I. Purpose

Yongsun pulled Byulyi to her feet and handed her a piece of paper torn from her notebook. "Let's start with the first question you should ask yourself." She pointed her pencil at Byul, who immediately ducked back to avoid her excitement.

"Um, what I'm going to write about?" Byulyi tried, easing the pencil out of Yongsun's grip before either or both of them could get hurt.

"Nope! Try again!"

The pencil found itself between Byulyi's lips this time as she wrinkled her brows, unaware of Yongsun's gaze and the pink across her cheeks. Absentmindedly, she guessed again: "Who my characters are?"

Yongsun smiled. "Almost. Before all that, the first questions should be the five W's: who, what, when, where, and how. Especially, who are you writing for, what do you want to achieve, when will you find the time, where do you plan to write, and how you're going to go about it--these are the questions that your brain will subconsciously ask, and it's up to you to answer them."

"Okay, that's easy," Byulyi mumbled. "I'm writing for…a friend. I want to write them a story that will make them happy, I'll write after work, and I'll…I don't know if I understand the how."

Yongsun skipped forward and stretched her arms out wide. "It's the broooooadest picture of your story. Your vision, I guess? How long will it be? How will it begin, how will it end? What kind of style is it? What genre is it? Will it be one long chapter, or lots of chapters?"

"Unniiiie," Byulyi cried, "That's too much! Can't I just write as I go?"

"Of course! That's up to you, but you should have some kind of idea in mind. This isn't a drama that goes on forever. Even if it is, they have formulas for that kind of thing. Byul-ah, don’t make that face. It’ll get easier as you find your own voice."

Byulyi laid back down and covered her face with the piece of note paper. "I just want to write a story for my friend."

Yongsun laughed, and, crossing her legs, took a seat beside her. "I know, but how do you expect to write when you don't know why you're writing?"

“I don’t see how that makes a difference.”

“It’s about respect,” Yongsun explained. “It’s nice that you want to write for a friend…whoever that lucky person might be…but you also need to write for yourself to some degree. It’s hard work, and if you don’t know why you’re doing it, the result might not end up the way you’d envisioned it, and that might start a cycle of toxic thoughts. You might feel like you’ll never be a good writer or something. I don’t know. It’s different for everyone, but I’ve been there, and it’s not fun. So whatever your reason is, you need to treat your purpose and your work with respect. Writing is an intimate, personal thing, Byul. When you shape it and grow it, it’s like a child. And when you disrespect a child constantly, well, you know.”

Byulyi turned to give Yongsun a sheepish smile and her face turned pink. She cocked her head, wondering if she said something wrong. “Sorry if I sounded insensitive, unnie,” she said, “I think I get it though. It’s the same with song writing. And probably any kind of creative thing.”

“Oh! No, I’m okay, Byul,” Yongsun said, mirroring Byulyi’s sheepish smile, “I just get really excited about this. Are you sure you want me to teach you all this stuff? I mean, I don’t want to scare you away. It’s a really complicated craft, and I take it seriously. And I get really excited about it.”

“Yeah. It’s okay, I like when you get excited—I mean, when you get excited…about…stuff.” Byulyi blushed and closed her eyes to avoid Yongsun’s gaze as she rummaged through her brain for words. “I guess,” she said finally, “you’re more than qualified, unnie. I’ve heard you talk about this kind of thing with Irene-unnie and it always seemed so fascinating. And I like your stories and I guess I…just…I just kind of want to know what your world is like. The way you think and stuff. I don’t know.”

Yongsun did not comment on the shades of red blossoming over Byulyi’s face, but she could not stop the grin from spreading across her face. “Well, if you say so then,” she replied. “Just don’t regret it later on.”

“I won’t, unnie. It’ll be fun.”

“Mmm, I hope so, but no guarantees.” Yongsun pointed a finger to her bottom lip and furrowed her brows. “First things first,” she mumbled, “if we’re going to do this, you need to understand that I’m not perfect. It’s like that old saying, ‘Do as I say and not as I do.’ I’m always learning too, so I don’t want you to come to me tomorrow and call me a hypocrite!”

Byulyi laughed and placed a hand over her heart. “You hurt me with your lack of faith, unnie. Believe in your disciple!”

“We’ll see! Second thing is that I’m not going to explain any technical stuff. Don’t expect me to go into grammar and word choices and stuff because—”

“I already know how to write?”

“That’s one reason, yes. You can write words and put them together. But I also think that it’ll come together naturally in your own way once you start thinking about all the other stuff.”

Byulyi raised a brow. “What else is there besides writing when you write? All we have to do is find a purpose, respect it, and start writing. Isn’t that what you were saying?”

Yongsun rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “Maybe we should start from the beginning.”