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Wrote 2500 words tonight for Chapter 11 of "Nobody's Soldier"! I'm aiming for a Saturday/Sunday release - this week at school is HELL so it'll take me some more time. BUT I have reading week next week, so expect some quicker chapters :))

Anyways, goooom night, more updates to follow <3

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I am OBSESSED with your fic it’s great!

Sooo… I may have drawn a little fanart

WOWWW OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!! And I see that barcode on his neck - such a good detail. You nailed his expression too, he's so tired and so frustrated, exactly how I imagined him as I wrote. Your style is gorgeous I adore it!!

Thank you so very much this made my whole night <3 <333 you're amazingly talented

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Hello :) i really like ur writing style and wanted to know your writing tips!

Like, how do you get a clean and nice pace? Or how to write intense scenes? Or what words to choose? Etc

I thank you graciously for sharing your works 🙏🙏

HELLO SLEEPY!! I meant to respond to this way earlier but stuff got in the way -- however I have arrived!!

Let's dig in:

In terms of pacing, it is always helpful to have a clear outline of every event that will happen - I write all of mine in a notes app, write down each key event and how the chapter will progress. I think that way I get a good idea of what sections should be longer, which are more important and need more detail, and which should be intentionally fast to amp up pressure. Ofc it depends on what you're writing! I've always written these sorts of angsty hurt/comfort fics, so I've just had a lot of practice with them. I can assure you that I'd struggle with a slow pace slice-of-life au in any fandom.

Writing intense scenes mostly comes with practice, I've had 10 long years of experience haha! But there are some things that I've learned to do for those scenes:

Positioning is important, set it up early. You want your readers to know exactly where your characters are so they aren't confused which will slow down how they read the scene. You want them following the speed of the scene you've set.

Shortening your sentences and descriptions will make your scene more intense because your reader feels like they are struggling to keep up with it. It also makes them predict a breaking point - a point in the sentence structure where it reaches a limit and either stops completely or slows back down. So they hang on to every word, waiting for that drop.

Metaphors and imagery are great for describing emotional or physical pain - but I try not to overdo it, especially in "Nobody's Soldier" when those scenes are pretty lengthy. I try to keep those scenes feeling intense and quick because the stakes are supposed to feel high for Gi-hun - and by extension, for the readers.

As for word choice, that really depends on your style and where you find your inspiration from! Like I said, I've primarily written hurt/comfort and whump fics, so my style developed to be very physical: I always think about the facial expressions of the characters, the way their body reacts to stimuli, where they are standing and how they stand, etc. That comes from working on how to describe reactions to pain, and they always tell you to show it instead of telling it: "he winced/he flinched" rather than "it hurt him".

A lot of my style just comes from the things I take inspiration from. Funnily enough, I don't read fics or books for fun because I read so much for university in my history/english program. So I find my inspiration in the historical sources and literature I read. I think a good example I can give is from a poem by Wilfred Owen, an English poet who fought in WWI, called Dulce et Decorum est, which uses very visceral language (ie. "His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;/ If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs..."). I'm sure you can some similarity between his descriptions and my own -- albeit, mine are far less sophisticated than his. But I still try to emulate how grotesquely he describes the human body, as well as the sharp rhythm of certain lines like "sick of sin." ANYWAYS thats enough university talk that i'm sure sounds boring haha. I also find inspiration in video games, in TV shows, in everything. The world around us is composed of sentences waiting to be written, you just have to look for them and put pen to paper :))

One last tip I can give is to just write what you enjoy! I know ao3 can be disheartening if your work doesn't get a lot of love, but honestly as long as you are having fun, it is well worth it. I have written for dead fandoms in the past - and in fact, I have more often written for dead fandoms than for popular ones. I'm somehow always late to the party, except this time ofc with Squid Game.

Anyways, I think that is all I have for now!! If you have any further questions, please ask away. I'm so flattered to have been asked about something like this, thank you to coming for me and reading what I write <3 <3

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Yep, sounds about right.

Yes, torture is how I express love :3

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LOOK LOOK More fanart for "Nobody's Soldier" on AO3!! That's our poor tortured boy right there!! That's our Number 456!!

This is a fanart from a story i like way too much in Ao3.

It's Guard Gihun AU!

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Chapter 10 of "Nobody's Soldier" up now on ao3: "Brittle and Bitter | Silken and Sweet"

^^ me watching all of your reactions

Best of luck :))

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4,000 words into Chapter 10 for Nobody's Soldier on ao3 :)) Will be up tomorrow or sunday, prepare yourselves. Get ready for some MAJOR pining from In-ho.

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Update

Hello my friends. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up that the next update is gonna take longer than usual to get out. We have to put my family dog down tomorrow morning.

Do not fret, I'm not forcing myself to write still while grieving my dearest boy. My fic and all your comments are a very much needed outlet and distraction, and I need that right now. It's just gonna take some time for the next chapter, maybe a week.

Thank you and love all of you <3

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CHAPTER 9 of "Nobody's Soldier" IS LIVE!! Thank you for your patience, and well, enjoy :)) This one is a BIG ONE.

PS: I have created an official Spotify playlist for this fic with the assistance of one of our readers: LittleeSillyyBillyy! You can access the playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1lmwnFRAGftjBu092JryeO?si=b02874e075fe41f8

Enjoy my friends, enjoy :)

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I'M SO CLOSE JUST HOLD ON, IT'S LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD END UP BEING. BEAR WITH ME MY CROWLINGS

^^ me @ all of you

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Hello friends! I'd hoped to get Chapter 9 out before I went to bed tonight, but I am just so tired. I've got about 1500 words left to write, and I will finish it as soon as i wake. On Gi-hun's life this chapter will be out by 2:00pm EST the latest. Thank you for your patience, bear with me this one is a juicy one <3

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damn right

What appeals to me about whump: an incomplete list

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Hi Crow Quill, just wanna say that I am mildly obsessed with ur fic so here’s some fan art I made!! It’s not the greatest as this is my first time trying this colouring style but still I hope u like it

oh my GODD I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!! Thank you so much you are so talented!! The colouring is WOW, love the reds in it, mimics the lighting of the red button scenes in the show. AND DON'T THINK I DIDN'T SEE THAT BARCODE SCAR ON HIS NECK! Such a good detail I applaud you my friend.

Thank you for this I absolutely adore it <3 You're amazing

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Nobody’s Soldier is my favorite fic of all time rn. I like it so much that I’m actually happy to wait for updates bc it gives me more time to think about each chapter during the wait lol. You do fantastic work, take all the time you need, in the meantime I’ll be rereading the fic daily bc it’s just that good🙏🏻

AW THANK YOU ANON! I've definitely had some fics that I've reread over and over, so glad that you find my writing enjoyable enough to read it multiple times.

Planning to have the new chapter out tomorrow, thanks for reading <3 <3

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Squid game some pictures of S3 in TikTok.... I don't know if you seen already but I was so shocked to see Gihun got handcuffed?!!?? To a bed????!?!?

I SAW???? Do they not know what this will do to the 457 shippers? I swear they are writing my fic FOR ME. How am I expected to wait til June 27? HOW?

Gi-hun better live or I'll burn this place to the ground.

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When https://archiveofourown.org/works/61756381/chapters/157877581 is written finish, do you have any idea what are you going to write next? 😋😋

HMm it's hard to say! I usually don't plan ahead in what I'll write next, I just follow the ADHD hyperfixation wherever it leads. But you can bet I'll be back to Squid Game in June when that last season comes out. Until that comes, I'll just have to keep hurting Gi-hun until our story is finished.

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Hi, I just wanna start this off by saying I adore ur writing, I’ve been reading Nobody’s Soldier for the last 2 days and I’m just obsessed lol, the way u write and the story is just so captivating.

I wanted to ask if, once the fic is done, you would be comfortable with people binding it for personal use?

AW THANK YOU!!

And absolutely I would LOVE that, that's so flattering! If you do end up doing that, please send a pic! Seeing my little fanfiction put together like a real book would be so cool.