End-of-year fic-writing meme
There are a few questions I felt awkward about answering or simply couldn't think of an answer for, so I just left them out! So if anyone wants to do the meme after seeing this post, better copy it from somewhere else (in my case, I got if from seascribe :) )
Fiction posted in 2015:
In addition to the fic I listed in this post a few months ago there was also:
Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Yolka
1600 words
Illya/Napoleon
Written for sparky955 for the Down the Chimney Affair exchange.
Two fics for hils, written at the mfu_scrapbook comm.
One Step Too Close
2400 words
Illya/Napoleon
Napoleon makes a split-second decision that costs him everything he holds dear.
Ghost Stories
1200 words
Illya/Napoleon
It's Halloween, and Illya and Napoleon are camping in the woods. So of course something scary surely has to happen... Fluff with a few more serious undertones.
Sherlock Holmes (Holmes/Watson and gen)
The Golden Bird
4600 words
Holmes/Watson
Once, when I was young and as yet completely unknown to the public, and my association with John Watson was in its early days, I found myself trapped in a cupboard with an unconscious ruffian and a female thief for company.
Written for swissmarg for the last holmestice exchange.
When the snow lay round about (link goes to fanfiction.net)
2300 words (four ficlets)
gen, various POVs
Series of unrelated Christmassy ficlets
Written for Hades' Christmas 2015 advent calendar
This year I wrote and posted:
Wrote 100000 words and posted 60000 words in the fandoms Sherlock Holmes (ACD canon, 10000 words), The Professionals (26000 words), Man from UNCLE (22000 words) and Snape/Lupin, Dumbledore/Grindelwald (Harry Potter, 2000 words)
Overall Thoughts:
The first and most important thing is to mention and thank the people who beta-read the fic listed here, helped with research or just generally egged me on: vsee, tripleransom, everyone at the LJ comm mfuwss, JoJo, the_wretching, yaoi_hunter, spikesgirl58, Elijahwildchild, loxleyprince and laurose8.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
About the same as every year since I took up writing again back in January 2011.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I didn't know I was going to start reading and writing Man from UNCLE fic, but it's not exactly a huge surprise. It's a show with a lot of elements reminiscent of other stuff I like (action, adventure, espionage, partners), I'd had it earmarked in my mind as something I might enjoy, and when new Region 2 DVDs became available this August I could finally start watching and writing.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Can't seem to come up with any clear theme, after racking my brains for a while. Unless it's just the same themes as every year (partners, friends, established relationships, casefic...)
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I'm very happy with One Step Too Close, a rather grim Man from UNCLE fic with a bleak ending. It's about the dangers when partners become lovers, and I really wanted to write it, even though it's the sort of fic I might hesitate before reading.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Not really. I did write a long fic from the POV of a minor character, with the fandom-popular m/m pairing pushed to the background, and the fic's main pairing being het with an OFC, something I wouldn't usually read, never mind write (The Long Game, in Pros fandom). But the m/m pairing that I was more familiar with writing also got a lot of screen-time in the fic, so I wouldn't say it was a huge risk.
Conversations at Simpson's-in-the-Strand (ACD Holmes fic) had flashbacks within flashbacks, and I hesitated before doing it. But messing around with the timeline of a fic is a risk I take a lot (though not usually to that extent) and mostly seem to get away with. Or maybe I just lose a lot of confused readers every time, but don't know about it...
My best story of this year:
Sunday Afternoon (Snape/Lupin, Dumbledore/Grindelwald) wasn't a particularly strong fic (turns out it's not so easy to write a fic about two pairings, and then not ever unite either of the two couples in the same room together) but pensnest turned it into an amazing podfic.
My most popular story of this year:
The Big Wheel Affair was very popular, perhaps because lots of people who saw the Man from UNCLE movie were also reading TV-verse fic.
My least favorite story this year:
None of them! At least, not among those I actually posted.
Most fun story to write:
The Long Game, I think, because it was in collaboration with the artist loxleyprince, and that was a lot of fun. And we have gone on to do something similar for another fic since! Probably one of the best things to happen in 2015.
The Big Wheel Affair was also fun (giant lasers mounted on Ferris wheels! A visit to Hungary. Lots of reading about the Iron Curtain. Lots of time spent reading stuff that didn't even make it into the story, like different types of schnaps, and the history of dialling codes in Austria.) I suppose I'm talking about the most fun story to research, but anyway, same thing.
Story with the sweetest moment:
Um... not sure. I'm usually quite sparing with the sweetness.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I also don't generally write sexy moments, I'm sorry to say...
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
I'm quite conservative (in the frame of reference of slash fandom, obviously, not of society in general!) and I don't really take many risks when I write. Perhaps I should. Maybe not in the "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" category, but rather in the "Wow, I didn't think I'd ever write that" category.
Most overdue:
If it's overdue in the sense of fic I've been wanting to post for a long time, then there weren't any this year, but I hope 2016 will be the year I post all the fic I wrote but didn't finish back in 2014...
Most eye roll-worthy title:
When I can't think of a good title (i.e. most of the time, unfortunately) I give a very bland and unimaginative one, but not an eyeroll-worthy one. Or at least, not one that makes me roll my eyes...
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
I don't think this is exactly what's meant by the question, but the_wretching's very detailed beta-reading of The Big Wheel Affair helped me get a better handle on the character of Napoleon.
Hardest story to write:
One Step Too Close was quite hard, as unhappy fics generally are.
From a technical point of view, I spent a while worrying about the flashbacks in Conversations at Simpson's-in-the-Strand.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
If I did end up with something unintentionally telling in a story, I don't think I'd then draw attention to it here!
Favorite opening line:
Favorite closing line:
Well, I'm usually happy with all of my opening lines, and unhappy with all of my closing lines, so...
Fic-writing goals for 2016:
I've got 78000 words worth of unfinished stories on my hard drive. Some of it's for fandoms that I'm not writing in any more, but I've also got four or five long fics that are halfway or almost finished, that I'd really like to post this year. I need to try and stop myself from starting any new ones!
Also to buy and learn to use some proper text dictation software, because the free software I'm using at the moment isn't good enough for writing fic.
Fiction posted in 2015:
In addition to the fic I listed in this post a few months ago there was also:
Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Yolka
1600 words
Illya/Napoleon
Written for sparky955 for the Down the Chimney Affair exchange.
Two fics for hils, written at the mfu_scrapbook comm.
One Step Too Close
2400 words
Illya/Napoleon
Napoleon makes a split-second decision that costs him everything he holds dear.
Ghost Stories
1200 words
Illya/Napoleon
It's Halloween, and Illya and Napoleon are camping in the woods. So of course something scary surely has to happen... Fluff with a few more serious undertones.
Sherlock Holmes (Holmes/Watson and gen)
The Golden Bird
4600 words
Holmes/Watson
Once, when I was young and as yet completely unknown to the public, and my association with John Watson was in its early days, I found myself trapped in a cupboard with an unconscious ruffian and a female thief for company.
Written for swissmarg for the last holmestice exchange.
When the snow lay round about (link goes to fanfiction.net)
2300 words (four ficlets)
gen, various POVs
Series of unrelated Christmassy ficlets
Written for Hades' Christmas 2015 advent calendar
This year I wrote and posted:
Wrote 100000 words and posted 60000 words in the fandoms Sherlock Holmes (ACD canon, 10000 words), The Professionals (26000 words), Man from UNCLE (22000 words) and Snape/Lupin, Dumbledore/Grindelwald (Harry Potter, 2000 words)
Overall Thoughts:
The first and most important thing is to mention and thank the people who beta-read the fic listed here, helped with research or just generally egged me on: vsee, tripleransom, everyone at the LJ comm mfuwss, JoJo, the_wretching, yaoi_hunter, spikesgirl58, Elijahwildchild, loxleyprince and laurose8.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
About the same as every year since I took up writing again back in January 2011.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I didn't know I was going to start reading and writing Man from UNCLE fic, but it's not exactly a huge surprise. It's a show with a lot of elements reminiscent of other stuff I like (action, adventure, espionage, partners), I'd had it earmarked in my mind as something I might enjoy, and when new Region 2 DVDs became available this August I could finally start watching and writing.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Can't seem to come up with any clear theme, after racking my brains for a while. Unless it's just the same themes as every year (partners, friends, established relationships, casefic...)
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I'm very happy with One Step Too Close, a rather grim Man from UNCLE fic with a bleak ending. It's about the dangers when partners become lovers, and I really wanted to write it, even though it's the sort of fic I might hesitate before reading.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Not really. I did write a long fic from the POV of a minor character, with the fandom-popular m/m pairing pushed to the background, and the fic's main pairing being het with an OFC, something I wouldn't usually read, never mind write (The Long Game, in Pros fandom). But the m/m pairing that I was more familiar with writing also got a lot of screen-time in the fic, so I wouldn't say it was a huge risk.
Conversations at Simpson's-in-the-Strand (ACD Holmes fic) had flashbacks within flashbacks, and I hesitated before doing it. But messing around with the timeline of a fic is a risk I take a lot (though not usually to that extent) and mostly seem to get away with. Or maybe I just lose a lot of confused readers every time, but don't know about it...
My best story of this year:
Sunday Afternoon (Snape/Lupin, Dumbledore/Grindelwald) wasn't a particularly strong fic (turns out it's not so easy to write a fic about two pairings, and then not ever unite either of the two couples in the same room together) but pensnest turned it into an amazing podfic.
My most popular story of this year:
The Big Wheel Affair was very popular, perhaps because lots of people who saw the Man from UNCLE movie were also reading TV-verse fic.
My least favorite story this year:
None of them! At least, not among those I actually posted.
Most fun story to write:
The Long Game, I think, because it was in collaboration with the artist loxleyprince, and that was a lot of fun. And we have gone on to do something similar for another fic since! Probably one of the best things to happen in 2015.
The Big Wheel Affair was also fun (giant lasers mounted on Ferris wheels! A visit to Hungary. Lots of reading about the Iron Curtain. Lots of time spent reading stuff that didn't even make it into the story, like different types of schnaps, and the history of dialling codes in Austria.) I suppose I'm talking about the most fun story to research, but anyway, same thing.
Story with the sweetest moment:
Um... not sure. I'm usually quite sparing with the sweetness.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I also don't generally write sexy moments, I'm sorry to say...
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
I'm quite conservative (in the frame of reference of slash fandom, obviously, not of society in general!) and I don't really take many risks when I write. Perhaps I should. Maybe not in the "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" category, but rather in the "Wow, I didn't think I'd ever write that" category.
Most overdue:
If it's overdue in the sense of fic I've been wanting to post for a long time, then there weren't any this year, but I hope 2016 will be the year I post all the fic I wrote but didn't finish back in 2014...
Most eye roll-worthy title:
When I can't think of a good title (i.e. most of the time, unfortunately) I give a very bland and unimaginative one, but not an eyeroll-worthy one. Or at least, not one that makes me roll my eyes...
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
I don't think this is exactly what's meant by the question, but the_wretching's very detailed beta-reading of The Big Wheel Affair helped me get a better handle on the character of Napoleon.
Hardest story to write:
One Step Too Close was quite hard, as unhappy fics generally are.
From a technical point of view, I spent a while worrying about the flashbacks in Conversations at Simpson's-in-the-Strand.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
If I did end up with something unintentionally telling in a story, I don't think I'd then draw attention to it here!
Favorite opening line:
Favorite closing line:
Well, I'm usually happy with all of my opening lines, and unhappy with all of my closing lines, so...
Fic-writing goals for 2016:
I've got 78000 words worth of unfinished stories on my hard drive. Some of it's for fandoms that I'm not writing in any more, but I've also got four or five long fics that are halfway or almost finished, that I'd really like to post this year. I need to try and stop myself from starting any new ones!
Also to buy and learn to use some proper text dictation software, because the free software I'm using at the moment isn't good enough for writing fic.