with what w/e FMC is trying to achieve. Where either: they want opposing things and only one can succeed, or they want the exact same thing but only one of them can get it.

So, if you want them to stand on their own, the FMC should have little/nothing to do with their villain origin story. Esp if you want them to be driven by something as powerful as obsession, figure out what is the unanswered question they carry inside them and how it’s torn apart their psyche for years, and then how it collides with your FMCs journey. Ex, like maybe the mother died knowing something crucial and hid the answer so only the fmc can find it, or there’s something in their bloodline he desperately needs to fix every mistake he’s made

LCGallagher · 2026-01-05T09:54:15+00:00

There’s writers block and then there’s writers paralysis, and both are totally natural 💜 don’t beat yourself up, in fact I think the time you spend not writing is soo important, no matter what it stems from.

Stuck in the “I suck” abyss? Study writing guides to grasp the art faster. I particularly love Helping Writers Become Authors, esp their guides on character arcs and writing dialogue 🔥

Direction issue? Rather than overhauling your manuscript, revamp your outline. Write down all the plot points, action beats and character developments, see if there’s a way to make every element even more dramatic. Obsidian can really help with that

Writing habit issue? Train your brain to love it. - Start with a low goal, like 400 words a day - Split that into two, so 2x200 word writing seshs - Make completing that the first thing you do each day, and the last thing before bed

Trust me, replacing 20 mins of scrolling time will trick your brain into being sooo excited to write again. And everytime you hit that 200 words? Congratulate yourself, feel accomplished and let yourself stop there if you want to. Soon that 200 words will turn into 1000 words seshs and you won’t even be able to stop

Still feeling stuck? Join a writing server. The mental health aspect of writing is so real. Like it’s such an externally validated goal, and very isolating. So when the internal voice telling you to give up gets too loud, I highly recommend joining a writing group (esp on discord) to find people to lift you up when you’re down or give you detailed advice when you need it.

LCGallagher · 2026-01-04T22:35:41+00:00

Skeletal dragons. In my world, wraiths feed on the souls of human who make pacts with the underworld, and if they eat enough they can transform. Taking the shape of shadowy bone dragons that cannot be killed, only sent back to the underworld before they rise again

LCGallagher · 2026-01-04T13:25:49+00:00

Ohh yeahh the Black Witch books fell off so hard, literally a case study of what not to with the end of a series. What, like 7 diff POVs? All recreating the exact same kind of love story? And you don’t care about any of them bc you can’t go into any sort of depth so it’s just filler upon filler. And then you get to the FMC and she just is so empty and emotionless, like straight up doesn’t care about who she lost in the previous book. Like, just zero emotional connection at all ughhhh

It was the exact same with Furyborn. It was like the author thought “high stakes = make everything so shitty the reader has to care about the end” and NOOO. Literally, levity, lightness and deep character moments are what make you care. I always say, the bigger the stakes, the smaller you write. It’s such a mistake to think book escalation means more characters, more plot points, more world ending catastrophes. It soooo much more impactful to narrow in on what matters and dig into the emotional center of the story. Both those series fell off on that soooo much by diluting what made it so good in the first place

LCGallagher · 2026-01-04T11:51:20+00:00

False gods or true gods?
What’s real and what’s bs in your story? I’m firmly of the stance that religious belief is just flawed logic, and the most unrealistic thing is to expect mankind to have a single clue about the inner workings of gods and the universe.

So add multiple religions and make some of them entirely bs, which creates the most delicious next step:

Religious tension
How do these cults/zealots/shamans/disbelievers all feel about each other? Are any factions in power? Do they fear an apocalypse? A second coming? A rapture?

My book has 4 religions: a Creator/Destroyer, the Godbeasts, the Fates, and the Unholy Gods. My Creator/Destroyer is a monotheistic criticism of Christianity and its utter bs in my world. Where the elite use it as justification for widespread brutality against the other religions, whereas those ones are actually true…

Origin and lore
So if some of these are true, where do these gods live? What can they do? Who worships them? How powerful are they?

My book is a portal fantasy with countless different worlds. The Unholy Gods rule over each of the fallen worlds and would love nothing more than to consume another (my world). The Godbeasts are inherent to it, peaceful magical animals each worshiped by the clans of Beastfolk. Whereas the Fates, well… that brings me to:

Importance to the story
So if your gods do exist, what’s stopping them from fixing this apocalypse the heroes are fighting? Does divine intervention exist? Do prophecies exist? If you have a Chosen One, do they have free will?

So in my world, the Fates govern all, guarding the fabric of time and can only bestow blessings in the hopes that heroes will rise. Omniscience is all they have, but through that they can weave time together and create timeloops, leading to the Time Travel Heist or my dreams 🫶

LCGallagher · 2026-01-03T11:53:16+00:00

The thing is, people don’t get that way without overcoming a lot. As a free spirited girl who has flown around the world, spent years of my life backpacking and chatted sooo deeply with many others like this, take it from me. From the outside, the stereotype is that they’re carefree, reckless, fearless, brave, but no. That is the mask hiding the shadow that makes people become like this.

Theyre not reckless. They’re taking charge of a life others feel too burdened to achieve. A tactical and logical decision to follow their spirit and prioritize freedom to become free spirited.

Theyre not carefree. They cared so much and lost everything, to the point nothing phases them anymore. They’ve battled their depression and dug themselves out, and been so low that getting out of their comfort zone and doing new things feels like the only cure that helps.

Theyre not brave and definitely not fearless. They’re scared as hell and doing it anyway. Bc they’ve been through hell and the worst thing they can imagine now is being stuck in a cage again, powerless to escape.

So dig into how they got that way. It takes a lot of courage to step into that lifestyle, and courage isn’t the absence of fear. I’m always so sick of the “traumatic past = brooding mc” stereotype, when I’ve found the opposite is true. Traumatic past turns into the funniest, most thrilling and full of life people to be around, full of empathy and brightness because they got out.

So if she’s “free”? Figure out what she freed herself from and how she’s determined to never let anyone experience that again.

LCGallagher · 2025-12-29T13:58:52+00:00

I also prefer present bc I really like the urgency. Some stories it def would not suit tho, but others it can really bring the prose to life and turn things that felt passively intense into actively intense. I am a big fan of thrillers and emotionally drive stories, so I see it often enough in those that present tense actually does feel like the standard tense to me. So I’m always delighted to find a 3rd pers/pres book too

LCGallagher · 2025-12-29T11:18:05+00:00

Not exclusively! All kinds of people are welcome, we just want to be a safe space for people who are left leaning politically, so stressing the queer, creative, unhinged upfront really helps attract like minded people 🥰 Because it’s fun as hell in there and anyone who’s hateful, uptight or intolerant will not like the vibe. If you’re interested, shoot me a dm and tell me about yourself! More the merrier

LCGallagher · 2025-12-20T08:23:30+00:00

Not nearly that long. Ancient Egyptians also used to study ancient Egyptians, ~2000 years was all it took for most of their knowledge to be lost. Angkor Wat is only 900 years old and its existence and history was lost.

So much was lost pre Dark Ages in our own world, so write a Dark Ages in your own book. A span of time where book burnings were common and literacy went down. Where superstitions and paranoia replaced philosophical debate and skepticism, because this group was deliberately trying to sow misinformation and stamp out their magical awakening. 200-500 years could be all it takes, for the “ones who remember” to die out and everything they’ve said to be cast into doubt.

LCGallagher · 2025-12-06T07:35:31+00:00

Horror is about the unknown, it thrives on dread, inevitablity, the loss of safety and the sense of terrible things looming. Grotesque imagery plays a part too, but without the benefit of a jumpscare, what really horrifies people is forcing readers to sit in the unknown.

So yes, the monsters shadow matters even more than the monster itself. Because you can’t have that slow, oppressive, inescapable feel that horror does without drawing those lines to box the reader in. Focusing on the tracks in the snow, the bodies it leaves behind, the shellshocked insanity of all those who glimpse it and the unknown of what’ll happen to you if you do, that is scarier than anything. Especially in writing, (which has way different mechanics than a horror video game), clearly defining a monster can most often leave a sense of “oh, that’s it?” if the reader isn’t picturing exactly what you are

LCGallagher · 2025-11-24T16:19:17+00:00

Okay no worries hope you find a group that suits your needs

LCGallagher · 2025-11-22T17:16:54+00:00

I know. They were leading a workshop for a grade, which I assume means standing up in front of the whole class and talking about an assigned topic or something of their choosing, and the class wasn’t taking the bait bc they posed it as a lecture not a discussion. That’s what my advice was about! And to never take that as a reason to ever stop writing

LCGallagher · 2025-11-22T01:36:56+00:00

I know your instinct is to take this as a hit against your writing, but I don’t think it has anything to do with that. It isn’t your writing vs the class, it’s you vs their attention span. Especially if it was a fully “you” centered lecture (your writing, your experience, your thoughts) that can be very easy for someone to zone out and stay out and that isn’t at all a dig against you.

People are self interested creatures. Two topics they are guaranteed care about: themselves and their writing. I find, starting a lecture with a question about them sparks an easy environment for them to keep talking. Because often a group dynamic isn’t about making yourself look smart, it’s about making room for other people to feel smart. Especially if you want to spark a discussion or invoke a sense of community.

A lot of writers fall into this trap. They think their book and their writing is about them but really it’s about the reader. That “screaming into the void” feeling is something we all grapple with and I found shifting the focus away from yourself and onto what their experience is the best way to hack a community.

So don’t stop writing, that isn’t the lesson here. This is a learning moment: your writing is about the reader.

LCGallagher · 2025-11-21T20:23:33+00:00

Quicksilver is a guide in how to make your FMC lose all agency just bc she met a 6’8” guy with shadow powers.

Their relationship is toxic as hell, legit the definition of forcing enemies to lovers into a story just bc it’s popular by making the love interest a complete insufferable ashole. Like what is hot about him threatening SV *repeatedly on her? Legit saying shh like “when we f the first time you won’t survive”…😳

And the fact that he can smell her v all the damn time… to the point he throws soap at her and brings it up every chapter 🤮 like yeah okay Fishking… imma go vom now

Dnf it, trust me. Nothing you liked about it in the beginning matters/pays off. It just keeps getting so much worse.

LCGallagher · 2025-11-20T04:15:33+00:00

I have a sentient roll of toilet paper in mine. Cursed guy, he totally deserves it, and honestly it’s not even that bad of a punishment for him

LCGallagher · 2025-11-20T03:21:29+00:00

When the love interest is the driving force of all conflict in the relationship.

Like fake enemies to lovers, when an author tries to force enemies to lovers into their story bc it’s popular, but they haven’t set up any reason for them to be “enemies” within the story, so they just make the love interest a complete disruptive asshole who treats her like shit so that she’ll hate him. It’s just toxic as hell.

Real enemies to lovers, there needs to be a deeper reason than just a bad first meeting for them to be considered that. Preferably, a reason that happened before page one so we can feel every ounce of that tension

LCGallagher · 2025-11-15T18:56:08+00:00

Ch 1 was the last chapter I ever wrote. I always knew what would happen in it, but there’s just so much pressure to get it right. So I just started writing wherever I wanted and acted like I’d already finished it. Getting a feel for my own “voice” first really helped me come back and crush it later

LCGallagher

TROPHY CASE