When seeking commercial success with writing you need to be realistic. Just because something shouldn’t be the way it is doesn’t mean you can ignore that reality.
What I mean:
People do judge a book by it’s cover, unless you’re talented and have done your research it will negatively impact you not to pay a professional.
Marketing a book isn’t about how good your book is. It’s an entirely different skillset you’ll need to pick up whether you get indie published or traditionally published.
If you’re writing something niche you can’t expect the marketing advice of people writing and selling something with wide scale appeal to work for you. You’ll need to find a way to advertise directly to the communities that surround your niche.
Bigots read and buy books.
Publishing a book is fucking expensive but cutting corners is quickly noticeable.
Publishers don’t take as many risks as they should, they’re increasingly letting indie authors take risks and prove that certain types of story can make it. You might have to wait for someone else to prove your kind of story works in the indie space to get any traction in the trad space.
I doubt any of these really surprise anyone. But anytime something is unfair or wrong in publishing whether indie or trad I see a lot of writers say something like ‘well people shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover so I’m making my own anyway’ as if saying that somehow changes reality. Let’s be realistic but hopeful and defiant as we head into 2023. Like the pragmatic side character who’s with the hero till the bitter end.
(Also how else are we meant to judge your book in a sea of others, when there’s so many that picking one off the shelf or clicking on to see the blurb is a decision of itself??)
Summary: Just a little fluffy drabble as you and your boyfriend walk home from a dinner with your friends, taking a moment to appreciate all the change that lie ahead and all the things that will stay the same.
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A Nice Walk Home
You were busy clearing the table after dinner, just a little, even though waitstaff would take care of it. Still, you had been a server at one point, so you couldn’t physically tear yourself away from a table until you’d made sure all the napkins were in a pile for washing, all the chopstick papers and cheap disposables were together in a pile, any major spills had been mopped up. It was common courtesy. And anyway, when all of you got together, it was almost always a noisy mess coming and going, and the waitstaff shouldn’t have to endure the remnants of your group even once you’d gone.
Seokjin was still mid-sentence with Namjoon when his fingers took hold of your hips, as he leaned in close to whine, “Y/N… let’s go…”
“You can go on ahead.”
“You’re making the servers feel weird. Look, they’re waiting for us to get the hell out so they can do their job and go home. We tipped them well,” he insisted. “Come on, here’s your tip.” He kissed you quickly on the cheek and used that as an opportunity to tug you away from the table.
“I just used to wait tables and--”
“I know, I know!” he laughed. “I know all about every job you’ve ever had. But you don’t work here. They aren’t going to pay you, even if you hold your hands out and blink at them cute.”
Playful as you followed Jin and his friends out into the warm night, you held your hands out and blinked at him, just so.
He grinned and slipped his hand into yours, “Ok, here’s your payment, most precious thing in the world--”
“You’re a goose.”
“I hate when you call me a goose,” he immediately cried. “Any other bird would be acceptable. A swan! A crane! A heron!”
“Pigeon.”
“Rock dove,” he corrected.
“Are we naming birds?” Jungkook stopped ahead of you both to ask.
“Birds that remind me of Jin,” you answered.
“Stork.”
“Fucker--” Jin mumbled, taking a quick step forward as Jungkook laughed and turned at Taehyung’s nudge.
“What are those really big buff birds?” they heard Taehyung ask Jungkook quietly.
“Cassowary?” you helpfully called. “Or ostrich? I could see an ostrich.”
“Emu?”
“Those aren’t buff, just fluff.”
“I was going to walk you to my place,” Jin glared, “but now I think I’ll walk you to your own place.”
You laughed, having caught out his (unsurprising) plan, “Oh yeah? You’re doing me the favor of walking me to your place? Such a gentleman.”
“Mm-hm.” His straight-lipped smile, the one that made him look a little muppet-esque, melted you as always. “But not anymore--”
“Spoilsport.” You reached up to brush the swoosh of hair out of his eyes. It was getting long. This was the point he always debated whether to cut it. You were desperate for him to grow it out long, just once, to make your historic kdrama dreams come true in the vehicle of your boyfriend. But he got cranky about having to constantly toss his head to get it out of his face, and complained he couldn’t pull off headbands and hair clips like his friends. It was a lie; you knew, in fact, that he could put his hair into a ridiculous ponytail sprouting straight up from his head and look absurdly adorable. At playful times like that, it was impossible for you not to imagine him on the ground with your fictitious future children, attending a tea party, adorned with plastic jewelry and an ill-fitting princess dress and that sprout of hair. Jin was so playful, he’d be game for anything, he’d be such a good dad…
“Why are you staring at me?” he demanded, bumping solidly into you. Because your arms were linked, you only stumbled a little. “I know I’m handsome--”
Jungkook shouted over his shoulder, “Hyung, if you fall behind, I can’t protect you!”
It immediately set Jin off, shouting back, “Protect me! I don’t need your protection! You think because you dress like a black Crayon, you’re better to protect me? Remember who needed help in arm wrestling, it wasn’t me!”
“Ten years ago!”
He marched off ahead, still shouting playfully at Jungkook, who shouted back, until the two of them were basically slapping chests. Namjoon, Jimin, and their girlfriends had taken a different path through this park but could clearly still see and hear what was happening because they shouted and waved their arms, their laughter carrying on the clear night. You felt that pang in your belly, knowing noisy friendly evenings like this wouldn’t last forever. After the new year, Namjoon and his fiance were moving to the city. Jimin and his girlfriend were already talking about moving in together, but back near his parents, who were needing some support from their son these days. Jungkook had a job opportunity on a film in South America and he was an unstoppable rising sun --according to proud hyung Jin-- so probably that would lead to more opportunities. Taehyung was flirting with moving to Spain or Portugal or Italy, just for a while, just because he wanted something new.
Hoseok would still be here at least, and Yoongi. Would the two of them be enough of a friend group for your boyfriend? The very one who claimed to yearn for lazy days of isolation but then immediately dropped everything to figure out food when someone stopped by, or dragged you to someone’s house because there was the most minor thing to celebrate, or who sometimes lay awake at night reading the group chat? Not even responding, to be clear, just reading it and laughing at his friends until he’d find something they (or he himself) said that was so funny he had to read it to you, even though you were pretending to be asleep.
You were pulled more quickly towards him as the fighting broke off, Taehyung acting like the referee he rarely actually was. You slid your hands up Jin’s broad back before he could set the younger guys off again, pressing your face briefly to his shoulder, just for the comfort of contact. So much change for your little friend group, but Jin wasn’t going anywhere. Jin was happy with his job and happy with you and happy with where your lives took place. He’d promised these things were true when you’d voiced concerns before.
Without breaking off his playful threats, he took your hand from his waist and held it loosely in his own, dragging it along for his gesturing. Jungkook and Taehyung were laughing before they darted across the street without waiting for the light to change. Jin made you wait, maybe to follow the rules, or maybe so he could loop his arm around you.
“You saw that, right? I held back. We don’t need them to walk us home. You’re safer with me than you are with them. Drop something shiny on the ground and Jungkook’s attention is gone. A movement in a tree will have Taehyung chasing a cat that’s not even there.”
“I’ve never felt more safe than with my boyfriend who will run ahead and leave me alone in the park to play-fight with his friends.”
“Heeeeey,” he complained. He was breathing a little heavily after the fight, his neck a flushed. He pressed a kiss to your forehead, calming down from it now, sliding back from playful eldest of the friend group to responsible eldest, stable boyfriend, actual competent adult. You adored the multiple shades of Jin, that in a single day he could go from fluffy cloud pajamas to a menacing light blue button up and black slacks combo --top button alluringly undone and hair brushed back from his forehead-- and then back to plaid fleece pajama pants and a lavender shirt.
You crossed the street, still leaning heavily on his arm, and it was then he finally noticed and asked, “What are you being so soft for? Is something wrong?”
“Hm? No, nothing’s wrong. I’m just feeling soft about my boyfriend. Is that wrong?”
“Yeah, it’s suspicious! You’re not about to dump me or something. You’d better not. I have a meeting tomorrow, I can’t stay up crying all night and then my face will look puffy tomorrow--”
“The opposite, you idiot,” you sighed, shaking your head.
“The opposite--” He broke off, holding you immediately at arm’s length as he insisted, “If you propose marriage to me I will never forgive you.”
“What?!”
“That’s my job! I get to do that!”
Your ignored the pounding in your chest, because you had not really ever talked about this before, but chose the security of teasing him back, “Well you aren’t doing your job so--”
His grin was threatening. Terrifying. He was out to kill as he grinned,
“You don’t know what I’m doing or not doing.”
“What does that mean?” you immediately demanded. He continued to grin rather smugly to himself as he caught your arm again and propelled you forward.
“Nothing.”
“Are you… you’re… you’re planning something?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Your heart was running away with you though and it was leaving you breathless so you forced a stop. You planted your feet, even though it spun him around you in orbit as you demanded just as bluntly,
“You want to marry me?”
He looked at you with such a soft smile that you briefly considered melting at his feet. The answer was clear on his face, such a casual confession conveyed through that bright-eyed smile.
Then he lifted his hands to cradle your face and sighed, “I knew it was asking too much for you to be both beautiful and smart.”
“Seokjin!”
“Do you think I don’t notice everyone escaping? I have to make my plans to make sure you don’t escape me too,” he said. His hands dropped from your face but he caught yours and began to walk again with your fingers intertwined, his other tucked into his pocket. It was endearing, the way his ears were visibly red beneath the streetlights’ glow. He could act self-assured, but his ears never lied.
It took you a moment to find your voice again before you could assure him, “I’m not going to try and escape you. You don’t need a diamond to keep me. I’m already all yours.”
“Yeah, I didn’t get you a diamond--”
“You already bought a--”
“--It would just be jealous always of the diamonds in your eyes,” he grinned.
“You already bought a ring?” You didn’t even bother responding to the joke. You were too side-swiped to learn that all this time you thought you were going to have to be the one to start giving your boyfriend more pointed hints about where you saw your future going… he was already charting the course.
“You know why my shoulders are so big, jagiya?”
“Genetics?”
“Secrets. Because I am very good at keeping secrets. So stop pressing me. But don’t steal my thunder by asking me first, I’ll be really angry at you.”
You giggled about it. Maybe you frustrated him sometimes, or baffled him, but Seokjin was never angry with you. The closest he ever came to angry was dirty feet in bed, or food in bed, or that one time you’d used dish soap on his cast iron pan… but Seokjin’s anger tended to be righteous rather than personal, it wasn’t ever directed at you but at bigger people, ideas, or systems that deserved his actual cutting fury. You were safely protected from it, by it, within a soft inner circle of his arms around you. He never stayed mad at you for long. Even when you dyed a whole load of his white shirts pink. He just decided pink was his new favorite color and continued to wear them. Because Seokjin was a man who thought carefully about which battles were worth fighting, which punches were worth rolling with, and what sort of man he wanted to be. He was a very good one.
“My answer will be yes,” you whispered to him, leaning closer for a moment as you walked. The block was empty and quiet here; Taehyung and Jungkook had disappeared far ahead, maybe they were already even to their apartment down the row from yours.
You could feel Jin’s smile without even looking up at him as he leaned down close and whispered back, “This is why your shoulders are much narrower than mine, you’re really bad at keeping secrets.”
“Jin!” This time you did look up at him, mock outrage undermined by your smile. His jokes were paused though as he slid his arm around your waist and pulled you into him for a kiss. Nothing playful about the kiss this time. Usually he was a little more shy than this about kissing you in public, even on an empty street, but the pressure of his fingers against your waist and neck hinted at relief. Maybe he’d been nervous about his planning. Maybe he wasn’t sure you’d say yes. Maybe you weren’t the only beautiful idiot in this relationship.
So you kissed him back harder, wanting to erase any of his doubts or fears, kissed him until your own head spun and he sounded breathless as he mumbled,
“Let’s go home.”
“And put on pajamas?” you suggested, only the beginning of Jin’s endearing bedtime preparation routine. You had known it was serious with him when he started letting you pick pajamas to borrow from his stash of matched sets. Jin was the only adult you knew who actually owned and wore matching pajama sets.
His mouth near your ear made you shudder as he answered, “Eventually…”
How do you manage to write such realistic dialogue and genuinely funny moments? Lone Blue Egg was full of them, and I loved how easily JK rolled with Rana's weirdness. How easily they laughed during sex, how his mind processed things and how her mind processed things.
You did the same with Amended and so many others, it's just such fantastic and grounded writing that's easy to read and enjoy!
😭 Thank you so much, I'm really touched you enjoy it! I really enjoy writing humor into things, and I love writing dialogue.
I did coursework in college on playwrighting, screenwriting, and comedy sketch writing, both of which I think were really valuable to me in terms of pacing scenes and using dialogue to tell multiple levels of a story instead of relying on exposition. I love listening to the way people talk to each other, and really settling into the scene in my head. Sometimes I really just sit there and let it play in my head a little bit so i can think through the staging --who is where, who's saying what, what non-verbal cues are they giving.
OK here are the dialogue tips I can think of, because I actually had been thinking about this recently! I like writing about writing but I never know if it's helpful or patronizing to share tips haha. But since you asked!!!
The easiest tip I can think of for leveling up dialogue is: cut almost all the names. People don't actually say each other's names as much as I see in a lot of ff. It usually is either to get someone's attention or a make a point without words (you know, like a character says "Jungkook" and that emphasis means something, it's actually saying something else like 'come on.' Or 'baby' suddenly because you want something, etc.)
The second important thing is to remember as a writer that the characters don't know what the other one is going to say. Most people don't think about the best thing to say until hours later!!! Let characters react honestly to what they hear. Let them misunderstand. Let them ignore it because they're still trying to prove their point. Let them get frustrated and say the wrong thing.
And I think my last more advanced tip is: make the dialogue carry its weight. There should be a secondary reason the dialogue is there. What story is taking place beneath the things people are saying. what are we learning about the characters. What are they not saying. One of my FAVORITE thins to write in dialogue is when characters are actually having two differnet conversations but don't realize it --this happened in Lone Blue Egg and Amended, and I think it adds depth and can also add that comedy!
I'm so happy you enjoyed those kinds of scenes 🥰 And I hope this is useful to anyone who's asked about dialogue lately when I couldn't think of anything useful to suggest.
also another tip for writing realistic dialogue: every time you write dialogue, play the dialogue in your head. does it sound natural? does it sound like what a convo would sound like in real life?
also: don’t make your characters info-dump in dialogue! people don’t info-dump in real life; what they do is bounce off each other’s responses until they’re able to paint a full picture of what they’re discussing!
Reading it out loud is even better than playing it in your head! Althoguh I rarely read it out loud anymore, only if htere's a part that feels liek it's not quite right when I'm letting the scene play in my head.
True about the info-dumping too! ETA: I'll clarify what I think is meant here based on a comment that I think this specific info-dumping means you don't dedicate half the conversation to saying something you already know the other person in the conversation knows for the benefit of a readership audience. You might repeat pieces (and the othe rperson is like "I know! crazy!" or whatever)... there's a way to get background setting into a conversation but it's tricky and I'm sure we've all seen it done well and also not so well...
Hey Foxy, do you have any tips for writing. You're so dang prolific, idk how you do it. HOW DO YOU DO IT?! 😂
I should probably track these answers because I *love* talking about writing.
I did a first post months ago with some of my process and tips which might be interesting to you here.
But I'll add some new things too! Here are some other questions I've been lately here or in ao3 comments.
Q: How are you so prolific?
I don't let shit stop me. Our brains can throw up so many hurdles in the creative process, and you have to tell those hurdles to eat shit. Can't think of a word? I put ****WTFWORD*** in the sentence and keep going, I can find it later. Need to fact check something? I'll put **TRUE?** Need to research something? I view that as a totally protected and valuable step, and I carve time out and don't consider that "not writing."
So I ignore those hurdles and I just write. About whatever! About anything! Sometimes I'm like, waiting in line at the grocery story and it's like, "oh, wouldn't it be cute if two people were in line and they were bickering over the headlines" and then I just write that. There doesn't have to be a point, you're flexing your writing muscle. Writing for me is a lot of putting daydreams down on paper, even if they're just isolated blurbs or just fragments or conversation or whatever.
Q: How do you stay motivated?
Sometimes writing is chasing an inspiration and the words just flow freely. Other days writing is a sore muscle and you tell yourself you are going to write 500 words even if they're about nothing, even if you're probably going to throw them away. You have to figure out when is the right time to take a break and do something else, or when is the right time to put in some work, even if it's not easy that day. Depends what the outcome you're looking for is, but I can promise you there are chapters of my story that have been a struuuuuggle to write --and the irony is they often tend to be the ones people love the most in the end! Even though I hate them because I'm aware of what a struggle they were to write!
I also highly recommend music, candles, pinterest, and snacking. I personally eat baby carrots by the bag full since gum is bad for my teeth. The act of chewing makes your brain work. I keep pinterest open and will literally bounce back and forth just looking at pictures every couple of sentences sometimes. Not even necessarily related pictures! It just give my brain a moment to take a breath.
Q: How do you write such built out characters?
I find people fascinating, even when they're terrible. Be open to the fact that people are wonderful and annoying, generous and selfish, all at the same time. If you don't occasionally want to throttle your own character, you probably are writing a character very much like you --which is ok! But if you write a lot of characters, you're not going to get that variety. Everyone has their own opinions, their own habits others find annoying, their own biases, their own dreams, and their own justification for why they do what they do. I do not worry about writing "likeable" characters for readers, only whether i want the characters in the story to perceive someone as likeable or not (Pippa is a good example! JK did NOT find her likeable in the beginning but everyone else did! The way he and others viewed a habit of hers completely different is a good example of how differently people can respodn to the same stimulus.) My personal style is more just to let people make their own down mistakes and have their own stupid opinions and quirks. I also spend time thinking about things for my side characters too --I know their backgrounds, their family, their dreams, their struggles, etc. Maybe not to the degree of the main characters, but enough that they can naturally be consistent and have their own little progress arcs in a story.
Q: Any other tips for writing?
Consume everything you can get your hands onto, but never compare what you're creating to someone else. There is not just one kind of good cookies, MOST cookies are AMAZING, and even a bad cookie is usually better than no cookie.
Learn all the "rules" of writing but don't hesitate to break them when it feels right. "Write what you know" or "show don't tell" or even grammar rules. No one's style or process will be identical to yours and that's fine.
Maintain a careful balance of writing to where you think you're going but be flexible when the story changes course.
Worry more about emotional sincerity and purpose than physical details (in characters, settings, etc. You can use the atmosphere in a room to emphasize that a character is stressed or sad or happy, etc.) But make sure that your physical details and staging make sense and are consistent.
Don't judge your characters. Sure, be aware of where you and they may disagree. Be aware of where your readers may have an emotional or upset response. But if you're writing your characters from a place of judgement, you aren't going to let them live their story and the whole thing will feel like a moral lecture.
TRUST YOU READERS. This is a hard one, because I see all the discourse about how "people are stupid and they'll miss everything." Some readers are going to misunderstand your intentions. Some readers are going to draw wild conclusions you never dreamed of. Some readers are going to get really mad at the things your characters do. But as soon as you start talking down to your readers, or dumb down the emotions you're writing about, or overly spell out the connections you want them to make, you're just going to alienate them. If readers do get something very differently than what you expected and it's lingering, stop and get a sense of what misled them. Remember that readers aren't in your head, they don't know the invisible strings, so probably it means you just need to re-emphasize something, or have a character reflect on something, or a particular wording came across differently. So fix it! It's all good! Stories are alive. But don't assume your readers won't make a connection or see something coming, just because your characters have blinders on in the story; work with that to capitalize on reader response.
Q: What about quick tricks?
OK here are some very specific things I've done:
- Give your word document a background color so you aren't staring at a white page
- Sit in a weird place in your house you wouldn't normally sit, like on the floor in a corner of your kitchen
- You've heard of edging... try some WRITING edging. You know you want to write that scene. The emotions are right there. Your brain is going wild. Let your brain go wild a liiiittle longer before you actually sit down to write it out.
- Read your writing out loud. This will very quickly reveal awkward phrasing, forced dialogue, and typos.
Ok ok I think that is probably enough blathering for now. <3 hope any of this was worth your time to read!
If your characters could date someone from a different fic (example, Isabella/Lowlander!JK) which pairings do you think would ultimately work out best?
NO I carefully crafted each soul mate pair to only love each other!!
Ok ok, let me think.
Little Bean JK would have a crush on Mina but she'd only ever see him as a little brother.
Sasha would like Amended JK (she went through a phase where she thought she wanted to be an FBI agent)
Lowlander JK would not like Pippa at first until he saw her mad and then his interest would be piqued
Bronwen would like Little Bean JK a lot, major crush, I think they'd be decent equals. She'd probably do great with Yo-han too.
Dom would like Amended Jimin, I don't know, I just feel it.
Pippa would dig Marcus
Sugar Fairy JK would like Areum but she would not like him, I know that's not what you asked but it had to be said
Meadow JK might actually wind up liking Y/N from Sea of Indigo, but it would be a slow burn, I think even rougher than Sea of Indigo JK
SoI JK would click really well with Sasha once one or both of them are further along their healing paths; too early and they would be a disaster
These kinds of questions are funny to think about.
I might be annoying since a lot of people asked you about your writing skills, advice and etc. But does writing every day or at least few times a week helps with the ability to write stories? Like when I was at uni I wrote at least one short story per week and now after graduation all I do is working and all that free time I spent to just rest but I do want to write from time to time but I'm so afraid that I just can't do it anymore and when I compering me in the past and now I see that I used to have inspiration every day like anything would push me to make me sit and write and now without it I feel like I no longer have my hobby and my work is all I have. I'm asking this because I know you work yourself + being a mom takes a lot of your time and you still write a big ass chapters 😟
-🧟♀️
Yes, it definitely is like a muscle that gets stronger when you use it constantly. I took a few years off for various personal reasons and found myself certain I could never write again, never think of stories. Now I think of stories all day every day, because my mind is just in that mode, so it's like hungry for inspiration. I think it's also easier to throw up mental blocks when it's been a while --you doubt your ability, your process, your muse, whatever.
I still have weeks where it's like the words just stream out of me, and other weeks where it's like dragging myself on my elbows through Legos. But it's still easier to push myself through the bad weeks than starting cold, I found!
The other thing I'd say about getting on the bicycle too is: don't put any pressure on what you're writing. Just write whatever you. Your dreams, a scene, a dialogue, your train of thought. Fanfiction is awesome for this because it already gives you some blocks to build with. All of it is still useful for getting those wheels turning again!
I love writing questions, you're not annoying at all. I hope anything I say is helpful! 😘
How do you decide what you write and when? Like with your current fics, do you go round robin or do you have one that calls to you more than the others but have to put it aside to give even amounts of updates?
This is a timely question because right now I’m breaking my own rule 😅
I used to just write whatever I wanted. And it led to burn out on stories. I discovered that for me, writing the moment/scene I’m needing to get out when I need to get it out is important, but that novel writing is a marathon, not a sprint. When I started writing and posting last August, I made myself alternate unless I just NEEDED to get a scene down, but then I still made myself alternate before I finished that chapter. I think this worked really well for me because it forces me to take a step back from my work, shift gears, and then return to it with fresh eyes and inspiration a time later. And it keeps me from sitting around feeling bad if I’m stuck on a scene, or worrying too much that I’ll never get the inspiration back.
That said, if I really really am needing to get a particular scene or dialogue or moment written down, I do it. Sometimes my mind won’t let me rest or concentrate on anything else until I do. And if I’m struggling really hard with a scene or chapter, I let myself write a scene in another story that feels easier and then I come back. If people post a lot of comments that really inspire me on a story, it might pull me back to work on that story a little bit even if it’s out of order --that just happened with Amended and Lowlander, where I wrote half of Amended, but then people’s comments made me shift to Lowlander and I wrote the whole chapter, and now I’m back to finish Amended. But I actually have a scene in Little Bean and a chapter of Meadow to write before I’ll post the Lowlander update.
So it’s like a careful balance of chasing motivation but also directing that motivation and holding myself accountable. Sometimes the words flow freely and other times it’s real work forcing myself to get a chapter down!
