AN INTERVIEW WITH THE FIRST PLACE WINNER - Seamlesslove

Q - Why did you start writing?

A - "I had always been interested in reading. When I was 11, I started writing poems and in the lockdown period, I came across BTS. RM's smart lyricism inspired me to write songs too. So my first writing ventures were not books, but songs and poems. Later on, I found the writing community of BTS and I started writing.

So basically, my reason for writing is related to my interest in reading and early interest in lyrics. And when I wrote, I loved the feeling and continued."

Q - What inspired you to write this story?

A - "I watched the Korean movie called 'VIP'. It starred Lee Jong Suk and I watched it for him. After completing the movie, I had a story idea and that idea was for Mirror.

When you read the story and see the movie, the only similarity that you'd notice is the concept of smart and powerful serial killers, but that movie is my inspiration.

About leaving hints and the same method for all the murders, I got inspired by the Bollywood movie 'Cuttputli'."

Q - Why was Jungkook chosen as the lead?

A -  "I had the lead male character's personality in my mind when I got the idea. I thought that Jungkook is written too often as a rude, cold, insensitive character. Mirror's Jungkook is very similar to the real Jungkook : he's kind, sweet, hardworking and kinda introverted. These traits can be found in other members too, but I wanted to write Jungkook as a sweet, heartwarming character that will make the readers feel upset about everything wrong happening to him."

Q -  How did you saturate/inform your characters?

A - "This was a challenging aspect of writing the story. I'm not sure how well it's presented but I continuously kept giving the same hints that would have the reader start working clues along with the saturation of the charcacters. Like a mirror being found almost everywhere Jungkook goes within just a day of him getting the case made him think it's a clue, but he wasn't sure how that was a clue and he couldn't think more about it.

The sudden appearance of the killer when Jungkook wanders about the city and then the killer tricks him, these were all things that saturated the characters and readers alike."

Q - How did you feel after publishing the first chapter?

A - "The first line of the story is "A dead body was found" and there's description of murder in the very first chapter along with the death of the first prosecutor who handled the case before Jungkook. It was a plot heavy chapter because it introduced a lot of things about the story, and it was the first chapter so I wasn't sure how the readers would take it.

To put it shortly, I was nervous if a story; especially a BTS fanfiction that doesn't contain romance and is so violent, psychologically thrilling would be taken by the readers. But seeing the comments was reassuring and I am proud of the work now."

Q - What roles did the other members have and why were they given them?

A - "The only other members that appear in the story (as of yet) are Namjoon, Yoongi and Jimin. Namjoon is a doctor, he was given the role because he's a naturally caring and smart guy. He's also extremely professional, calm and patient which made him fit the role. It's also different from roles he's generally given and this story is basically giving new roles to the members, things that they rarely have.

Yoongi is a manager and a graphic designer (designs advertisements and everything for the hospital) at Namjoon's hospital. Yoongi doesn't really like interaction unless it's with BTS and giving him the role of a manager was ironic and I liked that. Graphic designing just suits him, don't really have a reason for that.

Jimin is a police officer, that's because he himself stated once that he'd like to be a cop so putting him in a strong role that almost challenges Jungkook's role as the protagonist was interesting."

Q - What would you say to someone who's just started writing?

A - "Write the way you'd like to read. That's my top advice. Everything comes later, if you try to write in the manner you like to read, the story would automatically be better than you'd expect.

Also, don't worry too much about things being imperfect. We improve with time and mistakes are inevitable, you are bound to make mistakes if you've just started doing something."

Q - Do you have any future stories planned?

A - "I have like 20 drafts and 4 of them have been cancelled. But those 16 are definitely gonna be up someday.

There's a very long trilogy (with a potential 4th season) that I have been planning for over 2 years and I've started writing the final draft which I'll post soon. The book's gonna be titled 'Heavenly Hell'.

For the other books, I have one called 'Hide In The Moonlight', another called 'Delicate', another called 'Paper Rings' and many more."

Q - How do you feel about winning this award?

A - "In one word, ecstatic. This is the first award I entered 'Mirror' in. So it's Mirror's first participation and it ended up winning so that was pleasantly surprising, and of course, unexpected."

Q - Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add?

A - "I'd like to congratulate all the participants, not only of this category but the whole awards. It is a brave thing to participate in awards and it makes all of you wonderful. I'd wish you all the best for all your future ventures."