4 Writing Hacks I Learnt from Watching Korean Dramas

삼 (3) “Thievery” is a masterpiece

Sounds like a crime? Well… it is. And this is the hack that I am going to get arrested for (by other writers not the police). So, I am about to expose a top secret that no other writer will tell you about. And that is…

…Almost every piece of fiction writing is an act of thievery.

Well, the real OGs know this. And now you’re one of them. Congratulations.

Anyways, most pieces of fiction are either imitations of the work of other writers, or they were ideas stolen from real life events or experiences. But I am only going to talk about the latter; ideas stolen from real life sources. This form of thievery has been one of the greatest weapons for writers like me.

Although I have used this secret hack called “thievery” in some of my previous works, Korean dramas have taught me how incredibly it works. This is because; one, it educates your readers and creates awareness and, two, it thickens the plot of your story. Korean dramas like City Hunter (2011), Healer (2014), Vagabond (2019) and many other action or crime dramas are fictional dramas that portray the dark side of the Korean government in regard to greed, corruption, bribery and the quest for power. It is quite obvious that most of the events in these series were drawn from real life sources combined with the writer’s imagination. Even the legendary Korean movie Parasite (2019) directed by Bong Joon-ho was allegedly an art of “thievery” that was inspired from some of his real-life experiences and not his imagination alone. So, to the writers who have run out of ideas or imaginations for their stories, this is the hack or you.