the end of year writing meme 2008
I've seen this floating around a bit lately so I guess that means it's time to look back again.
List of stories I've written in 2008:
Stargate: Atlantis:
A Brief Encounter (SGA/Torchwood crossover, Rodney/Jack, PG-13, prequel to A Holiday Humour)
Something New Under the Sky and the sequel Forms of Friendship (SGA/Buffy crossover, Teyla/Faith, PG)
The Finest Clothes Beneath (sequel to Naked Under These Clothes, John/Rodney, NC-17)
Torchwood:
Come On With the Rain (Jack/Ianto, PG)
Merlin:
First Night (tag to episode 1, gen)
The Worst Servant (drabble, gen)
And None But We Can Be Such Kings (Merlin/Arthur, R)
A Little Fire to Warm (Merlin/Arthur, PG-13)
Blue-eyed Death (drabble, gen, flashfic tag to episode 8)
Treason to Us (Merlin/Arthur, PG-13, flashfic)
Passing the Test (tag to episode 11, gen)
The Evil We Make (Nimueh, gen, flashfic)
My best story of this year:
Ooh. Hmm. I think probably Treason to Us. It's certainly the one I am proudest of and I'd had the idea of it percolating for quite a while before it got written down. I wanted it to be restrained but still have a lot of feeling in there because of the Arthur POV and I think I managed most of what I intended.
My favourite story of this year:
And None But We Can Be Such Kings. For many reasons, including how much fun I had writing it (despite unexpectedly having to add 3000 words to make it work before they even kissed), the incredible response people had to it, and perhaps most of all for introducing me to the lovely thisissirius who did the most amazing podfic of it and is now my partner in crime over at merlin_flashfic.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
Well, that is easy! Merlin and Merlin/Arthur. The series hadn't even started in Jan 2008 and even when I had seen adverts and articles on it I still wouldn't have predicted it winning me over so thoroughly. I honestly only watched the first episode because it had Anthony Head in it and I was completely blindsided by its charm and then later on, the desire to write about Merlin and Arthur insulting each other while being insanely obvious about their mutual love. And who needs slash goggles when they have a slash dragon?
Most fun story to write:
And None But We Can Be Such Kings again. Despite my bitching and moaning about it at the time, I really did enjoy that and I have to admit that there were several bits that ended up in it just because they made me laugh.
Sexiest Story:
The Finest Clothes Beneath. And we welcome back my ongoing obsession with John in women's underwear. I believe Naked Under These Clothes took this category in last year's meme, so it's not really a surprise that the sequel does as well. What can I say? The premise gets me.
(I was also pretty proud of writing this actually, since I sat down to do a birthday fic for torakowalski with no ideas whatsoever and by the end of the day had most of this done so it was a really lucky inspiration.)
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Argh. Too difficult to decide - it is a dead-on tie between the moment in The Finest Clothes Beneath where John and Rodney are sitting in the meeting getting more and more turned on, and the moment in And None But We Can Be Such Kings when Arthur backs Merlin across the room and pins him to the wall to kiss him.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Not a whole story, but OMG the bit where Merlin starts talking about the tragic accident involving the goat, three badgers and a pear tree in And None But We Can Be Such Kings. That seriously caused me to evaluate my sanity after I'd written it, because I have no idea where it came from!
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Pass. I don't think there was one.
Hardest story to write:
Something New Under the Sky, despite it not being that long. Teyla POV, which I hadn't done before, mixed with a BtVS crossover and an action sequence at the beginning did not make for an easy writing process!
Biggest Disappointment:
Not doing more SGA crossovers since the idea of signing up for that was to do more writing. Still not finishing the epic girl!John fic of epicness, sigh.
Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?
I never know what to say to this one. I don't think I took any particular writing risks. I haven't done many episode tags before so doing those for Merlin was a bit new, but not exactly risky.
Biggest Surprise:
People voting for my fics in the Merlin/Arthur fic awards. I am still completely stunned and very grateful.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
God, I don't know. If there are any, I probably don't want to know! I'd have to say Naked Under These Clothes just because I think any NC-17 fic is probably unintentionally telling.
Conclusions:
Given how much the list of fics is weighted towards Merlin, I'd say it is fairly obvious that it has taken over my brain!
I've written more than last year, so that is nice, but I still haven't finished my huge WIP and I did think I might last year. That will have to be my resolution for this year now.
List of stories I've written in 2008:
Stargate: Atlantis:
A Brief Encounter (SGA/Torchwood crossover, Rodney/Jack, PG-13, prequel to A Holiday Humour)
Something New Under the Sky and the sequel Forms of Friendship (SGA/Buffy crossover, Teyla/Faith, PG)
The Finest Clothes Beneath (sequel to Naked Under These Clothes, John/Rodney, NC-17)
Torchwood:
Come On With the Rain (Jack/Ianto, PG)
Merlin:
First Night (tag to episode 1, gen)
The Worst Servant (drabble, gen)
And None But We Can Be Such Kings (Merlin/Arthur, R)
A Little Fire to Warm (Merlin/Arthur, PG-13)
Blue-eyed Death (drabble, gen, flashfic tag to episode 8)
Treason to Us (Merlin/Arthur, PG-13, flashfic)
Passing the Test (tag to episode 11, gen)
The Evil We Make (Nimueh, gen, flashfic)
My best story of this year:
Ooh. Hmm. I think probably Treason to Us. It's certainly the one I am proudest of and I'd had the idea of it percolating for quite a while before it got written down. I wanted it to be restrained but still have a lot of feeling in there because of the Arthur POV and I think I managed most of what I intended.
My favourite story of this year:
And None But We Can Be Such Kings. For many reasons, including how much fun I had writing it (despite unexpectedly having to add 3000 words to make it work before they even kissed), the incredible response people had to it, and perhaps most of all for introducing me to the lovely thisissirius who did the most amazing podfic of it and is now my partner in crime over at merlin_flashfic.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
Well, that is easy! Merlin and Merlin/Arthur. The series hadn't even started in Jan 2008 and even when I had seen adverts and articles on it I still wouldn't have predicted it winning me over so thoroughly. I honestly only watched the first episode because it had Anthony Head in it and I was completely blindsided by its charm and then later on, the desire to write about Merlin and Arthur insulting each other while being insanely obvious about their mutual love. And who needs slash goggles when they have a slash dragon?
Most fun story to write:
And None But We Can Be Such Kings again. Despite my bitching and moaning about it at the time, I really did enjoy that and I have to admit that there were several bits that ended up in it just because they made me laugh.
Sexiest Story:
The Finest Clothes Beneath. And we welcome back my ongoing obsession with John in women's underwear. I believe Naked Under These Clothes took this category in last year's meme, so it's not really a surprise that the sequel does as well. What can I say? The premise gets me.
(I was also pretty proud of writing this actually, since I sat down to do a birthday fic for torakowalski with no ideas whatsoever and by the end of the day had most of this done so it was a really lucky inspiration.)
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Argh. Too difficult to decide - it is a dead-on tie between the moment in The Finest Clothes Beneath where John and Rodney are sitting in the meeting getting more and more turned on, and the moment in And None But We Can Be Such Kings when Arthur backs Merlin across the room and pins him to the wall to kiss him.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Not a whole story, but OMG the bit where Merlin starts talking about the tragic accident involving the goat, three badgers and a pear tree in And None But We Can Be Such Kings. That seriously caused me to evaluate my sanity after I'd written it, because I have no idea where it came from!
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Pass. I don't think there was one.
Hardest story to write:
Something New Under the Sky, despite it not being that long. Teyla POV, which I hadn't done before, mixed with a BtVS crossover and an action sequence at the beginning did not make for an easy writing process!
Biggest Disappointment:
Not doing more SGA crossovers since the idea of signing up for that was to do more writing. Still not finishing the epic girl!John fic of epicness, sigh.
Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?
I never know what to say to this one. I don't think I took any particular writing risks. I haven't done many episode tags before so doing those for Merlin was a bit new, but not exactly risky.
Biggest Surprise:
People voting for my fics in the Merlin/Arthur fic awards. I am still completely stunned and very grateful.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
God, I don't know. If there are any, I probably don't want to know! I'd have to say Naked Under These Clothes just because I think any NC-17 fic is probably unintentionally telling.
Conclusions:
Given how much the list of fics is weighted towards Merlin, I'd say it is fairly obvious that it has taken over my brain!
I've written more than last year, so that is nice, but I still haven't finished my huge WIP and I did think I might last year. That will have to be my resolution for this year now.