512
Anon · 15d
In TBOYL you’ve explored very dark side to Minho’s persona, and a deeply traumatized side only Jeongin recognized. Minho deals with a lot thru hyper focus on Jeongin and deals with his trauma thru intense sex. The little humor he had was dry, and he was very private. Jeongin was a bit air headed, but stubborn.
I’m wondering for the TSGEL, how did you decide to lean into different aspects of their personalities? What I see in the first 9 chapters, Minho is kind of misunderstood and a flirt for the public but we don’t yet see his true character. Besides you telling that he will be a complete dork for Jeongin, will you lean into some darker sides of him in TSGEL too, like possessiveness or control? What attracted me to his character in TBOYL was the intensity of feeling and the seriousness whit which he approached the safety of the whole group, and the way he controlled Jeongin in particular.
Jeongin on the other hand seems shy and unsure of himself, even if he jokes around with Minho, it seems more like a part of his mask and a wish to be accepted than his true self. I guess I’m wondering if their dynamics will be as sharp as well, so I can look forward to it?
for some reason i am only just now seeing this message! and just in time too!
with any au, it's less of a decision about "choosing" to lean into different aspects of their personality, and more asking ourselves how their backstories for this specific au would change them and their behavior.
minho in tboyl grew up without love from any direction. he deeply craves it but has been starved of it. this has made him hardened, while also very desperate to hold onto the things he has carved out that bring him comfort. he has also been told through his life that the only thing he is good at, and good for, is violence. he has deeply internalized that, and with it comes very low self worth. it all coalesces into a dry, very in control person who keeps himself locked down, is protective of those in his circle, and is extremely touch/love starved.
but minho in tsgel doesn't have any of that! he has grown up with family who love him, even if he's always naturally been a little socially awkward so making friends hasn't been the easiest. his life hasn't been all roses, but with his support system and also with how well rounded he is, even the thornier things become moments of growth, rather than wounds that continue to bleed. the death of his mother when he was younger hit him hard, but he grew from it, becoming more sensitive and emotionally intelligent. the weight of being diodos causes him stress but also has made him grow into a conscientious, thoughtful person who isnt inclined to frivolity and who takes his duty of care seriously. he still is capable of immense depth of feeling, but he is... whole.
tboyl minho isnt whole. he is fractured, and even when reassembled he will always be missing pieces. this is why he leans so heavily on jeongin, needs him so badly. tsgel minho doesnt have that, but it doesnt mean he isnt capable of intense love.
their dynamic in tsgel will not, cannot, be the same as it was in tboyl. the characters have totally different lives, but also, we wouldn't want to write the exact same story beats, the exact same dynamics, again and again! tboyl is there to be reread and enjoyed whenever you're craving that dynamic. but in tsgel, we're going to be exploring different facets to the characters.
Anon · 10d
hi!! i’m the anon who just sent you “writing” LMFAOOO. i was also reading ur replies a few days ago since retrospring’s shutting down. i wanted to know if anyone had ever asked you about writing tips or your writing process—because i ADORE your works. i had also just woken up back then. so i was like, one eye cracked open, “oh man look! there is a filtering option!!” so i typed ‘writing’. sent it. thinking it would filter out your replies with the word. it said, all happy green colored: the question has been asked successfully! now both of my eyes cracked open, i thought “jesus fuuuuckkk…” tweaking inside. “they wouldn’t notice it anyways” like, whole platform is going down in a few days. so is my question. well it DIDN’T. and now the memory will haunt me forever. i couldn’t stop fucking giggling that day, i would snort while i was on the metro or at home. didn’t know whether to clear out the mystery or not but today seems like a good time to do so…that was embarrassing. HUMBLING. but it came from a place of love……..BIG FAN 🫶
I SEE I SEE i am glad you cleared that up! tbh i thought it was someone just driving by and being a little cryptic like "yeah so true. writing indeed."
this is very cute, and tbh through the years i have done something similar in multiple different chat apps. looking for older messages and instead of putting the key word into the search bar i fckn send it into the chat. someone talking about layoffs at their job and i send a random "chanlix" floating by like a fckn idiot 🧍 humbling indeed
we have gotten some really great asks about writing and our processes etc through the years, not just on rs but also on all the messaging platforms that came before it LOL and we will likely get them again if we make another account on a different site moving forward!
i do enjoy the mental image of you, freshly awoken, for some reason deciding that would be a good moment to deep dive into the inkin writing process
Anon · 23d
Aware you are in tsgel mode but i am rereading tboyl and i was wondering what kind of books tboyl minho likes to read?? Did you have any specific books in mind that he would be reading during the series? Like i just got to chapter 17 where he stops reading to go hang in the tv room with felix and jeongin. Did you have a book in mind he was reading?? Sorry if you have answered this before.
nope! no idea. he probably read a lot of historical nonfiction though tbh, and a lot of Thinking Books about current events.
Anon · 15d
writing
[nods sagely] writing
Anon · 19d
I will miss reading through your RS. I hope you will save everything here and move to another anon question site? I love looking back over old questions. <3 <3
we might try to save some stuff from here but really idk where to even begin 😭
and idk, maybe. we've moved so many times through the years.
Anon · 1mo
Fingers in jsngs mouf hnnghmmm
you are a little late but yes indeed!!! fingies in jisung's mouf!!!
Anon · 1mo
WIPWednesday? Spreadsheet perhaps?
we've been insanely busy so tbh the spreadsheet for next chapter is p much still just red LOL
Anon · 2mo
Update this week? I hope I am not pressuring you both. Just missing the beautiful writing. <3
we're trying!! there will be smth posted tomorrow regardless, it just might not be ch 08 of tsgel
Anon · 2mo
I need to ask if at any point you guys said anything about tsgel not having cheating in the plot for fools that are mismatched in their pairings? Cause i could swear i saw it somewhere, but now i can't find anymore so i might just be hallucinating
it's in the a/n of chapter 2!
Anon · 2mo
Are you planning on moving somewhere else for people to ask questions with rs shutting down?
considering it! ive seen some ppl using neospring, we shall see
Anon · 2mo
every so often i think about the tsgel events that might lead to mnjg marriage but chnlx still not getting together… spooky… scary…
spookier and scarier than you even know!!
Anon · 2mo
is tsgel going to take place over a long period of time (in story)? or is time going to continue to progress per chapter at about the same rate throughout?
the fic will cover a little over a year's worth of time. there will be timeskips, nothing too severe, a week or two here and there.
Anon · 2mo
In tsgel is the backstory of how hyunjin reached his current position despite his lack of belief going to be explored?
possibly, it's not super relevant to events and we're trying to avoid dumping in large swathes of flashbacks 😭 so a lot of stuff is just getting put in with bits and pieces
the gist is there's a test that needs to be passed to become royal inyska, and hyunjin passed it
Anon · 2mo
can you talk/explain more about the inspirations for the fashion/clothing of tsgel? what are the standards of dress for betas and how do those differ from alphas?
the fashion inspo is from me at age 10 watching the star wars prequels and wanting every outfit padme wore. it all branched out from there.
tbh betas and alphas dress very similarly. the main fashion tick for alphas is they have long hair that is always worn up/pulled back in some fashion. betas though can and often do have shorter hair.
Anon · 2mo
Idk if this is a stupid question or not 🙈, maybe it’s been asked before but do you and rara work on different POV’s like are there specific Skz povs you do and she does the other ones or do you plan on writing different scenes as a whole, also is there someones POV you particularly like to write?
we do get asked this a lot LOL but i understand the curiosity.
there's no hard and set way we do things. sometimes in a chapter we'll claim which scenes we want to write and then just whoever gets to the others first does them. sometimes i cant write a beginning or an end of a scene so she does it, or vice versa. sometimes one of us writes out the dialogue and the other person actually fills it in. it's really just. the chapter needs doing so we write it in whatever configuration is needed to get it done.
rn, i really enjoy being in jisung's pov for tsgel when he is in a good mood LOL he's fun