2007: The Year in Fic
The reveal has happened! I wrote:
Jury Duty - (30 Rock, Gen, Ensemble) - Tracy has jury duty, Jenna discovers a new source of fame, Jack is on the verge of losing his job, and Liz tries to hold it all together.
Huge thanks to my two beta readers, E and Elizabeth, who read this story in bits and pieces and as completed drafts more times than I can count, and to my recipient, likeadeuce, who gave an awesome prompt and whose response to the story was so gracious and generous and all-around fabulous.
As for the story, actually writing it wasn't too torturous, but getting over the anxiety of having to write in a universe as hilarious and fun and specific in tone as 30 Rock was pretty tough. Not to mention the fact that as I got down to the wire, watching the show became as much an anxiety attack as it was a fun half hour, as fear that they would do something that would completely derail my story beyond my powers of fixing in the time left grew with each passing week.
Also, apologies for spamming you friends list - I'm going to post again in a minute or two to put the story up on my journal.
And now onto the 2007 fanfic meme!
Stories I wrote (and posted):
Feel That - (FNL, Tyra/Jason) - Four times Tyra Collette kissed Jason Street.
The Right Time - (Ugly Betty, Daniel/Betty) - When Betty Suarez wins her first National Magazine Award, Daniel Meade presents it to her.
Jury Duty - (30 Rock, Gen, Ensemble) - Tracy has jury duty, Jenna discovers a new source of fame, Jack is on the verge of losing his job, and Liz tries to hold it all together.
I also found the following ficlet on the hard drive, which I posted after reading it over a few times and adding a paragraph (so I don't think it really counts has having been written this year):
Piece by Piece - (Gilmore Girls, Gen, Lorelai) - Lorelai picks up fragments of a future and hands them to her daughter piece by piece.
In 2006 I also wrote three full-length stories and posted one ficlet from my hard drive. Kind of freaky.
My favorite:
The Right Time , probably. Almost immediately after I started watching Ugly Betty, I became (and remain) convinced that Daniel and Betty were Meant to Be, etc., and it was just so satisfying to write a completely indulgent how-they-get-together story. I think this was probably the easiest story I've ever written, and while part of me worries that it's too saccharine and cheesy, most of me doesn't care because DANIEL AND BETTY 2GETHER 4EVA, etc.
My best:
I always tend to pick the one I just finished because its flaws aren't as apparent to me as they will be in a few months, so I'll say Jury Duty.
Story most underappreciated by the universe:
In terms of numbers, Feel That was the full-length story with the fewest comments, but it still got more comments than I expected, so I definitely don't think it's underappreciated! And anyway, that's the story that I've wondered about the most this year after posting it; I feel like the beginning is kind of awkward, and there are a lot of run-on sentences, and the prose itself is kind of casual and slangy. I pretty much did that on purpose because I wanted the story to reflect Tyra's personality, but I can see how that might put off some readers, or maybe even detract from the story, so I don’t know.
Another thing is that whenever I read it over, I worry that readers might think that I hate Lyla because there's so much anti-Lyla vitriol in the story. But I really like Lyla! One of my favorite moments of the series is that episode when she shows up and cheers at the end! But Tyra hates Lyla (or at least she did at the time I wrote the story).
Most fun story:
Jury Duty, I think. One of the great things about writing in the 30 Rock universe is that there are very few limits; the show itself has such a wonderful absurdist bent that you feel free to kind of follow whatever line of humorous logic finds its way into your head. Even though I got stuck at points, I think that's outweighed by the fun of trying to come up with as many wacky jokes as I could.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I am such an unsexy writer! Maybe the moment at the kitchen table at the end of Feel That? Which sounds way more salacious than the moment actually is.
Hardest story to write:
This year was a really unusual year for me in that none of my stories was particularly torturous to write. Feel That and The Right Time both came out pretty quickly with minimal stress and anxiety. I did spend a long stretch of time blocked in the middle of writing Jury Duty, but other than that, the story moved along at a decent clip.
Most unintentionally telling story:
Last year I said that I thought that all my stories showed that I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and I think that's true this year, too. I think I can see other things in my stories as well, now that I think about it. My longstanding, complicated, and for the most part affectionate one-sided relationship with Oprah created a subplot in Jury Duty. My time spent teaching adolescents influenced a lot of what I wrote in Feel That. The Right Time just shows what a huge sap I am (but I think we all knew that already).
Jury Duty - (30 Rock, Gen, Ensemble) - Tracy has jury duty, Jenna discovers a new source of fame, Jack is on the verge of losing his job, and Liz tries to hold it all together.
Huge thanks to my two beta readers, E and Elizabeth, who read this story in bits and pieces and as completed drafts more times than I can count, and to my recipient, likeadeuce, who gave an awesome prompt and whose response to the story was so gracious and generous and all-around fabulous.
As for the story, actually writing it wasn't too torturous, but getting over the anxiety of having to write in a universe as hilarious and fun and specific in tone as 30 Rock was pretty tough. Not to mention the fact that as I got down to the wire, watching the show became as much an anxiety attack as it was a fun half hour, as fear that they would do something that would completely derail my story beyond my powers of fixing in the time left grew with each passing week.
Also, apologies for spamming you friends list - I'm going to post again in a minute or two to put the story up on my journal.
And now onto the 2007 fanfic meme!
Stories I wrote (and posted):
Feel That - (FNL, Tyra/Jason) - Four times Tyra Collette kissed Jason Street.
The Right Time - (Ugly Betty, Daniel/Betty) - When Betty Suarez wins her first National Magazine Award, Daniel Meade presents it to her.
Jury Duty - (30 Rock, Gen, Ensemble) - Tracy has jury duty, Jenna discovers a new source of fame, Jack is on the verge of losing his job, and Liz tries to hold it all together.
I also found the following ficlet on the hard drive, which I posted after reading it over a few times and adding a paragraph (so I don't think it really counts has having been written this year):
Piece by Piece - (Gilmore Girls, Gen, Lorelai) - Lorelai picks up fragments of a future and hands them to her daughter piece by piece.
In 2006 I also wrote three full-length stories and posted one ficlet from my hard drive. Kind of freaky.
My favorite:
The Right Time , probably. Almost immediately after I started watching Ugly Betty, I became (and remain) convinced that Daniel and Betty were Meant to Be, etc., and it was just so satisfying to write a completely indulgent how-they-get-together story. I think this was probably the easiest story I've ever written, and while part of me worries that it's too saccharine and cheesy, most of me doesn't care because DANIEL AND BETTY 2GETHER 4EVA, etc.
My best:
I always tend to pick the one I just finished because its flaws aren't as apparent to me as they will be in a few months, so I'll say Jury Duty.
Story most underappreciated by the universe:
In terms of numbers, Feel That was the full-length story with the fewest comments, but it still got more comments than I expected, so I definitely don't think it's underappreciated! And anyway, that's the story that I've wondered about the most this year after posting it; I feel like the beginning is kind of awkward, and there are a lot of run-on sentences, and the prose itself is kind of casual and slangy. I pretty much did that on purpose because I wanted the story to reflect Tyra's personality, but I can see how that might put off some readers, or maybe even detract from the story, so I don’t know.
Another thing is that whenever I read it over, I worry that readers might think that I hate Lyla because there's so much anti-Lyla vitriol in the story. But I really like Lyla! One of my favorite moments of the series is that episode when she shows up and cheers at the end! But Tyra hates Lyla (or at least she did at the time I wrote the story).
Most fun story:
Jury Duty, I think. One of the great things about writing in the 30 Rock universe is that there are very few limits; the show itself has such a wonderful absurdist bent that you feel free to kind of follow whatever line of humorous logic finds its way into your head. Even though I got stuck at points, I think that's outweighed by the fun of trying to come up with as many wacky jokes as I could.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I am such an unsexy writer! Maybe the moment at the kitchen table at the end of Feel That? Which sounds way more salacious than the moment actually is.
Hardest story to write:
This year was a really unusual year for me in that none of my stories was particularly torturous to write. Feel That and The Right Time both came out pretty quickly with minimal stress and anxiety. I did spend a long stretch of time blocked in the middle of writing Jury Duty, but other than that, the story moved along at a decent clip.
Most unintentionally telling story:
Last year I said that I thought that all my stories showed that I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and I think that's true this year, too. I think I can see other things in my stories as well, now that I think about it. My longstanding, complicated, and for the most part affectionate one-sided relationship with Oprah created a subplot in Jury Duty. My time spent teaching adolescents influenced a lot of what I wrote in Feel That. The Right Time just shows what a huge sap I am (but I think we all knew that already).