This one is with Sydney, or izaya orihara as some of you may know her by. There's an entire section of the site that I feel like I don't know, because I'm not a k-pop person, and that makes me sad! Sydney is definitely one of those people, and when I read her interview she sounds like such an awesome person so I hope we can chat more in the future!
I would recommend reading 미치겠어, which I had to copy and paste and Why I'm Not, which are both original fiction and lord knows I love me some original fics. She also writes a lot of true stories which I think is really awesome!
But yes, here we go with the interview!
Let's start off with your name (or whatever you go by online) and how long you've been hanging around Mibba
My name is Sydney (I always wanted a cool internet alias, but sadly I'm too lame
) and I've been on Mibba for about seven and a half years now.What do you like to do in your free time (other than writing)?
I'm a huge television junkie, whether it's regular TV shows or anime or Korean dramas. I also like to take pictures and I'm addicted to this online Pokemon game called Pokeheroes lol.
What do you want to be when you "grow up" (in other words, are you going to college/university for anything or do you plan on going into college/university?)
To be honest, I've never really had any idea of what to do career-wise, but that strangely doesn't bother me. I decided that the college path isn't for me for various reasons, but mostly I just don't have the money to waste while I figure myself out. I do want to attend some classes at some point, but that's more for personal enrichment than to put towards any specific degree. Right now I'm really content with just working.
If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?
I would love to live in Savannah, Georgia. If I could get an old house with a big, wrap-around porch in the middle of the city, I could probably die happy. I went there on a trip when I was fifteen and fell in love, though I know I would probably end up hating the humidity even more than I already do. I've also always been interested in moving to Spain. I think all the cities are so beautiful and interesting. I low key dream of becoming fluent in Spanish and bouncing around the country for the rest of my days. Though really, I'm interested in living almost anywhere that's not New Jersey. I've lived in the same town my entire life and the only time I've moved is from our old house to our current apartment, which are literally two blocks apart.
Do you have a set daily routine or do you just go with the flow of the day?
Well, generally six days out of the week I'm working. On those days, I get up about two hours before my bus comes so I have time to get ready, take the bus in, grab some food before my shift starts, work, take the bus home, then mess around on the internet until I have to go to sleep. On my days off I either have to do laundry or grocery shopping, or I just sit around thinking about how I should be writing.
What's one thing that you find weird or interesting about yourself?
It sounds like a cop-out, I know, but I think I'm just pretty weird in general. Definitely not interesting, but totally weird. I've kept a dead bee as a pet before, I once headbanged so hard to Grenade Jumper by Fall Out Boy that I thought I broke my neck, the only Christmas music I like is the Pokemon Christmas Bash CD...heck, I even had a 20 minute argument last night with my dad about whether the Robin Hood theme song was the same as the Hamster Dance song (and I totally won!). I just feel like being weird is fairly normal for me.
If you could live in one TV show universe, what would it be?
Hm...maybe Modern Family? Though sometimes when I get to see my extended family I already feel like I live in that universe.
Do you have an OTP?
Quite a few, but for everybody's sanity I will limit myself to three lmao. Woohyun and Myungsoo from the kpop group Infinite, Kogami and Akane from the anime Psycho-Pass, and Jungkook and Taehyung from the kpop group BTS.
If you could only listen to one band for the rest of ever, which would it be?
Why is this question so easy for other people to answer lmao...ugh, I'm really torn. I think I'll go with The Story So Far, since I listen to them a lot when I'm angry and let's face it, that's a good 95% of my life.
Favourite candy/dessert?
I'm not all that big on either to be totally honest, but for candy I will say some of my favorites are Milk Duds and Mike and Ikes (but absolutely NOT the strawberry!!!). For dessert, probably raspberry cheesecake, though the last few times I've had it I couldn't even finish a really small piece before I felt sick.
When did you first start writing and why did you start?
I don't know when, but it was probably around first or second grade. We had to write a story about Gingerbread people since it was around the holiday season and of course with me being the weird child I was and wanting to be different, I wrote a story about a Gingerbread electrician.
What genre do you generally lean towards when writing?
Mostly romance, which is kind of weird because it's not like I have any real world experience in the matter lol.
What about reading, any specific genre you're drawn to?
I like simple and cheesy YA romances. I haven't read any in a long while though, because when I got to middle school the dystopian style romances started taking off. And while I do like some of those, I have to be in a certain mood to read them.
Do you prefer original fiction or fanfiction?
To read or to write? In writing I have no preference, I tend to go with whatever I feel fits the theme/piece best. And actually, I guess it's the same way for reading. If a story is good enough and I don't know the fandom, I'll end up reading it like it's an original fiction anyway.
How do you get over writer's block?
I am so the wrong person to ask about this lol. I get long, long, long blocks and I will spend at least an hour a day looking at prompts, listening to songs on repeat that I want to make songfics out of...and still absolutely nothing will come to me.
Do you have a writing ritual (something you always do when you write)?
I don't always do it, but a lot of the time I listen to music. I don't have a writing playlist or anything, I just tend to put music on so I won't get distracted by anything else.
What's your favourite story you've read on the site?
It was taken down years and years ago and the author deactivated, but I remember that it was a Garrett Nickelsen fanfic!
What's your favourite story you've ever written?
I always feel like what I've posted could've turned out better than it did, but I guess I'm pretty fond of Goodnight, Heroes and Constant Recovery.
Give us an overview of a few stories/poems/anything else you're in the middle of writing/have written recently!
I actually did write something last night! The title in English is Michigesseo, which translates to I'm going crazy. Though it was born out of a very dark place and I feel like it's a bit lacking, I'm just happy I finished something for the first time in 8 months lol.
As for future projects, I plan on writing a series of drabbles based on the songs from Red Velvet's album The Red. There's also a bunch of other things sitting in my Google Drive folder that I have bits and pieces written for, but I don't know when I'll get to those. Between having eternal writer's block and always being at work, I don't have much time where I can sit down to write and be completely in the zone lol.
Thanks for letting me interview you, lovely!