you’re the sixth person who guessed it was me ahead of reveals…. am i that obvious? 😭 aaaaa thank you so much. it amazes me knowing you carved out space in your schedule just to read voyagers. at the same time it’s reassuring. being a fic that took years of wild revisions and self-scrutiny to create, it rightfully fell into the gentle and patient hands of someone like you who appreciated its every word… thank u thank u. i can’t promise yet when the next chapter will come along, but i do hope you will still be here to catch it when it does.

now, on writing. it honors me that my work makes you want to start making your own, and at the same time it’s a lil fascinating bc that is exactly the answer i have to your question: my writing today is made of echoes of those who came before me. explaining this practically, it’s been said it before and i’ll say it again: to become a writer, writing is half the work. the other half is reading. i read as an active task, consciously observing the author’s words on the page and asking questions—what do i like about it? what don’t i like? what can i “steal” from this, i.e. re-interpret to express my own ideas? what about it inspires me? the craft is a neverending conversation between writers and the world and themselves, always evolving. and another thing that may have molded me is that i practice other genres too. though fiction is where i started, i have pretty strong backgrounds in nonfiction and poetry. i flit between all of them. reading and writing other genres frees the mind from any imaginary limitations, exposing it to inventive structures and eccentric modes of thinking. often, even, it dares me to experiment by blurring the lines between those genres! and fanfiction is just my playground for linguistic experimentation, and it’s really fun when i know what im doing haha. i have so many fave essays and short stories these days, i’d be happy to recommend some if you want.

though you also mention the idea of inspiration and feeling motivated. for that i can’t give you a surefire solution, because i am not you. on my end, i suppose the reason why my writing, as you’ve said, “moves” others is because they are born from ideas that move me. my inspiration is sourced mainly from the umbrellas of grief and love, though im a rather emotional person, so a lot of things tend to move me. but when something tugs at my heartstrings just right, whether it be an irl event/a song/a memory/something a stranger did/a fleeting thought, i know there’s a story in there somewhere. my only role then is to channel that energy into the right form with the right words, and communicate it so that others understand why it’s relevant, and why it moved me at all. i guess that’s all i can say. find what moves you.

if you have any more questions about voyagers or writing in general, feel free to send them over. thank you again, sweet anon 🩷💐

waaah thanku so much anon!!! 🥹🩷 sorry for the late reply, i think im currently going through the motions of post-writing crash out. after 6 months of drafting, editing, rewriting, scrapping, crying etc. i finally submitted the piece… so. now what? LOL but just to manage ppl’s expectations: it’s a wip, and may stay a wip for a very long time.

the past 6 months only account for the writing part of the process—it took almost 5 years of conceptualization and maladaptively daydreaming about this story before i found it in me to write it!! yes, since 2021!!! pandemic times!!!!

though, actually, those 5 years weren’t exclusively intangible. this piece has been through many—and i mean MANY—incarnated drafts, rip to those that were scrapped ❤️‍🩹 but as time went on, those incarnations got tighter and tighter all until i felt that profound spark: yes, This is the right perspective + approach to express the tale, This will do it justice. shoutout to the vkook fest mods for the divine timing of the fest whoop whoop ✨

so yes. bc i hate outlines, my pantsing writer’s ass is to credit/blame for what the story has become. and ask my betas, they know very well that this “final” incarnation of the story went through countless micro-deaths and rebirths from within. that kill-your-darlings cycle, i suppose, is the foundation of my process as a writer, and it hurts to do that again and again 😭im not exaggerating when i say that my dump has nearly 100k words’ worth of raw ideas and fully fleshed-out scenes that will never see the light of day (unless some readers want them as "bloopers" :p). it doesn’t help that i’m a slow writer—it’d take 1 full day for me to write 800-1000 words, only for me to dump them all when i realize it’s not quite the direction/tone/voice i want the story to take.

this is torture, but this is also the craft. big sigh!!!

as for my favorite part, it was probably the smut. not just for its indulgence, but the sheer art of how i cannot simply write it in one go. those scenes somehow build themselves, yet at the same time go through waves and waves of edits and rewrites and fine-tuning to achieve that palpable, almost-musical cadence and rhythm in the words. ngl it got super exhausting tho, my brain was fried looking up synonyms for the word moan + cross-referencing other masterful smut scenes, studying their structures to create my own 😵‍💫

anyway, i’m really looking forward to when it gets published ^^ thank u again anon for the question, much love 💐💞

waaaah thank you my dear 🫂🥺 as a slow writer, sometimes i can't help but feel a lil insecure bc, while i've been writing fics since 2020, i don't have much to show for at the moment other than ordinary nights and alapaap! (only one of them being a finished work). i'm so very grateful that you still see the value in what little i have to offer :`) and don't get me wrong, i have gone out of my way and wrote silly, sweet, & lighthearted aus here and there. but there's just a different catharsis and fulfillment i feel when crafting stories like alapaap!, ordinary nights, and [REDACTED]--they're heavier to work through, thus they need more time. (don't even get me started on the other wips i have in the backburner that share the same gravity!!!)

i thank u for ur presence and patience. much loveee 💐🩷