Things I've noticed with apply fics is that about 30-40% actually get written and have a decent amount of chapters (more than 5 chapters), while some will start but will disappear, while others may never get written. However, even with the low odds of someone's character being written, creating characters is fun. I've generally enjoyed creating most of my characters and if a character of mine doesn't get picked or if that story never gets written, I usually just recycle apps depending on what story I'm applying to. Other times, I'll just create new characters. But for the most part, it's fun and addicting sometimes as well.

Really, it's just like writing regular fic, but instead of writing about one-two-maybe three people and have some supporting characters, you write a bit more. It's like a team fic where every character will get their chance to shine in the story. So kind of think of how team related movies/tv shows work, but apply it to story form, because that's how an apply fic is supposed to work for the most part.

From there, the applying period will end and then the author will select which characters they like best and write a story about them. Some people create designated plot lines for each character in the beginning, already having a small outline for what they want to happen, while some people just allow people to create their own characters and once selected, make plot lines based on the information they've been provided with. Then it's just like any other story, but instead of having one/two OCs, most people will have more OCs where they juggle characters.

Sometimes it seems that juggling so many characters may seem hard, but it's doable if you know how to outline and construct your stories well. For my apply fics, I have notes upon notes of information in outlines (chapter, general, arc, plot line, character, etc...) to make everything work and get me writing. But the thing about writing these fics is how well you can connect with the characters that have been created for you to work with. So if apps aren't that great except for a few, it's better to take less apps that you like instead of trying to fill up all the plotlines, because if you can't connect with a character, even if they applied for a certain plot line and that certain plot line has no doable characters, it's better to cut the plot line out and use the characters that work best for the author. Otherwise, writing can be much harder because not only will you have to find ways to connect with a character that didn't exactly interest you but you are writing to fill a plot line, but writing the other plot lines as well.

Most apply fics use layouting for their fics and the cooler/neater the layouting brings more people to create more characters so the author has characters to pick from. Most authors usually pick between 4-6 characters, but for some of the EXO related apply fics, there have been people that will select up to 12-13 characters depending on their EXO love interests. It also depends on what relationships people allow as well, boy/boy fics are usually met with less people than say girl/boy fics where some people actually have apply fics with 100+ subscribers (average is usually around 40-60 subscribers), and stories with boy/boy, girl/girl, and boy/girl usually average about 20-30 subscribers.

Then the author will give a month/two months for people to fill out an application and send it in for the story. During that period, the author will write little teasers and make reviews for apps, telling people what they need to work, fix, or things they like. Most people usually tell people to fix their apps if the layout is messed up (people spend a good chunk of time layouting too, so most people don't want their layouts to be messed up) or if a person creates a Mary-Sue characters and most people dislike Mary-Sue characters.

Apply fics are where an author comes up with an idea (many try to create a boygroup/girlgroup that usually goes through training and debuts and eventually the members fall for other band members or idol members from bands like EXO, Infinite, BAP, etc... Some actually have different ideas that can include the horror, science fiction, or fantasy genre, some like to do school settings, etc...) and from that idea they create a story. However, instead of just creating their own characters (most usually create one or two characters of their own as well), they allow other people to create their own characters for their story and whoever has the best written or interesting characters are written in their story. When people create their characters, the author usually creates an application with questions on them to get a feel for the person's character. Most application questions include appearance, physical features, name, height/weight, DOB/age, Hometown/Birthtown, Languages they speak, Background (A small bio about their character's life), personality section (most require people to write about 2 paragraphs for it, but many people usually write between 4-5 paragraphs for the personality), trivia (likes, dislikes, hobbies, habits, fears, etc...), Love interest section which usually includes a personality, background, how they act around your character, how they first met sections, as well as a few other miscellaneous sections that may be important depending on the story. These applications are their to provide a sturdy base for the author to use a person's character in their story and get a feel for that character.