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I started writing Merry Than Wise, affectionately referred to as Emma AU, on August 3rd of 2021. I wrote a scrap of a scene that I had to drastically overwork for the climax of the fic, and the momentum of the rush of that moment carried me for quite literally over 100k and 16 months (and counting). Here is the message I sent to your friend and mine @doongi about it:
Quickly is subjective here, lol, but I sure did write a lot of it! I got busy with casting, deciding on the setting and how not to write something that was going to be disrespectful or dismissive of Korean culture (more on that below), and researching locations and jobs. It was a rush!! While at times the drafting process was a little brutal, I never stopped loving this story. For that I'm really grateful. This is my extended author's note so there are spoilers for the chapter below, FYI!
( Read more... )Quickly is subjective here, lol, but I sure did write a lot of it! I got busy with casting, deciding on the setting and how not to write something that was going to be disrespectful or dismissive of Korean culture (more on that below), and researching locations and jobs. It was a rush!! While at times the drafting process was a little brutal, I never stopped loving this story. For that I'm really grateful. This is my extended author's note so there are spoilers for the chapter below, FYI!
In terms of research for chapter one, I primarily focused on Hyunjin's apartment and Seungmin's degree. I watched some tours on YouTube of luxury apartments in Gangnam (Hyunjin's is based on Tower Palace) which was really helpful for imagining what the complex looks like and what his apartment might contain. I also looked online at curriculums for Linguistics PhDs. I think it comes up later but it's not really a spoiler to say that Seungmin goes to SNU. Good for him! I tried to stay true to the school year (actually also relevant for Jeongin who is student teaching at an elementary school) and do what research I could to make sense of that, but mistakes are mine and I would gladly hear feedback from anyone who knows better than I do!
That's the case for this entire fic, by the way. While I'm not super interested in hearing people break the story down with heaps of their own concrit (I promise I have solicited and taken feedback into account), I am very open to corrections and guidance around cultural aspects that I may have misrepresented. I did my best but nobody's perfect, as Hannah Montana says.
That's about it for this one! Other chapters were more or less research heavy depending on what came up in them and I'll chat more about that in future extended notes.
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In terms of revising, this chapter thankfully didn't need much, but that's because I ran over it sooo many times during the drafting process. I don't tend to line or copy edit as I go, but I will make structural changes if I need to, or rework entire scenes. The biggest change in chapter one came with the Changbin/Hyunjin conversation, where on the advice of my betas I tweaked it so Changbin was feeling less pressured by his parents and more just hassled by the idea of getting out into the dating scene. Relatable, Changbin. If any readers are aspiring to date me I am single and I would also like to skip to blissful domesticity, thanks.That's the case for this entire fic, by the way. While I'm not super interested in hearing people break the story down with heaps of their own concrit (I promise I have solicited and taken feedback into account), I am very open to corrections and guidance around cultural aspects that I may have misrepresented. I did my best but nobody's perfect, as Hannah Montana says.
That's about it for this one! Other chapters were more or less research heavy depending on what came up in them and I'll chat more about that in future extended notes.
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That change has ripple effects and I need to do some other work but I think it's really setting up a stronger arc for these two and I am glad! I am kind of using this project's revisions as a test drive to see how it might feel to write and then heavily revise a draft of an original novel, which is why I've been sinking so much time and energy into it. Hopefully that pays off in the story!
Overall, if I'm honest, I really love this chapter. I tried to do a lot of things with it and I think (hope!) they were generally successful. We have to get to know these characters in these particular circumstances quickly, because there are more coming and there's a lot of plot to get through after this. I can't wait to unfold more soon hehe.
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And on a sentimental note, I've been very scared to post this! I've been sitting on this particular chapter in its more or less completed form for a couple months and in draft form for over a year (wow!) and it's frankly soooo weird to finally be sharing it publicly. I don't know, this fic is like my little buddy. It's seen me through a lot of life stuff happening and it's strange to be letting go of pieces of it. I've been sharing it with friends as I go (trust me, some people have seen what feels like half the fic through screenshots lolol) but that still feels different from putting it online. Once each chapter is up I'm promising myself to stop tweaking, or at least to stop making finicky line edits that are just twelve of one thing and a dozen of the other. It's fine! It's fine.
Revisions weren't too difficult for this chapter in part because I've been tweaking it for months and in part because there's no previous continuity to be dealing with. Future chapters will run up against my age-old challenges with conceptualizing time and space. But it will get dealt with, because my betas rule and have worked so hard.
Okay, here we come to the end of the extended author's note. I hope that was fun to read! Future ones probably won't be this long and will also probably be more focused on specific scenes and choices I made, but I thought an overview for chapter one would be a nice way to jump in.
And on a sentimental note, I've been very scared to post this! I've been sitting on this particular chapter in its more or less completed form for a couple months and in draft form for over a year (wow!) and it's frankly soooo weird to finally be sharing it publicly. I don't know, this fic is like my little buddy. It's seen me through a lot of life stuff happening and it's strange to be letting go of pieces of it. I've been sharing it with friends as I go (trust me, some people have seen what feels like half the fic through screenshots lolol) but that still feels different from putting it online. Once each chapter is up I'm promising myself to stop tweaking, or at least to stop making finicky line edits that are just twelve of one thing and a dozen of the other. It's fine! It's fine.
Revisions weren't too difficult for this chapter in part because I've been tweaking it for months and in part because there's no previous continuity to be dealing with. Future chapters will run up against my age-old challenges with conceptualizing time and space. But it will get dealt with, because my betas rule and have worked so hard.
Okay, here we come to the end of the extended author's note. I hope that was fun to read! Future ones probably won't be this long and will also probably be more focused on specific scenes and choices I made, but I thought an overview for chapter one would be a nice way to jump in.
If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! This journey is just getting started <333
