Weekly Fic Discussion

[lachrymosy]

Weekly Fic Discussion

Welcome again to kpop_fic! It's so so exciting to see so many different people joining in this community and sharing fics!

One idea arundels and I also had for this community was to have some regular discussion posts so that people have a chance to chat. So, here is our first Weekly Fic Discussion post!

This post can be used for any kind of fic discussion you want, but will also have a few prompt questions each week. We'll try to target both writers and readers with the prompt questions. You can reply to all of them, one of them, or none of them if you have something else you want to talk about!

Feel free to post WIP snippets, ask others' opinion on characterization, share a clip that has broken your brain, etc.!

This week's prompt questions:

• How did you get into reading/writing K-pop RPF?


• What is your platonic ideal of a K-pop fic (e.g. the elements you usually gravitate towards)?

Comments

[lachrymosy]

YUN MY FRIEND I'm so happy to see you here <3 Also dying because I did not know about your Donghae/OC fic or your self-insert OCs hahahaha please send it to me, I WILL ask you about it!

Cries I remember the LJ days so fondly. The heyday of kpop_het, leading directly into the creation of Team P and the dumpster fire that was our infictions project (hey maybe we should post that here!! lololol) are some beautiful fandom memories to me.

"I just think of my fics as movies where the idols are the actors!"—honestly I see this in your fics and I think you handle it so beautifully! The thing is when I read your AUs they always feel, idk, true in some meaningful sense? Always looking forward to more fic from you!

[lachrymosy]

omg I also love an mv-based fic! Given all the kinds of amazing AUs that kpop mvs in particular set up and then fail to deliver on (Got7's Hard Carry series, looking at you...) I think there's so much to explore and just sort of keep that movie in your head playing!

[lachrymosy]

ALLYYYYYYY ok obv I knew about the 2NE1 origin story, and I knew you were a fan of 1D, but I don't think I knew 1D was directly responsible for the rise of AO3 user saturnalyia! We all benefit as readers now because that band broke up and sent you to kpop hahaha!

Reading your platonic ideal of a fic description, I totally understand how we became friends via AO3 comments actually haha. I feel like what we look for in fic isn't identical but it's really adjacent and complementary? I feel like where you're looking for "intimacy but not the kind of intimacy we want," I'm often at more of a place of "intimacy but it's hollow or impossible to have." Maybe this is part of why we really enjoy each other's fic even when we have different focuses!

PACRIM AU PACRIM AU PACRIM AU literally just waiting for all your fic hehe!

[bookishdagger]

I actually had a resistance to reading/writing rpf for a very long time, mostly because I didn't understand it as separate from tinhatting, which I still do feel vaguely uncomfortable with (not to say what other people's boundaries should be just--that's a boundary that I have with myself). I got into kpop rpf through twitter aus from BTS accounts I followed for jin content at first lol, then progressed to reading actual fic from there! It took a while from then (late 2019) for me to start writing though, I didn't start writing fic until last fall.
I think the thing that draws me to a fic most of all is characterization/character dynamics. I really like fics where a lot of thought has been put into the world and how the characters fit into it, whether that be idolverse or a really well-crafted fantasy/scifi au or even just hyperspecific industry aus (baking! fashion! in a band but not a kpop band!). I don't like things that are /too/ bleak or /too/ mean, I'm a romantic at heart and I want to believe things will turn out okay in the end lol....
Also, this is more group-specific, but any fic that explores Joshua/Vernon/Minghao/Jun feelings about home and where is home anyways and who am I etc etc.....catnip to me always.
Oh! I think I'm drawn to stories that are tonally pretty upbeat and humorous, lots of ensemble antics, but also thematically rich and not afraid to get deep/emotional/sad

[moriendum]

first of all, love reading the comments here, not only for the RPF journeys but for the chance to see what everyone likes in fic <3 I can relate to so much of it!

I've been aware of fic since forever thanks to the harry potter fics I used to read as kid, so I think I just sort of accepted fic as part of any fandom experience? I can't remember if I ever had any issues with RPF; as soon as I got into suju in 2010, I started reading/writing kpop fic. my asianfanfics account was created in jan/2011, and I was using LJ and language-specific fic sites during that time too.

as for the ideal kpop fic, the appeal of RPF to me is characterization, so characterization that's based on what we know about the person is my favorite thing. I'll never get tired of canonverse because it tends to incorporate some stuff I love: found family, friends to lovers, self-discovery, roommates/living together, angst... but I love a good AU too, especially vampire AU and media fusion. (give me all the MV/book/movie-inspired fics!!!)

[nagi_schwarz]

Some K-pop MVs have such cool sci-fi stories. I love a good MV-inspired fic for reals.

[nagi_schwarz]

I think the tricky thing about canon fics and characterization is different writers have varying levels of engagement with canon, so stuff that seems obvious to me about a character may totally be unknown to another writer who has seen different content.

[nagi_schwarz]

I love book and movie fusion AUs! Also I am with you on characterization and seeing how people interpret what bits of “canon” they’ve seen or watched heard.

[andersenmom]

Exactly. And the fact that it's so fast because it's intense. I seriously love it.

And how they go from "you are my enemy" to "you're my teammate" - it takes a special sort of person who can do that.

[andersenmom]

I think part of it, too, was that there were so many of us in one place, where we felt safe, and a place set up for this sort of community. I never felt any sort of community at ff.net; there was no way to BE a community, just a bunch of people writing fan fiction.

[tullycat]

AO3 is down still so I can't actually link them, however, if you go to the omega x tag there should be some canon omegaverse by sinchun, where omega x are being marketed as omegas but in reality, only one of them is. So they have to learn to be omegas on screen, which was a very fascinating exercise in world building for me!

[blackcatofmisery]

I honestly can't remember how I got into writing Kpop RPF. I know I was listening to Kpop, just as music, for a while before delving into fandom. It may have been a friend who was also into Kpop and wrote fic, and once I started reading theirs I wanted to write my own, and from the groups my friend wrote I kinda branched out on my own...

But I really don't know. It's been too long, and my memory doesn't go that far back. Just know I'm here, back again, after many months of general "blah" and listening to metal and jazz.

Browsing replies here, though, I noticed a few who approach RPF cautiously. These are real people with real lives, obviously, and they deserve respect. I don't think I've appreciated that until seeing how some people will seem to stake a claims on the idols' lives, really treating them like a video game character or doll. Those negative instances are what have made me fall back from Kpop as a fandom. It was just so obvious to me that what I read or come up with myself has no bearing at all on the idol it's borrowing an image from.

So kinda in that vein, I prefer AUs. More distinction between the fact and fantasy, maybe. That said, regardless of setting, I am a sucker for simple slice-of-life stories. No fuss, no muss. Going shopping? Fantastic. Joining up with buddies for a meal? Better describe that food. Being an antisocial slob for a weekend and not leaving the house? Ideal. 👌 I like happy, or at least hopeful endings.

=^..^=~

[blackcatofmisery]

It's great how so many of us have friends to thank for getting into Kpop. _{Sometimes I dunno if I should thank them or curse them, though... I never expected to have so many ~*~feelings~*~ for these groups. ;w;}

I'm with you on characterization in fic, and I know I hold back from contributing to a fandom if I'm not familiar with the members' characters. What really tickles my pickle, though, is when a writer can take someone like Dongmin, for example, and put them in a situation that would usually throw them off yet still handle it and even flourish. Overcoming personal obstacles or fears in a way that makes sense.

=^..^=~

[nagi_schwarz]

I absolutely appreciate an author who can have a character change and grow in new and unexpected ways over the course of a story. If the author had set up Dongmin’s character growth before the haunted house, I would love to see him brave up and take the lead, but without that development it would just seem OOC to me.

[blackcatofmisery]

I honestly had to Google tinhatting, and I can understand the nerves with it. There's a delicate approach; I think with fic, there's no product to sell or money to make, but with media like TV, they are selling a product or service using misleading imagery (that's also of a marginalized community of people). That ain't cool.

hyperspecific industry aus (baking! fashion! in a band but not a kpop band!) 😘👌 I love when it's obvious that the writer has experience with the industry they're writing. It adds depth. Really cements the setting for the action.

=^..^=~

[blackcatofmisery]

I totally agree. Take the time to set it up, and the effort will pay off with a richer (and more enjoyable to read) characterization. ☆

[moriendum]

omg yes! I love seeing authors interpret small "canon" things/perceived traits in their particular way and incorporate that into a story <3 like the example you gave in your comment - scaredy-cat member being a scaredy-cat in a fic would already pique my interest, but how that works in a specific situation and what that entails is entirely up to the author, and that's a lot of fun.

[jonquilles]

Very true- I've definitely run into that with some of the groups I'm into, where members who are really big personalities on variety shows or performing are actually pretty quiet or introverted outside of those situations!

[aceaceaceace]

Oooh, that does sound like an interesting premise! I will look it up, thank you!

[arundels]

haha the 1D pipeline has fed a lot of currently-active fandoms, I suspect! I got into 1D rpf via Ziam, which of course got extremely dramatic and upsetting after Zayn left... but I also read a lot of Lirry (Liam/Harry) and Lilo (Liam/Louis). Liam was honestly so fascinating to me in an rpf sense because he had such obvious and deep-seated insecurities that he tried to cover up with way too much bravado; unfortunately all of those are really coming to the fore now and he is... [no comment]

[arundels]

haha that domino meme with "simon cowell forms one direction" all the way to "faking it" sjdjlskf

Your comment on our adjacent fic tastes is so interesting! I completely agree that it's really similar but not identical, which gives us loads to talk about. In a way I feel like maybe there's a slight tone / focus difference between what we like as well - in both cases there's that distance from the One True Intimacy but I'm obsessed with all the intimacy that the characters do have and how close they're getting, whereas you focus is on that final distance that just can't be bridged? All different ways of looking at the same thing perhaps!

God don't remind me about pacrim au I need to finish my fest fics so I can go back to it... I told you think on discord but I re-read it yesterday and got the end of the stuff I'd wrote and it was like, WHERE IS THE REST OF IT OP except I'm OP

[arundels]

You being cautious about rpf because of tinhatting is funny because I definitely got into rpf via tinhatting and overanalysed videos of the 1D boys... and then I got into fic and it was like, well this is more interesting if you think about them as characters, isn't it? It seems from this post and the comments that a lot of rpf writers end up falling into this latter category of treating it less as Real Person and more as Fiction! (or maybe just the kinds have dreamwidth journals... self-selection perhaps...)

Ahh hyperspecific industry aus I love them!! Honestly "setting as a character" is one of my fave things.

Feelings about where home is... As a person who has moved halfway across the world from where I grew up... Yes... Though in a way I find this makes it difficult for me to read or write about those topics in rpf - it makes me feel too many things and it's so personal that if it's not represented in exactly the way I experience it, it feels jarring. But maybe I just need to process my feelings about it more haha. If you ever wanna share your thoughts with me about this please do <3

Ensemble antics are also such a great thing - we need more gen fic where it's just "the characters do some goofy shit" haha

[thistidalwave]

hahaha, omg mood! I've always been a rare pair shipper and also a niall girl, but my corner of fandom was lilo-heavy and i really liked liam for those reasons as well...... Unfortunate

[bookishdagger]

haha yeah I definitely think there are some people for whom rpf is more akin to speculation/can get conspiratorial etc but the circles I run in are very conscious that it's all for fun which is where I like to be!!!

Yeahhh I am not an immigrant myself but in recent years, both because of family stuff and also just getting older I've been thinking a lot more about my parents as immigrants, and about how life-disrupting it really is to move away from home....also part of what drew me to biasing Joshua in the first place but that's a conversation for dms if you want to hear me ramble about that haha

AGREEEED about ensemble antics...esp for svt!!! i wanna see my silly goofy guys being silly and goofy!!

[arundels]

100% agree about your approach to rpf, tbh it's so much more freeing and fun not to take it too seriously. if you're not trying to "find out the truth" you can just explore whatever dynamics are interesting or compelling at any one moment

and I def wanna hear abt it feel free to dm me on twt / we can exchange discords if you want :) the thing about joshua is that he can hold so many immigrant experiences inside him... being an asian american and then moving away from home to become an immigrant on his own... sir are you trying to collect em all with the immigrant experience