Author Meme
What is the first DBSK fanfiction that made you cry?
- The first fic that came to mind was, " We Come Right Round" by Waterpulse. Warning, it's a YunJae fic in case YunJae is not your cup of tea.
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
- I'm neither energized or exhausted by writing. I enjoy writing and whenever you enjoy something, you don't necessarily feel energized or exhausted. It's the type of feeling where you just feel at peace at whatever it is that you're doing. An example of this would be the internet. You go on it and you spend hours on it without even realizing it. You don't feel happy or exhausted that you're on the internet constantly, you're just going through the motion without feeling anything and that's what writing feels to me. If you still don't understand what I'm trying to say ... then putting it simply, writing just feels natural to me and not as a burden.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
- I think every writer has done this once in their early days of writing, and that is writing a story that you're not emotionally connected to or a story that you're not proud of producing, because you want to follow what others are doing. An example of this, would be writing about a pairing that you don't really care for or like, but do so because it's popular and you know that you would gain lots of readers and comments for it. The same goes for writing smut and pwp stories.
What is your writing kryptonite?
- Description. Whenever I start a story for a chaptered fic, the first few chapters would start out with great descriptions of visuals and emotions, but after that, I revert back to my natural expertise which is writing dialogue. Sometimes, I wished I could learn how to keep the flow of description and describe things to the very end of the story rather than not describing as much as I did in the beginning parts of the story.
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
- I'm currently writing under one. And if in the future, I'm confident about writing a novel and publishing it, I will still use the same alias as I have now, which is Miri Uchiha.
Do you try to be more original or to deliver to readers what they want?
- I write whatever I'm passionate about at that moment and if my readers don't like it, then there are times when I don't care and am satisfied with what I put out. But on rare occasions, I get disheartened when people don't read what I spent time writing on and sometimes feel as though I need to cater to my reader's whims in order to get some attention. But more often than not, I write whatever I want.
Do you think someone could be a writer if they don't feel emotions strongly?
- Yes, I believe that anyone could be a writer if they tried, even those that don't feel emotions as strongly as some people. Instead of being frustrated that you won't be able to convey the emotions needed to move your readers, take the time to improve other aspects needed for storytelling such as description. From description, you must learn to observe and from observing other people, you will also find the emotions that you can't express in the first place. No matter how much you lack that a writer must have, you'll eventually find a way to become a writer in your own way if you persevere hard enough to reach the goal that you want to achieve.
What other authors are you friends with and how do they help you become a better writer?
- I have fellow writers/readers that I talk to occasionally ... But we're not close enough to be labeled as friends ... However it is something that I hoped to happen in the future because I want to talk about writing and improving my skills with someone.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
- If there are any words that you don't think you spelled correctly, look it up and make sure the word is correct before uploading it on the internet. Also, re-read the previous chapters for minor details so that you don't mess up on certain information and details.
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
- When language was spoken verbally. The first time I had experienced it, was when I was bullied at school and it left me in tears.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
- For my DBSK fanfics, it would have to be Shim Changmin. For any other fandoms that I've written, it would have to be the character that I tend to center my stories around for those particular fandoms.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
- Unfinished Original Novels: Five
Unfinished DBSK Fanfiction Chaptered stories: Nine (Yes, I have nine unfinished DBSK chaptered fanfics. As my readers, you know that I have three unfinished works that I stated in my Current Writing Projects post. But in fact, I have six other chaptered fics that I've started behind the scenes. I'm waiting until I finish the first three before publishing the rest one by one.
And there isn't any original novels that I've finished that I would like to publish into a book.
What kind of research do you do and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
- Compared to published authors or just authors in general, I would say that I do very little research. I research for minor things such as the name of towns, spells and where they originated from, the name of buildings in the area, etc. I don't do much background research unless my story is centered around it or when I'm writing an original novel. But for fanfiction, I don't do much research at all.
Do you view writing as kind of a spiritual practice?
- Yes. Writing heals me and lets me release all of my pent up emotions.
What's the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?
- I can't really think of anything that sets women apart from men. I believe that men and women speak and think the same way, but men would take things at face value whereas women would try to see the underlying meaning in everything. But overall, it's more of a personality thing than a gender thing that sets men and women apart. Such as, some men can be more sensitive than others and women could be more bold than others. It really depends. But so far, I haven't had any trouble writing for both genders.
How many hours a day do you write?
- Since I'm not a professional author and writing is just a hobby to me, there are times where I'm too busy with life to write and when I do have the time to write, on some days, the inspiration doesn't come to me. However, on the days where I'm inspired to write something, I tend to spend one to three hours writing or even less than that, depending on how sore my hand is (while writing with a pen and paper) or when I've written/typed up to the point where the story stops in my head. So basically, I end up writing around 1K - 2K words per session.
What period of your life do you find that you write about most often?
- I don't use any inspiration from my life to write a story. Usually I write stories based on opinions about certain subjects that I couldn't express in public. But I tend to base my stories around the lives of teenagers and young adults.
What did you edit out from your last chapter of Only You?
- I edited out unnecessary words, reworded sentences to help the chapter flow better ... Things like that. The final product that I end up uploading, isn't much different from the rough draft because I tend to edit as I write.
Do you read your comments? How do you deal with negative or positive ones?
- I do read all of my comments. When I first started writing fanfiction, I had a lot of negative comments from readers such as constructive criticism and also death threats. At the time, I was at a sensitive/vulnerable part of my life and to read those comments, I fell into a deeper depression. There was a moment where I almost overdosed because people hated my writing and told me to kill myself. I can't remember how I overcame that phase of my writing life, but I did, because I persevered afterward and practiced writing and tried to get better. Eventually, I started seeing more positive comments than negative comments and my self-esteem began to rose and few years later, here I am. I'm proud of the journey that I went through to get to where I am. Those negative comments, somehow pushed me to become a better writer and I'm grateful for the experience.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
- I've hidden secret emotions and opinions that I've kept to myself, but unless I've commented or if they know me personally, I doubt my readers will figure out that the story that they're reading is a scene that I've played out in my head on what would've happened if I said this or that in real life.
What was your hardest scene to write?
- Out of all the stories that I've written, whether it was posted on the internet or kept in my notebooks, I would have to say that fight scenes and sex scenes are the most hardest scenes to write. I've never fought and I've seen very little fighting in real life to know what happens and the emotions the interaction conveys, to fully write a fight scene that is believable. As for sex scenes ... I've read TONS ... but I'm only able to write sex scenes that have a meaning or reason behind it, such as break-up sex, sex where you want to gain information from that other person, forbidden sex (affairs), things like that. However, I can't write passionate sex, romantic sex, sex in the heat of the moment, because I have no underlying emotion that I can feed off of to write them. =/ It's really sad.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
- Being able to fully convey the visuals and emotions into words from my mind's eye to my reader's. There are times when I get so frustrated whenever I re-read my work and it's not EXACTLY what I envisioned. It only goes to show just how limited my vocabulary is and that I have a long way to go to become a good writer.