2007 Fic Year in Review (ie: OMG I wrote *how* much?)
I came off a hiatus and started this year a fangirl without a fandom and I'm ending it on a way higher fannish note than I ever expected. Most of the way through 2006 I discovered Stargate: Atlantis and, when I ran out of new canon, Stargate: SG-1. January 2007 saw me taking my first tentative steps into the giant sprawling empire that is Stargate fandom.
I went from begging people to rec me stories to making 50 recs at stargateficrec. I jumped off a cliff with pepper_field, aurora_novarum and sg_fignewton to start up redial_the_gate and it's going far stronger than we could have hoped (almost 200 members!). And now I'm co-modding gategirlsdaily with stargazercmc.
Along the way I met so many amazing people, some even in person when I randomly decided to splurge and attend Dragon*Con. splash_the_cat said in her round-up, and I want to echo her sentiments, that as much as I love the creative endeavors fandom lets me participate in and witness, the friendships I've made with people who consistently amaze me with their creativity and brilliance and strength and friendship is by far what I treasure the most.
Writing-wise this was a much more productive year than I would have ever guessed (spending 4.5 months of it unemployed and aimless helped, I'm sure). I wrote 60 (!) fics ranging in length from a 173 word 5-things response to a 28,130 SGA novella. I'm honestly stunned I was that prolific.
Regular Stories (9 stories) [51,710 words]
Killer Bunnies From Space (SGA/SPN, G) (Gen, Rodney, Sam Winchester) [1289 words] 12/19/06
Distance From Here to Wherever You Are (SGA, PG) (Gen, John, Rodney, Elizabeth, etc) [28,130 words] 1/18/07
Eroding Away the Mountains (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [8592 words] 2/20/07
RADAR! (SG1, G) (Gen, team) [872 words] 3/9/07
Cornerstone (SG1, PG-13) (Daniel/Sha're, Daniel/Sarah, Daniel/Sam) [1966 words] 3/12/07
Metaphors and Beer Bottles (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [1212 words] 3/24/07
Lost (SG1, PG) (Gen, team) [549 words] 4/7/07
Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) (SG1, R) (Sam/Daniel) [8992 words] 4/24/07
Feeling Blue (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Teal'c friendship) [1081 words] 8/6/07
Challenge and Ficathon Stories (7 stories) [23,494 words]
Wings To Fly (sga_flashfic) (SGA, G) (Gen, Sheppard, pre-Atlantis) [1281 words] 12/27/06
The Sheppard and the Scholar (sga_flashfic) (SGA, PG) (Gen, John & Rodney friendship) [3456 words] 2/4/07
the selves we had to be (thassalia's reunion challenge) (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [862 words] 4/20/07
Discere Et Docere (sd_ficathon) (SG1, G) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [6933 words] 5/24/07
Scattered Shards (gateverse_remix) (SG1, PG-13) (Gen, Daniel, team) [2528 words] 6/30/07
Chasing Ghosts (sg1_by_hand) (SG1, NC-17) (Vala, Daniel) [2602 words] 10/26/07
Undertow (sg1teamficathon) (SG1, PG-13) (Gen, team) [5832 words] 11/15/07
Archived Comment Fics (12 Fics) [9313 words]
Sam Looks for Her Prince (SG1, G) [467 words] 2/24/07
Sam's First Day (SGA, R) (Sam/Rodney) [486 words] 7/4/07
PhD (SG1, G) (Sam & Daniel friendship) [238 words] 6/1/07
Sappy Sam/Daniel kid!fic (written with pepper_field) (SG1, PG) [2244 words] various times
Sam/Daniel - Mistletoe (SG1, PG) (Sam/Daniel sort of) [699 words] 12/23/07
*For the Porn Battle IV
Things Which Are Precious (SGA/SG1, NC-17) (Elizabeth/Daniel) [586 words] 7/17/07
Impossible Aches (SGA, NC-17) (Jack/Elizabeth) [784 words] 7/17/07
Sleep in the Dust of the Earth SG1, NC-17) (Daniel/Jonas/Sam) [764 words] 7/17/07
*For the Pornucopia
Shelter From the Storm (SG1, NC-17) (Sam/Daniel) [1354 words] 11/5/07
The Man (SG1, R) (Sam/Jack/Daniel) [390 words] 11/4/07
When Nothing Else is Left (SG1, PG) (Jack/Sara) [744 words] 11/3/07
Not One of Them (SG1/SGA, PG-13) (RepliCarter, RepliWeir) [557 words] 11/1/07
Ficlets written in response to 20-characater meme prompts (6 stories) [5247 words]
For I Have Seen The Storm (SG1, G) (Sha're, Jacob Carter/Selmak) [907 words] 12/12/07
The Promises We Keep (SG1, G) (Sha're, Teal'c) [453 words] 12/12/07
Tartan (SG1, PG) (Teal'c, Jonas Quinn) [543 words] 12/13/07
Weep Not For The Past (SG1, PG) (Bra'tac, Daniel) [975 words] 12/13/07
There Are No Maps (SGA, G) (Sam, Teyla) [587 words] 12/23/07
Substance Clad in Shadow (SG1, PG) (Sha'uri, Jack, Daniel) [1782 words] 12/23/07
Longer Stories Using the "Five Things" Format (4 stories) [8936 words]
Each Bullet Screams Your Name (Five Reasons John Sheppard Didn't Have to Shoot Acastus Kolya and One He Did) (SGA, R) [2355 words] 1/12/07
The Burden of Command (Four Things Jack Doesn't Like About Being General and One He Does) (SG1, G) [1432 words] 4/9/07
The Bullet Struck Hard, But I Do Not Bleed (Five Ways Teal'c and Daniel Work Their Way Past Sha're's Death) (SG1, PG) [1506 words] 10/9/07
Please Hang Up and Try Again (Five Phone Calls Daniel Jackson Never Got) (SG1, PG-13) [3643 words] 10/29/07
Regular "Five Things" Style Fics (22 Fics) [9386 words]
Five Things Jack O'Neill Regrets [333 words] 3/20/07
Five Earth Items Daniel Wished He Had on Abydos [332 words] 3/20/07
Five People Sam Never Should Have Kissed [465 words] 3/20/07
Five Books Cassie Loved [335 words] 3/20/07
Five Competitions in the SGC Betting Pool [492 words] 3/20/07
Five Places on Earth Daniel Wants to Take Sha're [243 words] 3/20/07
Five Things Jack Doesn’t Want Anyone to Know [274 words] 3/20/07
Five Lessons Sam Carter Had to Learn [343 words] 3/20/07
Five Things SG-1 Never Brought Back from Another Planet [384 words] 3/20/07
Five Things Rodney Does When he Can't Sleep [345 words] 3/20/07
Five Meals SG-1 Likes to Cook [407 words] 3/20/07
Five Things Sam or Daniel Does for the Other to Help Make Life Easier [519 words] 3/20/07
Five Things SGC's Psychiatrist Never Mentions About the Monthly Personnel Screenings [173 words] 3/20/07
Five Times Sam Missed Her Mom [452 words] 3/20/07
Five Ways Walter and Siler Save the Day [419 words] 4/30/07
Five People Teyla Ran Into at the SGC and the Impressions They Made on Her [418 words] 4/30/07
Five Mistakes Samantha Carter Would Correct, if Given the Chance [537 words] 4/30/07
Five Times Someone Found Out (To Their Peril) That SG1 Looks Out For Each Other [479 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Cam Wanted to Quit But Never Did [582 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Daniel Got Caught in the Rain [927 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Sam Ate the Red Jell-o [602 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Mitchell was Confused by the Alternate Mitchells [325 words] 5/3/07
Favorite Bits From the Year
Substantial Works in Progress I Intend to Finish Sometime (5 stories) [25,705 words]
"Filling in the Valleys" (Sequel to "Eroding Away the Mountain") (Sam & Daniel friendship) [2197 words]
She doesn't know if she was expecting a reaction, which is good because she didn't get much of one. It's simple to sign him out with the guard, so long as she promises to have him back by 0800 and stay with him the entire time (and it's ever so weird to have him treated the way they treat off-world guests, though maybe Daniel has never really been entirely from this world). He doesn't really react when they reach the surface, just follows her to her car, but then it's not like he hasn't seen a planet before.
Sam starts driving without a destination in mind and ends up circling around the Springs. In fear of awkward conversation, she finds an old cd - folk music from the Netherlands, of all things - that Daniel had left in her car a week before Kelowna and sticks it in. His fingers tap to the beat but he shows no sign of recognition. Finally on their third circle of town - slightly different route each time - he points up a dark road into the mountains and says, "That looks familiar."
She has to slam on the brakes and crank the wheel to make the turn and her tires screech in complaint, but she doesn't care. She'd taken turns to avoid this road until now - scared that he'd recognize it, or scared that he wouldn't. He doesn't say another word as she switches on the brights and climbs into the mountains, but she knows where to pull off.
"Unending" episode tag [2412 words]
With two bottles drained, Sam stood pressed to the window, looking toward the star she long ago identified as belonging to Earth. "I keep wondering if he is worried about us or even remembers us, but then I realize the time hasn't passed for him. The crew probably hasn't even gated home yet."
"Can you imagine if he was here?" Daniel commented. "We'd have had to install a fishing pond somewhere."
"He got me to look up, after we destroyed Apophis's ship," Sam said, her breath fogging the glass. "All those years of wanting to fly in space and the first time I did, I was too distracted to notice."
By the third bottle Teal'c felt the warmth of alcohol flooding his system - still an alien sensation - and Sam and Daniel were sprawled, flushed, on the floor. "If you'd told me twenty-five years ago everything that would happen, I, I wouldn't have believed you," Daniel announced to the empty wine bottle. "I would have told you I was just fine on Abydos - just torn down the 'gate, and been done with it."
"Do you wish you had?" Sam asked him quietly after he made no effort to continue.
AU fic based on "Road Not Taken" (SGA/SG1) [8553 words]
"And the me there has some gene that can activate the technology so you think I'll have it too?" Daniel nodded at him. "And, for some crazy reason, because this other version of me is like this, you think I can help you overthrow the government in our universe?"
"Well, when you put it like that," Daniel admitted, "it does sound…"
"Crazy," Jack finished.
"Right. Crazy. Which is one thing I'm not. I'm sure there's hidden cameras on me right now just waiting for me to agree so I can disappear to some prison. Do you think I'm stupid? You work for the government," Shep told them.
"Not anymore." Jack sounded old.
"Well, I don't know about the other John Sheppard, but I'm not the guy you're looking for," Shep said, reaching for the doorknob. "You'll have to find someone else to sacrifice himself for your cause."
Daniel shook his head, displaying a remarkable amount of disappointment in a single gesture. "There's a lot of people in the universe. It's not all about you."
Shep shook his head. "Whether or not I feel suicidal enough to join your cause" - he spat the word - " seems to be about me." He turned his back to them to step through the door.
He was halfway out the door when Jack called out. "Sheppard! Why'd you become a pilot?"
apocalypse_kree attempt #1 (S9-era SG1 + Jack) [11,721 words]
Sam sighed and sat down on Daniel's mattress, reaching up to brush sweaty hair back from his forehead. "Daniel, c'mon, wake up. We need you here," she whispered, earning herself a mutter and an attempt to push her hand away.
"What's he saying?" Cam asked, leaning closer.
"I don't know." Sam leaned in, trying to hear what Daniel was saying. "I think it's Abydonian. Daniel, 'cmon, Daniel, come back to us now."
Daniel's eyes opened briefly, closed again, then stayed open and he sat up, talking to the space to his left in a fast, soft language that reminded Cam a little bit of Arabic. He only caught one word he recognized. "Sha're?" he asked, looking at Sam.
She shrugged and reached out to grab Daniel's head, turning it towards her. "Daniel? Sha're isn't here right now. But we are and we need your help. I need you to try and focus."
Jackson's eyes looked at her, seeming to focus and unfocus for several seconds. "Sam?" he asked finally. "What's going on?" He grimaced a bit, reaching down to rub at his thigh.
apocalypse_kree attempt #2 (SG1/SGA) [822 words]
"Morning," Cam said, slowing his stride slightly. He knows how to move around men who don't want to remember they aren't able-bodied anymore.
"Carter sent me to fetch you," Sheppard tells him, setting an even pace away from the dining area. "Has something to show you."
"What is it?"
"You'll see." Cam can't see his face but he can hear the smirk in the man's voice. He follows him out to one of the undamaged piers, blinking in the early morning sunlight, and stops dead.
The object on the pier in front of him is obviously pieced together - metal of different colors and sizes and a hodge-podge welding job - but it has two wings and a tail and a windshield and is definitely plane-shaped and the way the light glints off the hull makes it look like the most beautiful thing Cam has ever seen.
"You guys made a plane?" he asks quietly, words almost choking in his throat. Sam slides out from underneath it, a wrench in her hand and grease in her hair and Zelenka pokes his head from around the nose to push up his glasses and all Cam can do is step forward to reach out and touch it, to feel if it's real.
Total Stories Posted: 26 Fics, 12 commentfics, 22 "five things" for 60 total
Total Word Count of Posted Stories: 108,086
Total Word Count of Works in Progress: 25,705
Total Usable Words in 2007: 133,791
And, Finally, the Traditional Questions
My Favorite Stories of the Year: I'm really happy with Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) and Metaphors and Beer Bottles and Cornerstone and Undertow but I think that for making me happy simply for existing, Eroding Away the Mountains will always be closest to my heart. There was something about it, besides being my first SG-1 fic and my first time writing Sam and Daniel, that hit every note I needed just right. Something about the story feels personal and special and I just had so much fun writing it and every so often I'll look back and just be happy it's there.
My Best Stories This Year: I think in terms of balancing an involved plot, action, and a large-ish cast of characters, as well as being my longest story ever, Distance From Here to Wherever You Are is up there. But I'm going to have to give this category to Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) because I think it struck the best balance with plot and characters and narrative styling and creativity and became a solid piece of work that stretched my writing ability in the process. It's a tighter, more complicated story than a lot of what I've written with a lot going on beneath the surface and of all the stories, I think shows the most how far I've come as a writer since I started writing fanfic 4 years ago.
Stories most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I can't really complain here, especially since coming from small fandoms the number and generosity of comments has been amazing. But, tie here - one from SGA, one from SG1. Distance From Here to Wherever You Are probably wins, just barely. I spent over three months writing and re-writing and polishing and I was very proud of the result and admit to being disappointed at the response it got. To be fair, I was a new author posting a long gen-story in a large fandom dominated by a single slash pairing, but I was still hoping for more readership. Coming up a close second would be Chasing Ghosts, written for sg1_by_hand and, well, not only did I post it on a Friday evening but NC-17 Daniel - Vala unrequited angst isn't really going to attract a large audience, even if I really had fun exploring Vala.
Stories I Wrote That I Never Thought I'd Write: This award goes to every single ship story on that list. From the "tamer" Cornerstone and Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) to the porn battle entries to the sg1_by_hand story to the threesome of The Man I NEVER thought I'd write non-canon ship, much less sex.
Most Fun Stories: For sheer silly fun I enjoy the Sappy Sam/Daniel kid!fic universe pepper_field and I created way too much but I also had a lot of fun with The Burden of Command (why is my Jack PoV so far almost all comedy?).
Sexiest Stories: Now here's a category I never expected to see myself responding to. I think I'm going for a tie between Chasing Ghosts (Vala, Daniel) and Impossible Aches (Jack/Elizabeth) though if you want happy sexy rather than angsty sexy I'd go for The Man (Sam/Jack/Daniel).
Hardest Stories to Write: Substance Clad in Shadow was difficult because I had to not only build a culture for Abydos based on how little we see but also figure out how Sha'uri was feeling the night after killing Ra - with a new, strange husband, a dead god, and having come back from death herself. Undertow was really difficult from a storytelling perspective - trying to maintain the non-linear confused narrative style without losing the reader or revealing information too early or too late.
Easiest Stories to Write: the selves we had to be and Not One of Them both popped almost fully formed into my head, as did most of Cornerstone. But for sheer coming out of nowhere and hijacking my brain to go from non-existence to completely written in under 24 hours, the award goes to the nearly 9000 words of Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You)
Favorite...John Sheppard: Each Bullet Screams Your Name for exploring his darker side.
Rodney McKay: Distance From Here to Wherever You Are for who he could evolve and grow into when exposed to the right people.
Elizabeth Weir: Impossible Aches for how attached she is to Atlantis and Not One of Them for what the Replicator nanites mean to her.
Sam Carter: Undertow for her sheer strength, Eroding Away the Mountains for *her* and Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) for her heart.
Daniel Jackson: Cornerstone for what he has been, Please Hang Up and Try Again for what he could have been, and the selves we had to be for what he could become.
Jack O'Neill: The "Road Not Taken" WiP with a close second to his quiet, pained acceptance in When Nothing Else is Left and his desperation to hold his team together in Undertow.
Teal'c: The Bullet Struck Hard, But I Do Not Bleed for everything he understands about Daniel.
Sha're: Substance Clad in Shadow because OMG backstory!
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? *sputters* I was thinking I'd write 5, maybe 10 stories if I was lucky, and probably not even that. Um. MORE
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Oh, tons. I really developed and explored my abilities as a writer this year. I went from freaking out that I was writing my first non-canon ship in Cornerstone to freaking out that I was writing a (very tame, glossed over) sex scene in Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) to writing NC-17 entries for porn battles and comment ficathons. I'm still not comfortable writing sex, and I still need lots of plot to make it happen, but I've come a long way from spending 30 minutes freaking out with hiyacynth on aim over not liking the word "naked" in my 5 sentence sex scene.
In terms of other risks, I played with a lot of narrative styles. I explored AU possibilities in Each Bullet Screams Your Name and Please Hang Up and Try Again, future!fic in Distance From Here to Wherever You Are and apoca!future!fic in When Nothing Else is Left and the selves we had to be (in which I also wrote Oma!speak). I bounced around with time and linearity in Cornerstone and even more so in Scattered Shards and Undertow. I wrote from 10 PoVs (John, Rodney, Elizabeth, Jack, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, Jonas, Sha're, Vala) and played with narrative voice in Not One of Them. I wrote long, plotty gen stories and pornlets and ship and comedy and angst and drama and action. I used symbolism and metaphors and mythology and played with visions and dreams and the passage of time. Some of it was more successful than others, but I've definitely come a long way.
Do you have any goals for the New Year? I want to continue to follow through on my fannish commitments with redial_the_gate and gategirlsdaily and get back to reccing at stargateficrec and I *really* want to finish the WiPs I mentioned (especially the "Road Not Taken" story and the ones for apocalypse_kree) as well as poke at the ideas in my head about Sara O'Neill and expanding the Jonas Quinn story glossed over in Sleep in the Dust of the Earth. And, of course, the "Eroding" sequel. And I need to write poor Cameron.
That said, I honestly will probably need to step back from fandom a tad next year and put more focus back on getting my real life back on track, especially since I hope to be going back to graduate school. I highly doubt 2008 will be this prolific (and, honestly, I hope it isn't).
I went from begging people to rec me stories to making 50 recs at stargateficrec. I jumped off a cliff with pepper_field, aurora_novarum and sg_fignewton to start up redial_the_gate and it's going far stronger than we could have hoped (almost 200 members!). And now I'm co-modding gategirlsdaily with stargazercmc.
Along the way I met so many amazing people, some even in person when I randomly decided to splurge and attend Dragon*Con. splash_the_cat said in her round-up, and I want to echo her sentiments, that as much as I love the creative endeavors fandom lets me participate in and witness, the friendships I've made with people who consistently amaze me with their creativity and brilliance and strength and friendship is by far what I treasure the most.
Writing-wise this was a much more productive year than I would have ever guessed (spending 4.5 months of it unemployed and aimless helped, I'm sure). I wrote 60 (!) fics ranging in length from a 173 word 5-things response to a 28,130 SGA novella. I'm honestly stunned I was that prolific.
Regular Stories (9 stories) [51,710 words]
Killer Bunnies From Space (SGA/SPN, G) (Gen, Rodney, Sam Winchester) [1289 words] 12/19/06
Distance From Here to Wherever You Are (SGA, PG) (Gen, John, Rodney, Elizabeth, etc) [28,130 words] 1/18/07
Eroding Away the Mountains (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [8592 words] 2/20/07
RADAR! (SG1, G) (Gen, team) [872 words] 3/9/07
Cornerstone (SG1, PG-13) (Daniel/Sha're, Daniel/Sarah, Daniel/Sam) [1966 words] 3/12/07
Metaphors and Beer Bottles (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [1212 words] 3/24/07
Lost (SG1, PG) (Gen, team) [549 words] 4/7/07
Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) (SG1, R) (Sam/Daniel) [8992 words] 4/24/07
Feeling Blue (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Teal'c friendship) [1081 words] 8/6/07
Challenge and Ficathon Stories (7 stories) [23,494 words]
Wings To Fly (sga_flashfic) (SGA, G) (Gen, Sheppard, pre-Atlantis) [1281 words] 12/27/06
The Sheppard and the Scholar (sga_flashfic) (SGA, PG) (Gen, John & Rodney friendship) [3456 words] 2/4/07
the selves we had to be (thassalia's reunion challenge) (SG1, PG) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [862 words] 4/20/07
Discere Et Docere (sd_ficathon) (SG1, G) (Gen, Sam & Daniel friendship) [6933 words] 5/24/07
Scattered Shards (gateverse_remix) (SG1, PG-13) (Gen, Daniel, team) [2528 words] 6/30/07
Chasing Ghosts (sg1_by_hand) (SG1, NC-17) (Vala, Daniel) [2602 words] 10/26/07
Undertow (sg1teamficathon) (SG1, PG-13) (Gen, team) [5832 words] 11/15/07
Archived Comment Fics (12 Fics) [9313 words]
Sam Looks for Her Prince (SG1, G) [467 words] 2/24/07
Sam's First Day (SGA, R) (Sam/Rodney) [486 words] 7/4/07
PhD (SG1, G) (Sam & Daniel friendship) [238 words] 6/1/07
Sappy Sam/Daniel kid!fic (written with pepper_field) (SG1, PG) [2244 words] various times
Sam/Daniel - Mistletoe (SG1, PG) (Sam/Daniel sort of) [699 words] 12/23/07
*For the Porn Battle IV
Things Which Are Precious (SGA/SG1, NC-17) (Elizabeth/Daniel) [586 words] 7/17/07
Impossible Aches (SGA, NC-17) (Jack/Elizabeth) [784 words] 7/17/07
Sleep in the Dust of the Earth SG1, NC-17) (Daniel/Jonas/Sam) [764 words] 7/17/07
*For the Pornucopia
Shelter From the Storm (SG1, NC-17) (Sam/Daniel) [1354 words] 11/5/07
The Man (SG1, R) (Sam/Jack/Daniel) [390 words] 11/4/07
When Nothing Else is Left (SG1, PG) (Jack/Sara) [744 words] 11/3/07
Not One of Them (SG1/SGA, PG-13) (RepliCarter, RepliWeir) [557 words] 11/1/07
Ficlets written in response to 20-characater meme prompts (6 stories) [5247 words]
For I Have Seen The Storm (SG1, G) (Sha're, Jacob Carter/Selmak) [907 words] 12/12/07
The Promises We Keep (SG1, G) (Sha're, Teal'c) [453 words] 12/12/07
Tartan (SG1, PG) (Teal'c, Jonas Quinn) [543 words] 12/13/07
Weep Not For The Past (SG1, PG) (Bra'tac, Daniel) [975 words] 12/13/07
There Are No Maps (SGA, G) (Sam, Teyla) [587 words] 12/23/07
Substance Clad in Shadow (SG1, PG) (Sha'uri, Jack, Daniel) [1782 words] 12/23/07
Longer Stories Using the "Five Things" Format (4 stories) [8936 words]
Each Bullet Screams Your Name (Five Reasons John Sheppard Didn't Have to Shoot Acastus Kolya and One He Did) (SGA, R) [2355 words] 1/12/07
The Burden of Command (Four Things Jack Doesn't Like About Being General and One He Does) (SG1, G) [1432 words] 4/9/07
The Bullet Struck Hard, But I Do Not Bleed (Five Ways Teal'c and Daniel Work Their Way Past Sha're's Death) (SG1, PG) [1506 words] 10/9/07
Please Hang Up and Try Again (Five Phone Calls Daniel Jackson Never Got) (SG1, PG-13) [3643 words] 10/29/07
Regular "Five Things" Style Fics (22 Fics) [9386 words]
Five Things Jack O'Neill Regrets [333 words] 3/20/07
Five Earth Items Daniel Wished He Had on Abydos [332 words] 3/20/07
Five People Sam Never Should Have Kissed [465 words] 3/20/07
Five Books Cassie Loved [335 words] 3/20/07
Five Competitions in the SGC Betting Pool [492 words] 3/20/07
Five Places on Earth Daniel Wants to Take Sha're [243 words] 3/20/07
Five Things Jack Doesn’t Want Anyone to Know [274 words] 3/20/07
Five Lessons Sam Carter Had to Learn [343 words] 3/20/07
Five Things SG-1 Never Brought Back from Another Planet [384 words] 3/20/07
Five Things Rodney Does When he Can't Sleep [345 words] 3/20/07
Five Meals SG-1 Likes to Cook [407 words] 3/20/07
Five Things Sam or Daniel Does for the Other to Help Make Life Easier [519 words] 3/20/07
Five Things SGC's Psychiatrist Never Mentions About the Monthly Personnel Screenings [173 words] 3/20/07
Five Times Sam Missed Her Mom [452 words] 3/20/07
Five Ways Walter and Siler Save the Day [419 words] 4/30/07
Five People Teyla Ran Into at the SGC and the Impressions They Made on Her [418 words] 4/30/07
Five Mistakes Samantha Carter Would Correct, if Given the Chance [537 words] 4/30/07
Five Times Someone Found Out (To Their Peril) That SG1 Looks Out For Each Other [479 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Cam Wanted to Quit But Never Did [582 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Daniel Got Caught in the Rain [927 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Sam Ate the Red Jell-o [602 words] 5/3/07
Five Times Mitchell was Confused by the Alternate Mitchells [325 words] 5/3/07
Favorite Bits From the Year
- Daniel sits with Sarah each evening in the tomb-like VIP quarters. She shatters in his arms, fragments spiraling away faster than he can collect them. It's like putting together an ancient piece of pottery, catching the edges on the pads of his fingers, finding where each potshard fits until he discovers the shape of the whole. By the time a dawn they never see lights the mountains, he always has her glued together. - Cornerstone
- It's a joining and a melding and a penetrating invasion and so much more than just a network that if Rodney could really see he'd stare in fascination for all eternity. But Elizabeth doesn't have eternity and she speaks the most Ancient language in the universe and has no words to describe the hiding and the running and the misleading and the being lost and everything chasing. - Not One of Them
- Kate asked him lots of questions, and he smiled and gave her non-committal answers and promised to come back if he ever needed to talk. They both knew it would never happen. He left her office and went straight to the armory, where he emptied round after round into paper targets.
Had he gone back in the following weeks or months, there were many things he could have not told her about. - Each Bullet Screams Your Name - Suddenly it's all too much, too many memories surfacing and diving, too many of her lives trying to be the right one. - Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You)
- His fingers, long and steady, trace hieroglyphs, letters, runes, ideographs into her back, fingertips rubbing against warm, smooth skin as he imprints the protective charms of twenty-three languages into her flesh. She doesn't move, doesn’t shiver, barely breathes. - Cornerstone
- Sam loves this about him. She looks at a new artifact and tries to backwards-engineer it, determine what it's made of, how it works, but Daniel looks at something and backwards-engineers the people who made it, the culture it came from. "Do you miss it?" she asks him. - Eroding Away the Mountains
- His hand - long fingers and rough calluses - is splayed across her stomach as though he can feel the wound deep inside - the empty, pulsing ache shaped like a city, shaped like a dream. - Impossible Aches
- "Sha're?" The name finally came, unbidden, trembling, barely audible, from his lips, lest she disappear into oblivion like Eurydice when Orpheus dared not believe. - Please Hang Up and Try Again
- It comes, appropriately, with the change of seasons, when the autumn wind rattling the windows has pulled most of the colored leaves off the trees. One night, as Jack is spelling out "futile" for a triple word score Daniel appears in a cream sweater with a glow around his edges. Sara doesn't even blink. - When Nothing Else is Left
- "The past is the past and we pay the price for our mistakes," Daniel continues. "It is only in accepting them that we can learn and move on. But I will not allow the future to pay for mine." - the selves we had to be
- Hands grip her shoulders and stubble grazes against her neck as Colonel O'Neill's voice rasps in her ear. "Sometimes the universe asks for more than you have. Sometimes you just have to give in and roll with it. And sometimes you have to speak up for yourself because the universe isn't listening. Now. Ready, set, RUN!" - Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You)
- The people they gave him to didn't have the right kind of dictionary, so he'd had to make his way to the library. "Orphan" came from the latin "orphanus" which meant "parentless child" but also from the Greek "orphanos" which literally meant "deprived" and "orphos" which meant "bereft" but if you went further into the Indo-European roots you found the base "orbho" which meant "deprived of free status" and shared a root with the words that became "robot" and meant "slave" or "hardship" or "heir." - Five Times Daniel Got Caught in the Rain
- "I know," Sam allows. "Sometimes I feel like I spend so much time saving the world I never get to live in it. I mean, I love what we do and I could never give it up. It's just, some days I look at people when I go to the store or the library, and I want their lives - ordinary and boring and blissfully ignorant of everything that's out there." - Eroding Away the Mountains
Substantial Works in Progress I Intend to Finish Sometime (5 stories) [25,705 words]
"Filling in the Valleys" (Sequel to "Eroding Away the Mountain") (Sam & Daniel friendship) [2197 words]
She doesn't know if she was expecting a reaction, which is good because she didn't get much of one. It's simple to sign him out with the guard, so long as she promises to have him back by 0800 and stay with him the entire time (and it's ever so weird to have him treated the way they treat off-world guests, though maybe Daniel has never really been entirely from this world). He doesn't really react when they reach the surface, just follows her to her car, but then it's not like he hasn't seen a planet before.
Sam starts driving without a destination in mind and ends up circling around the Springs. In fear of awkward conversation, she finds an old cd - folk music from the Netherlands, of all things - that Daniel had left in her car a week before Kelowna and sticks it in. His fingers tap to the beat but he shows no sign of recognition. Finally on their third circle of town - slightly different route each time - he points up a dark road into the mountains and says, "That looks familiar."
She has to slam on the brakes and crank the wheel to make the turn and her tires screech in complaint, but she doesn't care. She'd taken turns to avoid this road until now - scared that he'd recognize it, or scared that he wouldn't. He doesn't say another word as she switches on the brights and climbs into the mountains, but she knows where to pull off.
"Unending" episode tag [2412 words]
With two bottles drained, Sam stood pressed to the window, looking toward the star she long ago identified as belonging to Earth. "I keep wondering if he is worried about us or even remembers us, but then I realize the time hasn't passed for him. The crew probably hasn't even gated home yet."
"Can you imagine if he was here?" Daniel commented. "We'd have had to install a fishing pond somewhere."
"He got me to look up, after we destroyed Apophis's ship," Sam said, her breath fogging the glass. "All those years of wanting to fly in space and the first time I did, I was too distracted to notice."
By the third bottle Teal'c felt the warmth of alcohol flooding his system - still an alien sensation - and Sam and Daniel were sprawled, flushed, on the floor. "If you'd told me twenty-five years ago everything that would happen, I, I wouldn't have believed you," Daniel announced to the empty wine bottle. "I would have told you I was just fine on Abydos - just torn down the 'gate, and been done with it."
"Do you wish you had?" Sam asked him quietly after he made no effort to continue.
AU fic based on "Road Not Taken" (SGA/SG1) [8553 words]
"And the me there has some gene that can activate the technology so you think I'll have it too?" Daniel nodded at him. "And, for some crazy reason, because this other version of me is like this, you think I can help you overthrow the government in our universe?"
"Well, when you put it like that," Daniel admitted, "it does sound…"
"Crazy," Jack finished.
"Right. Crazy. Which is one thing I'm not. I'm sure there's hidden cameras on me right now just waiting for me to agree so I can disappear to some prison. Do you think I'm stupid? You work for the government," Shep told them.
"Not anymore." Jack sounded old.
"Well, I don't know about the other John Sheppard, but I'm not the guy you're looking for," Shep said, reaching for the doorknob. "You'll have to find someone else to sacrifice himself for your cause."
Daniel shook his head, displaying a remarkable amount of disappointment in a single gesture. "There's a lot of people in the universe. It's not all about you."
Shep shook his head. "Whether or not I feel suicidal enough to join your cause" - he spat the word - " seems to be about me." He turned his back to them to step through the door.
He was halfway out the door when Jack called out. "Sheppard! Why'd you become a pilot?"
apocalypse_kree attempt #1 (S9-era SG1 + Jack) [11,721 words]
Sam sighed and sat down on Daniel's mattress, reaching up to brush sweaty hair back from his forehead. "Daniel, c'mon, wake up. We need you here," she whispered, earning herself a mutter and an attempt to push her hand away.
"What's he saying?" Cam asked, leaning closer.
"I don't know." Sam leaned in, trying to hear what Daniel was saying. "I think it's Abydonian. Daniel, 'cmon, Daniel, come back to us now."
Daniel's eyes opened briefly, closed again, then stayed open and he sat up, talking to the space to his left in a fast, soft language that reminded Cam a little bit of Arabic. He only caught one word he recognized. "Sha're?" he asked, looking at Sam.
She shrugged and reached out to grab Daniel's head, turning it towards her. "Daniel? Sha're isn't here right now. But we are and we need your help. I need you to try and focus."
Jackson's eyes looked at her, seeming to focus and unfocus for several seconds. "Sam?" he asked finally. "What's going on?" He grimaced a bit, reaching down to rub at his thigh.
apocalypse_kree attempt #2 (SG1/SGA) [822 words]
"Morning," Cam said, slowing his stride slightly. He knows how to move around men who don't want to remember they aren't able-bodied anymore.
"Carter sent me to fetch you," Sheppard tells him, setting an even pace away from the dining area. "Has something to show you."
"What is it?"
"You'll see." Cam can't see his face but he can hear the smirk in the man's voice. He follows him out to one of the undamaged piers, blinking in the early morning sunlight, and stops dead.
The object on the pier in front of him is obviously pieced together - metal of different colors and sizes and a hodge-podge welding job - but it has two wings and a tail and a windshield and is definitely plane-shaped and the way the light glints off the hull makes it look like the most beautiful thing Cam has ever seen.
"You guys made a plane?" he asks quietly, words almost choking in his throat. Sam slides out from underneath it, a wrench in her hand and grease in her hair and Zelenka pokes his head from around the nose to push up his glasses and all Cam can do is step forward to reach out and touch it, to feel if it's real.
Total Stories Posted: 26 Fics, 12 commentfics, 22 "five things" for 60 total
Total Word Count of Posted Stories: 108,086
Total Word Count of Works in Progress: 25,705
Total Usable Words in 2007: 133,791
And, Finally, the Traditional Questions
My Favorite Stories of the Year: I'm really happy with Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) and Metaphors and Beer Bottles and Cornerstone and Undertow but I think that for making me happy simply for existing, Eroding Away the Mountains will always be closest to my heart. There was something about it, besides being my first SG-1 fic and my first time writing Sam and Daniel, that hit every note I needed just right. Something about the story feels personal and special and I just had so much fun writing it and every so often I'll look back and just be happy it's there.
My Best Stories This Year: I think in terms of balancing an involved plot, action, and a large-ish cast of characters, as well as being my longest story ever, Distance From Here to Wherever You Are is up there. But I'm going to have to give this category to Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) because I think it struck the best balance with plot and characters and narrative styling and creativity and became a solid piece of work that stretched my writing ability in the process. It's a tighter, more complicated story than a lot of what I've written with a lot going on beneath the surface and of all the stories, I think shows the most how far I've come as a writer since I started writing fanfic 4 years ago.
Stories most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I can't really complain here, especially since coming from small fandoms the number and generosity of comments has been amazing. But, tie here - one from SGA, one from SG1. Distance From Here to Wherever You Are probably wins, just barely. I spent over three months writing and re-writing and polishing and I was very proud of the result and admit to being disappointed at the response it got. To be fair, I was a new author posting a long gen-story in a large fandom dominated by a single slash pairing, but I was still hoping for more readership. Coming up a close second would be Chasing Ghosts, written for sg1_by_hand and, well, not only did I post it on a Friday evening but NC-17 Daniel - Vala unrequited angst isn't really going to attract a large audience, even if I really had fun exploring Vala.
Stories I Wrote That I Never Thought I'd Write: This award goes to every single ship story on that list. From the "tamer" Cornerstone and Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) to the porn battle entries to the sg1_by_hand story to the threesome of The Man I NEVER thought I'd write non-canon ship, much less sex.
Most Fun Stories: For sheer silly fun I enjoy the Sappy Sam/Daniel kid!fic universe pepper_field and I created way too much but I also had a lot of fun with The Burden of Command (why is my Jack PoV so far almost all comedy?).
Sexiest Stories: Now here's a category I never expected to see myself responding to. I think I'm going for a tie between Chasing Ghosts (Vala, Daniel) and Impossible Aches (Jack/Elizabeth) though if you want happy sexy rather than angsty sexy I'd go for The Man (Sam/Jack/Daniel).
Hardest Stories to Write: Substance Clad in Shadow was difficult because I had to not only build a culture for Abydos based on how little we see but also figure out how Sha'uri was feeling the night after killing Ra - with a new, strange husband, a dead god, and having come back from death herself. Undertow was really difficult from a storytelling perspective - trying to maintain the non-linear confused narrative style without losing the reader or revealing information too early or too late.
Easiest Stories to Write: the selves we had to be and Not One of Them both popped almost fully formed into my head, as did most of Cornerstone. But for sheer coming out of nowhere and hijacking my brain to go from non-existence to completely written in under 24 hours, the award goes to the nearly 9000 words of Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You)
Favorite...John Sheppard: Each Bullet Screams Your Name for exploring his darker side.
Rodney McKay: Distance From Here to Wherever You Are for who he could evolve and grow into when exposed to the right people.
Elizabeth Weir: Impossible Aches for how attached she is to Atlantis and Not One of Them for what the Replicator nanites mean to her.
Sam Carter: Undertow for her sheer strength, Eroding Away the Mountains for *her* and Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) for her heart.
Daniel Jackson: Cornerstone for what he has been, Please Hang Up and Try Again for what he could have been, and the selves we had to be for what he could become.
Jack O'Neill: The "Road Not Taken" WiP with a close second to his quiet, pained acceptance in When Nothing Else is Left and his desperation to hold his team together in Undertow.
Teal'c: The Bullet Struck Hard, But I Do Not Bleed for everything he understands about Daniel.
Sha're: Substance Clad in Shadow because OMG backstory!
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? *sputters* I was thinking I'd write 5, maybe 10 stories if I was lucky, and probably not even that. Um. MORE
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Oh, tons. I really developed and explored my abilities as a writer this year. I went from freaking out that I was writing my first non-canon ship in Cornerstone to freaking out that I was writing a (very tame, glossed over) sex scene in Preserve Your Memories (They're All That's Left You) to writing NC-17 entries for porn battles and comment ficathons. I'm still not comfortable writing sex, and I still need lots of plot to make it happen, but I've come a long way from spending 30 minutes freaking out with hiyacynth on aim over not liking the word "naked" in my 5 sentence sex scene.
In terms of other risks, I played with a lot of narrative styles. I explored AU possibilities in Each Bullet Screams Your Name and Please Hang Up and Try Again, future!fic in Distance From Here to Wherever You Are and apoca!future!fic in When Nothing Else is Left and the selves we had to be (in which I also wrote Oma!speak). I bounced around with time and linearity in Cornerstone and even more so in Scattered Shards and Undertow. I wrote from 10 PoVs (John, Rodney, Elizabeth, Jack, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, Jonas, Sha're, Vala) and played with narrative voice in Not One of Them. I wrote long, plotty gen stories and pornlets and ship and comedy and angst and drama and action. I used symbolism and metaphors and mythology and played with visions and dreams and the passage of time. Some of it was more successful than others, but I've definitely come a long way.
Do you have any goals for the New Year? I want to continue to follow through on my fannish commitments with redial_the_gate and gategirlsdaily and get back to reccing at stargateficrec and I *really* want to finish the WiPs I mentioned (especially the "Road Not Taken" story and the ones for apocalypse_kree) as well as poke at the ideas in my head about Sara O'Neill and expanding the Jonas Quinn story glossed over in Sleep in the Dust of the Earth. And, of course, the "Eroding" sequel. And I need to write poor Cameron.
That said, I honestly will probably need to step back from fandom a tad next year and put more focus back on getting my real life back on track, especially since I hope to be going back to graduate school. I highly doubt 2008 will be this prolific (and, honestly, I hope it isn't).