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

[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

[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.

=^..^=~

[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

[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