Haiii! Thank you hehe .///. The process of writing sunsea is really really long and I could write a while essay on it, but basically...

1) I started with the core idea (in this case it's "self-sacrifice", and "childhood friends to lovers") then thought of ways to expand it.

2) ☀️🌊 was based off of an original story I made for my own characters long ago. I thought of what I could change to fit bmjn and the "vibe" I want for the fic (in this case, bg being a doctor + yj being the king, healer/healing dynamic, royalty au, after war au).

3) I then made a mental list of things I want to see in the fic (tebin, som-ee, lots of worldbuilding, interesting coastal cities, etc). This took two years but I also added and let go of certain concepts and scenes along the way... A lot of testing in my head. Lots of daydreaming!

4) For worldbuilding, I honestly just did a lot of research based on what I already know about the world I want to make (1920s, post war, magical realism w/ souls). I also created the world based on what I already know from the cultures and religions I either learned or grew up with. For example, the handling of souls after death in ☀️🌊 is similar to that of Sikhism's beliefs, some funeral + festive traditions inspired by my own Chinese upbringing, history of Jangguk inspired by the Edo period, Edelweiss referencing Pagan traditions, etc... ☀️🌊's world is so different from ours, so I took time to try and see how their beliefs would've been formed, from their perspective and historical context as well.

5) When it came to writing, I wrote the chapters that'd give me context for the other chapters first (in ☀️🌊's case, it's the two interludes, and then the first two chapters). Doing so allowed me to add and mention details across chapters easily...

6) Then I just wrote the rest chapter by chapter and prayed for the very best :>

But that's about it! I think I'd yapped a little too close to the sun, but I hope this has been insightful. Have a nice day, passerby! Thank you for the question :>