Hi dear anon! Not weird at all and I'm happy you messaged me! That fic sounds delicious, and tbh I understand your fear--and have felt it before. I had written 70% of Pathology before I started posting it and for the first three weeks, from my twt account with 1 follower (my irl best friend not in skz fandom), it had zero twt interactions. And I mean not even a view on the post, which I didn't care about except I was hoping that might lead to someone reading the thing I made that I was proud of! Then, I linked my twt post in the author's note of chapter 3 within the fic, and some super kind people shared it on twt, which led to more people following me and reading it. So the short answer is: make sure you link your promo post in your author's notes, as twt is a good place for people to easily share fics they've enjoyed by finding new authors through the tags on ao3. Secondly, you can try to tag thoroughly (with 'canon' tags) since lots of people search for fic on ao3 through tags these days! I am Bad at this second thing, but have heard it helps!

The rest of this is just my thoughts on the "write for yourself" thing, so feel free to skip:
I think the "write for yourself" convo sometimes gets taken to one extreme or the other within fandom, and the truth for me lies somwhere in between. On one hand, YES you should be your own target audience, and by writing for fandom we accept a certain 'risk' that our writing may not be for others, who are not obligated to read or comment on it, and so it might not be read or commented on. It's hard to say what "the fandom" might enjoy because it's made up of so many different people! Who like different things!! BUT on the other hand, you want something you put time and effort into to get feedback, because ofc you wrote it for yourself but you POSTED it for interaction, and community, which is what fandom IS! Sometimes, when the target audience of your writing is you (which I stand by 100%), that can mean a lot of people relate and like it, or that not as many people relate and like it. That's the problem with us liking very specific and sometimes disparate things.

In addition to all of that, there is sometimes VERY little correlation between the amount of feedback a fic gets and the 'quality' of that work (whatever that means..... all fandom work is valuable, and popular works must be popular for a reason, but i have dnf'd a few Big Popular fics due to not vibing with the writing, for example, and ADORE and would DIE for fics that don't have very many comments even though they are exquisitely written imo and deserve more praise). I would say another tip is to def focus on the quality of the feedback and not the amount? Alas, this is another part and parcel of being in fandom, which as authors we have to accept as well.

So in conclusion: I don't have one! I try very hard to divest myself of checking 'numbers' because tbh the content of comments matter more to me than anything in the world, but I understand someone thinking "okay well if 2 kudos is a lot and im supposed to imagine 2 lee minhos THEN 10 LEE MINHOS would be EVEN BETTER" because that someone is sometimes me!! I wish you the bestttt of luck regardless and I hope some part of this rant helped at all!

Dearest momo my beloved,
First off, am honored you enjoyed that fic enough to re-read it. I love you for that, and I am deeply honored. It is long af and that means the world to me.
Secondly! Yes, basically he had struggled with his 'control issues' being seen as bad (told to him in film school, by his jealous/more experienced peers, by his mentors) and so naturally came to the realization that those extended to sex with a mindset already predisposed to think of them badly. He was scared to admit to them at all, and guilty from the get-go (this is also partially inspired by talking to non-bdsm knowledgeable people in my life who see bdsm as inherently bad. it's easy to forget in a fandom space but i interact with a lot of people who think that no one "healthy" wants to be hit, for example, and no one "loving" wants to hit someone. So I took our more conservative societal notions and in the hyper-conservative omegaverse world of Star-Studded, that would be amped up even more. Enter Chan and his partner. They were in a relationship; it was the only verging-on-serious one Chan ever ventured into before Felix. He's slooooowly considering letting his guard down, admitting to a deep, dark, possibly evil(? he thinks) want, to see how it will be received.... and his partner was SCARED of him. He brought it up in conversation, I picture him as suuuper nervous and fidgety and psyching himself up to reveal this tender, guarded part of himself, and she lashed out. For Chan, if she'd been angry that would have been better almost, but to SCARE her...? She made him feel awful and like he should be ashamed, should have been too ashamed to even admit it to her. So naturally Chan retreated, apologized profusely, she broke up with him for it and it cemented to him just how horrible a person he inherently was. Scarred him for a.... long time...... NOT forever :) Happily :))))

HAI DEAR ANON YOU ARE SO KIND AND SWEET TO ME HOW WONDERFUL thank you!!! okay so i'm going to reply to this on twt with a couple of screenshots of my current scrivener set-up for writing my current longfic, but tbh it used to be one word doc called "MASTERPOST" that had blurbs about each character traits/arcs, then blurbs about the relationship traits/arcs, and finally a bunch of random scenes/moments i wanted to remember to include! I usually start with a setting + character dynamics, and then develop a vague plot arc and work towards it as I go. i make a point of giving each character an arc even if it's (in the case of star-studded, a previous longfic of mine) "learns to center himself in the narrative but without selfishness" for seungmin/ or "learns to accept his wants/his love" for chan/or "learns he is so lovable/loved" for jisung, like small/simple arcs most of the time. I do make sure all the plot threads are written out somewhere clearly ehe so that I remember and can bring them up/bring them back at key moments! anyway i hope this is helpful, if I'm not being clear pls feel free to ask me to clarify!

hiiii beloved!!! i LOVE your chanlix questions thank you so much for asking them--they totally do and it's usually chan punishing felix (which, granted, felix asks for) because felix is a bit of a brat. he'll initiate teasing him in public, utilize 'daddy' as a carefully placed weapon to goad and provoke him, and chan is initially a bit hesitant to spank him.... but ooooh when he realizes how much felix loves it.... and then he realizes how much HE loves it... knowing it gives felix pleasure is insane and the hit is SO satisfying. he puts felix over his lap to do it but doesn't let him come until it's on his cock, spanking the brat out of him while felix whimpers and sobs and thanks daddy for it, begs him to fuck him after the next one, please, just one more and then please can he have daddy's cock he's sorry, he'll be good next time he'll behave thank you daddy, yes daddy

hi dear anon!!! oh gosh you are so sweet, sorry this reply is so late alterspring was broken!!! I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter of cafe divine if you had time to read it yet!

re: hyunibini, as im SURE YOU KNOW I am deeply insane about them and I loooove love reading about them. fave fics in no particular order are below!
- collision by spearbreaker (mind the tags!) is a stalker!au that has my whole entire heart i am SO obsessed with it https://archiveofourown.org/works/61958281
- moderation by thereisareality is uh another stalker au I PROMISE I KNOW OTHER TROPES by it's SO well done am also deeply obsessed with it https://archiveofourown.org/works/56107447
- the long game by ockleibi is a classic college au that i adore https://archiveofourown.org/works/50714953/chapters/128112532 (unfinished for now but so worth reading anyway)
- ...is this normal? by ockleibi is dub-con pwp about a waxing appointment but LISTEN I LOVE IT SO MUCH akslhfsjdlhg tbh any hyunibini they have written is wooonderful https://archiveofourown.org/works/83313681
- the line of action by forgivingyou is a delicious art student/model fic oh it's SO good i love this author https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/139350394

bonus: 'bodyguard down' is hyunibini ft. seungmin by babbyleeknow and i love it too!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/69085066