rushing past universes
Nov. 8th, 2023 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmicna: commentary for my contribution to the nahyuck fic fest
This is my very random, maybe crazy commentary, if I can call it that, for my fic where is it gonna be you and me? that I wrote for nahyuck fic fest!
My writing has been very, how do I say this? Not too good for the past like, year. But, joining this fic fest (my first one!!!) has taught me that I can cram-write. You do not know how long I procrastinated on this fic. I’m so sorry to this nahyuck for prolonging the time I took to complete this fic. I’m sorry too, as this introduction to this I-don’t-know-how-long commentary is being written on the 21st of October at 2 AM with the fic unfinished. Okay, I should actually get back to work.
Note: I have no idea why I started using sentence case for the capitalization but I was in too deep to just stop. I know I could just cmd+a and format then change case but honestly, I think I prefer the capitalization this way for this one.
Okay, now that I submitted the fic and the submissions are over, I’m back here. I procrastinated on this fic by:
- Doing school works
- Practicing the piano
- Planning another fic
- Finding apps for floor plans
- Trying to use blender
I went from taking about a week to write a thousand words and months with nothing written at all to one thousand and even two thousand in a day with submissions so soon. I think I can write under pressure. It’s just a matter if I write good or not. I think I did okay, for the most part.
I was actually debating on actually joining this fest or not, because I knew my writing was already going slow. I had exams during claiming too. But I decided to look at the collection of prompts and found a few that intrigued me, actually. Spontaneously, I decided hey, what more do I have to lose? A lot of them really looked fun to write but this one, NH140, was the one I wanted to do the most. I’ve had sci-fi fics stored away in my head—and in my google docs—but none of them have yet to make it out of there, so I thought this would be a nice place to start.
Scrap the “I think we’re together in every universe.” It’s “I love you in every universe but look at me in this one, in the one that matters,” for me now. No hate to the “I think we’re together in every universe” believers though, I still love that.
Making the different universes was so fun for me. Right after I got the email that this prompt was mine to bring to life, I started brainstorming how the entire fic would go. I had classes but I didn’t care, I was jotting down words on my little notebook excited about the whole thing.
Every “Earth” had corresponding numbers which I chose using a letters-to-numbers generator. I gave each universe a keyword to base the numbers off and I came up with the following list:
ACTOR UNIVERSE: 132015-1819
SUPERSTAR UNIVERSE: 1920118
DIFFERENT BF UNIVERSE: 496626
MARRIED JM UNIVERSE: 13118-1825
REJECTED UNIVERSE: 18510-5320
ART UNIVERSE: 1619-1420
ROYAL UNIVERSE: 1815-25112
ORIGINAL UNIVERSE: 5144-71135
Of course, there are other universes (Earths 19169-4525, 1916135, 131-793, 619-1825, 2211316) however I don’t deeply dive into them in this fic. (I actually am thinking about giving them their own nahyuck worlds and writing very short fics about the nahyucks in them but that is an idea stored away for now—I don’t know if I want to expand this universe like this.)
Okay, now that I’m this far into this idea dump of mine, I’ve forgotten my main point. So, let’s talk about another thing.
The settings.
I’ve made two simple floor plans. One is for Jaemin’s apartment and the other for his childhood bedroom, as seen here below.
I made these using the magicplan app which was fun, in my opinion as there was also an option to look at things in 3D. This floor plan for Jaemin’s apartment is one I found on google and just tweaked a bit.
I’ve been trying to find the exact link but I can’t seem to find it… I swear it popped up when I searched “2 bedroom apartment floor plan” but suddenly it isn’t showing up T___T
Anyways, those floor plans I had worked on back in the end of June and before I found the app magicplan, I was actually drawing them myself on my notebook to adjust things to my liking. Was I writing the fic at that time? No, I was not.
It was also that time when I drew angles of the machine Jaemin built. I wanted to bring it even more to life so I built myself a mini version of it with playdough. It was fun to build! And it is still in my room, cold and solid, up to this day. Like two pieces have broken off which saddened me because I tried my best to attach the dough together but it’s an unfixable problem now. I also really wanted to make a 3D model of it online which got me roped into downloading blender on my desktop but I never pushed through with it. Instead, I relied on my playdough model.
Another thing I messed with in the duration it took for me to write this fic into existence is the use of workskins. I used two other fonts for this fic to separate the Earths and dates while the other was for the little texts and letters within each Earth. I will say I don’t exactly grasp workskins and I doubt I’ll be using them much but it was something I loved incorporating in this story. (Oh, and I’m getting the hang of html! Wayyy better than I was when I first started)
I actually tried documenting the process of writing this fic in my private Instagram stories which I kept in a highlight I plainly labeled “fic fest!” There’s about 25 ig stories in there and it shows just how inconsistent I was writing this fic. Here’s a run-down of all of them.
May
On May 14th, I posted about maybe taking the chance to claim a fic for this fic fest. I mentioned waiting until school was over—it would end ten days after—but I guess I don’t follow what I say all the time. Four days later, on the 18th, I posted again but this time it was about already submitting the gform for claiming. I typed out, and I quote,
It was a very, very, spontaneous decision but there was a part of me that really wanted NH140 that I just had to claim it already. My next story, which was on the 19th, it was just me noting that I got the confirmation that my chosen prompt was really mine to write. I also stated how “I already know what to do” and how “I will be starting after exams” but… my next post on the same day is a photo of my notebook and the few words I already started writing for the fic.
By the next day, I reached 485 words but that was it for the month of May postings.
June
Before I know it, it’s already June 19. Schools over and it’s been a month since I started yet I haven’t even written a thousand words. My first goal was to write 1k words and thankfully, I completed it by the 20th. This is where things started slowing down again, though.
On the 23rd I started planning the floor plans. This... thing lasted 4 instagram stories in the span of three days—23 to 26. This time was also when I was very frustrated with blender. I remember trying to watch tutorials but never finishing or following them. I was stalling, honestly… But I also really just wanted to bring this to life. The 3D model fell through, obviously.
That was all for June.
July
I went back to writing on July 7. It’s crazy because by July 8, I only had 2,130 words written. Not a lot. But I was proud of it. This fic was the main thing I focused on. Before fic fest I had another story I prioritized—it won’t be yours yet so please be patient. But for fic fest, I took my mind off them. I was determined.
September
August was skipped… Classes had started and it was hell. The fics I posted in August were two I wrote way back, like a year ago. I just had the sudden urge to post something and those two were the ones I had at hand. If I hadn’t posted them then, I don’t know when they would’ve seen the face of the Earth…
In September, my word count was around 6k by the 18th. Chapter one was almost over and I felt this kind of adrenaline rush in writing. After that shit ton of school work, I really wanted to get back to writing. By the 30th I had eight-thousand words and I continued writing to October.
October
These next days were kinda in a flash.
On the 6th, I had a one-hour writing session which I was really proud of! I found myself staying up to write like I used to do. I tried making a schedule of when and what to write over the next few days because exams really were so close but, I did not follow it at all.
However, by the 11th, I had 11k written and after my exams, on the 22nd, I was finally on the last run. I finished on the 23rd, I believe, and tried proofreading but that really isn’t my strong suit so I just decided to post it already.
And I’m here now. October 30, 3PM, with the fic finished and Microsoft word open, writing this commentary.
Let’s now move on to specific parts/lines in the fic that I love.
LINE: EARTH 496626. Take a taxi. Loc: 667 Dark Avenue.If you didn’t know, in the sixth book of A Series of Unfortunate Events—or, season 2 episodes 3 and 4—called The Ersatz Elevator, the Baudelaires find themselves living on 667 Dark Avenue with a woman named Esmé Squalor and her husband Jerome Squalor. If you haven’t watched A Series of Unfortunate Events yet, I definitely suggest you do so! I love the Baudelaires and Quagmires with every cell in my body.
LINE: He sticks it under his bed, too, leaving all of it behind and choosing to put his faith in the love calculator’s eighty-one percentage for Donghyuck and he.
Jaemin didn’t put all his trust in the love calculator. But after seeing the different universes where he an Donghyuck aren’t together, the love calculator was the only thing he could count on for his crush.
LINE: EARTH 132015-1819. Minjae, the silly nickname Donghyuck made for him, and Haechan, fullsun — Donghyuck personified. What better way to describe them?
I constructed this line like this because it’s what Jaemin thinks. He defines Donghyuck as fullsun, someone shining, while he defines himself by what Donghyuck calls him. The older boy makes him.
Donghyuck is his own person but Jaemin is Donghyuck’s.
LINE: EARTH 132015-1819. What? Can’t I call you my sun? (pause) If you’re my sun and I’m your moon, I revolve around you, which I do.
LINE: EARTH 1815-25112. “The sun is about to rise, Beloved.” Jaemin shimmies off his covers. “Allow me,” Donghyuck assists him. He moves aside the covers that gave the prince warmth throughout the night.
Somewhere, before sunrise, in Earth 1815-25112 or some other universe, Donghyuck leans down and whispers in Jaemin’s ear. “It’s my turn to warm you.”
Here’s another secret,
Earth 1619-1420, or the art universe, wasn’t actually originally nahyuck. Way back, I had an idea of a mahae fic (you know me, a mahaeist through and through, the main ship I write for <3) which had Mark as a broke painter and Donghyuck as his muse. But in the end, we find out that Donghyuck already passed away. It was supposed to go like that for Earth 1619-1420 nahyuck but then I thought back and didn’t want to incorporate main character death in this, so I scrapped it. I just made it so that Donghyuck left to study abroad.
The first bit of Earth 1619-1420 we see, actually, was a part I wrote back then, for mahae. All I had to do to make it nahyuck was change all the Marks to Jaemins and all the Jenos to Marks—I’ll get into why I got rid of Jeno’s character in a bit!
I didn’t want my mahae—I called it “the way i look at you” or, twilay—to go to waste, so I “repurposed” them by making it a nahyuck. I never went deep into the twilay universe and just built it on now. All the paintings I mentioned are ones I just made up in my little notebook. Oh, and! I actually had another art installation for the exhibit! I was thinking of a canvas on the wall that'd be named "The Full Sun" where people could go and write within the circle what they want to say to loved ones or themselves in yellow or orange markers. Once filled, it would look like the sun, with notes from different people making it up :] I just didn't know how to squeeze it in any more... so this is a treat for the ones who read this commentary!
Okay, now onto Jeno and Mark. These two don’t have a totally significant part in the fic but they also kinda do to Jaemin and Donghyuck.
In Earth 132015-1819 (actor universe), Mark is Jaemin’s makeup artist. In Earth 496626 (different bf universe), Mark is their class president and the one who talks to Jaemin when he enters the hall. In Earth 1619-1420 (art universe), Mark is Jaemin’s friend who is always by his side. In Earth 13118-1825 (married jm universe), I didn’t mention it but Jaemin is married to Mark. In Earth 1815-25112 (royal universe), I also don’t mention it but I was going to make the girl’s name somehow related to Mark but I couldn’t think so I didn’t give her a name but just know she is like, Mark too.
Honestly? In Earth 1920118, I didn’t intend this or anything, but I guess you can say the guy beside Jaemin in the bar is Mark too.
Now we don’t see much of Jeno because this fic is Jaemin-centric but he has an instance as well.
In Earth 496626 (different bf universe), Jeno is Donghyuck’s boyfriend.
Do you see where I’m going? Basically, in some universes, Mark and Jaemin are the ones who are destined. The same goes for Jeno and Donghyuck. It’s just a little thing I liked adding into this story.
That’s why I changed twilay Jeno into Earth 1619-1420 Mark. Writing Jeno as Jaemin’s friend didn’t fit my markmin-nohyuck-soulmates-in-other-universes plan.
Moving forward… Remember the other fic I prioritized but put aside for fic fest? My writing for that fic was going slow too, but writing this fic and prioritizing this one instead of it, made me realize just how much I missed writing them. If I hadn’t joined this fic fest, who knows what would’ve happened.
Joining this fic fest was, I guess, a way to challenge myself. I realized how much I missed writing and how in love I am with the various worlds I am creating. Sure, it was a pretty bumpy ride in which laziness overcame me at times, but I learned a lot, I’d say. This commentary for where is it gonna be you and me nahyuck is essentially a big thank you to the mods of this fic fest.
So, mod fairy 🧚🏻 and mod ducky 🐥, whether you guys are reading this or not, thank you for making my first fic fest full of realizations <3 Thank you to whoever has read this fic and another big thank you to the entire nahyuck community for giving me another story to write and another nahyuck to share :]
