1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Definitely noir genres, with fantasy elements.

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Romance.

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

ABOverse or something similar.

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Five published but unfinished, and 4 more in the drafts.

5. Share one of your strengths.

Characterization.

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

Locations.

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Howie looks directly into Santi's eyes. In the blankness that clouds his features, the newbie could see deep agony, twinkling like stars in a twisted way. The only way he could bring the answers to light is if he sets himself on fire.

 

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

This is how I introduced Hoshi's character in Blackmouth. The thing about this scene is that it implies certain knowledge that the characters know among themselves but doesn't divulge yet to the audience, but they communicate in a way that they understand the open secret. What I like the most about this is how I incorporated Hoshi's irl obsession with tigers in a funny way that also fits the tone and tension of the scene.

"You can't be here, Kwon," Santi announces. Howie has never seen these many emotions register in his coworker's face for the two weeks he's known him as he had now. The pale man's bangs had been combed back carelessly, and he's missing his cap, so all his disgust, alarm, and confusion comes to full view for everyone to see.

"Now this is the son of a I'm looking for!" the stranger exclaims proudly. He clasps his hands together and rubs them against each other as he inhales sharply through his nose, but not before throwing his barely finished cigarette stick onto the ground and stomping on it. First he comes uninvited to provoke Howie and now he's littering in front of his face, right after he'd just painstakingly segregated their trash, no less.

"Go yourself," Santi hawks at the blond man.

"Them YCC bastards can't protect you forever. You know that, right? So you had better get your straight if I were you," a dangerous glint flashes in the stranger's eyes. "Take this as free advice."

"This is a direct violation. You better get your own straight before you give people advice." Santi has not made a single muscle in his body move an inch since the moment he had stepped into the commotion. He hangs there, stock-still, with his hands in the pockets of his black sweatpants and a face full of contempt. The stranger seems to find this quite entertaining, which he validates with a sneer. Undeterred by the man's cockiness, Santi disses him further. "What? Did your master forget to feed you your bone? You ing dog." 

​​​​​​The infuriating arrogance is wiped clean off from the man's face. His eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but Howie believes this to be fake. The stranger knows something and he's using it to keep the higher ground. "Now ain't that just mean. I'm a Tiger, remember?"

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

All of them are equally both fun and challenging to write. 

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?

The quickest is The Beauty Collector, as I've just translated it from Taglish to English. So that counts as easy for me as I only worked on it for like 1 hour, probably even less than that. The writing process for the original version took place from 2021 to 2023, so yes, it did take two years, but among the rest of my fics, it definitely counts as the quickest as the rest of them are still ongoing. I take quick as easy in this scenario.

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Passion and self-expression.

12. Is there a moment above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

When I realize I'm actually a good writer, and overcome negative views about my skills, I started to write more confidently and produced more quality stories.

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

"Write." – Neil Gaiman

https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/tips-masters/neil-gaiman-8-good-writing-practices

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

The one from Bukowski, tbh. It's this whole thing: https://poets.org/poem/so-you-want-be-writer. Basically he says if it's not all-consuming, don't do it. But I'd like to differ. Sometimes it takes a lot of mastery, trial and error, failure, self-doubt, and years and years of thinking maybe you aren't meant to write, that maybe you should be doing something else, but it happened to me and I realized how wrong I was to think like that. If I had stopped the moment I realized it didn't work the way Bukowski said it would, I'd probably be looking for writing in places where it wasn't meant to be found. It will be a confusing and painfully empty ordeal.

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose? 

Definitely Blackmouth. I wrote the scenes as I would envision how a TV series would play out: from the cut scenes to the cliffhangers, as well as the character designs.

16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

I don't write pairings, oof.

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

The drafts I write in bullet points, with random scenes and dialogues, and sometimes just notes about the overall discussion to be had on the chapter I'm working on. But after that I write continuously and in order from chapter to chapter.

18. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

Notes app and Microsoft office for the drafts, but I write directly on AFF so I don't have to transfer from app to app. Plus I like the formatting options.

19.  Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

If King has a man in the basement, I have a child in my womb.

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

I used to think I need to be in a perfect mood, when the words are just immediately in the forefront of my mind. But now I write because the stories need to be written; I rest when I feel tired, but when I'm not resting, I'm writing.

21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

I do multiple quick rereads as I write. Then after I've written the entire chapter, I would post it. I'll come back to it so I am not in the mindset of proofreading, just enjoying it so I don't feel about the simplest things like word choice or punctuations, you know, the more technical and professional stuff. Whenever I do this I always catch a few typos and grammatical errors here and there, which I can easily fix since I'm already writing on the site that I'm posting it on, no hassle of copy-pasting from another source.

22.  Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style.

Oh. I've deleted all of my earlier fics from my previous account. The earliest works I have so far are from 2021. But If I may, here is a passage from The Color of Goodbye (featuring the P-Pop group ALAMAT), from Dec. 12, 2021:

“’Yung ngiti mo.”

“Anong meron sa ngiti ko?” tanong niya. Lalo pang bumilis ang tibok ng puso ko nang sabayan niya ng pagtitig ang malambing na ngiti sa labi niya.

“’Yan. ‘Yan mismo,” napailing ako habang pilit na tinatago ang hiya sa pamamagitan ng pagtingin sa malayo. “Masyado kang pa-fall. Alam mo nang gwapo ka, pangiti-ngiti ka pa dyan.”

“Ayaw mo?” hamon niya. “Ano bang gusto mong nakikita, kung ayaw mong nakakakita ng gwapo?”

“Ewan ko sa’yo.”

Sandali siyang napatawa. Ako naman, nakatuon ang atensyon sa kulay-kahel na langit; sa malaking araw.

And here is the current style version:

"I don't really know what the point is," I said. But he insisted, so I tried to humor him. "But I think I hate your smile."

"My smile? What's wrong with it?" he asked, amusedly. My heart raised as he flashed another grin, his perfect teeth shown in full display, the upward curves of the end of his mouth made his face more inviting. And more than his smile, I began to lose myself in his eyes as well. And here I thought the smile was already deadly.

"That's exactly what the problem is," I pointed out, shaking my head after I turned my gaze to look away, so as to hide my embarrassment. "You're so full of yourself. You act so smug just because you're kinda cute."

"You don't like it?" he teased. "Would you rather see someone who isn't cute?"

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes, feigning annoyance.

He laughed for a moment. And I, with my heart bursting with an intense fire that mimicked the threatening sun, could only mirror the smile he had.

(If it would make the imagery better, allow me to explain why I rewritten it this way: it is the end of the world, and the sun is about to explode. So to paint that picture but to give it an opposite, more serene and relaxed vibe, makes it interesting. Contrast creates focus, to quote Jordan Orme.This is also the intro part, so you could see that the story is intended to unfold slowly and almost in a killing-me-softly kind of way.)

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

I wanna revisit my favorite (deleted) fic, a Tagalog crack-fic called San Ba Ko Nagkulang Sa Aking Sinigang featuring EXO. God, I miss that one.

24. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

A lot. I deleted a whole account, IJBOL.

25. What do you look for in a beta?

Never had one. I don't really know how that works either.

26. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

No.

27. How do you feel about collaborations?

I was in one before. I loved it and I wish I get invited to one again. (If you're reading this and you have ideas and want me to be a part of it, feel free to hit me up!)

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

I used to be obsessed with kinghowon's works, but I think the account is not available anymore (and possibly their fics as well). I also enjoy fics from daeseol on livejournal. And Changdictator, the author of Anterograde Tomorrow.

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Oh I really don't have anything in mind.

30. Do you accept prompts?

No.

31. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

No, I don't think so. In fact I write OOC stories.

32. How do you feel about ?

I like when they are more prose and written beautifully, if I ever do read them. But I hardly do, so I'd say I don't really read them.

33. How do you feel about crack?

I love it especially when it's done thoughtfully and with taste and not just for the mere wackiness you can incorporate when you write one.

34. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

Personally, I don't like it.

35. Would you ever kill off a canon character?

Yes, if the story calls for it.

36. Which is your favorite site to post fic?

AFF and AO3.

37. Talk about your current wips.

Here's non-published one: 94 (Seulgi) and 98 (Seonghwa) are Doors. They set out to Earth, to apprehend a waking Homonculus that holds the power to activate all of her kind, threatening universal destruction.

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

Don't have one.

39. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

Haven't got one yet.

40. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).

Since the only finished story I have is The Beauty Collector, it's the only ending I can choose to have an alternate to. It's this: The journalist doesn't survive.