Writing and fandom round up for 2014
Happy New Year!
Well, that was a fun one! (for writing, at least. RL, not so much, perhaps).
So, word counts:
Primeval: (fic and dino of the month) 14,966
Merlin: 10,950
Original fiction: 10,965
Casualty: 1338
Musketeers: 1715
Atlantis: (fic and episode reviews) 57,437
Total for 2014: 97,371
Sooooooo close to 100k!!!!!!! When I realised how close I was last night, I even had a last minute writing flail to see if I could get those last couple of thousand words, but after the week I've had it just wasn't going to happen *sadface*. But on the plus side, 97k! Which is over 30k more than last year, so I'm counting it as a win, even if I didn't hit 100k in the end.
It probably hasn't escaped anyone's attention that I have fallen hard for a new fandom, Atlantis, and unsurprisingly that has accounted for a large majority of my words for 2014. That said, I also ventured into two new fandoms, Musketeers and Casualty - yeah, don't ask about the Casualty fic, it was to get a multi-fandom achievement in a bingo, that's my excuse ;-). I was also surprised by quite how much Merlin I wrote, most of which was by accident as gift fics for the usual suspects (i.e. clea2011 and celeste9). I have to admit the Musketeers fic was also sort of unexpected, when I was thoroughly uninspired for Primeval for fredbassett's birthday.
It's also been a good year for wallpapers and graphics, most of them for Atlantis, because OMG, the PRETTY, lol! I also posted artwork for Doctor Who, even though there was no fic for DW, meaning my fannish activities have spread across six different fandoms in 2014. I've also been reading in Lewis, X Men - First Class, and In The Flesh, though haven't felt the urge to write for any of those. And in amongst all of that, I also wrote some original fiction.
The original fiction comprised of some poetry (yeah, I know!), which came third in a Nottingham Writers' Club competition, and a short story which I sent off to a Writing Magazine competition, and haven't heard anything about since. The rest of it was the first three chapters and synopsis of a m/m romance fiction novel, which was also entered for one of the NWC competitions. It didn't win, but I did get a lot of really encouraging feedback and suggestions from the adjudicator, so in 2015 I definitely intend to continue working on that and see if I can finish it. One of NWC's annual competitions is always 'first three chapters and synopsis of a novel', and since I didn't win in 2014, I might try entering it in the 2015 competition as well, and see if it does any better when I've made the suggested changes.
I am also still co-editor of the NWC quarterly magazine, and on the club committee, and through that I discovered Edge-lit event in Derby, which is a one day event all about genre literature - sci-fi, fantasy, horror - with loads of speakers, authors, small genre publishers, etc. And books. Lots and lots of books. I think by the end of the day I'd got four free books, two of which were freebies in the goody bag full of promo stuff, and two were won in a raffle (one signed by the author!). I also managed to speak to the guy who organises the event, and arranged for him to come and give a talk at NWC this year, so there's that to look forward to as well, because we don't often have genre writers at the club. So I'm definitely intending to go to Edge-lit again this year, I need to remember to keep an eye out for it.
I think I say every year that I intend to write more original fiction, but this year I really mean it. I've bought a big year wall planner for the express purpose of recording writing competition deadlines, so I can't use forgetting the deadline as an excuse to not enter competitions and stuff. I've recently realised that part of the reason why I haven't been entering the NWC competitions has been because the kind of genre fiction I want to write doesn't tend to do well; the club competitions tend to be more aimed at straighforward contemporary fiction. But recently I suddenly decided, what the hell. I used to have no fear with my writing. Many years ago when I first joined the club I used to enter fantasy and sci-fi and all sorts of stuff for the competitions, I'd try anything, just to see if I could do it (which sometimes worked and sometimes fell over spectacularly, but hey, it was a learning experience), and while my short stories didn't necessarily do well in the competitions, at least I was writing *something*. So the motto for this year is No Fear. Just write what I want, regardless of genre, and even if it doesn't do well in the club competitions I'll get some feedback from the adjudicator (usually a published author of some variety), and I've then got something that I can work with and try submitting it to other competitions or genre magazines. So, watch this space...
Back to fandom stuff, much of this year has been about bingos! A lot of the bingo activity this year has been the result of me, clea2011 and celeste9 being mutual bad influences on each other, and being highly competitive and wanting to WIN! I actually managed to complete a bingo line in Trope Bingo this year, but have pretty much given up on that, largely because it's entirely on Dreamwidth rather than lj, and as I don't have a Dreamwidth account it's a faff. I attempted Primeval Bingo, but so far have only filled two squares since August. Oops! The big hit of the year, however, has been hc_bingo, because I *am* Little Miss Maim and Kill, after all *evil grin*. So far for H/C bingo round 5 I have two bingos, and four achievements, and if I can finish it before the deadline on Saturday I'm aiming for a Postage Stamp Extra as well. \o/ Sadly a bingo blackout is still eluding me, but I'm tempted to get another h/c bingo card to play with during the amnesty from January to June, so you never know. I've also signed up for smallfandombang, although the last few months have been all about trying to fill as many h/c bingos as possible, so that hasn't got very far yet. I have it all plotted out, I just have to *write* it. 10k of Atlantis fic by the end of January, I can do that.. *meeps quietly*
So, 2014 was not a bad year for writing and fandom stuff. Bring on 2015!