End of year fic meme
Full-length stories written: 25 SGA, 5 SG1, 15 SGA/SG1, 7 Firefly (inc on SG1 crossover), 1 CSI:New York, 2 CSI, 1 Yuletide fandom, 4 West Wing
Shorts: 2 SG1, 5 SGA/SG1, 1 Firefly
Pairing Stats:
SGA: John/Rodney (8), John/Lorne (1), John/Ford (1) Teyla/Sora (2), Teyla/Laura (1), Laura/Katie (3), Lorne/Parrish (3), Teyla/Ronon (1, background);
SG1: Cam/Daniel (2), Cam/Daniel/Vala (1);
Firefly: Inara/Zoë (1), Zoë/Wash;
West Wing: Zoë/Charlie(1), CJ/Toby (1), Sam/Josh (1), Ellie/Gina (2), Ellie/Donna (1);
CSI: Sara/Sofia(1), Catherine/Sofia (1);
X-over: John/Cam (16), John/O’Neill/Jackson (1), Daniel/Mal (1), Laura/Vala(1), Aiden/Sarah (1) (CSI)
My favorite story this year (of my own): Lines In The Dark; it’s kind of angsty, like What If I Told You, but not quite so much. And I love the idea of John on SG-1, especially this John who doesn’t have the gene and kind of got picked up for the team because Cam was desperate, except somehow the two of them ended up with this weird bond and almost wishing the others hadn’t come back. And both of them are sad in ways that they can’t really fix, and want something more than what they get but can’t have it and the whole thing is just melancholy but not tragic.
My best story this year: Fool Me Once or Wash Me Away; FmO drove me nuts on the details, because I stupidly decided to set it in season 4 and thus had to incorporate all kinds of random details that I hadn’t thought about when I planned it out, but I wanted a resolution to Ford and to the idea that John still believes he’s out there somewhere, and I wanted something that looked at the way John keeps losing people he’s close to and how rough that must be. And in the end, it had all the things I wanted, with bonus comfort sex which is something that I love, and a moderately complex plot that I like to think worked.
WmA was totally self-indulgent. I had a line in my fic ideas file about John coming back to Atlantis after his father’s funeral and the others giving him just as much comfort as he could accept and no more, and a vague idea that John drifted away from his father somehow and always regretted it, I think because of my unholy love for stories in which John’s parents are both good people and adult John goes back to them because it’s what he needs. So I had that, and the ending, and I wanted the story to go with it. It’s hard to say what I think makes it one of the best things I’ve written - I think because most of it is John on his own, in his own head, and while there are some things he can articulate, there’s a whole lot that he just can’t, because there isn’t a way of saying it. He knows he wants something, and the whole story is about him trying to get it - he tells Lorne why he’s going, then runs away; he tells his team that he is going but not why, then forces himself to give some clue; he wishes they were there and wishes he could talk to them, and he goes looking for Cameron when he’s in the Mountain; he’s at the funeral but he hides away, and he never finds out who invited him or sent him the flag; he sleeps with Cameron for the comfort, except what he really wanted was the hug; and then when he gets back to Atlantis, it’s the first time he can admit, even if it’s just in his head, that he basically wants his dad. He gets comfort from his team and Elizabeth, but in my head the thing he really wanted all along was someone to hug him and say everything was going to be okay, which is what he’d get from his dad, except he won’t say it that way, and it all goes back to the first memory we get, where he remembers his mum being killed in an accident, and his dad holding his hand while they walked home.
Story most tragically underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Single Step or Wild Dark Times. Single Step is seriously unappreciated, which is sad because I love it so much, and I enjoyed writing it so much, and creating this world for Teyla where the expedition is gone and she has no idea if they’re going to come back, but gets on with building this amazing thing in the universe she has left. On the other hand, it’s female character centric gen, so it’s not exactly a surprise that it wasn’t popular. Wild, Dark Times is another thing that I loved writing, and I love the characters in it as well, and the way it could go on. Having said that, it could have easily had another 10,000 words written for it, so maybe that’s why it’s not so popular.
Most fun story: Penguins and Sparrows and Stars and the prequel, Recruitment Drive; or Lacertae. P&S&S and RD are the space pirates AU verse, in which Sheppard and Lorne get chased off every planet they set foot on, usually at gun point, and it was so much fun to write. Lacertae featured fire-breathing lizards, however, as well as post-adrenaline Sheppard/Mitchell sex in a hut, so it has that to recommend it.
Most sexy story: Happy Hour or Falconry for Beginners; interestingly both for pretty much the same reason, which is that they feature one person watching the other and wanting them and there’s this connection between them that makes the sex at the end completely inevitable.
Story with the single sexiest moment: Hieroglyphics, with John drawing hearts on Rodney to say that he trusts him. That whole sex scene, actually - it’s the only one I’ve ever written that I thought really worked.
Most unintentionally telling story: What If I Told You; it’s all about comfort and having someone to go to when things absolutely suck and you just wish they were different and someone else was responsible rather than you, and there’s far more of me in this story than in anything else I’ve ever written.
"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for me" story: I’d tell you, but I wrote it for an annonymous exchange that hasn’t revealed the authors yet :o).
Story that shifted my own perception of the characters: Postscript
Postscript; mainly of Ford, because I always think of him as this fairly happy, care-free guy (he’s my age, for pity’s sake), but then in this he was serious and thoughtful and pretty perceptive, and it didn’t turn out at all the way I thought it would when I started it, but when I got to the end, it still made sense in terms of what we see on screen.
Hardest story to write: Pyxis. Which was a challenge request for Mal (Firefly)/Daniel (SG1), neither of whose heads have I ever written in before, and it just wouldn’t flow, even when I knew where it was going, and I pretty much hated it the whole way through, including after I finished it.
Worst story: Miscommunication; it needed more context, because most of the action happened before the story even started. Also, it was kind of a clichéd premise and I didn’t do anything original with it. It deserves the complete lack of comments that it got, honestly.
Easiest story to write: Fade Out To Black; once I’d figured out the angle, and how the memory stealing device would work, it just flowed. I expected it to be about 3000 words when I started, and it ended up being 3 times that, but I loved writing it, particularly Laura’s relationship with Katie, and her friendship with Lorne, which is a bit of my personal canon for the show and those two characters.
Story I'd like to revise (but probably won't): Friday Night, mainly in response to the feedback, which wanted a sex scene and for the tipping to be Americanised (10% is totally reasonable where I live!). The bit with Carter needs re-doing, I think, though I’m not really sure how.
Story I wish I'd finished: the one of which I have three pages, which were going to be the start of my Urban Legends fic before I changed my mind, and now have no direction but feature the planet of the Crazy Undecided Dance Freaks, and John and Rodney making bets on whether Ronon or Teyla will get them chased off the planet and should really really be used for something if only I could figure out what.
Story I didn't write but swear I will, someday: Mitchell/Sheppard/Lorne threesome during The Return, then Mitchell and Lorne stressing out over Sheppard while he’s off saving the city. It’s on my list for 14 Valentines though, so it’s going to happen.
Shorts: 2 SG1, 5 SGA/SG1, 1 Firefly
Pairing Stats:
SGA: John/Rodney (8), John/Lorne (1), John/Ford (1) Teyla/Sora (2), Teyla/Laura (1), Laura/Katie (3), Lorne/Parrish (3), Teyla/Ronon (1, background);
SG1: Cam/Daniel (2), Cam/Daniel/Vala (1);
Firefly: Inara/Zoë (1), Zoë/Wash;
West Wing: Zoë/Charlie(1), CJ/Toby (1), Sam/Josh (1), Ellie/Gina (2), Ellie/Donna (1);
CSI: Sara/Sofia(1), Catherine/Sofia (1);
X-over: John/Cam (16), John/O’Neill/Jackson (1), Daniel/Mal (1), Laura/Vala(1), Aiden/Sarah (1) (CSI)
My favorite story this year (of my own): Lines In The Dark; it’s kind of angsty, like What If I Told You, but not quite so much. And I love the idea of John on SG-1, especially this John who doesn’t have the gene and kind of got picked up for the team because Cam was desperate, except somehow the two of them ended up with this weird bond and almost wishing the others hadn’t come back. And both of them are sad in ways that they can’t really fix, and want something more than what they get but can’t have it and the whole thing is just melancholy but not tragic.
My best story this year: Fool Me Once or Wash Me Away; FmO drove me nuts on the details, because I stupidly decided to set it in season 4 and thus had to incorporate all kinds of random details that I hadn’t thought about when I planned it out, but I wanted a resolution to Ford and to the idea that John still believes he’s out there somewhere, and I wanted something that looked at the way John keeps losing people he’s close to and how rough that must be. And in the end, it had all the things I wanted, with bonus comfort sex which is something that I love, and a moderately complex plot that I like to think worked.
WmA was totally self-indulgent. I had a line in my fic ideas file about John coming back to Atlantis after his father’s funeral and the others giving him just as much comfort as he could accept and no more, and a vague idea that John drifted away from his father somehow and always regretted it, I think because of my unholy love for stories in which John’s parents are both good people and adult John goes back to them because it’s what he needs. So I had that, and the ending, and I wanted the story to go with it. It’s hard to say what I think makes it one of the best things I’ve written - I think because most of it is John on his own, in his own head, and while there are some things he can articulate, there’s a whole lot that he just can’t, because there isn’t a way of saying it. He knows he wants something, and the whole story is about him trying to get it - he tells Lorne why he’s going, then runs away; he tells his team that he is going but not why, then forces himself to give some clue; he wishes they were there and wishes he could talk to them, and he goes looking for Cameron when he’s in the Mountain; he’s at the funeral but he hides away, and he never finds out who invited him or sent him the flag; he sleeps with Cameron for the comfort, except what he really wanted was the hug; and then when he gets back to Atlantis, it’s the first time he can admit, even if it’s just in his head, that he basically wants his dad. He gets comfort from his team and Elizabeth, but in my head the thing he really wanted all along was someone to hug him and say everything was going to be okay, which is what he’d get from his dad, except he won’t say it that way, and it all goes back to the first memory we get, where he remembers his mum being killed in an accident, and his dad holding his hand while they walked home.
Story most tragically underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Single Step or Wild Dark Times. Single Step is seriously unappreciated, which is sad because I love it so much, and I enjoyed writing it so much, and creating this world for Teyla where the expedition is gone and she has no idea if they’re going to come back, but gets on with building this amazing thing in the universe she has left. On the other hand, it’s female character centric gen, so it’s not exactly a surprise that it wasn’t popular. Wild, Dark Times is another thing that I loved writing, and I love the characters in it as well, and the way it could go on. Having said that, it could have easily had another 10,000 words written for it, so maybe that’s why it’s not so popular.
Most fun story: Penguins and Sparrows and Stars and the prequel, Recruitment Drive; or Lacertae. P&S&S and RD are the space pirates AU verse, in which Sheppard and Lorne get chased off every planet they set foot on, usually at gun point, and it was so much fun to write. Lacertae featured fire-breathing lizards, however, as well as post-adrenaline Sheppard/Mitchell sex in a hut, so it has that to recommend it.
Most sexy story: Happy Hour or Falconry for Beginners; interestingly both for pretty much the same reason, which is that they feature one person watching the other and wanting them and there’s this connection between them that makes the sex at the end completely inevitable.
Story with the single sexiest moment: Hieroglyphics, with John drawing hearts on Rodney to say that he trusts him. That whole sex scene, actually - it’s the only one I’ve ever written that I thought really worked.
Most unintentionally telling story: What If I Told You; it’s all about comfort and having someone to go to when things absolutely suck and you just wish they were different and someone else was responsible rather than you, and there’s far more of me in this story than in anything else I’ve ever written.
"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for me" story: I’d tell you, but I wrote it for an annonymous exchange that hasn’t revealed the authors yet :o).
Story that shifted my own perception of the characters: Postscript
Postscript; mainly of Ford, because I always think of him as this fairly happy, care-free guy (he’s my age, for pity’s sake), but then in this he was serious and thoughtful and pretty perceptive, and it didn’t turn out at all the way I thought it would when I started it, but when I got to the end, it still made sense in terms of what we see on screen.
Hardest story to write: Pyxis. Which was a challenge request for Mal (Firefly)/Daniel (SG1), neither of whose heads have I ever written in before, and it just wouldn’t flow, even when I knew where it was going, and I pretty much hated it the whole way through, including after I finished it.
Worst story: Miscommunication; it needed more context, because most of the action happened before the story even started. Also, it was kind of a clichéd premise and I didn’t do anything original with it. It deserves the complete lack of comments that it got, honestly.
Easiest story to write: Fade Out To Black; once I’d figured out the angle, and how the memory stealing device would work, it just flowed. I expected it to be about 3000 words when I started, and it ended up being 3 times that, but I loved writing it, particularly Laura’s relationship with Katie, and her friendship with Lorne, which is a bit of my personal canon for the show and those two characters.
Story I'd like to revise (but probably won't): Friday Night, mainly in response to the feedback, which wanted a sex scene and for the tipping to be Americanised (10% is totally reasonable where I live!). The bit with Carter needs re-doing, I think, though I’m not really sure how.
Story I wish I'd finished: the one of which I have three pages, which were going to be the start of my Urban Legends fic before I changed my mind, and now have no direction but feature the planet of the Crazy Undecided Dance Freaks, and John and Rodney making bets on whether Ronon or Teyla will get them chased off the planet and should really really be used for something if only I could figure out what.
Story I didn't write but swear I will, someday: Mitchell/Sheppard/Lorne threesome during The Return, then Mitchell and Lorne stressing out over Sheppard while he’s off saving the city. It’s on my list for 14 Valentines though, so it’s going to happen.