first: oh my god do not pay someone please find someone in it for the love of the game like a friend or a mutual that you know is really into a ship/trope the same way you are so you can go buckwild. like, i have paid people/offered to pay people but it's because i had a relationship with them and was like hey can i send you $ for coffee/little treat money as a thank you. alternatively, i think that there are people who donate their time/services via FTH and you can bid on people via FTH as well, if you really feel moved to exchange money for services.

my #1 suggestion is to find your sicko friend that you bounce all of your ideas off of and ask if they can read your draft for you. if you're in a new fandom or don't have a lot of friends in your fandom—and this is really scary for some people—message a writer that you really admire and be like hey, i really like the way you write and if you'd be interested, i would love for you to read this thing for me. and if that fails, well like. idk you could message me because i'm not doing anything with my life until august.

for a relationship to be good, i personally feel that you need to have a conversation on what the expectations are: tl;dr are you, the writer, looking for a cheerleader? or do you want someone to red pen?

be upfront with what you're sending this person. i.e. what are the important content notes to know before going into this?

tell them what you're looking for: basic spelling/grammar/clarity reading? do you want feedback? do you need help with a certain plot point or picking apart characterization? do you need a second brain for a specific research thing that's been tripping you up? (my favorite thing.)

send them the doc in a shareable link: google docs, proton docs, ellipsus, whatever. my god, do not share your ao3 login with them. my recommendation is that you do not let them make hard edits but you toggle suggestion mode to on.

once that's in their hands, let them know what your turnaround is if you have one. if you're trying to make a fest deadline, let them know. if you're like me and just need someone to tell you that it makes sense before posting (and you want to post in the next few hours), let them know this too but give them some lead time!

when the edits come back to you, you can decide what you want to keep, or you can discuss some of the notes. then you post. yay!

surprisingly less than i thought i did?? i tend to be pickier about celeb adjacent AUs but here are the ones i had bookmarked/had off the top of my head:

happiest moment (svt, chancheol) https://archiveofourown.org/works/44401936

theatre actors au, shinee; svt; pentagon — genuinely i think this fic universe has some of my favorite worldbuilding in kpop fic that feels so natural and holistic and if you've ever wanted to know what entertainment feels like, this fic captures it so well. like god. https://archiveofourown.org/series/2285042

tell me what’s the perfect time (svt, gyuhancheol) — cannot believe op has never seen challengers (or hadn't when i commented last year) because this is everything i wanted from a challengers-flavored throuple. https://archiveofourown.org/works/64132936/chapters/164561938

it all gets tangled up inside (svt, seokgyu) https://archiveofourown.org/works/40416252/chapters/101245668

between the motion and the act (capri) — this fic and the media that inspired it inspired a verhao wip that i've been sitting on for about two years, and i just think about this damen A LOT. the worldbuilding!!! the dialogue!!! fuck!!!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/10649835

come home to my heart (svt, gyuhao) — this is one of my favorite svt fics of all-time https://archiveofourown.org/works/14567412/chapters/33661257

i’ve also been poking at this, thinking about extending it because i want to write a convention au so bad…. https://radiosignal.dreamwidth.org/5286.html

1) fic that is my pride and joy:

forever is a feeling (like i could retire right now and be happy about it. 48k words, dude. holy shit) and maybe closer than we’ve ever been? the things i like the most about other people’s fics are present here, in the humor, the background characters and relationships, people having whole and fulfilled lives outside of their romance. i hate rereading my own fics but sharing my writing over the last few years, these are the ones i feel the most confident in.

7) a fic that you didn’t expect to be popular:

my most read fic is still dk/scoups boyfriend for hire, and dk/scoups is one of the rarest rare pairs. every so often someone will find it and comment which makes me so happy, but it also reminds me that it’s time to go back to writing rare pairs.

also jeonghan/yuta still makes me giggle. what if we were two sex pests fucking in the inki bathroom

5) do you use a beta reader?

orwyn #1 cheerleader aside, lately i don't and i think it's pretty evidently to my detriment. however, my criteria for beta reading is that they need to understand my intent, writing style, and not be afraid to tear the bitch (my draft) to shreds. i've also gotten significantly more impatient so the thought of waiting on someone to read the fic before i'm free of it makes me feel evil.

that being said, i am in the market for a new beta reader bc everyone is booked and busy (has a "job" and "cannot take time" to "read my kpop yaoi")

8) what wip are you most excited about?

i think the ones i want to be completed the most are the spirited away AU, negative space remix, and infidelity fic. i also recently saw obsession and just finished reading the script, and i really want to try my hand at writing horror like that.....

12) would you ever accept requests or commissions?

the short answer is that i don't do commissions.

the long answer is:
i cannot follow through on requests or commissions because that is not how i operate creatively, and i still have three outstanding charity commissions to write at this time - all now years late. however, i have had people message me with ideas and let me go back and forth with them on things that have developed into fics - that, i'm usually open to. like i think the best fic is collaborative or for the writer and their 5 sicko friends.

my hottest take is that not everyone is on the team some of them just root for them okay let's go

scoups: i've written him as both, but tbh, i do see him more as a mary jane watson/lana lang than an outright hero. he's still very important, but he's behind the scenes and boosting morale. he would be the friend who somehow wakes up with the hero's powers and get a little evil.
jeonghan: villain is so trite... i've also written him as both, but i do think he'd excel in a hero setting. but like, early hero, before his back is against the wall. think like s1 barry allen, raimiverse spider-man. nothing so earnest, but he'd be actively running away from it. alternative thought is a canary. (i have Thoughts about jihan as the canaries.)
joshua: betty cooper serial killer gene himself is a villain, specifically to the tune of eli ever from the villains series by ve schwab.
woozi: green arrow.
wonwoo: he's the friend who is the last to know what's happening. not even the guy in the chair, he's just the guy who everyone knows and is like. what are you all talking about.
hoshi: bombastic hero or minor villain, there is no in between. i have written hoshi as a hero, and i've written wonwoo as a villain, and i think that those two in particular play off each other in a way that would be fun and fascinating, but tbh hoshi's the in-universe "my cabbages!" cart guy
jun: well-meaning and kind of sinister benefactor. no one knows his intentions but him.
dk: my dream role for him in my mind palace - and is something that i am actively drafting right now - is the pissed off best friend of the hero who becomes their biggest adversary. he's the harry osborn/lex luthor/everything about you pisses me off and you rejected me and i don't know if i want you or want to be you and have everything you have more. i'm really crazy about this ask me how
mingyu: he's either very rich guy with too much time and technology a la ray palmer/tony stark, or he's like. someone's watchtower. really big into strategy, this one. too pure for this world, good, also if ever made evil, would be unstoppable.
minghao: someone's pissed off partner. like i think he would be fun to give powers but do nothing with because it would only complicate his life more, and the few times he has done things, people expect things from him.
seungkwan: villain. debate your mom.
vernon: he has no idea what is going on but he does get saved while on public transit. alternatively, he's the ganke/ned leeds.
dino: and say this with me: CORRUPTION ARC. i just finished a book about a henchman temp agency (it's called "hench" and it's kind of hamfisted at points, but very good!) and i think that he would be swayed by the promise of benefits (there are none) and get too attached to the "meat" (the muscle). i think his ambition and ability to be a chameleon would serve him well.

i am trying to find where i said this oh my god sldghdkgfhds first of all wherever you found me saying this thank you i do in fact say shit like this because i do want people to ask me about it and then i get to evaluate my intent and i don't think i did it well here but. we move!

there are... a lot of ways to approach this and i have been typing for what feels like an hour but i think that the important things are this:

• i, infrequency, do not believe that monogamy is practical in an idolverse setting. so i don't write it. there are versions of jeongcheol i have written where something close to it exists, but i don't think it's "smart" or "practical" to tie yourself down to one person for any of your relationship needs, least of all one of your coworkers. it's also a plausible deniability thing, because if you're that way with everyone in some way, then who's gonna notice. moving on.

• but seungcheol does play favorites, and he's been pretty vocal about how if he was a carat, he'd gravitate towards jeonghan initially for looks, then mingyu. guy who will not let you forget that he likes boys.

• both versions of jeongcheol are in some sort of vague, undefined relationship that other members know is Their Thing (canon, to me) and give them a wide berth. mingyu does cross that line, though, because he's been there since day one (real, canon) and Gets them. also like, whatever the hell mingyu and jeonghan have going on is so weird. please look up the live where gyuhan roleplay a breakup. and jeonghan is out to dinner with his family. it's so weird. no one asked them to do all that.

• young gods is very specifically about approaching a FinDom relationship. pavlove is general D/s but also an extended dog joke. (more on that here: https://infrequencies.dreamwidth.org/68590.html)

the first bedroom scene in pavlove is the same bedroom scene in young gods, but the approach, dialogue, and intention are different. the base occurrence is the same. there's a line about jeonghan taking his wallet that gets skimmed over in pavlove, but it's not the focal point of the fic.

in my worm brain, they're the same because both fics start after that insane gyuhancheol live where mingyu and jeonghan perv out over scoups being shirtless. as a non-carat, i'm throwing a lot of "this is a thing that happened btw" at you and sorry but like. they're literally Unwell about each other. choose a pairing for this group and you can probably find something deranged about them.

so like tl;dr is it an "au" technically yes, is it more of a remix or self-reference, also yes. did i actually just take one scene from a fic and use it as a base for another while blocked to see where it goes. maybe so