The Year In Fic [ganked from ilovetakahana ]
Overall thoughts.
You know what? It's been seven years since I last wrote fanfic, and then I went and watched Inception based on nothing but the spinning hallway scene, and then... well. Arthur and Eames happened, that's what.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Way more, considering I hadn't had a fandom or real fic-writing habit since '03.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Eames/Arthur, and Eames/Arthur/Ariadne OT3, and Cobb/Mal, and thwarted Arthur/Mal ... Yeah, Nolan, it's all your fault.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I'd say it would have to be Parlor Tricks as it was proof that I could still write fic. The main Parlor Tricks timeline has never been as popular as the smut I've written, as gritty plotty gen fic isn't really for everyone, but I love it the most because of the coherence of the worldbuilding I managed to cram into it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I actually threw out my outline for The Bullet Catch and decided to put The French Drop up as a WIP and it seems to have worked. I was afraid of losing interest in the stories, but despite life getting in the way of writing the characters are still jostling to the forefront of my mind.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
Finish the next installment of The Bullet Catch, give Eames his turn in the barrel.
My best story of this year.
I actually don't know. I don't want to nominate the Parlor Tricks timeline for this as gritty gen stuff is something I'm intimately comfortable and familiar with, so I'm going to nominate the fluffy, rather sweet Je me lance vers la gloire instead, as it taught me that I could in fact write well outside my comfort zone, even if I don't do it as much as I should.
My most popular story of this year.
Mr. Eames' List, probably because it was short, funny and cracky. Je me lance vers la gloire is a close second.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion.
... Well, I'd say the entire Parlor Tricks timeline, as I'm really more a gen fic writer than a smut/porn writer, but even that has dedicated readers so I'm happy enough.
Most fun story to write.
Mr. Eames' List. Really.
Story with the single sexiest moment.
Right now it'd have to be a naked jello-wrestling match between the bit where Arthur and Eames wake up in the Craigslist fic, and um, the bit where Eames forces Arthur to his knees in the sequel to the sequel for the Craigslist fic.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story.
The Craigslist Fic! Utterly filthy, completely counter to my usual gen fic perceptions, gratuitously porny, and entirely delightful. Plus, bonus Arthur being completely mortified when Eames answers his Craigslist personal.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters.
The ficlet I wrote for the kissing meme - I had always thought Arthur's relationship with Cobb and Mal being purely fraternal, but about then he kind of admitted that he had always been a little in love with Cobb and had a relationship with Mal that didn't work out.
Hardest story to write.
Still The Bullet Catch. It's the most ambitious thing I've ever set out to write, and I've been enlisting help from Russian and Finnish fact-checkers just to make sure I don't get details wrong. I'm a bit, um, OCD about this sort of thing.
(I can write 25k words in about a month - the first 700 words of The Bullet Catch took an entire month.)
Biggest surprise.
When Eames decided to tell me that he was actually the ex-boyfriend of an OC I'd written up solely to set up the meetings with the Russian mob in The Bullet Catch. (Sure, if you like being miserable I can enable that, Eames.)
Most unintentionally telling story.
Not so much a story as much a series of guides, but The Inception Fic Writer's Guide to Firearms pretty much indicates to folks who look at my journal/fic writing what kind of a writer I am. ie: OCD, obsessed with verisimilitude and gun safety, and maybe a little too fond of firearms.
In conclusion.
Good grief, Inception fandom. You're smart, full of people who write excellent guides and meta, crammed full of good fic and friendly to boot. I went from zero fanfic and no fandoms to 72,043 words of fic and counting - it'll probably be 120k words of fic by the time The Bullet Catch is done, not counting the other fics I may write in-between chapters.
NOLAN. YOUR BABY IS EATING MY MIND.
- Mel
You know what? It's been seven years since I last wrote fanfic, and then I went and watched Inception based on nothing but the spinning hallway scene, and then... well. Arthur and Eames happened, that's what.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Way more, considering I hadn't had a fandom or real fic-writing habit since '03.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Eames/Arthur, and Eames/Arthur/Ariadne OT3, and Cobb/Mal, and thwarted Arthur/Mal ... Yeah, Nolan, it's all your fault.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I'd say it would have to be Parlor Tricks as it was proof that I could still write fic. The main Parlor Tricks timeline has never been as popular as the smut I've written, as gritty plotty gen fic isn't really for everyone, but I love it the most because of the coherence of the worldbuilding I managed to cram into it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I actually threw out my outline for The Bullet Catch and decided to put The French Drop up as a WIP and it seems to have worked. I was afraid of losing interest in the stories, but despite life getting in the way of writing the characters are still jostling to the forefront of my mind.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
Finish the next installment of The Bullet Catch, give Eames his turn in the barrel.
My best story of this year.
I actually don't know. I don't want to nominate the Parlor Tricks timeline for this as gritty gen stuff is something I'm intimately comfortable and familiar with, so I'm going to nominate the fluffy, rather sweet Je me lance vers la gloire instead, as it taught me that I could in fact write well outside my comfort zone, even if I don't do it as much as I should.
My most popular story of this year.
Mr. Eames' List, probably because it was short, funny and cracky. Je me lance vers la gloire is a close second.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion.
... Well, I'd say the entire Parlor Tricks timeline, as I'm really more a gen fic writer than a smut/porn writer, but even that has dedicated readers so I'm happy enough.
Most fun story to write.
Mr. Eames' List. Really.
Story with the single sexiest moment.
Right now it'd have to be a naked jello-wrestling match between the bit where Arthur and Eames wake up in the Craigslist fic, and um, the bit where Eames forces Arthur to his knees in the sequel to the sequel for the Craigslist fic.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story.
The Craigslist Fic! Utterly filthy, completely counter to my usual gen fic perceptions, gratuitously porny, and entirely delightful. Plus, bonus Arthur being completely mortified when Eames answers his Craigslist personal.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters.
The ficlet I wrote for the kissing meme - I had always thought Arthur's relationship with Cobb and Mal being purely fraternal, but about then he kind of admitted that he had always been a little in love with Cobb and had a relationship with Mal that didn't work out.
Hardest story to write.
Still The Bullet Catch. It's the most ambitious thing I've ever set out to write, and I've been enlisting help from Russian and Finnish fact-checkers just to make sure I don't get details wrong. I'm a bit, um, OCD about this sort of thing.
(I can write 25k words in about a month - the first 700 words of The Bullet Catch took an entire month.)
Biggest surprise.
When Eames decided to tell me that he was actually the ex-boyfriend of an OC I'd written up solely to set up the meetings with the Russian mob in The Bullet Catch. (Sure, if you like being miserable I can enable that, Eames.)
Most unintentionally telling story.
Not so much a story as much a series of guides, but The Inception Fic Writer's Guide to Firearms pretty much indicates to folks who look at my journal/fic writing what kind of a writer I am. ie: OCD, obsessed with verisimilitude and gun safety, and maybe a little too fond of firearms.
In conclusion.
Good grief, Inception fandom. You're smart, full of people who write excellent guides and meta, crammed full of good fic and friendly to boot. I went from zero fanfic and no fandoms to 72,043 words of fic and counting - it'll probably be 120k words of fic by the time The Bullet Catch is done, not counting the other fics I may write in-between chapters.
NOLAN. YOUR BABY IS EATING MY MIND.
- Mel