Yearly Wrap-up (Writing Version
I am basically copying this straight from PF, hence the talk about blanket boxes and such. But still applicable to here, I think.
Original here.
What is a blanket box?
A blanket box is a way to break the ice on your new Pillowfort. This one is themed about Writing! To reply to the questions, create your own post (or several posts).
Rules
Blankets
Total number of completed stories:
I believe the count for this year is 2 stories published, which isn't terrible. I didn't post a lot of fic, either - 4 stand-alone stories and the continuation of the epic YOI fic (with a few associated ficlets).
I did finish two first drafts during Nano, though, and I'm very pleased with that.
Total word count:
The official wordcount for GYWO is 260K. This is much less than the 300K I'd hoped to write, but not terrible. I'd hoped to write a lot more over the summer, but it was trickier since Charlie dropped his nap back in January.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Less. I think this might be the least amount of fic I've written since I really started writing fic over ten years ago. That's partially because I was trying to focus more on original stories, but a lot of it is because I've been less inspired to write new fic than I have been in previous years.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
One of the Nano first drafts ended up having an aesexual character, which is new for me. (And is partially why I'm now consuming a lot of stories with aesexual characters, and will probably look for a sensitivity check on that when I get back to it.)
What's your own favourite story of the year? Not necessarily the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Jeez, why don't you ask me to pick between my flesh-and-blood children while you're at it? I LOVE THEM ALL EQUALLY.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Can I claim that aesexual character in the first draft? Because I really didn't realize she was aesexual until I was about halfway through, and I'm scared to death I'm going to mess it up. But I'm pretty sure any learning I do from her will be in the editing process in the new year, so I'm not sure she should count for this year's wrap-up.
From my past year of writing, what was....
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Bonded Beach, by far. Part of that is my own fault. I used it as bait to try to hold onto my mailing list subscribers in the wake of the new European opt-in laws (which by my understanding, I still had to comply with, since I had no way of knowing which subscribers were EU citizens or not). So basically I lost a ton of automatic sales on it, and it ended up getting very little notice and even fewer reviews. I couldn't get any of the major review sites to bite on it, either, and I dropped the ball on advertising, so... yeah. It flopped. Which is sad, because I really, really like that story.
Most fun story to write:
Personally I Blame the Coffee, which was one of the YOI fics from this summer. A reverse coffee shop AU in which Yuuri's the wealthy one and Victor's the barista. The title is mostly because I was probably drinking too much coffee when I wrote it, but seeing as it was a coffee shop AU, it sort of worked in my favor.
Most difficult story to write:
There were parts of TNL that were really tricky - mostly because OMG the story is huge. I don't think I ever want to write a 350K epic again, I'll tell you that.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Oh, that's easily Ben's Bakery. There's always been a few negative reviews for Pen's stories, and for the most part, I don't mind reading them; I tend to find them very instructive, actually, because they're usually a case of the wrong reader for the wrong story, and that helps me learn how to better market the subsequent books. But I've found that I can't read the negative reviews on Ben's, and I think it's largely because I've been taking them much more personally. I mean - they're probably right, but I can't read them or get much out of them, because they very much feel to me like an attack on how I wrote Ben and Adam, which is more or less straight out as my experience growing up Jewish in a very non-Jewish community. I get that the comments aren't meant that way, but... I can't help but read them that way. Which I think is probably okay, and I'm not too stressed about that. Ben's Bakery is out there, death of the author, etc and so forth.
Do you have any writing goals for the new year?
Yes:
1. To finish posting TNL. Should be easily enough done, there's only about 15 chapters left to post.
2. Editing/polishing/publishing the two Nano novels I wrote in 2018. Probably do-able? This will largely depend on how smoothly our upcoming move goes this summer.
3. Write 2 more first drafts of... well, anything, really. I'd love to get another holiday story out, and maybe even a holiday that's not December-based, but we'll see. I've had an idea for a Passover/Easter story on the back-burner, but I doubt I can get that done in time.
That's it - it's a short list, and probably fairly unambitious, but I'm hesitant to add more to it since we do have that international move coming up this summer, and that always messes with my writing schedule, because I never have any idea what's on the other side or how long it'll take to settle in to our new location. Years like this, it's good to be flexible. But that's also why I've been putting so much emphasis on writing first drafts now - I've found it's easier to work editing into a chaotic schedule than it is writing from scratch, so the more first drafts I get done now, the more writing I can ultimately have done by the end of 2019. It's a thought, anyway. Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.
Original here.
What is a blanket box?
A blanket box is a way to break the ice on your new Pillowfort. This one is themed about Writing! To reply to the questions, create your own post (or several posts).
Rules
- The first rule is that there are no rules
- Interpret or bend the prompts however you like
- Remember to link this post so other people can use the clean version!
Blankets
Total number of completed stories:
I believe the count for this year is 2 stories published, which isn't terrible. I didn't post a lot of fic, either - 4 stand-alone stories and the continuation of the epic YOI fic (with a few associated ficlets).
I did finish two first drafts during Nano, though, and I'm very pleased with that.
Total word count:
The official wordcount for GYWO is 260K. This is much less than the 300K I'd hoped to write, but not terrible. I'd hoped to write a lot more over the summer, but it was trickier since Charlie dropped his nap back in January.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Less. I think this might be the least amount of fic I've written since I really started writing fic over ten years ago. That's partially because I was trying to focus more on original stories, but a lot of it is because I've been less inspired to write new fic than I have been in previous years.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
One of the Nano first drafts ended up having an aesexual character, which is new for me. (And is partially why I'm now consuming a lot of stories with aesexual characters, and will probably look for a sensitivity check on that when I get back to it.)
What's your own favourite story of the year? Not necessarily the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Jeez, why don't you ask me to pick between my flesh-and-blood children while you're at it? I LOVE THEM ALL EQUALLY.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Can I claim that aesexual character in the first draft? Because I really didn't realize she was aesexual until I was about halfway through, and I'm scared to death I'm going to mess it up. But I'm pretty sure any learning I do from her will be in the editing process in the new year, so I'm not sure she should count for this year's wrap-up.
From my past year of writing, what was....
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Bonded Beach, by far. Part of that is my own fault. I used it as bait to try to hold onto my mailing list subscribers in the wake of the new European opt-in laws (which by my understanding, I still had to comply with, since I had no way of knowing which subscribers were EU citizens or not). So basically I lost a ton of automatic sales on it, and it ended up getting very little notice and even fewer reviews. I couldn't get any of the major review sites to bite on it, either, and I dropped the ball on advertising, so... yeah. It flopped. Which is sad, because I really, really like that story.
Most fun story to write:
Personally I Blame the Coffee, which was one of the YOI fics from this summer. A reverse coffee shop AU in which Yuuri's the wealthy one and Victor's the barista. The title is mostly because I was probably drinking too much coffee when I wrote it, but seeing as it was a coffee shop AU, it sort of worked in my favor.
Most difficult story to write:
There were parts of TNL that were really tricky - mostly because OMG the story is huge. I don't think I ever want to write a 350K epic again, I'll tell you that.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Oh, that's easily Ben's Bakery. There's always been a few negative reviews for Pen's stories, and for the most part, I don't mind reading them; I tend to find them very instructive, actually, because they're usually a case of the wrong reader for the wrong story, and that helps me learn how to better market the subsequent books. But I've found that I can't read the negative reviews on Ben's, and I think it's largely because I've been taking them much more personally. I mean - they're probably right, but I can't read them or get much out of them, because they very much feel to me like an attack on how I wrote Ben and Adam, which is more or less straight out as my experience growing up Jewish in a very non-Jewish community. I get that the comments aren't meant that way, but... I can't help but read them that way. Which I think is probably okay, and I'm not too stressed about that. Ben's Bakery is out there, death of the author, etc and so forth.
Do you have any writing goals for the new year?
Yes:
1. To finish posting TNL. Should be easily enough done, there's only about 15 chapters left to post.
2. Editing/polishing/publishing the two Nano novels I wrote in 2018. Probably do-able? This will largely depend on how smoothly our upcoming move goes this summer.
3. Write 2 more first drafts of... well, anything, really. I'd love to get another holiday story out, and maybe even a holiday that's not December-based, but we'll see. I've had an idea for a Passover/Easter story on the back-burner, but I doubt I can get that done in time.
That's it - it's a short list, and probably fairly unambitious, but I'm hesitant to add more to it since we do have that international move coming up this summer, and that always messes with my writing schedule, because I never have any idea what's on the other side or how long it'll take to settle in to our new location. Years like this, it's good to be flexible. But that's also why I've been putting so much emphasis on writing first drafts now - I've found it's easier to work editing into a chaotic schedule than it is writing from scratch, so the more first drafts I get done now, the more writing I can ultimately have done by the end of 2019. It's a thought, anyway. Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.