Well is it? Popular bands, books, dramas, movies? Do you watch something because it is popular or because you are actually interested? The problem is that popular can be seen everywhere, but you have to spend time to actually find something good hidden under all the .

Most of the time, when I watch/ read popular that's just to know what people are talking about and most of the time I don’t like it. I mean, one of my favorite Korean dramas is Miss Kim’s Million Dollar Quest, ever heard about that show? Most of the people haven’t. Or Invincible Lee Pyung Kang? One of the shows I loathe is My Girl and the other is Goong. I’m not into Exo, I think Shinwa was way better, and I am not into Shinee either, and I especially am not into Super Junior (except Siwon).

Popular: everyone reads it for some reason.

Good: you read it because you like it.

Let me just say this: when I heard that Game of Thrones was regarded as The Lord of The Rings of America I wanted to puke. How can they ever compare? If Tolkien heard this he’d turn in his grave, like seriously. He created a whole new world and usable language, then he wrote a bunch of fantasy books which revolved around the same word and even included same characters, he created a freaking parallel universe. Then Game of Thrones? What? A lightweight stuff you read on a train because there is nothing else to read. Unfair much?

Unfair... This is maybe how you feel when you have written an amazing story and finally posted it after proofreading 10 times but… everyone is reading that ty weird story about some dude getting pregnant instead. Your story has perfect English and nice flow, the other one is choppy ty Engrish bull. JUST WHY?!

The answer is simple:

Popular genre, coupling etc.

Right timing.

And a bit of luck.

Nowadays, people want to read lightweight stuff. There are some bestsellers that actually criticize our society and its flaws but mostly in a humorous light way because people want to be entertained. And anyway, you might love Twilight or be a fan or Harry Potter, I might find them bad and unreadable. It’s all about the taste, so in fact definition of ‘good fiction’ totally depends. But come on, Twilight? Like seriously…

So, if you want to be popular on AFF then forget about writing a book with your perfect English and deep meanings. Give people what they want between EXO members, or Minho and Taemin (Shinee), or an arranged marriage. Whatever you write about it has to be happening in Korea, and there has to be and hate-love beginning.

But what if you wanted to write about something else? What if you pick a less popular topic? Will that make you a worse writer? No. So what if you want to write a book? Why not publish it here chapter by chapter? But you will risk not being popular. It's choosing between: "what you want" and "what people want".

Example: I recently finished a story Just a Big Fat Lie, original characters, it's more like a Korean drama. Anyway, so one person suggested she'd post the story as daragon fic here, just changed the character's names and nothing else, The Moon is Broken has over 300 subbies, Just a Big Fat lie about 40. The story is exact same, just that the other is daragon fic. What do we learn? It's all about the trend. Personally I don't think my original characters suit perfectly any of Big Bang members and I hate daragon coupling. I wouldn't have been able to write it like that, never in million years.

To tell the truth, do you think Tolkien was thinking about being popular when he worked on his ‘parallel universe’? He was a linguist and he worked on something he enjoyed, linguist and creating a language goes together pretty well.

Dickens, Tolstoi, Alexandre Dumas… all these people wrote because they wanted to convey a message. If you google Dickens' quotes you will find some amazing stuff. Even Winnie The Pooh or The Little Prince, these were written because the writer had a message and you can actually learn something (and guess what? They became popular!) But Twilight? What do you learn? Oh right, I dare to say that the publisher had the perfect timing (vampires were something new). So timing! Maybe posting vampire stories is so last season now, think about a new trend.

Anyway, even if you become popular it doesn’t mean everyone will respect you because everyone defines ‘good’ in their own ways. That’s not a problem at all, that only means that you have to be cunning and pay attention to your surroundings. Follow the trends and give people whatever they want, and after you have established your footing you can start to post different stuff, the stuff you originally wanted to publish. But is it really worth it? Why sacrifice original characters and use readily produced pop stars? Maybe you should publish your stories elsewhere? Where people would actually appreciate them for their originality.

That’s why it’s necessary to return to the question “Why do I write?” and think about it. You have to enjoy writing, then it will be good, and no matter what other people say you should be confident in your skills, you should strive to become better. You should have pride in what you have produced. Not satisfied? Then edit, rewrite, make it better and you will end up with good. Concentrate on becoming better not popular. Maybe, if you are lucky you might become popular, if you have the right concept, right timing and a lot of luck. Besides, only writing will not make you popular alone, I will talk about that later.

But well, at this point, does popular matter so much anymore?