» Photographs | #michaeng

Story Trivia

Hi readers! This chapter is exclusively for those who wishes to examine the idea of this story deeper. Here, I shall separate the discussion into four: Inspirations/Ideas, Plot line, Characters' development, and Metaphors. Lastly, I'll give my conclusion on how I feel and what I think about this story now that I've finished it. I hope you'll be able to follow my train of thoughts, and perhaps relate to them. Besides, who knows, maybe inspire you to start writing your own fic.

1. What is your inspiration for this story? 

I think I've mentioned in Chapter 20, writing Photographs was an impulsive decision. I've always have the habit of collecting quotes and poems that I love when I was reading. Thus, I put together some random quotes, one of them being "Some memories remain, but people change" in which it became the tagline for Photographs, and tried to weave a story around them. I thought the theme about memories is most fitting and interesting, because there's so many things to write about it. The context is limitless.

We all have our memories. They can be happy, sad, bittersweet, etc. Some we love to reminisce, some we prefer not to talk about. But most importantly, when we have memories, we think of the moments passed, the decisions made, the mistakes done, the regrets we carried. All together they made us who we are now. They are proof of our experiences, that we are still alive, albeit we aren't perfect. It's true we may not be able to change the past, but we are here in the present to shape the future we want. As a result, this is essentially what this story I wrote is all about.

With that, I titled this fic as Photographs. They are the physical evidence of our memories. My mum had a very ancient camera and used to make photo albums of the family and me. When I was a child, I was so in awe by the little grey machine and we would've so much fun putting the photos into the scrapbooks together. These moments are a part of my upbringing, they belonged to me and my mum. To me, the photo albums are my treasure. They reminded me of my childhood. As I grow up, the photos changed too. Nowadays, the technology becomes so advanced that photos are easily attainable. Somehow, it's not about the sentimental value the photos hold anymore, but who has the most instagrammable picture, most high tech camera. I just wished some people still remember why we take photos in the first place.

2. How do you draw up the plot for this story?

Long story short, the plot of Photographs is a combination of me and my closed ones' experiences. The stories I heard, the lessons I learnt, the wistful thoughts of how I wish things would be the other way round. Of course, my life weren't the most precise portrayal of the scenes in Photographs. Most of them I've exaggerated for the purpose of creative writing. But more or less, they did happen: ambitions, loss and gain of friendships, cheating, escapism, addiction, mental health problems, toxic relationships, friends of benefit, falling in love, self-realization, forgiveness, etc. 

As you might've known now, I absolutely dig angst. I've always wanted to write about a love triangle, hence Jeongyeon, Mina and Chaeyoung / Nayeon, Mina and Chaeyoung, as this is the perfect trope to convey infatuation, yearning, jealousy and disappointment. In both love triangles, Chaeyoung played differing perspectives, and I wanted to explore them. When we see love triangles, we immediately think of a committed relationship versus a love affair, but I didn't want to make it about that because it would paint my story as that sort. This is not a drama. I just want my story to be as close to my own experience as possible. I try to write it as relevant as it can, without romanticizing or glorifying certain things. 

My own life story is not anywhere close to good. That's why I want this fictional story to have a happy ending, because like I said sometimes I wish things were different for me. Thus, when most of you thought this story was going downhill till the end, I never wanted that. Besides, this is a story that aspires to bring positive messages, so I want to inspire readers to not give up and improve, because I try to always remind myself that too. Maybe one day, we'll all get our happy endings.