Hello,

Just wanted to give people a general idea of my writing process so you know what to expect/understand why sometimes it can take me a long time to update. 

So my writing process can best be summed up in four stages:

Recovery, Thinking, Writing, Editing - pretentious I know, but I swear it's true!! 

Recovery

After each update I am usually drained creatively and need some time to chill and not touch the story...it's just recharge time. If I start trying to write too soon after updating I usually create a chapter that uses an embarassingly repetitive vocab...

Depending on how difficult the last chapter was to write and how difficult the next chapter is to write, this stage can last from a few days to a week...it really depends. 

It also really if I get busy/stressed during this period with work/life because then my recharging takes even longer  -____- 

Thinking

This stage can be going on at the same time as recovery, but sometimes I can't even think about the story for a few days without my brain turning to mush. This stage is where I mentally (sometimes I write short notes/bullet points) work out/plan what I need to cover in the next chapter...this includes characters, themes, events, ideas, conversations...therefore it can take a long time and be very confusing and frustrating.

The thing is, with On Hiatus I have all the major plot points planned out....like for example, I knew Bobby would fall for Hanbin again/realise he still loved him, and I knew that would be prompted by him revisiting a lot of their precious memories together whilst working in their old dance studios. HOWEVER, I didn't know specifically WHAT those precious memories were going to be until I got to those chapters and had to come up with them fast....

I also knew that Yeongjin would start to pursue Hanbin, but I didn't know in what ways he would start to do that...so I had to come up with those from one week to the next as well. 

So I totally know the plot of this story all the way through to the very end, but I often don't know how those plot points are going to link together if that makes sense. It's the linking that takes a lot of time to work out and plan..

When I say "this was a hard chapter to write" I am usually referring to this problem ^

It's also hard, because when I come up with the linking parts of the story I also am trying to juggle (I'm not even joking here) about 6 different themes/ideas that I want to layer throughout the narrative, because this story is about a lot of different issues that are related. So I can come up with cute ideas easily, but when I start to write them down and find they don't actually further the point I am trying to make then I end up having to scrap them and start the thinking process all over again...so it's slow. 

So basically it can take up to 1 week and more often than not I never actually finish deciding what needs to go into the next chapter. Instead I get impatient and frustrated and go, it, let's just see how this works out when I start writing....which leads me onto the next stage

Writing

Writing is both the hardest and most enjoyable part of the process. You may not believe this (but it's true, I promise) but I can have up to eight versions of each chapter before I am happy with it. This means eight drafts of up to 13000 words...what I have published so far is 1/8 of the actual words I have written for this story. That boggles my mind :) :) :) :) 

Often when I am writing I realise a lot of plot holes/mistakse/conflicts that didn't occur to me during the thinking stage...because, for me writing is a bit like putting together a piece of IKEA furniture. It looks super simple in the diagram but when you actually start shoving it all together and none of it fits properly, you realise the disagram WAS A FILTHY LIE. :) :) :) 

So with every chapter I end up: removing entire scenes and saving them in later chapters, I rewrite scenes I wrote a long time ago that are no longer suitable but still have some good parts, I try going with an idea but it turns out weird af and I leave it for a few days before coming back to it in a eureka moment,  sitting there trying to write one goddamn sentence over and over again because it's not conveying the idea that's in my head properly. Ah, the diverse joys of writing. 

This stage can overlap with the thinking stage and can take up to a week, but when the chapter is easy it can be done in three days. The fastest I have written a whole chapter was in a day...but the longest...well, let's not talk about that :) I was very close to giving up the story at that point lol.

Editing

This is the shortest stage and it's quite possible many of you have assumed or guessed this from my shocking editing, endless grammar and spelling mistakes, and dodgy sentences!!!

I literally do it the hour before updating and it is usually between 1am and 3am in the morning, I am usually staring at the screen almost asleep, and have a raging headache, hence why it's always such a poor job (sorry guys). 

But it is also the funnest stage because this where I have the hard parts all done, I just get to comb through the chapter and make it pretty and smooth and cute and stuff (whilst suffering from sleep deprivation induced psychosis - I swear at the time it looks perfect! But the next morning when I look at it like a somene recovering from a hangover I'm like, WTF WHERE DID ALL THESE MISTAKES COME FROM?!). 

Basically overall,

I inititally aimed to publish every two weeks because I had a lot of times on my hands (I wasn't working or studying). 

Whether I can achieve it or not depends on how many hours I work a week (for the last few weeks I have been working 7 days a week, sometimes up to 12 hours a day) but updating every 2 weeks is still my goal. 

If things are stretching out into three weeks and I haven't updated, don't worry, I am keenly aware and am either stuck in the thinking stage or have already started writing! If you like/have time/care to you can always write motivational comments saying things like "keep going!" or "looking forward to the next chapter!" or "where's the chapter dude, you're late" or to be more direct, "if you don't update soon we will kill you." Those could all be useful. 

If things are stretching out into four weeks....that can only mean one of two things: my three jobs have kidnapped me and taken me hostage or I have had some kind of physical/mental break down/burn out and genuinely need rest. 

ALSO NB: I try to post in the comments when the next chapter will be updated...somtimes I miss these deadlines (only twice so far lol) but still, I do try and take them seriously, so you can always check back for those. 

Hope this has been useful and makes my updating a less mysterious/frustrating process...I also hope you can all see I work really hard to make this a good story (as humble as it is) and that even if I am not posting regularly I am always still "working" on the next chapter in one form or another.

Thanks for reading this and On Hiatus, 

Mimi  (A_Memory_Box24) xx