hello! <3 you are so sweet. please don't feel bad! believe it or not i actually have not abandoned that series, and it's the fic i've been working on most slowly and consistently over the last couple of months. the good news is the next installment is open in a tab right now and it's almost 12k so far. the less good news is that it's a prequel and goes in depth into seungcheol's story and his experiences in university. (i've also started a jihoon pov story that follows up the most recent installment! but that one is a lot shorter and less close to being done)

i was actually just recently talking to my gf about how this series feels personal and this seungcheol-focused installment even more so, and it's been hard to finish it because i've really enjoyed just spending time with these characters and his story. but i've been working on it and will keep working on it, i promise.

i'm also in the middle of moving right now though so forgive me that it's still going to take a bit of time. for your kind patience <a href="https://poppyseedheart.dreamwidth.org/20797.html">i've posted an excerpt on dreamwidth</a> to hopefully give you something to look forward to! <33

This is making me so HAPPY!!! I'm so excited that you're planning to write something and extremely touched and honored that you felt inspired by something I wrote <3333.

When I first started on Notion I used this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO8HKR6KsuY

It's specifically for school (I was in a program at the time and wanted to see if I could use it for school, and it worked great for that purpose too) but I also found that the skills I learned translated over into using it for writing too, and in general I just got a lot more confident and competent with building pages and using different blocks for the effects I wanted.

In terms of my own planning, I now pretty consistently start with an overview section (a relevant quote, approximate word count and rating, main ship, and an image that matches the vibe of the story). From there I add a gallery of some kind where I put research and brainstorming, and then a plot map, which you saw in my video. Anything else is an exciting bonus that means I had more time and was probably procrastinating on something important.

My actual first step though is almost always chatficcing. I love bothering my friends. I love going into someone's DMs and wondering 'what if...' aloud and bouncing things off of them. I sometimes describe my brain as a large dog that has a lot of energy to burn. Chatficcing (or, if you're just wanting to do it on your own, stream-of-consciousness writing in a journal or notes app page) is the equivalent of taking my brain to the dog park to run around for a while. Once I've burned some of that energy, I find it a lot easier to distill an idea to the important parts and start planning with any amount of direction.

I'm always happy to talk writing so if you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to try to answer! <3

Hello! <3 You wouldn't know this from my kpop writing but I am actually a really interesting person to ask this question to. Not because I am inherently more interesting than other people lol but because I actually have spent quite a lot of time thinking about Major Character Death as a warning in general and specifically as it functions in fic and rpf fandom. I actually wrote an essay on it years ago for a fandom zine, and chose to discuss three fics all tagged with MCD for my birthday on a podcast, also years ago.

My general belief with rpf is that we have to draw our own lines for ourselves. I've been in the rpf game for a long time! Kpop was not my first rpf fandom, and likely won't be my last. & the way I engage tends to really hold "characters" as separate from real people, specifically when it comes to writing persona and not assuming that any story I write about idk Seventeen Jeonghan actually purports to know anything real about him. This perspective obviously gets complicated by my additional belief that cultural respect is really important and we need to be mindful of how we are writing people who, out there in the real world, do indeed experience life in a way that's impacted by ethnicity and race and culture as we all do, but I'd hold that belief in a fictional fandom too.

Anyway, my point here is that I'm actually generally in favor of (tagged, even if it is a choose not to use warnings situation) MCD in fic, even in rpf, especially when it's a nuanced exploration of grief or loss that's detached from the real lived experience of the idols we're writing about. I think death is a topic a lot of people are scared to touch in fic, especially in canons where there isn't canonical character death (or in rpf, where we're looking at the real world), and I think that's really fair, and everyone can draw lines about what's comfortable or uncomfortable for them. Personally, I really struggle with fic that sexualizes young idols, or fic that centers sexual slavery as a theme (e.g. hybrid fic with "owners" or royal/political fic with sex slaves), much more so than MCD, but that's also because of my own constellation of values and experiences and preferences. AND I think a skilled writer can write on almost any theme and bring something really nuanced and important out of it. It's never a perfect rule.

This all gets complicated even more by the reality of deaths in the industry, of course, and in life in general. I'm quite uncomfortable with fic that highlights/focuses on deaths that have happened irl, especially when they're sort of hamfistedly being used for "angst" etc in a story. And I also try to live by my 2023 resolution, which is to constantly remind myself that anything on the internet could be written by a 14 year old. That usually helps me calm down a little. Regardless, there are also angles of MCD in rpf fic that I really don't like or engage with.

Whew! Okay, wow, what a long answer to your question. I am sorry that you're having a reading experience that feels soured by this change! It sucks since the expectation with fic is often that things are overtagged rather than undertagged, so it can feel jarring when the latter happens.

Also, I do not take commissions! Part of it is having a ton of wips and also working — I wouldn't be able to get things out on time and I'd have to really sideline my own projects, which would be sad because I'm excited about them. The other part is being a white American who at this point is not really comfortable profiting off of fic about kpop idols. (As before: it's all about drawing our own lines!).

I really appreciate the compliment though and thank you for reading one of my fics even when you didn't know the canon!! That is so sweet and I'm glad you were still able to enjoy. <3