#it’s almost as if it not only expresses kdj’s thoughts but also his emotions

[purrfectlycontent]

the newest chapter has me thinking about kdj’s relationship with the fourth wall

[your--isgayrights]

Oh yay permission to send you fic related asks!! I'll start off by saying I lvoe how youre pulling off the limited POV, especially during longer conversations where the different intent and miscommunications pile up. it seems to me like you have a very clear grasp on the very different things/interpretations they all have going on in their own head. i like trying to understand what the non-kdj party must be thinking at the time, so i wanted to ask how much of their viewpoint do you map out/how do you do it when writing them? like, does it come naturally from their characterization, or do you ever need to write a bit from the other character's POV to know where theyre coming from?

Annooooon let me tell you a secret bestie... I pretty much always want to answer asks about my fic lmao. if you've been holding back DO NOT. <^This guy has written and published almost 100,000 words about this particular topic, methinks he might be a bit of a chatterbox about it...

GREAT question too. I think that like you say, KDJ's biased POV is really one of my favorite parts of writing the fic. It let's me create these situations where literally EVERY character is thinking something Completely Different is happening than the others, which is my favorite form of comedy. With this you also get to sort of juggle with the Reader's perspective, because with fanfiction you can expect that the reader will have a certain baseline understanding of the characters that lets them sort of see through the veneer of the social interaction as to what's really going on. I think that this kind of writing/reading is less about planning out and practicing at multiple POVs like you suggest and more about like exercising some empathy muscles for reader and writer... In the first place I think that I started the practice of really writing in order to become more articulate about expressing my own emotions, so I think a part of that is trying to express the emotions and perspectives of characters... And when you're viewing someone from the outside and are trying to understand them that way, you only get the avenues of their dialogue and their actions, and when you're writing a conversation it's easy to naturally work reactions in like that.

I don't really write out more than like notes about what's going to happen, so like, for example, popular scene in chapter 3: Shin Yoosung gets a stuffed animal from a gachapon machine. So, like, I know in my head that I have this specific characterization and take on Shin Yoosung, she's sort of a kid that is used to being disappointed by adults in her life but takes it onto herself. So when her mom forgets her birthday her thought process becomes "Well, I'm a big girl now, who cares? It doesn't matter that much anyway," she thinks like this to avoid having to be disappointed in her parental figure, but her rationalization doesn't hold up to her real emotion, which is where LGY and KDJ are able to provide support to her... I feel like all this just comes naturally from my interpretation so I would sort of know this about the characters like you know a person, right? Then the note is just about what plot point should occur, "SYS's mom forgets her birthday, KDJ buys her a cake, gochapon." Then I might write a bit of that scene and then just move it around in the outline where I see fit. So, like you say, I have the idea that SYS is having this dramatic moment where she tries her best to hold back her feelings, and then one adult in her life says "you don't have to, even if you feel sad for no reason, in this moment I'll do my best to make you happy" through his actions, it's obviously something that matters a lot to her. It really would be way to much trouble to have to write out a whole separate aspect in her perspective though, so there's no practice like that.

What I DO practice is that sometimes I take multiple cracks at a draft if I feel it isn't striking the right tone. Last chapter I was really held up by the LHS and JHW scene, because I hadn't quite hit the right vibe with it I felt. It's a bit difficult because what I had in my notes was basically "m/f couples that exist to be foils to gay romance are valid," so I think that my first drafts were way too heavy handed about that, and too LHS focused too. I think that another struggle I had in general that chapter was worrying about KDJ coming on a little too strong and messing up the pacing of the Vibes, because it's the beginning of this transition period in his emotional state which needs to be in a certain place by the end of 4.4... OK no one cares about that. Basically I was struggling to segue into the LHS & JHW discussion, then the one on one LHS and KDJ discussion without it coming across as making JHW's traumatic experience all about her male partner you know? Because a recurring dynamic I've tried to portray is someone who feels helpless vs someone who needs help, and the amount of care we have for our loved ones, being a survivor vs being a savior, what those concepts mean, etc. Like knowing your loved one is in danger and there's nothing you can do, that's one of the core emotions right, so I was trying to bring that out without having any weird implications if that makes sense.

Basically I was struggling and struggling with it until I realized that what I had written was basically a LHS & KDJ scene, then a JHW & LHS scene, then a JHW & KDJ scene, then a LHS & KDJ scene again. So I had the picture of the individual characters in my head, but I had failed to connect them to one larger group dynamic, just attaching them to each other in what were essentially duologues.

The break in the case for that one, and the reason I'm telling you about this I guess, was being able to have an experience in my real life that was sort like this. Basically I was visiting two of my pals I hadn't seen for a while at a ballroom dance tournament where they were participating and I was observing. We hadn't all hung out in person in a good while, and I realized that I felt a bit awkward and didn't know what to talk about, whereas they could both talk to each other about ballroom dancing and get conversation going that way... This let me really crack what JHW's perspective was, lol. I was like. Oh. She thinks she and KDJ are participating in the same ballroom dance competition.

There was also this aspect of "this m/f couple literally Can't Cope without their Favorite Little Guy. what's the point of being comphet if your gay boy best friend has been imprisoned/hospitalized for his crimes against humanity" that I wanted to incorporate after rereading some parts of orv...

Okay IDK if this makes that much sense but basically here's what I had in my notes about that conversation:

JHW is having an awkward catch up with her ex and is relieved that her friend who she Knows How To Interact With is there.

LHS is like wow I'm hanging out with my Cool friend but I'm cringe fail so i don't know if she hates me, its a good thing my Cool superior from work is here to support me.

KDJ is sitting next to blorbo from his arm and trying to do narrative math to figure out how soon he and/or JHW are going to die violently (make LHS sad).

Then I just rewrote basically the whole thing and it worked out fine lol. Basically cracked onto the perspective of "KDJ desperately tries to be a third wheel but JHW and LHS are actually really into tricycles and would absolutely eat shit if you asked them to ride with just the two wheels." It became hilarious to me how enthused they both were to have him there and how much he Did Not Want to be there lmaooo.

God Ok. Rambling. Um basically I don't generally do drafts written from different perspectives I don't plan to include in the final draft bc I feel like there's extra work involved in that. So I'm mostly writing from real life experience with the way real people work/my own understanding of characterization. I do take notes sometimes about plot events/character moments that need to happen in my outline. Like recently I reread the stuff I published takin notes on where YJH's head is at bc of 4.4 stuff that's happenin... haha.

I DO sometimes write other characters' POVs though. I think some of them might be included towards the end or in extras after I'm done with the main story. Like I have snippets of some soosang stuff and excerpts from HSY's writing. And then, not to spoil anything, but you know how ORV has more third person povs as the story goes on? My work may or may not have some of such funny business lol.

Thanks for reading and thanks a lot for your ask!