ideally i get inspired by a feeling or an atmosphere and go from there. i find that "sparks" of inspiration are easier to stick with rather than trying to brainstorm a story from nothing and then writing it, because the spark represents something you connect with emotionally in the first place.

this did not really happen with bifs lol. with bifs i tried to manufacture the inspiration bc i was stuck. i wanted to write a "college" fic because university (specifically the early 20s, the relationships, the bubble of campus) is a feeling i like. some of the atmosphere is romanticized and some of it is based on real memories. so that was kind of a "central feeling" and a driving point i created in the story. it was important to me they took the bus home from the party, that cafes were around campus etc bc that's when you could feel that atmosphere. also the slight ridiculousness of characters like Door Guy, it all feeds the social setting.

i didn't have much else inspiring me with bifs (which is probably why i struggled writing it so damn much) but what i did have was that first scene (which i rewrote a dozen times, and yet the premise stayed the same) where yj was walking home, tired as hell, and bg came up and terrorized him and it was supposed to be obvious bg had feelings for him. that set the dynamic for the rest of the fic and i worked with that bc i found it interesting/fun.

not quite summer is based on the feeling of late spring/early summer in the woods. i took my memories of that and set it as the atmosphere. it was also a bit manufactured lol. originally a big driving point of that fic was a hookup scene where you could see the stars outside the window. that got scratched entirely and my inspiration shifted heavily to leaning on that spring-like feeling. tbh i struggled a lot with not quite summer too, and scenes like the bathroom scene that are very "senses-centred" drove that fic to completion and that's probably why they feel so "hazy". for bg and yj it was a sex-haze, for me it was the haze of writer's block.

i guess it goes to show you don't always "need" a strong burst of inspiration. you can still write something you're proud of and enjoy reading back without it. but inspiration makes the process soooo much easier.

in comparison, fics like blue and 0x1=remember me were soooo easy to create. because they came from that "spark" of inspiration i mentioned in the beginning. blue has an atmosphere that hits me a lot. if i go for a walk on a hot day and look up at a blue sky between power lines, i'm hit with the same feeling i had when writing blue. i find writing out those sparks the easiest because they represent something inside you. where do you get those sparks in life? you could try playing with those feelings.

writing can be difficult because you might feel pressured to manufacture inspiration simply to keep going/ to find something new to start writing. but i find that allowing it to be natural makes the process much easier and allows you to be more creative. especially with long fic, i think it makes a huge difference for there to be an atmosphere or theme that really inspires you and keeps you going. in this regard, i find that fantasy/history/otherworldly settings naturally drive inspiration, while more real-life stories (like bifs) require you to lean more on feelings and relationships and subtle atmospheric cues for inspiration and can be more challenging. but maybe that's just me. i always feel like alien fic wrote itself bc there was so much to play with in terms of snow, ice, heat etc while bifs met a lot of dry points where i was like "okay... what next???" that's probably why i put ghosts on yellow st tbh. i needed something exciting to drive me because i was so stuck and had rewritten that scene like 3-5 times.

i hope that helps! thank you for asking and thank you for the love on my fics. ☺️ sometimes inspiration can also come from the excitement of wanting to share a feeling or atmosphere with people who enjoyed your work/ knowing that audience is there and will connect with the feeling too. i appreciate you 🤍