Just An Ordinary Average Fic Meme
Here's a ficcy meme stolen from (and, indeed, originated by) 
thisbluespirit. I did this one before, actually, but somehow it turns out that that was three years ago, and none of the answers are the same now. It's an interestingly different one, because it picks out not your most kudosed fics, or whatever, but your supposedly most average ones.
I calculated the averages, by the way, by taking the totals listed on my AO3 stats page and dividing them by the number of fics to give the mean. Which arguably isn't the ideal criterion for "most average" anything, as for all of these metrics there were a few massive outliers dragging the total up. But, eh, who cares. It works as a fun way to pick out a few of your midrange fics and amuse yourself by imagining the sampling says something about you, and, really, what more can one ask?
Average word count: 2,059
Average hits count: 510
Average Kudos count: 58 (a number that surprised me so much I had to double-check it)
Average no. of comment threads: 5
Average no. of Bookmarks: 12
Work(s) closest to the average word count:
"Zoosemiotics" (Blake's 7) at 2,055 words. A very old one, this. It's a Cally-centric story that was apparently written for a B7-specific exchange on Livejournal that I barely remember doing. Having just read over it again, I think it holds up pretty well, though.
Work(s) closest to the average hit count:
"Only Here to Do the Job" (Good Omens TV) at 516 hits. This one's about Crowley and Warlock, and I wrote it in 2020 for one of those gazillion bingo cards I've done.
Work(s) closest to the average no of comments (/+ kudos if too many):
So, this one is kind of messy, as I realized after I'd found these five stories with five comments each that that stats page shows comment threads, and I was sorting by total comments. And maybe I could have somehow found which ones had five comment threads instead or something, but that would have been a lot of work. Which I was definitely not up for doing, especially as while I was trying to do this stuff, my mother called and kept me on the phone for about three hours trying unsuccessfully to do tech support for her and thoroughly fried my brain. So screw it. Stories with five comments, it is. I'd say they're average enough, anyway.
"It's Always Awkward Shopping with Your Dad" (Discworld). A drabble featuring Death and Ysabell, which served as another bingo fill.
"Inner Voices" (Farscape) A short character piece featuring Stark and Crichton. Well, kind of featuring Crichton, anyway. Apparently I wrote this for Yuletide's New Years Resolution collection in 2004? I have no idea why.
"The Light From the End of the Tunnel, Reflecting Into the Dark" (Once Upon a Time) A Regina-centric story I wrote as a pinch hit for the time travel-themed exhcange Past Imperfect, Future Unknown in 2019.
"Don't Call It a Void" (Undertale) A weird little meta-ish thing featuring W.D. Gaster, whoever the hell he actually is. This one was another bingo fill.
"Brain Man" (Farscape/Futurama) A crossover written a million years ago for the late, great Multiverse exchange. Featuring Farscape's Harvey, various members of the Planet Express crew, and some gratuitous Stargate references.
Work(s) closest to the average no of bookmark (/+ bookmarks):
Five stories with twleve bookmarks each:
"Still Just Us (The Two Adrift Remix)" (Torchwood/Doctor Who) A remix of "How to Save a Man from Drowning" by Poetry, featuring Jack Harkness and the ganger Doctor from "The Almost People"/"The Rebel Flesh." Written for a Doctor Who-specific remix exchange in 2014, apparently.
"However We Arrived Here, We Are Home" (Good Omens TV) An Aziraphale/Crowley thing I still can't help worrying is just a smidge too sappy. Written as yet another bingo fill.
"A Stranger in the City" (Torchwood/Star Trek: TOS) Another old Multiverse crossover, in which Jack Harkness finds himself in the middle of the TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever." I still can't believe I had the audacity to do that. Or that it worked.
"Just Another Hero" (Mad Max movies) Another bingo card fill, and an odd one-shot fandom I never would have expected to write anything for.
"Fail Until You're Good Enough at It That It Starts to Look Like Hope" (Disco Elysium) The first of my current run of Disco Elysium fics, featuring Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi.
Work(s) closest to the average no of kudos (/+ bookmarks):
"Time in a Bottle" (Sapphire & Steel) My "what happened to Sapphire and Steel after the last episode" fic, written for Yuletide 2011.
So, does all of that in fact say anything about me? Oh, who knows. I would say that's it's a reasonably good sampler of my writing over the years. It does at least hit most of my major fandoms, although it also showcases some much rarer ones, and the dual appearance of Torchwood is probably extremely misleading. And while it's hardly the set of stories I'd have picked out for the purpose, if you read 'em all you'd probably come away from the experience with a pretty good feel for what to expect from me as a fic writer in general. (And also with a lot of confusion, probably, unless you happened to know all those fandoms. God only knows what some of it might look like to a complete outsider.)
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/1019325.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.
thisbluespirit. I did this one before, actually, but somehow it turns out that that was three years ago, and none of the answers are the same now. It's an interestingly different one, because it picks out not your most kudosed fics, or whatever, but your supposedly most average ones.
I calculated the averages, by the way, by taking the totals listed on my AO3 stats page and dividing them by the number of fics to give the mean. Which arguably isn't the ideal criterion for "most average" anything, as for all of these metrics there were a few massive outliers dragging the total up. But, eh, who cares. It works as a fun way to pick out a few of your midrange fics and amuse yourself by imagining the sampling says something about you, and, really, what more can one ask?
Average word count: 2,059
Average hits count: 510
Average Kudos count: 58 (a number that surprised me so much I had to double-check it)
Average no. of comment threads: 5
Average no. of Bookmarks: 12
Work(s) closest to the average word count:
"Zoosemiotics" (Blake's 7) at 2,055 words. A very old one, this. It's a Cally-centric story that was apparently written for a B7-specific exchange on Livejournal that I barely remember doing. Having just read over it again, I think it holds up pretty well, though.
Work(s) closest to the average hit count:
"Only Here to Do the Job" (Good Omens TV) at 516 hits. This one's about Crowley and Warlock, and I wrote it in 2020 for one of those gazillion bingo cards I've done.
Work(s) closest to the average no of comments (/+ kudos if too many):
So, this one is kind of messy, as I realized after I'd found these five stories with five comments each that that stats page shows comment threads, and I was sorting by total comments. And maybe I could have somehow found which ones had five comment threads instead or something, but that would have been a lot of work. Which I was definitely not up for doing, especially as while I was trying to do this stuff, my mother called and kept me on the phone for about three hours trying unsuccessfully to do tech support for her and thoroughly fried my brain. So screw it. Stories with five comments, it is. I'd say they're average enough, anyway.
"It's Always Awkward Shopping with Your Dad" (Discworld). A drabble featuring Death and Ysabell, which served as another bingo fill.
"Inner Voices" (Farscape) A short character piece featuring Stark and Crichton. Well, kind of featuring Crichton, anyway. Apparently I wrote this for Yuletide's New Years Resolution collection in 2004? I have no idea why.
"The Light From the End of the Tunnel, Reflecting Into the Dark" (Once Upon a Time) A Regina-centric story I wrote as a pinch hit for the time travel-themed exhcange Past Imperfect, Future Unknown in 2019.
"Don't Call It a Void" (Undertale) A weird little meta-ish thing featuring W.D. Gaster, whoever the hell he actually is. This one was another bingo fill.
"Brain Man" (Farscape/Futurama) A crossover written a million years ago for the late, great Multiverse exchange. Featuring Farscape's Harvey, various members of the Planet Express crew, and some gratuitous Stargate references.
Work(s) closest to the average no of bookmark (/+ bookmarks):
Five stories with twleve bookmarks each:
"Still Just Us (The Two Adrift Remix)" (Torchwood/Doctor Who) A remix of "How to Save a Man from Drowning" by Poetry, featuring Jack Harkness and the ganger Doctor from "The Almost People"/"The Rebel Flesh." Written for a Doctor Who-specific remix exchange in 2014, apparently.
"However We Arrived Here, We Are Home" (Good Omens TV) An Aziraphale/Crowley thing I still can't help worrying is just a smidge too sappy. Written as yet another bingo fill.
"A Stranger in the City" (Torchwood/Star Trek: TOS) Another old Multiverse crossover, in which Jack Harkness finds himself in the middle of the TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever." I still can't believe I had the audacity to do that. Or that it worked.
"Just Another Hero" (Mad Max movies) Another bingo card fill, and an odd one-shot fandom I never would have expected to write anything for.
"Fail Until You're Good Enough at It That It Starts to Look Like Hope" (Disco Elysium) The first of my current run of Disco Elysium fics, featuring Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi.
Work(s) closest to the average no of kudos (/+ bookmarks):
"Time in a Bottle" (Sapphire & Steel) My "what happened to Sapphire and Steel after the last episode" fic, written for Yuletide 2011.
So, does all of that in fact say anything about me? Oh, who knows. I would say that's it's a reasonably good sampler of my writing over the years. It does at least hit most of my major fandoms, although it also showcases some much rarer ones, and the dual appearance of Torchwood is probably extremely misleading. And while it's hardly the set of stories I'd have picked out for the purpose, if you read 'em all you'd probably come away from the experience with a pretty good feel for what to expect from me as a fic writer in general. (And also with a lot of confusion, probably, unless you happened to know all those fandoms. God only knows what some of it might look like to a complete outsider.)
This entry was originally posted at https://astrogirl.dreamwidth.org/1019325.html. Comment here or there, whichever you like.