2009 Post-mortem
This is a sort-of year in review. I haven't done anything like this since 2005, I think, mostly because 2006 and 2007 were pretty much the same as 2005: I was miserable in grad school. Then I was miserable in grad school for the first half of 2008 and miserable in unemployment for the second half. So there wasn't much going on there, either.
But this year I feel like actually taking a look at what I did and accomplished and what I can take from that into the new year.
The most important thing that happened this year in my real life is that I finally found a job in my field. It's a job that I'm very happy at for now, and at the moment I'm not thinking too much about the future and the possibility of going back to grad school. I need to rebuild my savings and move back out of my parents' house and into my own place again. After that I think I'll feel better and be more able to clearly think about my future.
(I was going to have a much longer real life section, but I decided not to for a couple reasons. I kind of want to keep this post public, for one. Also, I'm not in a place right now where I can even write about personal life stuff. Recent events have left me very raw and hurt and angry and I don't have the objectivity to write about them. I could just focus on happier stuff from earlier in the year, but that seems dishonest. Right now I hate 2009 in real life terms, even though some really good stuff happened to me this year. But most of the bad stuff happened right at the end, and that colors everything else. So that's all something I need to hash out privately.)
So I set some pretty lofty goals for myself at the beginning of the year. I managed to follow the plan I had set out for myself for exactly one month: January. And even that didn't work out so well because I didn't even manage 10,000 words for the novel I was trying to work on that month.
I did reach my goal of 250,000 words written in one year. They just weren't as...productive as I would have hoped. Anyway, I'm going to have to thank getyourwordsout for their word tracking sheets; because of those I actually kept meticulous records of what I wrote and when.
So, first: I made a pie chart!
Now for the breakdown:
Not surprisingly, over a quarter of what I wrote this year came from my 100originalfics challenge. My goal for this year was to finish the challenge, which I didn't make. I wrote 31 prompts; I still have 29 more to go. I still spent too much time on these prompts because they were easy words. I need to focus more on the projects that matter, like my unfinished novels. Anyway, for the master list of prompts I've completed, go here.
My next biggest project was NaNoWriMo. Again, not surprising, but a little disappointing, especially considering how bored I got with it. Again, I need to be better about paying more attention to my unfinished projects. Anyway, if you want to see it, I made an archive post for this year's NaNo (The Cartographers' Society) here.
And then there was worldbuilding, which I guess is productive, at least. I spent a lot of time this year researching and outlining current projects, and too much time researching and outlining projects that never got off the ground. But I guess the notes will be there if I ever want to revisit those projects in the future.
The Miscellaneous category refers to things like articles, newsletters, and essays I wrote this year. Almost all of it had a productive purpose, so yay for that.
Short stories refers to creative writing I did that wasn't for 100originalfics or a novel. This was supposed to be the year where I tried to finish some things up for possible submission, but that just completely didn't happen. A lot of the words in this category came from half-finished projects that never went anywhere, sigh. A lot of the words came from the thebrenljidol competition. A few of the pieces I wrote for that can be found here and here.
Most of my novel-writing this year went to David Cleaner, my 2008 NaNo. There must be something there I like because I keep working on it and I even almost made my 2009 NaNo a sequel, but I just haven't been able to shape the narrative into anything approaching satisfying yet. I keep going back and forth about even trying to finish it at all. This is such a limbo story.
Prophecy's Burden, blech. I'm actually surprised I wrote as much on it as I did. I think the experience of writing it has become so unpleasant that I just blocked most of it out. I need to stop making the mistake of trying to make this story a priority. I just avoid writing when I'm in that mindset and more promising projects suffer.
I wrote a surprisingly large amount of fanfic this year (large for me, anyway). The bulk of it came from the epic Doctor Who/SG-1 crossover I spent a lot of time this summer working on, but the little prompts I did throughout December helped. Writing fanfic is very nerve-wracking for me, but I found that the more I did it the more comfortable I got. And it's fun. So I'm actually looking to increase my fanfic output in the coming year, even if it's not "serious" writing.
And finally, The Eighth Saimar, which is one of two novels I really want to finish in 2010. It's an old story that I never finished, and it really surprised me how easily I got back into the world. But more on that in a later post where I talk about what I'm going to focus on in the new year.
I got into two new fandoms this year:
1. Psych: I have to admit, when I saw the first promos for this show back in 2006 I dismissed it as an even more juvenile Monk. I'd watched the first two seasons of Monk, but it's the type of show that wears thin very fast and I wasn't interested in watching a rip-off of a show I'd already gotten tired of. Plus I was eyebrow-deep in Doctor Who fandom that summer and didn't have eyes for anything else. So the first time I watched this show was on accident, when I caught the end of "Truer Lies" back in February. I'd turned on USA to watch House but for some reason turned it on early. And just that fifteen-minute glimpse got me curious enough to watch my first full episode, which was "Tuesday the 17th." And it was nothing like Monk. I've been pretty much hooked ever since. It's sad that it's such a small fandom and that what little fandom there is on LJ is overrun with a pairing that I can't see at all, but I really, really love the show. And it's like getting a special treat when I see a new gen fic or a fic featuring a pairing I like pop up on my friends list.
2. Star Trek Reboot: I didn't think anything would make me want to go back and watch the original Star Trek series. This movie did. Well played, JJ. What really tickles me about this movie is that bits of it are obviously inspired by modern character-driven sci-fi TV and movies, which themselves were probably at least a little bit inspired by the original Star Trek. So it's all come full-circle. And I love the over-flowing imagination of the fandom, the pages and pages of fic and vids and meta that came from two hours of canon. I know Star Trek is a little different because a lot of people are also drawing from old canon and doing their own reboot version of it, but it's still awesome that this movie has revitalized a very old fandom to such a degree, and with only 120 minutes of new material. Also, there is ontd_startrek, which was like my home over the summer. My passion has cooled in the past few months, but I think this will be a fandom I'll be following for awhile. We've got another movie coming, after all. :D
And three fandoms I left entirely this year:
1. Pushing Daisies, because the show ended and the tiny fandom it did have mostly died. And I was never much into this fandom, so when the show got canceled there didn't seem to be much point.
2. Stargate Atlantis, which pains me because it was such a major part of my fandom life for so long. But it's been awhile since it was my primary fandom and the end of the series put an end even to that. I don't read the fic anymore. I want to, because I still want to hear about the adventures of John and Rodney and Teyla and Ronon and all the other characters, but my time is limited and when it comes down to having to choose between SGA and a newer fandom....well, the newer fandom usually wins out.
3. Doctor Who, which was sort of a death by a thousand cuts. The height of my fannishness with this show was during S3. I was so disgusted by the S3 finale, but I got over it during the hiatus, because S4 was going to have Donna! And I loved Donna. But S4 turned out to be mediocre (and I cannot fathom how that even happened with David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the leads. So much wasted potential there), and the finale was such an idiotic mess that I longed for the days of "Last of the Time Lords." Then there was the long hiatus. Then came the news that Tennant was leaving, and I wasn't even upset at the thought, which told me how little I cared about what happened on the show. Then followed a series of disappointing specials. Around March of this year I pulled out of all the DW comms I followed (I have since re-added tennant_love because I'm still a big fan of DT and now that he's out of Doctor Who I'll need something to keep me informed of his new projects) because I just didn't give a damn anymore. I don't know if I'll watch S5. I don't like saying that because then I feel people will think I was only in it for Tennant, but that's not really true. I loved the first new season with Christopher Eccleston, and I've enjoyed the old Who I've watched (mostly Two and Five). I'm just...disillusioned with the series now. I'll probably give S5 a chance, but I can't see myself being heavily into the fandom anymore.
(ironically, this year I felt more inspired than ever with various DW fic plot bunnies. But I think that's part of it, that the show itself isn't giving me anything satisfying in regards to the characters that I still love, so I feel the need to do it myself, even if most of the stories stay entirely in my head. Plus all those stories feature Ten and Martha having adventures, which just goes to show that my fannish view of DW ended circa July 2007 and it's all kind of been downhill from there.)
Production-wise, I wrote more fanfic this year than I ever have, including some in fandoms I've never written before. I did a few sets of icons, and a shit-ton of screencaps. I still feel like screencaps are the best thing I can offer fandom, since I'm mostly mediocre at the other stuff. But I want to do more icons and fic in the coming year.
But this year I feel like actually taking a look at what I did and accomplished and what I can take from that into the new year.
The most important thing that happened this year in my real life is that I finally found a job in my field. It's a job that I'm very happy at for now, and at the moment I'm not thinking too much about the future and the possibility of going back to grad school. I need to rebuild my savings and move back out of my parents' house and into my own place again. After that I think I'll feel better and be more able to clearly think about my future.
(I was going to have a much longer real life section, but I decided not to for a couple reasons. I kind of want to keep this post public, for one. Also, I'm not in a place right now where I can even write about personal life stuff. Recent events have left me very raw and hurt and angry and I don't have the objectivity to write about them. I could just focus on happier stuff from earlier in the year, but that seems dishonest. Right now I hate 2009 in real life terms, even though some really good stuff happened to me this year. But most of the bad stuff happened right at the end, and that colors everything else. So that's all something I need to hash out privately.)
So I set some pretty lofty goals for myself at the beginning of the year. I managed to follow the plan I had set out for myself for exactly one month: January. And even that didn't work out so well because I didn't even manage 10,000 words for the novel I was trying to work on that month.
I did reach my goal of 250,000 words written in one year. They just weren't as...productive as I would have hoped. Anyway, I'm going to have to thank getyourwordsout for their word tracking sheets; because of those I actually kept meticulous records of what I wrote and when.
So, first: I made a pie chart!
Now for the breakdown:
Not surprisingly, over a quarter of what I wrote this year came from my 100originalfics challenge. My goal for this year was to finish the challenge, which I didn't make. I wrote 31 prompts; I still have 29 more to go. I still spent too much time on these prompts because they were easy words. I need to focus more on the projects that matter, like my unfinished novels. Anyway, for the master list of prompts I've completed, go here.
My next biggest project was NaNoWriMo. Again, not surprising, but a little disappointing, especially considering how bored I got with it. Again, I need to be better about paying more attention to my unfinished projects. Anyway, if you want to see it, I made an archive post for this year's NaNo (The Cartographers' Society) here.
And then there was worldbuilding, which I guess is productive, at least. I spent a lot of time this year researching and outlining current projects, and too much time researching and outlining projects that never got off the ground. But I guess the notes will be there if I ever want to revisit those projects in the future.
The Miscellaneous category refers to things like articles, newsletters, and essays I wrote this year. Almost all of it had a productive purpose, so yay for that.
Short stories refers to creative writing I did that wasn't for 100originalfics or a novel. This was supposed to be the year where I tried to finish some things up for possible submission, but that just completely didn't happen. A lot of the words in this category came from half-finished projects that never went anywhere, sigh. A lot of the words came from the thebrenljidol competition. A few of the pieces I wrote for that can be found here and here.
Most of my novel-writing this year went to David Cleaner, my 2008 NaNo. There must be something there I like because I keep working on it and I even almost made my 2009 NaNo a sequel, but I just haven't been able to shape the narrative into anything approaching satisfying yet. I keep going back and forth about even trying to finish it at all. This is such a limbo story.
Prophecy's Burden, blech. I'm actually surprised I wrote as much on it as I did. I think the experience of writing it has become so unpleasant that I just blocked most of it out. I need to stop making the mistake of trying to make this story a priority. I just avoid writing when I'm in that mindset and more promising projects suffer.
I wrote a surprisingly large amount of fanfic this year (large for me, anyway). The bulk of it came from the epic Doctor Who/SG-1 crossover I spent a lot of time this summer working on, but the little prompts I did throughout December helped. Writing fanfic is very nerve-wracking for me, but I found that the more I did it the more comfortable I got. And it's fun. So I'm actually looking to increase my fanfic output in the coming year, even if it's not "serious" writing.
And finally, The Eighth Saimar, which is one of two novels I really want to finish in 2010. It's an old story that I never finished, and it really surprised me how easily I got back into the world. But more on that in a later post where I talk about what I'm going to focus on in the new year.
I got into two new fandoms this year:
1. Psych: I have to admit, when I saw the first promos for this show back in 2006 I dismissed it as an even more juvenile Monk. I'd watched the first two seasons of Monk, but it's the type of show that wears thin very fast and I wasn't interested in watching a rip-off of a show I'd already gotten tired of. Plus I was eyebrow-deep in Doctor Who fandom that summer and didn't have eyes for anything else. So the first time I watched this show was on accident, when I caught the end of "Truer Lies" back in February. I'd turned on USA to watch House but for some reason turned it on early. And just that fifteen-minute glimpse got me curious enough to watch my first full episode, which was "Tuesday the 17th." And it was nothing like Monk. I've been pretty much hooked ever since. It's sad that it's such a small fandom and that what little fandom there is on LJ is overrun with a pairing that I can't see at all, but I really, really love the show. And it's like getting a special treat when I see a new gen fic or a fic featuring a pairing I like pop up on my friends list.
2. Star Trek Reboot: I didn't think anything would make me want to go back and watch the original Star Trek series. This movie did. Well played, JJ. What really tickles me about this movie is that bits of it are obviously inspired by modern character-driven sci-fi TV and movies, which themselves were probably at least a little bit inspired by the original Star Trek. So it's all come full-circle. And I love the over-flowing imagination of the fandom, the pages and pages of fic and vids and meta that came from two hours of canon. I know Star Trek is a little different because a lot of people are also drawing from old canon and doing their own reboot version of it, but it's still awesome that this movie has revitalized a very old fandom to such a degree, and with only 120 minutes of new material. Also, there is ontd_startrek, which was like my home over the summer. My passion has cooled in the past few months, but I think this will be a fandom I'll be following for awhile. We've got another movie coming, after all. :D
And three fandoms I left entirely this year:
1. Pushing Daisies, because the show ended and the tiny fandom it did have mostly died. And I was never much into this fandom, so when the show got canceled there didn't seem to be much point.
2. Stargate Atlantis, which pains me because it was such a major part of my fandom life for so long. But it's been awhile since it was my primary fandom and the end of the series put an end even to that. I don't read the fic anymore. I want to, because I still want to hear about the adventures of John and Rodney and Teyla and Ronon and all the other characters, but my time is limited and when it comes down to having to choose between SGA and a newer fandom....well, the newer fandom usually wins out.
3. Doctor Who, which was sort of a death by a thousand cuts. The height of my fannishness with this show was during S3. I was so disgusted by the S3 finale, but I got over it during the hiatus, because S4 was going to have Donna! And I loved Donna. But S4 turned out to be mediocre (and I cannot fathom how that even happened with David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the leads. So much wasted potential there), and the finale was such an idiotic mess that I longed for the days of "Last of the Time Lords." Then there was the long hiatus. Then came the news that Tennant was leaving, and I wasn't even upset at the thought, which told me how little I cared about what happened on the show. Then followed a series of disappointing specials. Around March of this year I pulled out of all the DW comms I followed (I have since re-added tennant_love because I'm still a big fan of DT and now that he's out of Doctor Who I'll need something to keep me informed of his new projects) because I just didn't give a damn anymore. I don't know if I'll watch S5. I don't like saying that because then I feel people will think I was only in it for Tennant, but that's not really true. I loved the first new season with Christopher Eccleston, and I've enjoyed the old Who I've watched (mostly Two and Five). I'm just...disillusioned with the series now. I'll probably give S5 a chance, but I can't see myself being heavily into the fandom anymore.
(ironically, this year I felt more inspired than ever with various DW fic plot bunnies. But I think that's part of it, that the show itself isn't giving me anything satisfying in regards to the characters that I still love, so I feel the need to do it myself, even if most of the stories stay entirely in my head. Plus all those stories feature Ten and Martha having adventures, which just goes to show that my fannish view of DW ended circa July 2007 and it's all kind of been downhill from there.)
Production-wise, I wrote more fanfic this year than I ever have, including some in fandoms I've never written before. I did a few sets of icons, and a shit-ton of screencaps. I still feel like screencaps are the best thing I can offer fandom, since I'm mostly mediocre at the other stuff. But I want to do more icons and fic in the coming year.