Fanfic: year in review
I started this before the new year, I swear I did, but I just finished it now. Navel-gazing, ahoy!
I wrote...
Fishing In Toronto (Figure Skating RPF, Yuzuru Hanyu/Javier Fernández)
The realist and the hopeless romantic (Figure Skating RPF, Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir)
Everything Is Yours (Hannibal, murder family)
Predictable and Unpredictable (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
Sidewalk Flower (Hannibal, Will/Alana)
Foreign Territory (Hannibal RPF, Mads Mikkelsen/Hugh Dancy/Claire Danes)
In Our Room (The Fosters, Brandon/Callie)
Layers and Layers (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
Roasted Rack of Dave Lamb (Hannibal/Come Dine With Me crossover, gen)
A typical Cary Agos (The Good Wife, Alicia/Cary)
Seeking (The Good Wife, Cary/Kalinda/Alicia)
Fake Boyfriends On Route 80 (Figure Skating RPF, Alex Shibutani/Adam Rippon)
The in-between (Figure Skating RPF, Nathalie Péchalat/Fabian Bourzat)
Total stories: 13
Fandoms: 5(ish)
Gen: 1
Het: 5
M/M: 4
F/F: 0 (quelle horreur!)
Threesomes: 3
01. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
More. Blame ‘Hannibal’. I’ve spent the last few years writing fic really only for myself (mostly rare pairings in niche fandoms). ‘Hannibal’ was the first fandom in a while where I really wanted to *contribute*. And that made me remember that HEY! Fic is awesome! That was a feeling that then spilled over into other fandoms (e.g. The Fosters, The Good Wife). So in the latter part of the year I really ended up writing more fic than I ever imagined I would.
02. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
The Come Dine With Me crossover was a little weird…? I also wrote magic realism for the first time this year. And if you’ve known me for a while you might remember the long stretch of my life when I really, really hated magic realism. Uh, so I guess I’ve grown as a writer? :D?
Otherwise, I wrote very much in my wheelhouse this year: serial killers, faux-cest, threesomes. Ahem.
03. What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Foreign Territory (Hannibal RPF, Mads Mikkelsen/Hugh Dancy/Claire Danes)
It really made me laugh a lot as I was writing it. And it sort of became a meditation on the meaning of marriage? The premise is very slight, but it ended up feeling nicely well-rounded by the time I finished it.
04. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Bizarrely, this was a year where writing non-risky stories felt like a risk. To explain: I’ve never been a writer who’s resisted using weird styles, writing odd pairings or out-there scenarios. What I’ve always found hard is writing a “straight” love story, or a nicely-plotted A-to-B story. I wrote some very conventional stories this year and they felt like risks to me. Shrug.
05. Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
In profic, I'd like to finish a(nother) novel and write some decent short stories. In fanfic, the only story I'm working on is a Daisuke Takahashi/Nikolai Morozov fic of dooooom. I will probably write All The Stories about serial killers when Hannibal returns for its second season, too. :9
06. From my past year of writing, what was...
My Best Story:
Layers and Layers (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
This is slightly more florid that it perhaps should be, but I like how vivid the imagery is. There’s very little dialogue, but I think every line spoken has punch (which is how it should be). This is a story that is almost exactly the same on the page as it was in my head, and wow, how often does that happen? (A: almost never)
Story Most Underappreciated By The Universe:
Fake Boyfriends On Route 80 (Figure Skating RPF, Alex Shibutani/Adam Rippon)
The in-between (Figure Skating RPF, Nathalie Péchalat/Fabian Bourzat)
Going from Hannibal fandom, where literally ANYTHING goes, back to figure skating fandom, where RPF is still kind of taboo, was a weird sensation. In a different fandom, I think these stories might have been a hit (they’re cute! one involves a road trip! the other involves a pink Christmas tree!), but I guess instead they’re ones to file under “stories I wanted to exist so I wrote them”. :)
Most Fun:
Foreign Territory (Hannibal RPF, Mads Mikkelsen/Hugh Dancy/Claire Danes)
See above.
Shoutout to the Hannibal/Come Dine With Me crossover that the world definitely didn’t need. :D
Most Disappointing:
Fake Boyfriends On Route 80 (Figure Skating RPF, Alex Shibutani/Adam Rippon)
I didn’t love my characterization of Alex in this. It fit the plot for him to be a little moody, but I actually see him as much more light-hearted. I felt like I sacrificed characterization for plot in this story, so that was disappointing.
Most Sexy:
Seeking (The Good Wife, Cary/Kalinda/Alicia)
I actually wrote more explicit things this year, but this was the story I spent most time doing the “cover your eyes and keep writing” thing, which is usually the sign of a really sexy story. ;) It was enjoyable to take three very different characters, with very different sexual proclivities, and try to fit them together (so to speak). I always enjoy writing (…emotionally…) messy sex more than perfect sex.
Hardest To Write:
A typical Cary Agos (The Good Wife, Alicia/Cary)
Quite obviously, since it was a story I took three years to finish. Even though in some ways it’s a PWP, there’s also quite a lot of plotting going on in the background. And I knew right from the start that I needed Alicia to have a pretty major change in perspective on Cary and, for a loooong time, I wasn’t sure how to accomplish that. So, bizarrely, this story feels like a triumph of plotting for me? (LOL.)
Most Unintentionally Telling:
A couple…
In Our Room (The Fosters, Brandon/Callie)
This is unintentionally telling if you’ve read my YA novel… because Brandon and Callie basically have the exact same dynamic as the step-siblings in my novel. I didn’t quite self-plagiarise in this, but yep, it’s pretty close. :D
Everything Is Yours (Hannibal, murder family)
I wrote this right after I got back from vacation to Italy, so quite a lot of details from that trip crept into this story (side note: I didn’t murder anyone while on vacation). It was also probably the most id-fic thing I wrote this year: a complete outpouring of my love for Abigail, for this show, for this twisted murder family dynamic. I wrote it in a weekend and I specifically only gave myself a weekend to write it. So it feels less like a story and more like an act of me flailing wildly. Which is probably unintentionally telling…?
Choice Lines:
Will didn’t look at him. His voice didn’t change. But the sky turned maroon and the heat in the air felt like a lover’s embrace.
Layers and Layers (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
There’s a warmth to the moment; a strange, unearned intimacy. Sex does not equal closeness, yet in this moment, she feels so close to him. It’s as if they’ve cracked opened up a door to what might be.
A typical Cary Agos (The Good Wife, Alicia/Cary)
Their bodies know exactly how to fit together. Years of practice. Years of muscle memory. When he’s eighty, his body will still remember the shape of hers.
The realist and the hopeless romantic (Figure Skating RPF, Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir)
Where Hannibal was utterly unyielding, Will was as delicate as the tissue-paper pages of a book. The merest touch and Abigail could break through.
Everything Is Yours (Hannibal, murder family)
I wrote...
Fishing In Toronto (Figure Skating RPF, Yuzuru Hanyu/Javier Fernández)
The realist and the hopeless romantic (Figure Skating RPF, Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir)
Everything Is Yours (Hannibal, murder family)
Predictable and Unpredictable (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
Sidewalk Flower (Hannibal, Will/Alana)
Foreign Territory (Hannibal RPF, Mads Mikkelsen/Hugh Dancy/Claire Danes)
In Our Room (The Fosters, Brandon/Callie)
Layers and Layers (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
Roasted Rack of Dave Lamb (Hannibal/Come Dine With Me crossover, gen)
A typical Cary Agos (The Good Wife, Alicia/Cary)
Seeking (The Good Wife, Cary/Kalinda/Alicia)
Fake Boyfriends On Route 80 (Figure Skating RPF, Alex Shibutani/Adam Rippon)
The in-between (Figure Skating RPF, Nathalie Péchalat/Fabian Bourzat)
Total stories: 13
Fandoms: 5(ish)
Gen: 1
Het: 5
M/M: 4
F/F: 0 (quelle horreur!)
Threesomes: 3
01. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
More. Blame ‘Hannibal’. I’ve spent the last few years writing fic really only for myself (mostly rare pairings in niche fandoms). ‘Hannibal’ was the first fandom in a while where I really wanted to *contribute*. And that made me remember that HEY! Fic is awesome! That was a feeling that then spilled over into other fandoms (e.g. The Fosters, The Good Wife). So in the latter part of the year I really ended up writing more fic than I ever imagined I would.
02. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
The Come Dine With Me crossover was a little weird…? I also wrote magic realism for the first time this year. And if you’ve known me for a while you might remember the long stretch of my life when I really, really hated magic realism. Uh, so I guess I’ve grown as a writer? :D?
Otherwise, I wrote very much in my wheelhouse this year: serial killers, faux-cest, threesomes. Ahem.
03. What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Foreign Territory (Hannibal RPF, Mads Mikkelsen/Hugh Dancy/Claire Danes)
It really made me laugh a lot as I was writing it. And it sort of became a meditation on the meaning of marriage? The premise is very slight, but it ended up feeling nicely well-rounded by the time I finished it.
04. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Bizarrely, this was a year where writing non-risky stories felt like a risk. To explain: I’ve never been a writer who’s resisted using weird styles, writing odd pairings or out-there scenarios. What I’ve always found hard is writing a “straight” love story, or a nicely-plotted A-to-B story. I wrote some very conventional stories this year and they felt like risks to me. Shrug.
05. Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
In profic, I'd like to finish a(nother) novel and write some decent short stories. In fanfic, the only story I'm working on is a Daisuke Takahashi/Nikolai Morozov fic of dooooom. I will probably write All The Stories about serial killers when Hannibal returns for its second season, too. :9
06. From my past year of writing, what was...
My Best Story:
Layers and Layers (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
This is slightly more florid that it perhaps should be, but I like how vivid the imagery is. There’s very little dialogue, but I think every line spoken has punch (which is how it should be). This is a story that is almost exactly the same on the page as it was in my head, and wow, how often does that happen? (A: almost never)
Story Most Underappreciated By The Universe:
Fake Boyfriends On Route 80 (Figure Skating RPF, Alex Shibutani/Adam Rippon)
The in-between (Figure Skating RPF, Nathalie Péchalat/Fabian Bourzat)
Going from Hannibal fandom, where literally ANYTHING goes, back to figure skating fandom, where RPF is still kind of taboo, was a weird sensation. In a different fandom, I think these stories might have been a hit (they’re cute! one involves a road trip! the other involves a pink Christmas tree!), but I guess instead they’re ones to file under “stories I wanted to exist so I wrote them”. :)
Most Fun:
Foreign Territory (Hannibal RPF, Mads Mikkelsen/Hugh Dancy/Claire Danes)
See above.
Shoutout to the Hannibal/Come Dine With Me crossover that the world definitely didn’t need. :D
Most Disappointing:
Fake Boyfriends On Route 80 (Figure Skating RPF, Alex Shibutani/Adam Rippon)
I didn’t love my characterization of Alex in this. It fit the plot for him to be a little moody, but I actually see him as much more light-hearted. I felt like I sacrificed characterization for plot in this story, so that was disappointing.
Most Sexy:
Seeking (The Good Wife, Cary/Kalinda/Alicia)
I actually wrote more explicit things this year, but this was the story I spent most time doing the “cover your eyes and keep writing” thing, which is usually the sign of a really sexy story. ;) It was enjoyable to take three very different characters, with very different sexual proclivities, and try to fit them together (so to speak). I always enjoy writing (…emotionally…) messy sex more than perfect sex.
Hardest To Write:
A typical Cary Agos (The Good Wife, Alicia/Cary)
Quite obviously, since it was a story I took three years to finish. Even though in some ways it’s a PWP, there’s also quite a lot of plotting going on in the background. And I knew right from the start that I needed Alicia to have a pretty major change in perspective on Cary and, for a loooong time, I wasn’t sure how to accomplish that. So, bizarrely, this story feels like a triumph of plotting for me? (LOL.)
Most Unintentionally Telling:
A couple…
In Our Room (The Fosters, Brandon/Callie)
This is unintentionally telling if you’ve read my YA novel… because Brandon and Callie basically have the exact same dynamic as the step-siblings in my novel. I didn’t quite self-plagiarise in this, but yep, it’s pretty close. :D
Everything Is Yours (Hannibal, murder family)
I wrote this right after I got back from vacation to Italy, so quite a lot of details from that trip crept into this story (side note: I didn’t murder anyone while on vacation). It was also probably the most id-fic thing I wrote this year: a complete outpouring of my love for Abigail, for this show, for this twisted murder family dynamic. I wrote it in a weekend and I specifically only gave myself a weekend to write it. So it feels less like a story and more like an act of me flailing wildly. Which is probably unintentionally telling…?
Choice Lines:
Will didn’t look at him. His voice didn’t change. But the sky turned maroon and the heat in the air felt like a lover’s embrace.
Layers and Layers (Hannibal, Hannibal/Will)
There’s a warmth to the moment; a strange, unearned intimacy. Sex does not equal closeness, yet in this moment, she feels so close to him. It’s as if they’ve cracked opened up a door to what might be.
A typical Cary Agos (The Good Wife, Alicia/Cary)
Their bodies know exactly how to fit together. Years of practice. Years of muscle memory. When he’s eighty, his body will still remember the shape of hers.
The realist and the hopeless romantic (Figure Skating RPF, Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir)
Where Hannibal was utterly unyielding, Will was as delicate as the tissue-paper pages of a book. The merest touch and Abigail could break through.
Everything Is Yours (Hannibal, murder family)