How To Write A Dystopian Ya Novel

An apocalypse driven by natural disasters. Survival of the fittest. Typhoons, floods, deadly cold, scorching heat, earthquakes, tsunamis, insect plagues, acid rain… After struggling through three years of the apocalypse, Nicole Floyd met a brutal death. Miraculously, she woke up and found herself three days before it all began. Nicole seized the advantage to reclaim her storage space, flipping the switch on full-on stockpiling mode. She shopped until she ran out of money, and her storage was packed tight. She also looked for the dog that had saved her life once before. She sharpened her knives, stacked her supplies, and took care of unfinished business. She paid back every debt, whether owed in blood or in kindness. And then, disaster struck. Her right hand gripping a knife and her left stroking the dog, Nicole pressed on through the ruins of a world without order or morals.

Lena thought she escaped the nightmare of her car accident, but Cassian has other plans. He stalks her every move, appearing in the mirrors, his whispers consuming her mind. The lines between fear and desire blur as his touch ignites something dark and uncontrollable inside her. He’s not just haunting her—he’s claiming her. Every encounter draws her deeper into his twisted world, where pleasure and pain collide. The question isn’t if she can escape, but if she even wants to. As the boundaries of her body and soul erode, Lena finds herself unable to resist his overwhelming pull.

In a bleak future, the man with everything wants one more thing. Her. Tiernan is a man with everything, and he’s not used to being denied what he wants. When he sees Madison from a distance, he makes the arrogant decision to take her. Her family needs her, but she has little choice except to become the Commander’s new companion, albeit reluctantly. Life in the hub of power isn’t what she expects, and neither is Tiernan. He’s dark and demanding, but there are flashes of tenderness that have her falling for the man she glimpses inside the cold and exacting commander of their territory. Which Teirnan is the real one—the tyrant or the tender lover? At first, it seems impossible that she could ever be happy with the man who forced her to give up her life, but feelings grow between them. Their relationship reaches a fragile new level that could deepen to something neither expected, if betrayal and treason don’t separate the lovers.

Kayla is a smart, focused, top-mark student in her last two senior years of high school in a private facility for rich kids in Florida. All she wants is to get accepted to Harvard and graduate with top marks to follow the career she has set for herself. Her entire life is about becoming an independent and successful vet. She has micro-managed it and planned it to the tiniest detail. Leaving no room for a social life or living her teen years like her peers. This year has had its ups and downs, with her stepbrother of almost ten years coming to live under the same roof after being raised apart after their parents married. The chaos and drama his appearance has brought since he despises not only his father but Kayla's mother too, has made home tense. He's a rude, defiant, and arrogant pain in her ass who is hellbent on causing trouble and listens to no one. Dane is the polar opposite in every way - Vain, oversexed, a playboy who takes nothing seriously except booze, girls, and his motorbike while he rebels in every way against his father for ripping apart his family. Looking like a teen idol, acting like someone who doesn't need to take accountability for anything in his life, Kayla honestly cannot stand him. She sees a loser who will live on daddy's money and drink away his youth while sleeping with every girl in the county. At 17, they have known one another most of their lives and never had any kind of friendly relationship. They have always been classmates but never friends and definitely not siblings. - but all that is about to change.

On her eighteenth birthday, Aria Veyne’s life is destroyed by a single burst of ancient magic. Kidnapped by powerful elders and taken to Ebonveil Academy, a school built to monitor the world’s most dangerous supernaturals, Aria quickly learns one terrifying truth. No one knows what she is. Not even her. But the moment her powers awakened, three heirs felt it. Archer Nightblade, the powerful werewolf heir, fights instincts that demand he protect her. Lucien Blackwell, the dangerously composed vampire heir, hides a hunger that has nothing to do with blood. Jasper Ashwyck, the charming fae heir, can’t decide if Aria is his greatest curiosity… or his greatest weakness. The closer Aria gets to them, the stronger her mysterious magic becomes. As secrets buried for centuries begin to surface, the elders realize they may have made a catastrophic mistake. Because Aria isn’t just another student. She may be the one person capable of changing the supernatural world forever. And if the darkness hunting her doesn’t claim her first, the girl with violet eyes just might.

She was never meant to survive their world. Now she’s the only one who can burn it down. Lyra thought she was just a girl with strange dreams and a birthmark that shimmered beneath moonlight. But when a celestial event rips her from Earth and drops her into the brutal halls of the Academy of the Ascendant, she discovers a deadly truth: she’s the lost heir of a realm that erased her bloodline—and she’s carrying the forbidden magic that could unravel it all. The Academy is ruled by power and hierarchy. The weak are crushed. The strong ascend. And the Triad—three elite heirs born of elemental fire, storm, and air—will do anything to break her. Until they realize she’s more powerful than all of them. Mocked. Hunted. Desired. As Lyra unlocks the four elemental affinities no student should possess, she becomes the center of a prophecy that the Council has killed to keep buried. But it’s the fifth element—the forbidden Void—that marks her for something more. Survival means mastering her magic. Love could cost her everything. And rebellion might just start with a kiss. Perfect for fans of Zodiac Academy, Throne of Glass, and The Cruel Prince, Marked by Starlight is the explosive first book in a dark fantasy romance series filled with elemental magic, enemies-to-lovers heat, and a heroine who refuses to bow.