Fic Year In Review Meme, preceded by some bitching.
Dear Mother Nature:
Thank you so much for causing an avalanche to take out highway between Calgary and Vancouver, because that doesn't FUBAR our delivery schedule causing hordes of angry customers to calls us, oh no.
No fucking love AT ALL,
Liza. >:P
This version is from eve11, with a few refinements of my own:
Fics Completed:
Asoninity (Due South, Fraser&RayV, G, 424 words)
She Shall Be Called (DCU, Virago, PG, 256w)
Three's a Crowd (The Taming of the Shrew Remix) (Slings and Arrows, Geoffery/Ellen, Oliver/Geoffrey, R, 300w)
In the North (The Lone Wolf Backbeat Remix) (Due South, Deif&Fraser, G, 200w)
Happy Memory (The Grace Under Pressure Remix) (SGA/Harry Potter, Mckay (hints of S/R), PG, 230w)
Not So Local Maximum (The Only Constant Remix) (Doctor Who, Rose, G, 250w)
The Mandrake's Tale (Selfish, Stubborn Remix) (Pan's Labrynth, Mandrake, PG, 101w)
Butterflies in Borneo (Farscape, John/Aeryn, G, 442w)
Stop Your Sobbing (Farscape, Rygel, Crais, Stark, G, 392w)
Always, Forever (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, G, 106w)
Rough Mix (Farscape, Stark, PG13, 214w)
Save the Last Dance for Me (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, PG, 208w)
Dig It (Farscape, General, G, 100w)
This Could Be Love (Farscape, Stark/Scorpius(NC), R, 126w)
I Live With It Everyday (Farscape, Stark, PG, 136w)
Runaround (Farscape, Avastark, PG, 104w)
Secretly Fond of Each Other (Farscape, Scorpy/Braca, PG13, 223w)
Stark's Friends (Farscape, Stark, PG, 103w)
Sorry (Farscape, Vorc, PG, ~100w)
The Tragidee of Self-Inflicted Wounds: Part II, Act I, Scene V (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, PG, 188w)
The Very Secret Parts of Fortune (Doctor Who, Donna, G, 180w)
And on the Ships at Sea (Doctor Who, Doctor&Donna, G, 585w)
About Loofahs (The Poetry in Motion Remix) (LotRPS, Viggo/Dom, PG13, 255w)
Ignition Keys (The Get This Party Started Remix) (Sports Night, Jeremy, Natalie, Dan & Casey, G, 283w)
Coming in Third (The Priorities Remix) (Sports Night, Casey/Dan, PG13, 125w)
Creeping Fog (The On Little Cat Feet Remix) (Harry Potter, McGonnigal, PG, 164w)
A Change of Perspective (The Making New Friends Remix) (SGA, Elizabeth&Teyla, G, 583w)
Altered (The Deep Down Inside Remix) (Matrix, Trinity, Neo, Pg13, 426)
Not a Word Yet (Farscape/Doctor Who, Stark, Doctor (7th), G, 100)
In Dreams (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, PG13, 237)
Honourable mentions: (not included in total)
The Crossover Conversation Meme
And from the "Three stories I would NEVER write" snippits meme:
The Life and Loves of Irving the Hypercube and A LotR Mary Sue that's Really a Robot
Dispatches From the Breakroom: The New Girl
The "Answer random personal questions IN CHARACTER" meme
Fics (multi-chapter) Started or Continued:
I don't generally start posting multi-chapter fics until I've written all of them - those rare exceptions didn't get updated this year because I suck.
Total: 30 (~6953 words)
Breakdown by the numbers (including weird trends I noticed)
Farscape: 15 (Stark/Zhaan:4)
Doctor Who: 4 (Donna:2)
Due South: 2
SGA: 2
Sports Night: 2
Other: 4 (DCU, Slings & Arrows, Pan's Labyrinth, LotRPS, Matrix)
Crossovers: 2
Remixes: 11
Meme!fics: 14
Non-human(oid) POV: 4
Poetry/non-standard format: 3
Ratings: (G=12, PG=2, PG13=6, R=2, NC17=0)
True Drabble fics: 4
Avg Wordcount: 232
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
A lot more. I have low expectations of myself when it comes to getting shit written these days.
Where did you publish/archive your stories?
lady_smith, also Terra Firma and the Farscape Archive of the Farscape fics, and Teaspoon for the Doctor Who fics. Yes, I'm finally on Teaspoon. This was the year for it, apparently. I utterly ignored ff.net, like usual. And Leviathan was eaten by a budong. :(
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
Pull up a chair; thanks mostly to remixthedrabble I amazed the hell out of myself this year: Pan's Labyrinth and Slings and Arrows (2 rare-as-hell fandoms I never imagined I'd write in), not only DCU fic but obscure-as-hell background character fic, not one but two Sports Night fics (though I'd always wanted to get around to SN eventually), a mushy-as-hell John/Aeryn babyfic (though that was in response to a "challenge me to write something I'd *NEVER* write" meme), and to top it all off, RPS. Definitely the year of "wait, I wrote what??"
What’s your favorite story this year?
Oh, that's tough. Wow. "Tradigee.." is brilliant but gimmicky, "Loofahs" is brilliant but gimmicky AND RPS.... I think I am most proud of (for various reasons) "Creeping Fog" and "Madrake's Tale", and I'm inordinately fond of "She Shall Be Called", "Happy Memory", "Secretly Fond of Each Other"
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Unquestionably the two Donna ones, and they're pretty tied. One got more comments on lj, the other got more comments on Teaspoon; they came out even.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
"And She Shall Be Called" - not even the person it was written for commented on it. But hell, the character it's about has all of FIVE PANELS to her name, so uh, my bad. But it' a fucking good fic, dammit. A nice bit of character fleshing out, I feel. I would love to know what Kevin Smith thought of what I did with his throwaway character. "Creeping Fog" I feel is woefully underlooked for a HP fic, which is one of the more popular fandoms on my flist - and it's certainly one of my very best in the fandom. But then I was remixing pure gold. And I may be biased, loving McGonngal as much as I do.
Story that could have been better?
A lot of the playlist meme ones came out rushed and forced, especially "Stark's Friends" - even the title of which makes me wince. But a lot of them came out really well, so IDK.
Sexiest story?
"Loofahs", goddammit. *HEADDESK* I should write plantporn in penance or something.
Most fun story?
To write? "The Tragidee..." as I said before was ridiculously fun to write; it's the kind of challenge I love. I giggled all the way through writing both "Ignition Keys" and "Not a Word" - which of those is more fun to read would depend on your fandoms and/or knowledge of the original fics, I think.
Story with single sweetest moment?
The Doctor telling wee!Donna playing in rain puddles that she can grow up to be anything she wants in "And on the Ships at Sea"; it's sweet in a "oh, twist the knife some more, please!" kind of way, which is my preferred kind.
The story that made you cry?
Funnily enough, "And on the Ships at Sea" is the tear-jerker of this lot - most of the Stark-angst is more angry than sad this time round. But like I said I twisted that knife hard on this one, so the sweetness makes you cry. IIRC I got a little misty while writing "The Very Secret Parts of Fortune", too. I think I was working out my Donna-issues. :/
Hardest story to write?
In terms of pure technical challenge, "The Tragidee (etc etc)" wins hands down; I had to get the iambic pentameter just right, while keeping the essentials of the original scene. But even with all the rigid restrictions, it was incredibly fun to write, and so rewarding. The most difficult to post was "About Loofahs" - I was sorely tempted to throw it away and never let it see the light of day, but in the end I couldn't do it, especially since it would have meant defaulting on that recipient because another idea just would not come!!. And I'm very glad I didn't, because she told me later that thanks to my remix that fic would have happy associations instead of being linked to a ficathon where she was defaulted on. Oh, irony of fate! I'm very ashamed to admit how easy the writing itself of "Loofahs" was, though. The one fic that was like pulling teeth to write was "Stark's Friends" - not only because of the time limit inherent in the meme, but because I spent most of the song just boggling over how in the FRELL to write a Farscape fic based on it. I'm still not happy with the result, but HELL, I'd like to see anyone else do better.
Easiest story to write?
Most of the remixes were Scarily easy to write; they damn near wrote themselves. That's why there's so damn many of them.
Most overdue story?
All the holiday-gift fics I haven't written yet. XP Everything else I signed up for this year DID get there, though. ^_^
Did you take any writing risks this year?
Iambic pentameter? Free-form train-of-thought drabble interwoven with poetry RPS? THREE tiny fandoms I've never even DREAMED of writing before? Picowrimo? TWO remix ficathon rounds? All signs point to YES. XD
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
I would like to make 2009 the Year of Twin Souls, and possibly Appleseeds, but I'm thinking about waiting for the comics before doing that second one, so I can decide weather or not to ignore them. :/ *AND* I wanna do remixthedrabble again, as many rounds as they have, because it's my good-luck charm. ^_^
And after all that, if I don't get a ton of new messages in lady_smith's inbox from people who just discovered fic they hadn't read before; I'll.... be not terribly surprised. XD XD XD
"Do you know who the Man in the Yellow Hat is?"
-Jarod, The Pretender
Thank you so much for causing an avalanche to take out highway between Calgary and Vancouver, because that doesn't FUBAR our delivery schedule causing hordes of angry customers to calls us, oh no.
No fucking love AT ALL,
Liza. >:P
This version is from eve11, with a few refinements of my own:
Fics Completed:
Asoninity (Due South, Fraser&RayV, G, 424 words)
She Shall Be Called (DCU, Virago, PG, 256w)
Three's a Crowd (The Taming of the Shrew Remix) (Slings and Arrows, Geoffery/Ellen, Oliver/Geoffrey, R, 300w)
In the North (The Lone Wolf Backbeat Remix) (Due South, Deif&Fraser, G, 200w)
Happy Memory (The Grace Under Pressure Remix) (SGA/Harry Potter, Mckay (hints of S/R), PG, 230w)
Not So Local Maximum (The Only Constant Remix) (Doctor Who, Rose, G, 250w)
The Mandrake's Tale (Selfish, Stubborn Remix) (Pan's Labrynth, Mandrake, PG, 101w)
Butterflies in Borneo (Farscape, John/Aeryn, G, 442w)
Stop Your Sobbing (Farscape, Rygel, Crais, Stark, G, 392w)
Always, Forever (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, G, 106w)
Rough Mix (Farscape, Stark, PG13, 214w)
Save the Last Dance for Me (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, PG, 208w)
Dig It (Farscape, General, G, 100w)
This Could Be Love (Farscape, Stark/Scorpius(NC), R, 126w)
I Live With It Everyday (Farscape, Stark, PG, 136w)
Runaround (Farscape, Avastark, PG, 104w)
Secretly Fond of Each Other (Farscape, Scorpy/Braca, PG13, 223w)
Stark's Friends (Farscape, Stark, PG, 103w)
Sorry (Farscape, Vorc, PG, ~100w)
The Tragidee of Self-Inflicted Wounds: Part II, Act I, Scene V (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, PG, 188w)
The Very Secret Parts of Fortune (Doctor Who, Donna, G, 180w)
And on the Ships at Sea (Doctor Who, Doctor&Donna, G, 585w)
About Loofahs (The Poetry in Motion Remix) (LotRPS, Viggo/Dom, PG13, 255w)
Ignition Keys (The Get This Party Started Remix) (Sports Night, Jeremy, Natalie, Dan & Casey, G, 283w)
Coming in Third (The Priorities Remix) (Sports Night, Casey/Dan, PG13, 125w)
Creeping Fog (The On Little Cat Feet Remix) (Harry Potter, McGonnigal, PG, 164w)
A Change of Perspective (The Making New Friends Remix) (SGA, Elizabeth&Teyla, G, 583w)
Altered (The Deep Down Inside Remix) (Matrix, Trinity, Neo, Pg13, 426)
Not a Word Yet (Farscape/Doctor Who, Stark, Doctor (7th), G, 100)
In Dreams (Farscape, Stark/Zhaan, PG13, 237)
Honourable mentions: (not included in total)
The Crossover Conversation Meme
And from the "Three stories I would NEVER write" snippits meme:
The Life and Loves of Irving the Hypercube and A LotR Mary Sue that's Really a Robot
Dispatches From the Breakroom: The New Girl
The "Answer random personal questions IN CHARACTER" meme
Fics (multi-chapter) Started or Continued:
I don't generally start posting multi-chapter fics until I've written all of them - those rare exceptions didn't get updated this year because I suck.
Total: 30 (~6953 words)
Breakdown by the numbers (including weird trends I noticed)
Farscape: 15 (Stark/Zhaan:4)
Doctor Who: 4 (Donna:2)
Due South: 2
SGA: 2
Sports Night: 2
Other: 4 (DCU, Slings & Arrows, Pan's Labyrinth, LotRPS, Matrix)
Crossovers: 2
Remixes: 11
Meme!fics: 14
Non-human(oid) POV: 4
Poetry/non-standard format: 3
Ratings: (G=12, PG=2, PG13=6, R=2, NC17=0)
True Drabble fics: 4
Avg Wordcount: 232
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
A lot more. I have low expectations of myself when it comes to getting shit written these days.
Where did you publish/archive your stories?
lady_smith, also Terra Firma and the Farscape Archive of the Farscape fics, and Teaspoon for the Doctor Who fics. Yes, I'm finally on Teaspoon. This was the year for it, apparently. I utterly ignored ff.net, like usual. And Leviathan was eaten by a budong. :(
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
Pull up a chair; thanks mostly to remixthedrabble I amazed the hell out of myself this year: Pan's Labyrinth and Slings and Arrows (2 rare-as-hell fandoms I never imagined I'd write in), not only DCU fic but obscure-as-hell background character fic, not one but two Sports Night fics (though I'd always wanted to get around to SN eventually), a mushy-as-hell John/Aeryn babyfic (though that was in response to a "challenge me to write something I'd *NEVER* write" meme), and to top it all off, RPS. Definitely the year of "wait, I wrote what??"
What’s your favorite story this year?
Oh, that's tough. Wow. "Tradigee.." is brilliant but gimmicky, "Loofahs" is brilliant but gimmicky AND RPS.... I think I am most proud of (for various reasons) "Creeping Fog" and "Madrake's Tale", and I'm inordinately fond of "She Shall Be Called", "Happy Memory", "Secretly Fond of Each Other"
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Unquestionably the two Donna ones, and they're pretty tied. One got more comments on lj, the other got more comments on Teaspoon; they came out even.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
"And She Shall Be Called" - not even the person it was written for commented on it. But hell, the character it's about has all of FIVE PANELS to her name, so uh, my bad. But it' a fucking good fic, dammit. A nice bit of character fleshing out, I feel. I would love to know what Kevin Smith thought of what I did with his throwaway character. "Creeping Fog" I feel is woefully underlooked for a HP fic, which is one of the more popular fandoms on my flist - and it's certainly one of my very best in the fandom. But then I was remixing pure gold. And I may be biased, loving McGonngal as much as I do.
Story that could have been better?
A lot of the playlist meme ones came out rushed and forced, especially "Stark's Friends" - even the title of which makes me wince. But a lot of them came out really well, so IDK.
Sexiest story?
"Loofahs", goddammit. *HEADDESK* I should write plantporn in penance or something.
Most fun story?
To write? "The Tragidee..." as I said before was ridiculously fun to write; it's the kind of challenge I love. I giggled all the way through writing both "Ignition Keys" and "Not a Word" - which of those is more fun to read would depend on your fandoms and/or knowledge of the original fics, I think.
Story with single sweetest moment?
The Doctor telling wee!Donna playing in rain puddles that she can grow up to be anything she wants in "And on the Ships at Sea"; it's sweet in a "oh, twist the knife some more, please!" kind of way, which is my preferred kind.
The story that made you cry?
Funnily enough, "And on the Ships at Sea" is the tear-jerker of this lot - most of the Stark-angst is more angry than sad this time round. But like I said I twisted that knife hard on this one, so the sweetness makes you cry. IIRC I got a little misty while writing "The Very Secret Parts of Fortune", too. I think I was working out my Donna-issues. :/
Hardest story to write?
In terms of pure technical challenge, "The Tragidee (etc etc)" wins hands down; I had to get the iambic pentameter just right, while keeping the essentials of the original scene. But even with all the rigid restrictions, it was incredibly fun to write, and so rewarding. The most difficult to post was "About Loofahs" - I was sorely tempted to throw it away and never let it see the light of day, but in the end I couldn't do it, especially since it would have meant defaulting on that recipient because another idea just would not come!!. And I'm very glad I didn't, because she told me later that thanks to my remix that fic would have happy associations instead of being linked to a ficathon where she was defaulted on. Oh, irony of fate! I'm very ashamed to admit how easy the writing itself of "Loofahs" was, though. The one fic that was like pulling teeth to write was "Stark's Friends" - not only because of the time limit inherent in the meme, but because I spent most of the song just boggling over how in the FRELL to write a Farscape fic based on it. I'm still not happy with the result, but HELL, I'd like to see anyone else do better.
Easiest story to write?
Most of the remixes were Scarily easy to write; they damn near wrote themselves. That's why there's so damn many of them.
Most overdue story?
All the holiday-gift fics I haven't written yet. XP Everything else I signed up for this year DID get there, though. ^_^
Did you take any writing risks this year?
Iambic pentameter? Free-form train-of-thought drabble interwoven with poetry RPS? THREE tiny fandoms I've never even DREAMED of writing before? Picowrimo? TWO remix ficathon rounds? All signs point to YES. XD
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
I would like to make 2009 the Year of Twin Souls, and possibly Appleseeds, but I'm thinking about waiting for the comics before doing that second one, so I can decide weather or not to ignore them. :/ *AND* I wanna do remixthedrabble again, as many rounds as they have, because it's my good-luck charm. ^_^
And after all that, if I don't get a ton of new messages in lady_smith's inbox from people who just discovered fic they hadn't read before; I'll.... be not terribly surprised. XD XD XD
"Do you know who the Man in the Yellow Hat is?"
-Jarod, The Pretender