Snowflake Challenge 2022 - Challenge #8
Challenge #8
In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, a gift of your time to the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well.
Well, last year was rough, no two ways about it. I'm sure the never-ending pandemic is taking a toll on a lot of people, and I'm no exception, so I'm not going to whine about it when things are generally pretty good for me. I struggled with writing last year in a way I haven't in many years, which made every word I put down on paper (metaphorically speaking) a small victory. But beyond that, two things stood out last year.
One, I got a promotion at work. My boss ambushed me at the end of the day on a random Wednesday, letting me know that I'd earned a promotion with all the hard work I put in on a very big project we worked on together. I was giddy and delighted, but mostly I was just shocked. I hadn't been angling for a promotion, and to own the truth, I wouldn't have asked for it and maybe didn't even want it. Promotions come with more responsibilities and higher expectations. I'm not lazy, but I do understand that more responsibility can take you away from the things that really matter.
Still, it's been mostly good. My boss can be difficult to work with, changes his mind a lot (without telling you he's done it), and is very demanding. As a result, I'm often frustrated with him, but I've also grown into the job in ways I didn't expect. I've learned a lot, and appreciate the faith he had in me when he hired me. Plus, it looks fantastic on a resume, so if I ever decide to ditch my job and go somewhere else, I'll at least have that.
Personally, as I said before, I struggled a lot last year. Writing has always been my refuge, but it wasn't really filling that role for me in the midst of year two of the pandemic. Normally, I'll do all three Rough Trade challenges, and finish all three by the end of the challenge month. Last year, I finished one of three stories. Ugh. Words and inspiration dried up in April, and while I had good momentum in November, it came too late in the month to finish the story.
That left July's challenge as the lone bright spot all year. I finished the story by the end of the month, and it was easily the best story I wrote last year. Like the Air Before a Storm is an MCU story crossing over characters from WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, specifically Darcy Lewis and Bucky Barnes. I just couldn't resist her snark and his broodiness. I've read a few stories featuring the pairing and, considering I love rare pairs, knew I'd have to try writing for them, just to see what I could make of it.
The story rounded out at about 30k words, after all the edits were finished, which is pretty good considering the original word count for the challenge was 25k. It was probably a little lighter on straight romance than I'd originally intended and reads more like a slow burn instead of a full-on romance. But I wanted the love story to feel earned, so jumping right into it felt wrong. As it turns out, these two are perfect for each other. The story unfolded just like I'd imagined and while it did grow beyond my original outline, it felt organic and necessary to the story.
As of this post, there are fourteen comments and 65 kudos (and eleven bookmarks, too!) since I posted it in December. I'm really pleased that the story seems to be resonating with the readers. Rare pairs aren't always an easy sell, but the MCU is so vast that there's room under the big top for everyone, so I don't worry about it so much in that fandom. Plus, it was a really great way to end the year. I think I needed the ego boost, frankly.
I'm hoping 2022 will be a good year. It certainly can't be worse than last year. Though, I probably just jinxed it by saying that. Damn.