We are excited to introduce our next shining star for the Creator Spotlight… Mendelynn!
This is a member’s only activity where we reach out to one of the talented people in our community each month to find out all about them and their kakairu creations, and then show them off to the world!
We hope you enjoy learning about Mendelynn & her creations as much as we did. Please give her some love 
Pronouns: She/Her
Type of Creator: Writer
Where to find her:
1. How long have you been creating KakaIru fanworks?
According to my Ao3 stats, I uploaded the first chapter to my first KakaIru fanfiction, “Umino blood”, on 30th May 2019. I think I started working on that story half a year before that.
2. What are you working on right now?
I have two stories in progress, which are more on hiatus than they are actually in progress, and I revived my oldest story idea again… that one is an original story, though, that I may try to write anew. And in my first language, German.
3. What is your favorite trope to create for?
I do not think in tropes. To be honest, I still have to really understand the concept… I just see Kakashi and Iruka in the way that Kishimoto wrote them (and how I interpret his writing, of course) and I want them to be happy. So, I create scenarios where they have to interact with each other with the goal of making them a happy couple and the rest is guided by their personalities and the ideas that pop into my brain. There is a lot of slow burn, a lot of miscommunication, a lot of idiots to lovers. Idiots to lovers might be my favourite… but I do not create for a certain trope. My stories just happen to contain them. Therefore, my tags are messy. Sorry.
4. Which of your creations is your favorite, and why?
I would still say “Don’t let me go” is the best thing I have written so far… but my favourites might be the two shorts that I wrote and put into the “Kakashi and Iruka make fun of each other’s misery” series. I’m not good at writing funny stories, but I was very inspired for these two and they still bring a fat grin to my face when I read them (yes, I do read my own stories from time to time).
5. Do you have any WIPs you’re excited about?
Well, there are two stories I am working on, “Of Bodies and Minds” and “Fragrance”, and, of course, I love them a lot. There is also “Interlude”, the first KakaIru idea that I ever had which is very music-laden - Kakashi is a musician and band leader in this story. No, not the rock star kind, he’s the lead singer of an alternative jazz-pop combo inspired by Jamie Cullum’s music. This one is really interesting but I’m not sure if I’ll ever find the inspiration to continue and upload it. Also, there is a Gintama-Naruto crossover (Kakashi gets teleported into the Gintama world and has to help out in the Yorozuya until they find a way to get him back, and everyone thinks he is Gin-san’s more attractive brother) which I am dying to write because it’s so funny (that one only has an inkling of KakaIru). It has the same problem as “Interlude”, though… no muse.
6. Do you have any original characters? If so, tell us about them!
I have lots of OCs! Inside and outside my KakaIru workings. OCs appear in my stories all the time, whenever I need a specific person to do a specific thing that canon characters cannot do (e.g. die).
I mean, I created a whole Umino clan (with history and family tree) for “Umino blood”. A non-Naruto OC also had a tiny cameo in that story. But the one I have to mention is Umino Takaya because I love him so much more than my other OC children (I know I shouldn’t, I can’t help it). He was supposed to be just a small background character with one specific function but he disagreed, grabbed the mic and pushed everyone away from the spotlight to take it himself. He’s Iruka’s cousin, his best friend, and Naruto’s age. He’s extremely self-confident and bold, but at the same time sensitive and mindful of other’s feelings. He’s very gay. Words can’t describe how much I love him. (He is not my favourite OC of all time, though, that would be Met. But he is from said oldest story idea. And then there is Marleen… but I’m not allowed to talk about her.)
7. What was your hardest piece to create, and why?
There is not one story that is hard to write (if it is, I’ll never finish it), it’s specific moments and parts in the process. I struggle with domestic scenes a lot (and seeing how many there are in my stories, this is a real muse-killer). I am so meticulous in the way that I write that I never know where to put the cut or when to get out of a meaningless conversation or action or how to continue it in the first place. It’s a struggle, every time. Also, there is the problem of getting from one plot point I can envision clearly to the next.
8. Do you have any favorite scenes from something you’ve created?
I cannot, for the life of me, remember my own stories. Well, I remember the rough plot but never specific scenes. That’s why I can read them as if they were someone else’s work. It’s like rereading a book that you’ve read years ago. As soon as I write down a scene, it leaves my body and mind and does not belong to me anymore. It belongs to everyone who reads it.
I’m a big fan of wholesome moments and interesting dialogue, though. In general.
9. Where does your inspiration come from?
I wish I knew. Then, I would visit that place more often. To me, it feels like the inspiration and the ideas for my stories do not come from me or my brain. They are gifted to me by a higher power (Walter Moers calls it the Orm and I like that concept a lot). Thats why what I write does not feel like it belongs to me. I read it as if someone else had written it and I can’t believe that it is my own hands’ work. Music plays a big part in receiving inspiration, which is quite obvious in my shorter pieces, but it’s unpredictable if I’ll be receiving ideas or am just vibing. The most important thing for getting into a writing mood might be peace of mind. If I’m stressed, I can’t write. Hence, my current inactivity.
10. Which of your creations is the most meaningful to you, and why?
Every creation is meaningful to me. Every story is a learning process. With every story, especially the longer ones, I grow a bit more as a person and a writer. They all carry the emotions I felt while I was writing them. They carry my innermost thoughts and desires in a way that even I can only sometimes decipher. I am a storyteller by nature, I made up stories long before I could write, and therefore, my stories are my nature, my home.