hi!! firstly i’ll say that i have been extremely lucky in terms of engagement. i don’t know if it’s because i happen to be writing what people want to read or if it’s because some of my bigger fics have caused me to build a following, but there’s really just no way to tell. that being said, my favorite fics are very rarely the ones that do well “by the numbers”, but i still wouldn’t consider them flops!! they’re still my favorite fics even if they’re not the ones people are reading as much. they’re the ones that say what i really want to say - a piece of my heart out there on the internet. one of my friends said something very astute about one of these fics: the work will find the people that need it. even if it’s not getting thousands and thousands of comments and kudos, the people that have read and love those fics really, really love them. that’s success to me!! even the idea that my work is making one person’s day better is very special to me. this is all just my personal experience, but i hope you might be able to apply at least a little of it to your own work. the fic will find the person that needs it :)

i think that’s the beauty of this little hobby hahaha. you can really read into anything as much or as little as you want, as long as you’re not bothering anyone else about it (or the artists themselves.) it’s also part of why writing is fun to me!! i get to decide what actions have what meaning and set the stage myself. personally, i’ve never understood people who get into “ship wars” or whatever because the whole point is that it’s imaginative - we have no confirmation in any direction, which makes the possibilities limitless!! i am
also mainly yeonbin and taegyu, but im also happy to sample what everyone else is making and play around with other ships. getting to pick what i like and leave what i don’t like is what makes reading and writing fun :)

this is a really good question!! i think for me, there is inherently so much love in friendship that they’re not SO different. obviously there’s a different feeling and level of interest in someone you’re into romantically vs. as a friend, but there are so many things that overlap. for me in my works, it’s about finding those distinctions while keeping the rest the same!! for example, i wouldn’t hesitate to hug a friend - it would feel nice, but i probably wouldn’t be nervous or get butterflies the same way i would if i was interested in someone romantically. i think there’s just an elevated level of attention there - when you’re with someone you like, you’re most likely paying attention to them more than anyone else in the room. you’re probably watching their every reaction to gauge if they’re reacting positively. these are things that i do with friends, but not on the same level. you might notice that while ot5 generally each has a decently-sized role to play in my fics, the majority of the attention from the main character is focused on their romantic interest - even in platonic settings. i hope this helps at least a little!! i’m sure everyone has a different take on it, but that’s my view. it’s almost like love is friendship’s bigger, older sibling as opposed to a twin. they’re a lot alike, but there are definitely noticeable differences.

oh my gosh. oh my gosh that genuinely might make me happy cry haha while i never really think of myself as an inspiration, to think that people look at me and see good things makes me really, really happy. thank you for saying that!! in terms of fic ideas, it really comes from everywhere. some are inspired by social media posts (out of body experience), some by things in my life (love lines), some by other media (no courage), and some just by… stuff. like i have this one random line that i REALLY want to develop into a full fic next year that i just kind of thought of? or remembered from somewhere. anyways, the answer about ideas is vague and unhelpful, but hopefully my plot development answer will be more useful. my biggest thing is TENSION BETWEEN CHARACTERS. there has to be some reason - an existing situation, something that is created over the course of the story, or an outside force that is preventing the characters from getting what they want (in my case, since i write romance, each other.) to use the examples i gave earlier, out of body experience is an existing circumstance - soobin is dead. pretty tough to date a dead guy. love lines has a conflict that comes up during the course of the story - beomgyu thinks that he can’t confess because taehyun only offered to marry him as a friend, and now that he’s developed feelings he thinks he might be breaking that offer. no courage is an outside force - there’s a war, and that’s the biggest problem keeping the characters from getting together. each of these conflict types (there are many more) offer unique options for solutions, which is where you can really get creative (yay mini muffins!!) this is just my personal theory on writing and plot. a lot of other writers do it differently, but i hope this helps at least a little!! thanks for inboxing me and happy comeback day :)

hi!! i do think i answered this a while back, and i’ll be fr - i was planning on lying my ass off this time hahaha but since hybe yaoigate happened, in the spirit of honesty, i’ll give you the real answer. (good timing with your question, btw.) i have two smut fics floating around out there on anon because i thought i should try writing it to see if i liked it or not. i haven’t come to a complete consensus, but i think for now im still of the opinion that it’s just not for me. im a very story driven writer, and i think there are very few fics that demand smut. that’s not a dig against writers that do include it - and they do a much better job than i did, im sure!!