![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
each other fic commentary
each other
hoya/chorong, 1590w
i don't really do fic commentaries because 1) i can't be bothered, 2) i don't think people can be bothered to read them anyway, 3) my writing process and thoughts are really.... not that deep. however despite it being an extremely niche fic that's specifically targeted to one (1) audience, i think maybe this fic needs a commentary after all because 1) i've left out too many details, 2) i have some things to say about it.
INSPIRATION
look first of all, the original draft is probably 5 years old that had been sitting in my gdoc untouched and ignored for the past years, so i honestly can't remember much of what inspired me to write the fic. but i've always intended it to be a gift for mira and i remember i wanted to write a comfort fic about two strangers who live next to each other and help each other to heal past wounds. i think the general setting was also partly inspired by this local indie series that i saw when i was a kid, which is also titled "each other".
STORY BACKGROUND
to be honest initially i was really ambitious with the fic and wanted to achieve a lot of things, but for the sake of keeping the fic short (also i was afraid that i might overcomplicate things and end up abandoning it again) i ultimately decided to scrape most of my original ideas off. while the end result is fine as it is (at least i think so), i think these details that i left out can give the fic more clarity.
characters
● howon - not sure if at this point you have noticed / i have been exposed but my main characters are usually either emotionally constipated or have no spine, or both at the same time. howon unfortunately falls under the last category. i think what's ironic about this fic is that even though it's from his perspective from the very beginning i never planned anything about his character, and at the end of the fic you realize that you know nothing about him. honestly at some point i did consider adding something so that the fic would be a story of two person's growth instead of just chorong's, but after spending some time letting the idea grow in my head and figuring out how to incorporate it, i finally came to a conclusion which was: haha, no.
● chorong - the Real main character tbh!!!! i had A LOT of ideas and ambitions for her character which i sadly decided not to pursue, but here are some of them:
1) she got married when she was 20, relatively very young but besides the age factor no one really opposed to it because they are that perfect childhood-friends-turned-lovers love story that you'd only find in movies and fanfictions. they lived happily for the first few years of their marriage, but as they grew into adults their priorities began to change. they never fell out of love, but at the same time they couldn't love the person that the other has grown into
2) after the divorce she moved back to her parents' home for around a year. it's not that she fell into depression but for some time she lost sight of herself and wasn't sure what she wanted to do
3) initially i wanted to make the reason she quit her previous job is because she had to take care of someone (eg a sick family member) but then i thought why am i making this hard for myself? i also hate that idea so i just dropped it
● chorong's unnamed ex-husband - i only realized that i never actually mentioned his name after posting the fic. lol. yes i am pinkfinitefckr64 yes it is woohyun
● seunghyun aka howon's colleague - originally i was toying between sungyeol (same group) and jaejin (same age friend) but eventually i decided on seunghyun to remind mira of her roots
● jinyoung - ok no one cares but i still want to mention anyway that chorong has a younger brother in this fic and he is none other than park "jay are" jinyoung and he was supposed to be in the first scene helping her move in.
setting
originally i wanted the entire fic to be set in their apartment building (eg the foyer, elevator, emergency staircase) but i realized only now that out of the five scenes, only two took place in the building. also location settings ended up being apartment > convenience store > barbecue restaurant > convenience store > apartment. i would love to tell you that it was intentionally done and i'm a genius who planned it all along, but unfortunately i am not and that's totally coincidental.
other details
not really important to the plot but howon and chorong are 27 in the fic. chorong was married for a little more than five years. her new job is pretty much an entry level position because 1) she wants to start over, and 2) the world is unfair towards women who take breaks from work.
SCRAPPED IDEAS
1. The only elevator at his apartment building breaks down often enough that Howon is unfazed when he sees the large “UNDER MAINTENANCE” sign taped on the metal doors. He naturally turns towards the staircase.
He lives on the seventh floor, which means it’s a long climb up. He’s browsing through his playlists as he slowly makes his way up what seems like a never ending stairway when, somewhere between the third and the fifth floor, he smells a faint scent of cigarette smoke. He halts his step and glances up. Sure enough, there’s a haze of white smoke from several floors above rippling into the air, then dissipates.
His thumb hovers over the pause button. If he presses it, he’ll probably hear more clearly the muffled sound of a person crying coming from the same direction. Exhaling, he ramps the volume up instead and resumes his climb.
this was supposed to be the opening scene, but it wasn't until i wrote the fourth scene that i decided to give it up. i was toying with the idea of chorong picking up smoking when her marriage was starting to crack, and i honestly really wanted to keep this scene but what made me change my mind is that i don't want to paint her character too dark and depressive. also i couldn't justify smoking at the staircase lmao isn't that illegal
2. as mentioned i did consider adding something to howon's character. one idea i had was that he has a girlfriend who he has grown apart from but never addresses the issue or runs away from it, and the first scene would include this part where he doesn't answer her call on purpose and afterwards he gets a text from her. then the fic would end with him finally typing a reply to the text.
3. the last scene i actually wanted howon to tell her that she's doing well to encourage but i just felt like it's a bit too sudden and out of place TT i might edit in something else along that line later
OTHER THINGS
A P*NKFINITE FIC IN 2022???????????? u better believe it.
i can't remember when exactly did i start writing this fic, and i don't actually remember why i decided to revive this fic from coma out of the many vegetative state drafts that i have, but while thinking of doing something special for mira in commemoration of our 10th friendship anniversary, i realized that the fic kinda parallels something in real life.
i would like to also highlight that i abandoned the entire original draft and started writing from scratch. and the fact that i rewrote the first scene nearly 10 times. why write something new when you can rewrite something you already have ten thousand times and end up not feeling 100% satisfied with it anyway, right.
i don't mean to be unhinged but if you read this till the end, thank you really and i'm so sorry.
hoya/chorong, 1590w
i don't really do fic commentaries because 1) i can't be bothered, 2) i don't think people can be bothered to read them anyway, 3) my writing process and thoughts are really.... not that deep. however despite it being an extremely niche fic that's specifically targeted to one (1) audience, i think maybe this fic needs a commentary after all because 1) i've left out too many details, 2) i have some things to say about it.
INSPIRATION
look first of all, the original draft is probably 5 years old that had been sitting in my gdoc untouched and ignored for the past years, so i honestly can't remember much of what inspired me to write the fic. but i've always intended it to be a gift for mira and i remember i wanted to write a comfort fic about two strangers who live next to each other and help each other to heal past wounds. i think the general setting was also partly inspired by this local indie series that i saw when i was a kid, which is also titled "each other".
STORY BACKGROUND
to be honest initially i was really ambitious with the fic and wanted to achieve a lot of things, but for the sake of keeping the fic short (also i was afraid that i might overcomplicate things and end up abandoning it again) i ultimately decided to scrape most of my original ideas off. while the end result is fine as it is (at least i think so), i think these details that i left out can give the fic more clarity.
characters
● howon - not sure if at this point you have noticed / i have been exposed but my main characters are usually either emotionally constipated or have no spine, or both at the same time. howon unfortunately falls under the last category. i think what's ironic about this fic is that even though it's from his perspective from the very beginning i never planned anything about his character, and at the end of the fic you realize that you know nothing about him. honestly at some point i did consider adding something so that the fic would be a story of two person's growth instead of just chorong's, but after spending some time letting the idea grow in my head and figuring out how to incorporate it, i finally came to a conclusion which was: haha, no.
● chorong - the Real main character tbh!!!! i had A LOT of ideas and ambitions for her character which i sadly decided not to pursue, but here are some of them:
1) she got married when she was 20, relatively very young but besides the age factor no one really opposed to it because they are that perfect childhood-friends-turned-lovers love story that you'd only find in movies and fanfictions. they lived happily for the first few years of their marriage, but as they grew into adults their priorities began to change. they never fell out of love, but at the same time they couldn't love the person that the other has grown into
2) after the divorce she moved back to her parents' home for around a year. it's not that she fell into depression but for some time she lost sight of herself and wasn't sure what she wanted to do
3) initially i wanted to make the reason she quit her previous job is because she had to take care of someone (eg a sick family member) but then i thought why am i making this hard for myself? i also hate that idea so i just dropped it
● chorong's unnamed ex-husband - i only realized that i never actually mentioned his name after posting the fic. lol. yes i am pinkfinitefckr64 yes it is woohyun
● seunghyun aka howon's colleague - originally i was toying between sungyeol (same group) and jaejin (same age friend) but eventually i decided on seunghyun to remind mira of her roots
● jinyoung - ok no one cares but i still want to mention anyway that chorong has a younger brother in this fic and he is none other than park "jay are" jinyoung and he was supposed to be in the first scene helping her move in.
setting
originally i wanted the entire fic to be set in their apartment building (eg the foyer, elevator, emergency staircase) but i realized only now that out of the five scenes, only two took place in the building. also location settings ended up being apartment > convenience store > barbecue restaurant > convenience store > apartment. i would love to tell you that it was intentionally done and i'm a genius who planned it all along, but unfortunately i am not and that's totally coincidental.
other details
not really important to the plot but howon and chorong are 27 in the fic. chorong was married for a little more than five years. her new job is pretty much an entry level position because 1) she wants to start over, and 2) the world is unfair towards women who take breaks from work.
SCRAPPED IDEAS
1. The only elevator at his apartment building breaks down often enough that Howon is unfazed when he sees the large “UNDER MAINTENANCE” sign taped on the metal doors. He naturally turns towards the staircase.
He lives on the seventh floor, which means it’s a long climb up. He’s browsing through his playlists as he slowly makes his way up what seems like a never ending stairway when, somewhere between the third and the fifth floor, he smells a faint scent of cigarette smoke. He halts his step and glances up. Sure enough, there’s a haze of white smoke from several floors above rippling into the air, then dissipates.
His thumb hovers over the pause button. If he presses it, he’ll probably hear more clearly the muffled sound of a person crying coming from the same direction. Exhaling, he ramps the volume up instead and resumes his climb.
this was supposed to be the opening scene, but it wasn't until i wrote the fourth scene that i decided to give it up. i was toying with the idea of chorong picking up smoking when her marriage was starting to crack, and i honestly really wanted to keep this scene but what made me change my mind is that i don't want to paint her character too dark and depressive. also i couldn't justify smoking at the staircase lmao isn't that illegal
2. as mentioned i did consider adding something to howon's character. one idea i had was that he has a girlfriend who he has grown apart from but never addresses the issue or runs away from it, and the first scene would include this part where he doesn't answer her call on purpose and afterwards he gets a text from her. then the fic would end with him finally typing a reply to the text.
3. the last scene i actually wanted howon to tell her that she's doing well to encourage but i just felt like it's a bit too sudden and out of place TT i might edit in something else along that line later
OTHER THINGS
A P*NKFINITE FIC IN 2022???????????? u better believe it.
i can't remember when exactly did i start writing this fic, and i don't actually remember why i decided to revive this fic from coma out of the many vegetative state drafts that i have, but while thinking of doing something special for mira in commemoration of our 10th friendship anniversary, i realized that the fic kinda parallels something in real life.
i would like to also highlight that i abandoned the entire original draft and started writing from scratch. and the fact that i rewrote the first scene nearly 10 times. why write something new when you can rewrite something you already have ten thousand times and end up not feeling 100% satisfied with it anyway, right.
i don't mean to be unhinged but if you read this till the end, thank you really and i'm so sorry.