1. How did you come up with your user name and what does it mean?

I’m a huge eunhae stan and OT5 when I created this account (still am, but more chill), I don’t think it meant that much back then, but 5 years later I’ve not thought of changing my username, it serves more like a reminder, in a sense? That this is actually who I am, that I started out as a ELF & Cassie, that those are my roots and my home and my comfort zone.

 

2. Which is your most subscribed to story?

Bittersweet with 140. It still gets subscribers now and then, it’s surprising, because it was one of my oldest work of my most immature and unrealistic dreams of OT5. It is definitely far from a work that I’m proud of, but it certainly is the work that was written with full sincerity of my 15 year old self.

 

3. Why did you pick your user photo/thumbnail?

Lee Donghae is, arguably, my ultimate bias. As a Libra, I relate a lot to him, and really just love his everything haha. This has actually been my thumbnail since I created the account, and at that time his Taiwan drama (Skip Beat) was airing and I thought this was his best hairstyle, so there you go.

 

4. Who is your AFF bestie?

I don’t have one. When I first created an account here, it was to read and write, not so much of socialising. I accept any friend request coming my way, but don’t PM and whatever. Today, as a 20 year old, I think it’s hard to find friends on this site anyway haha.

 

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Damn… this is a hard one. The DBSK drabble series ‘Hell Hath No Fury like ___’ by TiaraL for some fun OT5; the namjin tear bomb ‘To Be With You’, vmin tear bomb ‘Party Crasher’, and pretty much every work of PrettyBoyKiller on AO3; the EXO crack ‘Office Antics’, the interesting ‘The Great Story’, the depressing kaiso tale ‘Anterograde Tomorrow’ and the work of god, ’48 hours’ (it’s a Chinese fic, and is probably the most mindblowing fanfic I’ve ever read – if it can even be considered a fanfic at all). There’s a few Chinese eunhae fics, and a whole list of quality hanchul too – yeah I haven’t found much quality SJ fics in English, recommend me some if you have suggestions.

 

6. How many stories are you subscribed to?

111. I have the tendency to clean up my subscriptions every once in a while.

 

7. What AU do you find yourself writing about most?

I used to only write realistic settings (ie them as the idols that they are), but since my 5AU fic (the beautiful mistake is that I met you) I’ve been a lot more open about this. I still prefer to keep things real, my ongoing jikook fic is a highschool setting, and most other fics-in-planning are still the realistic idol setting but in the extended future (since I don’t deem myself knowledgeable enough to expand on their past stories): I have an OT5 fic in planning that will hopefully be uploaded for the 14^th anniversary / comeback, this eunhae fic in planning that was supposed to be for the 718 fest but I missed the deadline cos #procrastination so I’m hoping to put it up as a 12^th anniversary / comeback celebration thing.

 

8. How many friends do you have?

81. I accept any friend requests coming my way, so feel free to add me if you want to talk.

 

9. Is there something you'd like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

Well I’m already writing it! My current jikook fic (when my world no longer stops for you) is basically a filtered version of my actual experience with a friend, mixed with discussion of bullying, insecurity turned jealousy, miscommunication with parents, over attachment and self-destructive acts, and how eventually those are overcome. It’s more like a personal milestone thing though, but it’s actually attracting some attention and readers have left me much more personal comments than I was anticipating, so I’m really happy to know that my work is actually having some sort of a positive impact on other’s lives.

 

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at on AFF? Writing, graphic design (posters), replying to comments, updating regularly, etc..?

Updating. Regularly. Is. So. Hard. For. An. A+. Procrastinator. Like. Me. And yeah I do hope I can polish my writing, it’s so frustrating that sometimes my work doesn’t turn out like I wanted it to be.

 

11. How many subscribers do you have?

Unique Subs: 341

Total subs: 406

 

12. How many stories have you posted online to this day (finished and unfinished)?

13 stories, inclusive of 5 short oneshot/songfic/poem, 3 drabbles, 1 multiple-AU oneshot, 3 chaptered (1 completed, 1 ongoing, 1 abandoned). Currently 3 more oneshots in planning, and a bts drabble series that I’m pondering over.

 

13. How many stories do you have saved in your writing program?

Uh… Around 30? Half of which that I will never develop haha.

 

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I write down whatever idea I think of! I usually take them down on my phone’s ColorNote. I’m always afraid that I’ll forget those ideas so I try to pen it down immediately.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Nope. I think I prefer to write my own story.

 

16. How did you discover AFF?

Can’t remember, but probably when I was googling about eunhae fics.

 

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author on AFF?

Nah, far from that.

 

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

Far from that level of having a fandom of readers??

 

19. Was there an AFF author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

A long time ago there’s TheHeapify (a great AU writer), pinboo and elisaexplosive (both great horror writer). Currently it’s an AO3 author PrettyBoyKiller.

 

20. How many karma points do you have?

68. I donated 1000 for a OT5 event, and 500 or something for an eunhae event. I never found the need for karma, never understood how were those points gathered, so whenever an event I care about arises, I donate the largest whole number I have.

 

21. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Just write it! Half my old work is super cringe-worthy, but hey, different age different thoughts right? You write, you improve; you don’t write, you learn nothing. As you write, you start to figure out more about your writing style. Also, read widely! See how the better writers write, and try to pick out what you like from their style and attempt to add these elements into your own writing.

Other basic advice: try to keep your sentences short, have proper paragraphing, don’t try to do beyond your linguistic ability (ie pulling big words when you don’t understand them, writing run-on sentences when you are not the best at grammar to make it seamless, trying to provide way too much details but ended up unable to connect the dots).

 

22. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I plot out the whole structure for chaptered and non-chaptered work. For the chaptered work, my planning page starts out as a mess of ‘what to include’, then it slims down to a ‘chapter 1, … chapter n, …’ because I need to know where this is going. This is also good because it instils consistency in your work and you won’t have cases like over-writing (ie you wrote too much in one chapter, and the next time you need to touch on something similar in a future chapter you have no new input and end up being repetitive) or self-contradicting (esp in character building). For me, I plan what to include in every chapter, just the broad pointers (eg this chapter will discuss -broad sections in the plot-, it will highlight -emotions, character/relationship changes etc-), and I will add in a specific phrase/sentence/scene that I want to use if I’ve thought of it while planning (in case I forget it later).

Even for the oneshots, I will plan it out by the sections, the things that I want happening in the story and the specific scenes. It helps a lot in writing because you know where this is going.

 

23. Have you ever gotten a bad review or comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

I don’t think I’ve gotten a bad review, but if I do and it is constructive feedback that I feel reasonable, I will reply with a thank-you and try to see if I can incorporate the feedback in my writing; if it was phrased rudely and had no real useful criticism, I’ll report/remove the comment, and probably blacklist the person, but I don’t think anyone’s this bored in life so yeah.

I have, however, gotten lots of useless comments? Like you know, the “update soon” kind. Like it makes me pretty sad to see that fics usually don’t get a lot of comments, and a lot of the comment actually don’t have much meaning. Like sure, I don’t mind you asking for faster updates (I want to update faster too T_T) but at least tell me what you like about this chapter…

 

24. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, , etc..)

I’m terrible at writing action scenes. I used to have an idea for some assassin AU, and gave up on it because I can’t write action. LOL. And I’m quite awkward at writing conversation? Like I want to describe the actions of the people conversing, their tone, and whatever, but I’m still lacking in this area.

 

25. What story(s) are you working on now?

I have 4 more chapters left for When my world no longer stops for you, 3 oneshots (1 for OT5 and 2 for eunhae) and a BTS drabble series.

 

26. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

I don’t necessarily do that, I only write when I have an idea, and I don’t find it necessary that I’m always writing. I took quite a long break between The beautiful mistake is that I met you and Prologue: two years can be a lot of things.

 

27. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

No, I don’t like the feeling of being pressed to do something I enjoy. I write when I’m in the mood, and when I have something to write.

 

28. Do you think you've improved as a writer since you first started?

Definitely! Beyond the language, cliché and cringe-worthy plot, stereotypical characters, I’m a lot more aware of what exactly I want to achieve by writing. I have a vision of how the story should turn out, in fact I’ve been trying to direct myself into writing for a purpose – like my work should have a message to the readers.

 

29. What is your favorite story that you've written?

I would say it’s the beautiful mistake is that I met you. It’s my first attempt at really writing out AUs, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. And also because I’ve been wanting to write some proper hanchul in a while, and I’ve had a series of inspiration that didn’t seem enough individually, but suddenly I thought, “what if I put them together?” and bam you have it.

When my world no longer stops for you comes close, but not fully. Maybe because it is a chaptered fic, and I tend to favour shorter work (at this note, I must say that if prologue: two years can be a lot of things is considered as a separate fic, it would be a tie with the beautiful mistake is that I met you); maybe because it’s too personal, so it’s less imaginative when I re-read it and rather I get triggered by my old memories. But I’m definitely most proud of this work though. It took a lot of courage to write out many things that I’ve kept to myself for too long, and a lot more courage to post it online.

 

30. What is your least favorite story that you've written?

Love Hurts. It’s so bad, I eventually abandoned it. It is way too cliché and cringey, I discontinued it when I was 16.

 

31. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

More eloquent, more purposeful, more sophisticated.

 

32. How many upvotes do you have?

43.

 

33. What is the easiest thing about writing?

Nothing is easy for me! English isn’t a first language for me (I write a lot better in Chinese), and I’m still lacking in many areas. But I find proof-reading easier than most authors do, maybe it’s in my nature to pick out faults lol.

 

34. What is the hardest thing about writing?

Making my planning the reality without disappointing myself. Like when I plan for a fic, I have envisioned how I want it to turn out. Not in the exact words or whatever, but I have that bar mentally. And when what I write out didn’t seem to fit my expectations, it’s quite a struggle. I usually re-write the entire thing and push back the updates in that case.

 

35. Why do you write?

I write because it allows me to express the things I never will in face-to-face conversations. I write because it’s calming and almost like a therapy to see characters containing parts of myself coming alive. I write because I see value in consolidating memories and passing on a positive message that things get better. I really just write for every personal reason.

 

Questionnaire created by OnceUponAnEXO