2011 in fic
A ridiculous long reflection about my 2011 writing! Here's last year's reflection.
I told myself last year I would not start new multi-parters this year without finishing my previous WIPs, but apparently I forgot all about that in the face of my LSK obsession, hah...
February
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: First Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Keep the Sun Knight Happy, Feed Him Sweets." (Legend of Sun Knight, 2690 words)
Whoa, was this seriously my first fanfic of the year? I dedicated January to fangirling LSK. I read *coughs* all the sidestories *coughs* and all seven of the novels that were released then. I drew fanart. I translated stuff. XD; So no writing done. This was written for 31days_exchange, where I got a lovely theme set from lovefujitez that I sadly didn't manage to complete (on time). I hope to return to it sometime still. =/ (though my track record with returning to finish things is not very good. I mean, it's already 2012 and I've yet to return to the theme set to finish it...but hey, I did return to finish my 31 days of Bokurano fic after...2 years, was it?)
I wrote this "oneshot" because I wanted to write a scene where Judgment has to go out and buy blueberry pies for Sun. Somehow, it took me a bit before I got to that scene, so this turned into something more than just a single scene. I quite liked the result though! (:
March
This was the month of furious writing for 31days_exchange, as the due date for all the fics was March 31! Everything I wrote during this month was for that exchange. I'm thankful writing actually happened!
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Second Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: “To Save the Storm Knight's Eyesight, Steal His Women.” (Legend of Sun Knight, 2140 words)
Although I thought Entries 1 was a oneshot, I did name the fic in a way that it could be continued, and behold, I continued it. I had somehow managed to find a voice for Earth, so I started writing from his POV. He wasn't even a favorite character of mine from the series, which is weird because usually I'm not at all inspired by characters I don't care about. After writing this fic about him though, I kind of found myself liking him just a bit more. Now I'm fond of his character! He brings a different dynamic to the story. (:
♥ Before I Leave Part 1 (Hikaru no Go x Yu Yu Hakusho, 2230 words)
I thought maybe I could use 31days to help me actually develop this crossover that I had in the works since...two years ago for one of the blind_go rounds, but nope, I did not manage anything past Part 1. OTL I have the beginning and the end of this fic planned out, but the middle is a complete mystery for me. I still really want to write this story, but ehhh, maybe I shouldn't have posted it after all because now my updating time stamp will be terrible. (It'll so totally be like, one chapter a year.) I bought the YYH blu-rays this year (first 2 sets). Maybe re-watching will help my characterization so I can return to this fic. I also plan on rereading HnG sometime...
♥ He Never Knew Part 1 (Prince of Tennis, 1188 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 2 (Prince of Tennis, 1400 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 3 (Prince of Tennis, 1159 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 4 (Prince of Tennis, 1301 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 5 (Prince of Tennis, 2367 words)
I started another longfic. *head desks* Amnesia is a favorite trope of mine. Ryoma actually does lose his memory in the series, which, I thought was completely over the top while I was reading the series, but then I got to thinking, what if he doesn't gain his memory back right away...or what if he never gains it back ever? That resulted in this AU fic which was largely guided by themes from 31days. Part 1 is heartbreak. Ryoma completely forgetting tennis. Part 2 is seeing through new eyes. Ryoma living without tennis. Part 3 is...throwing Yukimura in the mix and shaking Ryoma up again. ;) Part 4 is gossip about Ryoma, branching out to see what others make of him currently. Part 5 is "discombobulated people en masse". No one knows how to act around Ryoma when he doesn't remember tennis. This, I feel, is one of my more poetic fics because it is heavily guided by eloquent themes from lovefujitez's theme set... though this fic is also the one where my writing style from chapter to chapter is ALL OVER THE PLACE.
This fic isn't meant to be super long. I mostly wanted to explore Ryoma's reactions and other people's reactions to Ryoma not knowing tennis. This fic is already heading to its conclusion, except I feel it might be a let down with all the hype of the beginning parts. I wasn't planning on a super long fic...but I've also let this fic stay stagnant for so long that it feels wrong to me to suddenly update with a conclusion! Well, the next part is not yet a conclusion as it's another tangent...I need to get this fic back on track and finish it. *pokes at part 6* Part 6 is all about Rikkai's reaction to winning, yet their win doesn't exactly feel like a win.
♥ Something Strange (Oresama Teacher, 1705 words)
A oneshot! A true, oneshot! That did not morph into longfic! \o/ This was completely sporadic writing. I wrote this on the very last day when all fics for 31days were due. I truly wrote this in record time! I did have the idea since Yuletide 2010 since I requested the series and was hoping someone would write something along these lines, but since I wasn't matched on this, the idea stayed unexplored until my mind decided I could write the idea myself. I had so much fun with this. Hayasaka is so fun to write, and I just love it when Mafuyu crossdresses and confuses him, and I love Mafuyu and Okegawa interaction. The fic was surprisingly well received at ffnet. I didn't know there were so many vocal fans of Oresama Teacher? I clearly don't talk enough with fans of the series. ): I so want to write more for Oresama Teacher! Such a fun series!
♥ My Lips are Sealed...Or Not (Yu Yu Hakusho, 249 words)
These next drabbles I wrote in an attempt to finish off the rest of the themes for 31days, but I didn't manage to get through them all even with drabbles. This one futures Kurama and his human brother. I really love the two of them, though I've never written a longfic about them... I'm still hoping to one day! (though they've already been explored a lot... I can never get enough fic about Kurama and his family though)
♥ Too Large an Earring (Detective Conan, 100 words)
This was just a silly drabble about Kaitou Kid. ;D I've attempted longer fics for DC/MK...but I truly fail hard at mysteries, so drabbles it is...
♥ Food is the Best Weapon (1/2 Prince, 314 words)
1st person POV, featuring Lan complaining about her brother! I like writing in 1st person, though I don't see people writing it as often. It seems to be fairly prominent among fics for 1/2 Prince though, since the canon is written in 1st person.
♥ Use a Ruler (Bakuman, 210 words)
Ahhh, short Bakuman drabbles. I've written three oneshots for Bakuman in previous years and have always wanted to write more (so much time has passed in canon!! my fics are so outdated!), but my ideas aren't very fleshed out. This was a quick, senseless drabble. I was aiming for humor, but...well. XD;
♥ Unremarkable, Unthreatening, Safe (Kaichou wa Maid-sama, 132 words)
I'm behind with the manga, but this theme reminded me of Misaki's relationship with Usui, so I wrote a quick drabble about that! I was hoping to use this theme in He Never Knew though. It fits very well with Ryoma running away from tennis and only sticking to things that are unremarkable, unthreatening, and safe (but that's not tennis).
♥ The Only Boundaries (Bakuman, 145 words)
Another Bakuman drabble~.
♥ And Then What Happened (Noblesse, 166 words)
This I wrote in record time as well! But it's so short, I would hope this would never take long to write. This is the first piece for Noblesse that I've written, despite how much I love Noblesse. I hope I'll be writing more for Noblesse. I wanted to write an idea that explores the kids memories after being mind-wiped so many times for springkink, but er, the deadline for that passed while I was still reviewing the series. Oops. And then I read other people's takes on a similar idea, so I laid my idea to rest. (But maybe I will still write it one day if the inspiration hits...it just better be a oneshot)
April
♥ Sweetness Mixed with Dread (Legend of Sun Knight, 315 words)
Haha, this was just a fun piece about Storm and Sun. It was fun writing Storm ignoring Sun. XD;
Eeeep, and that's all I wrote for April. The drabble right above this is only "April" because I posted it too late on March 31. Basically, I didn't write anything in April. I think I was a little burned out from 31days_exchange.
May
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Third Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: “To Incur the Ice Knight’s Wrath, Mangle His Masterpieces.” (Legend of Sun Knight, 2760 words)
After translating a chapter of LSK that featured Sun talking about how Leaf is crazy over seasoning and how he often gets Ice angry because of it, I so wanted to write about that (even though I would be spoiling people about Leaf's character quirks)... I decided I wouldn't be spoiling people too badly? So I wrote my idea in the end. I had a lot of fun writing the idea out! This also made it so that Entries was indeed a collection of oneshots about the knights featuring two knights per chapter. I have a lot of ideas for the next few chapters! (I just have to...actually write them).
June
Summer months always means preparation for conventions, and traveling, so I did not write much. I did write an extra scene for NaNo 2010, and I edited and formatted the first section of what I wrote to get it printed.
August
August was a terrible month in RL for me. I dived into writing because of wanting to escape from RL.
♥ Magical (Kuragehime, 7046 words)
I hadn't written anything since May (that's a lot of blank months in-between) , but I did sign up for parallelsfic, a rare fandom fic exchange for Asian sources. I requested Kuragehime and also got matched on Kuragehime. I ended up receiving fic in Suikoden Tierkries (a very lovely fic centered on Liu~) and writing fic for Kuragehime. I suppose this should count for July, since August 1 was the due date (but I also added a lot to the fic after the due date).
...this fic WOULD NOT END. I've never had this happen with a oneshot before, but then I suppose it's because I always have the tendency of splitting my oneshots into short chapters...that I then never finish writing after posting the 1st and possibly 2nd chapters. (I'm terrible at following through with stories... that's something I hope I can address this year...though it'll be a hard habit to change.) So, it was a good thing I had to finish this oneshot and present it in its complete form to my recipient, dropsofviolet. I feel the ending's a bit rushed and possibly tacky... I hope it doesn't detract greatly from the rest of the story. By the ending, I was despairing and thinking I would never finish writing this story. It grew from a 600 word scene (after all, we were only required to write 500 words) to over 7,000 words. This fic features alternating POVs between Tsukimi and Kuranosuke... I always seem to fall back on alternating POVs in my fics (or, I just can't seem to stick to one POV in longer fics). I also did this for my 2010 NaNoWriMo. The Amars are an eccentric bunch. I don't know all of their obsessions very well, but I tried to give a small nod to each, and I tried to bring in jellyfish talk since this is Tsukimi after all. I don't know how accurate I was, but hopefully I didn't do too badly with that! I tend to write things that are close to the feel of the original series... so this is quite a slice-of-life piece that is fairly slow moving. :3 I'm proud of the wide cast in this story, and with how I imagined things playing out, though the ending could have been fleshed out more. (and then this would've hit...10k, haha...)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 1 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1201 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 2 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1211 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 3 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1348 words)
Oh gosh, Bittersweet Sweetness. (And oh, oh, finally a piece that isn't for a writing community or a fic exchange!) This is the fic that took over my writing for the second half of the year. It started off innocently enough - I was exchanging comments with Dark Ice Dragon and thought that it would be so fitting if Earth and Storm were to swap places because they could totally play each other's roles well! It's like they were meant to be...! Sun and Judgment, I thought, would also do well in each other's positions... I thought I would write out Sun and Judgment's story first before tackling Earth and Storm's... since I felt I had a better handle on their characters. Here I am, months later, and 20k later, still not done with Sun and Judgment's story. I didn't think it would turn out this long! (Why Lucathia, did you start such a long fic...or more like, why haven't you finished it yet... it's not that long compared to other people's long fics... seriously, I am terrible at finishing stories.)
Anyway, Bittersweet Sweetness is a body-swap fic and also an alternate retelling of the end of volume 1 of the novels. It's set then because I thought it most logical to have one of Pink's trinkets switching Judgment and Sun up... but Pink moves house after volume 2, so I only have volume 1 and volume 2 available for this to happen in. (I could have also ignored the timeline, but well... I'm not good at doing that, haha...). I kind of wish I set this during some random time that doesn't run so closely parallel to the novels because sometimes I feel like the story mirrors the original too closely (what's the point then, when you could be reading the original?), but I'm hoping I put enough of a different spin on the story with Judgment and Sun having to figure out how to behave as each other. Judgment also reacts to Roland a lot differently... and now I'm finding it hard to end the story because of the wrench Judgment threw into the plot. XD;
Part 1 is Judgment figuring that he's swapped bodies with Sun. Part 2 is Sun figuring out the same. Part 3 is where the action starts! (And when I discovered that oh gosh, Judgment isn't going to reach the Holy Temple without a huge fight starting because he's not going to let Roland go just like that! *flails*)
...I already have a sequel planned for the story... that features Earth and Storm swapping places (because that was my initial idea! *flails some more*) That story does feature an original plot instead of following canon so closely... though I wonder if this story will ever see the light of day at the rate I'm writing. Probably not? XD
September
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 4 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1228 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 5 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1370 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 6 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1509 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 7 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1316 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 8 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1640 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 9 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1738 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 10 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1620 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 11 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1498 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 12 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1919 words)
September was the month of crazy updating for Bittersweet Sweetness! I was hoping to finish the fic by the end of September so I could tackle fics for
no_true_pair (I had so many ideas that I wanted to write for No True Pair, but as I'm terrible at writing multiple stories at once, I wanted to finish Bittersweet Sweetness first.)
I so did not manage to finish writing Bittersweet Sweetness. I planned out most of the fic in my notebook, with later parts being less detailed (as earlier scenes kind of changed how later scenes played out). Some parts were merely bullet points but got expanded on a lot. My plan was basically:
- reaction (Parts 1 & 2)
- Roland & Blaze (this ended up being Parts 3-7 and sort of Part 8)
- discussion of time limit (Parts 9-11)
- Twelve Holy Knight Meeting (Part 12)
- Carrying out each other's duties (Parts 13-14)
- Tricking the king (Part 15)
- Asking Storm for help (haha, yeah, this was it's own bullet point...)
I wrote this story more for putting Judgment and Sun through various situations (than to see the plot play out...), so of course I had to have Judgment try out facial masks. And of course Sun had to interrogate criminals and try out bitter chocolates. XD; Also on my list is reversal bathroom scene, which is next up in Part 16 (not yet posted...). I better finish this story! Seriously! =/
I've gotten to the part where details are fuzzy... combined with NaNo and Yuletide in-between my writing efforts for this story, my tempo has been knocked off... I so wish I can return to updating this fic every other day! Then this fic would be finished in no time!
October
♥ Even in Darkness, the Sun Shines (Legend of Sun Knight, 2717 words)
Well, before NaNo and Yuletide, there was
no_true_pair, a very fun writing community where you come up with lists of 8 characters that get matched in various prompts. I created lists for LSK and many other series, but I only ended up writing for LSK. (I was seriously LSK obsessed and still am). My first oneshot for No True Pair features Adair and Sun and tells the story of how Sun made Adair submit. I love Adair a lot (this was even before volume 8 was released!). Adair is just all kinds of awesome. The style in this is a bit more drawn back and more like my style from previous years. I think it fits better for oneshots! This oneshot is more on the serious side than my other LSK fics and is set around five years before the start of the novels. It's a bit easier for me to write stories set before the novels begin for LSK... as there's less risk of spoiling people about what happens later on in the novels, and there is also a lot to explore anyway with the rich history everyone has with each other. (I really hope Yu Wo will write the story of Sun & Adair's training days in the future sometime!)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 13 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1925 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 14 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1521 words)
I only updated Bittersweet Sweetness twice in the month of October because I was so focused on writing other LSK stories. (I was still writing a lot of LSK though~). These two updates were about Sun and Judgment carrying out each other's duties. After writing them together in the same scene for parts 9 through 11, it was kind of hard to have them go separate ways again. The timing's kind of hard to grasp.
♥ The Impressive Adair Fan Club (Legend of Sun Knight, 1839 words)
Oh gosh, this fic... Dark Ice Dragon and I exchanged a lot of comments over No True Pair about the prompts that were generated from our lists. This one was "It turns out Judgment is Adair's biggest fan". I responded to that by saying "You know, I think Storm would be a bigger fan of Adair than Judgment" and I think Dark Ice Dragon said that they would both be fans of Adair... so I wrote just that. XD; I took on more of a...story-telling kind of style for this (I'm not sure how to describe it?)... a more omnipresent POV, I suppose. I don't write this kind of POV a lot, but it was what the fic called for! I was aiming for humor but thought maybe it wasn't very humorous at all, but readers assured me that it is humorous. I hope everyone got a kick out of this fic. It's not meant to be very deep. XD;
♥ Lessons in Demeanor: Lesson One: Drink Tea (Legend of Sun Knight, 1418 words)
♥ Lessons in Demeanor: Lesson Two: Read (Legend of Sun Knight, 1001 words)
...this is meant to be a short multi-parter, coming out to around 5000 words. I so thought I could end this very quickly... but ;____; (me and my terrible track record at finishing short multiparters. *stares at fics that were supposed to end in three chapters... I have not finished a single one of those fics*). This fic is mostly written. At least, the punch line of each chapter has already been written, haha... Anyway, the chapter titles of the next three chapters are:
Lesson Three: Empathize.
Lesson Four: Practice.
Lesson Five: Drink More Tea.
I hope to finish this fic within January. It is only supposed to be five chapters long.
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Fourth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Stir the Blaze Knight's Concern, Kidnap the Sun Knight." (Legend of Sun Knight, 3998 words)
Oh gosh, I started this waaaaay back in July or so but I could not get a grasp on Storm's character, who's the narrating character of this chapter. I find Storm's POV hard to write (though I have no problem writing him from other characters' POVs) . I keep thinking of him as this cute and very shy boy from his training days, except now he's already good enough to pass off as a flirt no matter how much he isn't one. (and when in reality, he's always buried with paperwork). But when he gets angry... watch out! So many different facets of his character to juggle! Another difficult part of this chapter was... the genre...this chapter was totally "mystery"... but I am completely terrible at mysteries. I pushed myself to finishing the chapter for the prompt "Storm & Blaze, Give Me Your Hand" as this chapter did fit the prompt quite perfectly. I'm glad I got myself to finish the chapter! This chapter also knocked down all plans I had for the fic though... as "Sun disappearing" was supposed to happen at the veeeeery end, and it was supposed to be an overarching plot of sorts, with dastardly plots and everything. Except now that's not happening anymore. I am incapable of writing something that intricate, with small pieces from each chapter building up to some culminating plot. XD;; (So now we're just going to have more of the holy knights' daily lives, haha...)
I have titles for future Entries and am working on Entries 5, though I wonder when I'll finish that... the titles are (tentatively):
Fifth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Confirm the Cloud Knight's Existence, Burn Him With Fire."
Sixth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: To Annoy the Earth Knight, Brag About Your Girlfriend."
I can't wait to finish writing these. :)
November
One word - NaNoWriMo. (which, I'm going to count separately from my word count)
I got a lovely banner from absolutehymn007. Thanks! :D (Hymn was waaay impressive and wrote 100,500 words!)
Last year, I posted most of what I wrote, but this year, I only posted the very beginning (that I thought was polished enough to post). Later chapters have gaps here and there... I might post them someday if I ever finish them and like them enough? Or I might not post them, as posting them after NaNo has already ended seems...not as exciting. I do hope I can finish and polish the entire story by June! The story this year is called Lhordata and features Tekatme as the main character. I forced myself to stick to mostly one POV instead of doing the crazy POV alternating that I always do that leaves very little guessing to the audience since readers know everything already (but yay for dramatic irony?). After attempting this though... I still like switching POVs better!
There's a more cohesive plot this year (or I should say, there's actually a plot), but it takes a bit to develop...and it's a bit whack. With fate and goddesses and suddenly, seeking immortality! (what is going on, I don't even know) I don't like how many words I spent on the prologue and chapter 1...too slow moving for the start of a novel. Not attention-getting enough. The setting was a bit limiting (I so limit myself because each novel is named after a single town/village) and half of the characters I wanted to write about were still stuck elsewhere... so I had to play with an entirely new cast of characters that were designed to flesh this story out.
The name "Lhordata" comes from Chordata, which refers to animals that are vertebrates. It's the phylum that fish belong to. ;) I was mostly looking for a nice, scientific name for fish that normally wouldn't be recognized right off the bat. I replaced the C with an L to stand for Lake, as Lhordata is a fishing town located by a large lake. The name is also, funnily enough, a lot like what Tekatme always swears by - lord!
Veline, the village that my 2010 NaNo was set in, was named after Feline (for cats) and the V comes from valley, as Veline is located in a valley.
Ikatchi's place (the home to the Triad clan of elves), is named Fendron (from the Green work for trees, dendron, as his place is not represented by an animal). I replaced the D with an F, as the home of the Triad clan is a forest.
I've yet to name Rykatu's home, the dragon tribe's cliffs. Not too sure what to name the cliffs. I tried to come up with a name for the entire world, which will most likely be a play on the word "Metazoa", but Wetazoa doesn't sound too cool if I replace the M with a W for "world". Replacing with a T for terra doesn't sound too pretty either... Tetazoa? XD I thought of shortening the word, but then I'd have "Meta", which...means totally different things.
I don't know if I'll be able to finish this story (I wasn't able to finish my 2010 NaNo...) but I do want to print this! Deadline is June! Fight-o!
December
One word - Yuletide. =P
And one lonely update for Bittersweet Sweetness.
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 15 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,921 words)
I wrote this before the newest manhua chapter was released. Darn, that chapter would have been helpful with this part! My version of Judgment scaring the possible culprits is quite different from what the manhua describes. It would have been fun to go with the manhua version!
I babbled a whole lot about my Yuletide fics already in this post if anyone's curious...so skipping that here. XD;
♥ The Shape of His Devotion (Hunter x Hunter, 1,368 words)
♥ Sleeping Beauty, or the Unconscious Man on the Bed (Hunter x Hunter, 2,579 words)
♥ The Names of His Comrades (Noblesse, 3,903 words)
Total number of stories: 5 multi-parters started (none finished), 7 oneshots, 7 drabbles, 1 long original story (also unfinished)
Total word count: ~70,000 in fanfic, ~50,000 in original fiction, so ~120,000k or so! I didn't feel like I wrote a lot... but it added up! My lengthier stories added to the word count a lot.
Fandoms written in: LEGEND OF SUN KNIGHT, Prince of Tennis, Oresama Teacher, Kuragehime, Noblesse, Hunter x Hunter, Hikaru no Go, Yu Yu Hakusho (and then in drabbles only) Bakuman, Detective Conan, Kaichou wa Maid-sama
Leitmotif(s) of the year: uhhh, yay, tropes! First it was amnesia, then it was body-swapping! Haha... I'm really digging strong friendships though!
Favorite fic: Bittersweet Sweetness. There's a reason why it's so much longer than everything else. I was very inspired to write it. ;) And I just love the friendship between Judgment and Sun.
Best fic: The Names of His Comrades, I would say. Because the characterization is fairly spot on in my opinion, and it's a good mix of action and humor while also bringing in matters that are slightly more serious. Also, I hope I surprised people with the twist. Half the story is about the twist. ;) I like stories with a dash of everything! (I guess this turned into what I like to read... this is the kind of fic I like to read, stories with a dash of everything).
Most popular fic: Most popular oneshot goes out to Something Strange. This really surprised me! I did not know there were so many Oresama Teacher fans about. Most popular multi-parter goes out to He Never Knew. I don't think I've had such immediate response to my fics since Hoshi ga Hoshii desu.
Most underappreciated fic: I was hoping Magical would be read more, as that fic ate me and then spit me out. I think it's probably one of the longer fics for the fandom? Though it's nothing ground-breaking!
Favorite first lines:
'“Sun, if you eat any more, you’ll grow fat,” I murmured as I watched my friend who was not supposed to be my friend devour the blueberry pie I had just handed him.' - from First Entry in a Holy Knight’s Journal: “To Keep the Sun Knight Happy, Feed Him Sweets.”
"All of a sudden, I understood deeply why Blaze always liked going around kicking down people's doors because at this very moment, I really wanted to rush over to Pink's house and trample her cute little door in with my foot." - from Part 10 of Bittersweet Sweetness
I like fun first lines. XD;
Most fun fic: The Impressive Adair Fan Club (because it's so full of crack)
Sexiest fic: Again, like last year, not even close. =P If it's sexy in the "omg, this fic is so beautiful" sense, then I'll say The Shape of His Devotion, because it is minimalist and sleek. (But is actually just me being cryptic...)
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Second Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Save the Storm Knight's Eyesight, Steal His Women". Before writing this, I didn't like Earth much!
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: Everything, seriously. I did not think I would write so much Legend of Sun Knight. I did not think I would write Oresama Teacher. Or Kuragehime. Or Hunter x Hunter. Legend of Sun Knight surprised me the most. I wrote so much for it! (I usually at most write 1-2 fics per fandom, and then never return until years later).
Hardest fic to write: The Shape of His Devotion. It went in a completely different direction than my plans, and it turned out very cryptic. I'm usually not one for cryptic fic. Entries 4 was also particularly difficult. I struggled with it for two months.
Biggest disappointment: I'm not disappointed in the fics I wrote, but I'm super disappointed that I started a lot of new fics but did not... even update my WIPs from 2010 and earlier even once. Not even once. I'm appalled. Fics I really need to finish are Memories of the Future (come on, just 8 parts left! this is the final stretch!) and Apple Turnovers (this is a three-shot...surely the 2nd and 3rd chapter shouldn't take me 2 years to write?). Other WIPs...I've given up on them. Well not entirely. I'm still poking at those Phoenix Wright fics I started such a long time ago. They're supposed to be oneshots... I also owe drabbles to lacygrey and ran_dezvous that I really should have posted by now. (they kind of got eaten by my notebook...) *sigh* I'm so sorry about this. ):
Biggest surprise: The Shape of His Devotion. Completely different from what I normally write, and I was actually aiming for a crossover from an outsider's POV. This is neither.
Most telling fic: Huh, Magical, I think. That's the writing style I default to. Third person limited, with possible POV switching all over the place.
What's next? more LSK fic! Updating all of my WIPs! I really, really want to finish Bittersweet Sweetness and start on the sequel (which is called Dishonest Honesty~). I also want to finish Memories of the Future. Like, right now. And Lessons in Demeanor should so be done by now. Oh, and then there's Entries 5. I've left Blaze hanging... oh wait, I should get around to those drabbles I owe people first... it's only been months...
No, really, what's next? I joined getyourwordsout (signed up for the 150k challenge) and also
inkingitout with the same word count. I wonder if I can keep up with the word count (and keep up with participating in both communities, hm~). I also hope to write more just for myself and not for writing communities though (as I seem to be only writing for writing communities these days). But I'm going to immediately go against that by saying I hope to participate in 31_days more as well as
fic_promptly...
I told myself last year I would not start new multi-parters this year without finishing my previous WIPs, but apparently I forgot all about that in the face of my LSK obsession, hah...
February
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: First Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Keep the Sun Knight Happy, Feed Him Sweets." (Legend of Sun Knight, 2690 words)
Whoa, was this seriously my first fanfic of the year? I dedicated January to fangirling LSK. I read *coughs* all the sidestories *coughs* and all seven of the novels that were released then. I drew fanart. I translated stuff. XD; So no writing done. This was written for 31days_exchange, where I got a lovely theme set from lovefujitez that I sadly didn't manage to complete (on time). I hope to return to it sometime still. =/ (though my track record with returning to finish things is not very good. I mean, it's already 2012 and I've yet to return to the theme set to finish it...but hey, I did return to finish my 31 days of Bokurano fic after...2 years, was it?)
I wrote this "oneshot" because I wanted to write a scene where Judgment has to go out and buy blueberry pies for Sun. Somehow, it took me a bit before I got to that scene, so this turned into something more than just a single scene. I quite liked the result though! (:
March
This was the month of furious writing for 31days_exchange, as the due date for all the fics was March 31! Everything I wrote during this month was for that exchange. I'm thankful writing actually happened!
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Second Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: “To Save the Storm Knight's Eyesight, Steal His Women.” (Legend of Sun Knight, 2140 words)
Although I thought Entries 1 was a oneshot, I did name the fic in a way that it could be continued, and behold, I continued it. I had somehow managed to find a voice for Earth, so I started writing from his POV. He wasn't even a favorite character of mine from the series, which is weird because usually I'm not at all inspired by characters I don't care about. After writing this fic about him though, I kind of found myself liking him just a bit more. Now I'm fond of his character! He brings a different dynamic to the story. (:
♥ Before I Leave Part 1 (Hikaru no Go x Yu Yu Hakusho, 2230 words)
I thought maybe I could use 31days to help me actually develop this crossover that I had in the works since...two years ago for one of the blind_go rounds, but nope, I did not manage anything past Part 1. OTL I have the beginning and the end of this fic planned out, but the middle is a complete mystery for me. I still really want to write this story, but ehhh, maybe I shouldn't have posted it after all because now my updating time stamp will be terrible. (It'll so totally be like, one chapter a year.) I bought the YYH blu-rays this year (first 2 sets). Maybe re-watching will help my characterization so I can return to this fic. I also plan on rereading HnG sometime...
♥ He Never Knew Part 1 (Prince of Tennis, 1188 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 2 (Prince of Tennis, 1400 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 3 (Prince of Tennis, 1159 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 4 (Prince of Tennis, 1301 words)
♥ He Never Knew Part 5 (Prince of Tennis, 2367 words)
I started another longfic. *head desks* Amnesia is a favorite trope of mine. Ryoma actually does lose his memory in the series, which, I thought was completely over the top while I was reading the series, but then I got to thinking, what if he doesn't gain his memory back right away...or what if he never gains it back ever? That resulted in this AU fic which was largely guided by themes from 31days. Part 1 is heartbreak. Ryoma completely forgetting tennis. Part 2 is seeing through new eyes. Ryoma living without tennis. Part 3 is...throwing Yukimura in the mix and shaking Ryoma up again. ;) Part 4 is gossip about Ryoma, branching out to see what others make of him currently. Part 5 is "discombobulated people en masse". No one knows how to act around Ryoma when he doesn't remember tennis. This, I feel, is one of my more poetic fics because it is heavily guided by eloquent themes from lovefujitez's theme set... though this fic is also the one where my writing style from chapter to chapter is ALL OVER THE PLACE.
This fic isn't meant to be super long. I mostly wanted to explore Ryoma's reactions and other people's reactions to Ryoma not knowing tennis. This fic is already heading to its conclusion, except I feel it might be a let down with all the hype of the beginning parts. I wasn't planning on a super long fic...but I've also let this fic stay stagnant for so long that it feels wrong to me to suddenly update with a conclusion! Well, the next part is not yet a conclusion as it's another tangent...I need to get this fic back on track and finish it. *pokes at part 6* Part 6 is all about Rikkai's reaction to winning, yet their win doesn't exactly feel like a win.
♥ Something Strange (Oresama Teacher, 1705 words)
A oneshot! A true, oneshot! That did not morph into longfic! \o/ This was completely sporadic writing. I wrote this on the very last day when all fics for 31days were due. I truly wrote this in record time! I did have the idea since Yuletide 2010 since I requested the series and was hoping someone would write something along these lines, but since I wasn't matched on this, the idea stayed unexplored until my mind decided I could write the idea myself. I had so much fun with this. Hayasaka is so fun to write, and I just love it when Mafuyu crossdresses and confuses him, and I love Mafuyu and Okegawa interaction. The fic was surprisingly well received at ffnet. I didn't know there were so many vocal fans of Oresama Teacher? I clearly don't talk enough with fans of the series. ): I so want to write more for Oresama Teacher! Such a fun series!
♥ My Lips are Sealed...Or Not (Yu Yu Hakusho, 249 words)
These next drabbles I wrote in an attempt to finish off the rest of the themes for 31days, but I didn't manage to get through them all even with drabbles. This one futures Kurama and his human brother. I really love the two of them, though I've never written a longfic about them... I'm still hoping to one day! (though they've already been explored a lot... I can never get enough fic about Kurama and his family though)
♥ Too Large an Earring (Detective Conan, 100 words)
This was just a silly drabble about Kaitou Kid. ;D I've attempted longer fics for DC/MK...but I truly fail hard at mysteries, so drabbles it is...
♥ Food is the Best Weapon (1/2 Prince, 314 words)
1st person POV, featuring Lan complaining about her brother! I like writing in 1st person, though I don't see people writing it as often. It seems to be fairly prominent among fics for 1/2 Prince though, since the canon is written in 1st person.
♥ Use a Ruler (Bakuman, 210 words)
Ahhh, short Bakuman drabbles. I've written three oneshots for Bakuman in previous years and have always wanted to write more (so much time has passed in canon!! my fics are so outdated!), but my ideas aren't very fleshed out. This was a quick, senseless drabble. I was aiming for humor, but...well. XD;
♥ Unremarkable, Unthreatening, Safe (Kaichou wa Maid-sama, 132 words)
I'm behind with the manga, but this theme reminded me of Misaki's relationship with Usui, so I wrote a quick drabble about that! I was hoping to use this theme in He Never Knew though. It fits very well with Ryoma running away from tennis and only sticking to things that are unremarkable, unthreatening, and safe (but that's not tennis).
♥ The Only Boundaries (Bakuman, 145 words)
Another Bakuman drabble~.
♥ And Then What Happened (Noblesse, 166 words)
This I wrote in record time as well! But it's so short, I would hope this would never take long to write. This is the first piece for Noblesse that I've written, despite how much I love Noblesse. I hope I'll be writing more for Noblesse. I wanted to write an idea that explores the kids memories after being mind-wiped so many times for springkink, but er, the deadline for that passed while I was still reviewing the series. Oops. And then I read other people's takes on a similar idea, so I laid my idea to rest. (But maybe I will still write it one day if the inspiration hits...it just better be a oneshot)
April
♥ Sweetness Mixed with Dread (Legend of Sun Knight, 315 words)
Haha, this was just a fun piece about Storm and Sun. It was fun writing Storm ignoring Sun. XD;
Eeeep, and that's all I wrote for April. The drabble right above this is only "April" because I posted it too late on March 31. Basically, I didn't write anything in April. I think I was a little burned out from 31days_exchange.
May
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Third Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: “To Incur the Ice Knight’s Wrath, Mangle His Masterpieces.” (Legend of Sun Knight, 2760 words)
After translating a chapter of LSK that featured Sun talking about how Leaf is crazy over seasoning and how he often gets Ice angry because of it, I so wanted to write about that (even though I would be spoiling people about Leaf's character quirks)... I decided I wouldn't be spoiling people too badly? So I wrote my idea in the end. I had a lot of fun writing the idea out! This also made it so that Entries was indeed a collection of oneshots about the knights featuring two knights per chapter. I have a lot of ideas for the next few chapters! (I just have to...actually write them).
June
Summer months always means preparation for conventions, and traveling, so I did not write much. I did write an extra scene for NaNo 2010, and I edited and formatted the first section of what I wrote to get it printed.
August
August was a terrible month in RL for me. I dived into writing because of wanting to escape from RL.
♥ Magical (Kuragehime, 7046 words)
I hadn't written anything since May (that's a lot of blank months in-between) , but I did sign up for parallelsfic, a rare fandom fic exchange for Asian sources. I requested Kuragehime and also got matched on Kuragehime. I ended up receiving fic in Suikoden Tierkries (a very lovely fic centered on Liu~) and writing fic for Kuragehime. I suppose this should count for July, since August 1 was the due date (but I also added a lot to the fic after the due date).
...this fic WOULD NOT END. I've never had this happen with a oneshot before, but then I suppose it's because I always have the tendency of splitting my oneshots into short chapters...that I then never finish writing after posting the 1st and possibly 2nd chapters. (I'm terrible at following through with stories... that's something I hope I can address this year...though it'll be a hard habit to change.) So, it was a good thing I had to finish this oneshot and present it in its complete form to my recipient, dropsofviolet. I feel the ending's a bit rushed and possibly tacky... I hope it doesn't detract greatly from the rest of the story. By the ending, I was despairing and thinking I would never finish writing this story. It grew from a 600 word scene (after all, we were only required to write 500 words) to over 7,000 words. This fic features alternating POVs between Tsukimi and Kuranosuke... I always seem to fall back on alternating POVs in my fics (or, I just can't seem to stick to one POV in longer fics). I also did this for my 2010 NaNoWriMo. The Amars are an eccentric bunch. I don't know all of their obsessions very well, but I tried to give a small nod to each, and I tried to bring in jellyfish talk since this is Tsukimi after all. I don't know how accurate I was, but hopefully I didn't do too badly with that! I tend to write things that are close to the feel of the original series... so this is quite a slice-of-life piece that is fairly slow moving. :3 I'm proud of the wide cast in this story, and with how I imagined things playing out, though the ending could have been fleshed out more. (and then this would've hit...10k, haha...)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 1 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1201 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 2 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1211 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 3 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1348 words)
Oh gosh, Bittersweet Sweetness. (And oh, oh, finally a piece that isn't for a writing community or a fic exchange!) This is the fic that took over my writing for the second half of the year. It started off innocently enough - I was exchanging comments with Dark Ice Dragon and thought that it would be so fitting if Earth and Storm were to swap places because they could totally play each other's roles well! It's like they were meant to be...! Sun and Judgment, I thought, would also do well in each other's positions... I thought I would write out Sun and Judgment's story first before tackling Earth and Storm's... since I felt I had a better handle on their characters. Here I am, months later, and 20k later, still not done with Sun and Judgment's story. I didn't think it would turn out this long! (Why Lucathia, did you start such a long fic...or more like, why haven't you finished it yet... it's not that long compared to other people's long fics... seriously, I am terrible at finishing stories.)
Anyway, Bittersweet Sweetness is a body-swap fic and also an alternate retelling of the end of volume 1 of the novels. It's set then because I thought it most logical to have one of Pink's trinkets switching Judgment and Sun up... but Pink moves house after volume 2, so I only have volume 1 and volume 2 available for this to happen in. (I could have also ignored the timeline, but well... I'm not good at doing that, haha...). I kind of wish I set this during some random time that doesn't run so closely parallel to the novels because sometimes I feel like the story mirrors the original too closely (what's the point then, when you could be reading the original?), but I'm hoping I put enough of a different spin on the story with Judgment and Sun having to figure out how to behave as each other. Judgment also reacts to Roland a lot differently... and now I'm finding it hard to end the story because of the wrench Judgment threw into the plot. XD;
Part 1 is Judgment figuring that he's swapped bodies with Sun. Part 2 is Sun figuring out the same. Part 3 is where the action starts! (And when I discovered that oh gosh, Judgment isn't going to reach the Holy Temple without a huge fight starting because he's not going to let Roland go just like that! *flails*)
...I already have a sequel planned for the story... that features Earth and Storm swapping places (because that was my initial idea! *flails some more*) That story does feature an original plot instead of following canon so closely... though I wonder if this story will ever see the light of day at the rate I'm writing. Probably not? XD
September
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 4 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1228 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 5 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1370 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 6 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1509 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 7 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1316 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 8 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1640 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 9 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1738 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 10 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1620 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 11 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1498 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 12 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1919 words)
September was the month of crazy updating for Bittersweet Sweetness! I was hoping to finish the fic by the end of September so I could tackle fics for
no_true_pair (I had so many ideas that I wanted to write for No True Pair, but as I'm terrible at writing multiple stories at once, I wanted to finish Bittersweet Sweetness first.)
I so did not manage to finish writing Bittersweet Sweetness. I planned out most of the fic in my notebook, with later parts being less detailed (as earlier scenes kind of changed how later scenes played out). Some parts were merely bullet points but got expanded on a lot. My plan was basically:
- reaction (Parts 1 & 2)
- Roland & Blaze (this ended up being Parts 3-7 and sort of Part 8)
- discussion of time limit (Parts 9-11)
- Twelve Holy Knight Meeting (Part 12)
- Carrying out each other's duties (Parts 13-14)
- Tricking the king (Part 15)
- Asking Storm for help (haha, yeah, this was it's own bullet point...)
I wrote this story more for putting Judgment and Sun through various situations (than to see the plot play out...), so of course I had to have Judgment try out facial masks. And of course Sun had to interrogate criminals and try out bitter chocolates. XD; Also on my list is reversal bathroom scene, which is next up in Part 16 (not yet posted...). I better finish this story! Seriously! =/
I've gotten to the part where details are fuzzy... combined with NaNo and Yuletide in-between my writing efforts for this story, my tempo has been knocked off... I so wish I can return to updating this fic every other day! Then this fic would be finished in no time!
October
♥ Even in Darkness, the Sun Shines (Legend of Sun Knight, 2717 words)
Well, before NaNo and Yuletide, there was
no_true_pair, a very fun writing community where you come up with lists of 8 characters that get matched in various prompts. I created lists for LSK and many other series, but I only ended up writing for LSK. (I was seriously LSK obsessed and still am). My first oneshot for No True Pair features Adair and Sun and tells the story of how Sun made Adair submit. I love Adair a lot (this was even before volume 8 was released!). Adair is just all kinds of awesome. The style in this is a bit more drawn back and more like my style from previous years. I think it fits better for oneshots! This oneshot is more on the serious side than my other LSK fics and is set around five years before the start of the novels. It's a bit easier for me to write stories set before the novels begin for LSK... as there's less risk of spoiling people about what happens later on in the novels, and there is also a lot to explore anyway with the rich history everyone has with each other. (I really hope Yu Wo will write the story of Sun & Adair's training days in the future sometime!)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 13 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1925 words)
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 14 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1521 words)
I only updated Bittersweet Sweetness twice in the month of October because I was so focused on writing other LSK stories. (I was still writing a lot of LSK though~). These two updates were about Sun and Judgment carrying out each other's duties. After writing them together in the same scene for parts 9 through 11, it was kind of hard to have them go separate ways again. The timing's kind of hard to grasp.
♥ The Impressive Adair Fan Club (Legend of Sun Knight, 1839 words)
Oh gosh, this fic... Dark Ice Dragon and I exchanged a lot of comments over No True Pair about the prompts that were generated from our lists. This one was "It turns out Judgment is Adair's biggest fan". I responded to that by saying "You know, I think Storm would be a bigger fan of Adair than Judgment" and I think Dark Ice Dragon said that they would both be fans of Adair... so I wrote just that. XD; I took on more of a...story-telling kind of style for this (I'm not sure how to describe it?)... a more omnipresent POV, I suppose. I don't write this kind of POV a lot, but it was what the fic called for! I was aiming for humor but thought maybe it wasn't very humorous at all, but readers assured me that it is humorous. I hope everyone got a kick out of this fic. It's not meant to be very deep. XD;
♥ Lessons in Demeanor: Lesson One: Drink Tea (Legend of Sun Knight, 1418 words)
♥ Lessons in Demeanor: Lesson Two: Read (Legend of Sun Knight, 1001 words)
...this is meant to be a short multi-parter, coming out to around 5000 words. I so thought I could end this very quickly... but ;____; (me and my terrible track record at finishing short multiparters. *stares at fics that were supposed to end in three chapters... I have not finished a single one of those fics*). This fic is mostly written. At least, the punch line of each chapter has already been written, haha... Anyway, the chapter titles of the next three chapters are:
Lesson Three: Empathize.
Lesson Four: Practice.
Lesson Five: Drink More Tea.
I hope to finish this fic within January. It is only supposed to be five chapters long.
♥ Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Fourth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Stir the Blaze Knight's Concern, Kidnap the Sun Knight." (Legend of Sun Knight, 3998 words)
Oh gosh, I started this waaaaay back in July or so but I could not get a grasp on Storm's character, who's the narrating character of this chapter. I find Storm's POV hard to write (though I have no problem writing him from other characters' POVs) . I keep thinking of him as this cute and very shy boy from his training days, except now he's already good enough to pass off as a flirt no matter how much he isn't one. (and when in reality, he's always buried with paperwork). But when he gets angry... watch out! So many different facets of his character to juggle! Another difficult part of this chapter was... the genre...this chapter was totally "mystery"... but I am completely terrible at mysteries. I pushed myself to finishing the chapter for the prompt "Storm & Blaze, Give Me Your Hand" as this chapter did fit the prompt quite perfectly. I'm glad I got myself to finish the chapter! This chapter also knocked down all plans I had for the fic though... as "Sun disappearing" was supposed to happen at the veeeeery end, and it was supposed to be an overarching plot of sorts, with dastardly plots and everything. Except now that's not happening anymore. I am incapable of writing something that intricate, with small pieces from each chapter building up to some culminating plot. XD;; (So now we're just going to have more of the holy knights' daily lives, haha...)
I have titles for future Entries and am working on Entries 5, though I wonder when I'll finish that... the titles are (tentatively):
Fifth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Confirm the Cloud Knight's Existence, Burn Him With Fire."
Sixth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: To Annoy the Earth Knight, Brag About Your Girlfriend."
I can't wait to finish writing these. :)
November
One word - NaNoWriMo. (which, I'm going to count separately from my word count)
I got a lovely banner from absolutehymn007. Thanks! :D (Hymn was waaay impressive and wrote 100,500 words!)
Last year, I posted most of what I wrote, but this year, I only posted the very beginning (that I thought was polished enough to post). Later chapters have gaps here and there... I might post them someday if I ever finish them and like them enough? Or I might not post them, as posting them after NaNo has already ended seems...not as exciting. I do hope I can finish and polish the entire story by June! The story this year is called Lhordata and features Tekatme as the main character. I forced myself to stick to mostly one POV instead of doing the crazy POV alternating that I always do that leaves very little guessing to the audience since readers know everything already (but yay for dramatic irony?). After attempting this though... I still like switching POVs better!
There's a more cohesive plot this year (or I should say, there's actually a plot), but it takes a bit to develop...and it's a bit whack. With fate and goddesses and suddenly, seeking immortality! (what is going on, I don't even know) I don't like how many words I spent on the prologue and chapter 1...too slow moving for the start of a novel. Not attention-getting enough. The setting was a bit limiting (I so limit myself because each novel is named after a single town/village) and half of the characters I wanted to write about were still stuck elsewhere... so I had to play with an entirely new cast of characters that were designed to flesh this story out.
The name "Lhordata" comes from Chordata, which refers to animals that are vertebrates. It's the phylum that fish belong to. ;) I was mostly looking for a nice, scientific name for fish that normally wouldn't be recognized right off the bat. I replaced the C with an L to stand for Lake, as Lhordata is a fishing town located by a large lake. The name is also, funnily enough, a lot like what Tekatme always swears by - lord!
Veline, the village that my 2010 NaNo was set in, was named after Feline (for cats) and the V comes from valley, as Veline is located in a valley.
Ikatchi's place (the home to the Triad clan of elves), is named Fendron (from the Green work for trees, dendron, as his place is not represented by an animal). I replaced the D with an F, as the home of the Triad clan is a forest.
I've yet to name Rykatu's home, the dragon tribe's cliffs. Not too sure what to name the cliffs. I tried to come up with a name for the entire world, which will most likely be a play on the word "Metazoa", but Wetazoa doesn't sound too cool if I replace the M with a W for "world". Replacing with a T for terra doesn't sound too pretty either... Tetazoa? XD I thought of shortening the word, but then I'd have "Meta", which...means totally different things.
I don't know if I'll be able to finish this story (I wasn't able to finish my 2010 NaNo...) but I do want to print this! Deadline is June! Fight-o!
December
One word - Yuletide. =P
And one lonely update for Bittersweet Sweetness.
♥ Bittersweet Sweetness Part 15 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,921 words)
I wrote this before the newest manhua chapter was released. Darn, that chapter would have been helpful with this part! My version of Judgment scaring the possible culprits is quite different from what the manhua describes. It would have been fun to go with the manhua version!
I babbled a whole lot about my Yuletide fics already in this post if anyone's curious...so skipping that here. XD;
♥ The Shape of His Devotion (Hunter x Hunter, 1,368 words)
♥ Sleeping Beauty, or the Unconscious Man on the Bed (Hunter x Hunter, 2,579 words)
♥ The Names of His Comrades (Noblesse, 3,903 words)
Total number of stories: 5 multi-parters started (none finished), 7 oneshots, 7 drabbles, 1 long original story (also unfinished)
Total word count: ~70,000 in fanfic, ~50,000 in original fiction, so ~120,000k or so! I didn't feel like I wrote a lot... but it added up! My lengthier stories added to the word count a lot.
Fandoms written in: LEGEND OF SUN KNIGHT, Prince of Tennis, Oresama Teacher, Kuragehime, Noblesse, Hunter x Hunter, Hikaru no Go, Yu Yu Hakusho (and then in drabbles only) Bakuman, Detective Conan, Kaichou wa Maid-sama
Leitmotif(s) of the year: uhhh, yay, tropes! First it was amnesia, then it was body-swapping! Haha... I'm really digging strong friendships though!
Favorite fic: Bittersweet Sweetness. There's a reason why it's so much longer than everything else. I was very inspired to write it. ;) And I just love the friendship between Judgment and Sun.
Best fic: The Names of His Comrades, I would say. Because the characterization is fairly spot on in my opinion, and it's a good mix of action and humor while also bringing in matters that are slightly more serious. Also, I hope I surprised people with the twist. Half the story is about the twist. ;) I like stories with a dash of everything! (I guess this turned into what I like to read... this is the kind of fic I like to read, stories with a dash of everything).
Most popular fic: Most popular oneshot goes out to Something Strange. This really surprised me! I did not know there were so many Oresama Teacher fans about. Most popular multi-parter goes out to He Never Knew. I don't think I've had such immediate response to my fics since Hoshi ga Hoshii desu.
Most underappreciated fic: I was hoping Magical would be read more, as that fic ate me and then spit me out. I think it's probably one of the longer fics for the fandom? Though it's nothing ground-breaking!
Favorite first lines:
'“Sun, if you eat any more, you’ll grow fat,” I murmured as I watched my friend who was not supposed to be my friend devour the blueberry pie I had just handed him.' - from First Entry in a Holy Knight’s Journal: “To Keep the Sun Knight Happy, Feed Him Sweets.”
"All of a sudden, I understood deeply why Blaze always liked going around kicking down people's doors because at this very moment, I really wanted to rush over to Pink's house and trample her cute little door in with my foot." - from Part 10 of Bittersweet Sweetness
I like fun first lines. XD;
Most fun fic: The Impressive Adair Fan Club (because it's so full of crack)
Sexiest fic: Again, like last year, not even close. =P If it's sexy in the "omg, this fic is so beautiful" sense, then I'll say The Shape of His Devotion, because it is minimalist and sleek. (But is actually just me being cryptic...)
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Second Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Save the Storm Knight's Eyesight, Steal His Women". Before writing this, I didn't like Earth much!
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: Everything, seriously. I did not think I would write so much Legend of Sun Knight. I did not think I would write Oresama Teacher. Or Kuragehime. Or Hunter x Hunter. Legend of Sun Knight surprised me the most. I wrote so much for it! (I usually at most write 1-2 fics per fandom, and then never return until years later).
Hardest fic to write: The Shape of His Devotion. It went in a completely different direction than my plans, and it turned out very cryptic. I'm usually not one for cryptic fic. Entries 4 was also particularly difficult. I struggled with it for two months.
Biggest disappointment: I'm not disappointed in the fics I wrote, but I'm super disappointed that I started a lot of new fics but did not... even update my WIPs from 2010 and earlier even once. Not even once. I'm appalled. Fics I really need to finish are Memories of the Future (come on, just 8 parts left! this is the final stretch!) and Apple Turnovers (this is a three-shot...surely the 2nd and 3rd chapter shouldn't take me 2 years to write?). Other WIPs...I've given up on them. Well not entirely. I'm still poking at those Phoenix Wright fics I started such a long time ago. They're supposed to be oneshots... I also owe drabbles to lacygrey and ran_dezvous that I really should have posted by now. (they kind of got eaten by my notebook...) *sigh* I'm so sorry about this. ):
Biggest surprise: The Shape of His Devotion. Completely different from what I normally write, and I was actually aiming for a crossover from an outsider's POV. This is neither.
Most telling fic: Huh, Magical, I think. That's the writing style I default to. Third person limited, with possible POV switching all over the place.
What's next? more LSK fic! Updating all of my WIPs! I really, really want to finish Bittersweet Sweetness and start on the sequel (which is called Dishonest Honesty~). I also want to finish Memories of the Future. Like, right now. And Lessons in Demeanor should so be done by now. Oh, and then there's Entries 5. I've left Blaze hanging... oh wait, I should get around to those drabbles I owe people first... it's only been months...
No, really, what's next? I joined getyourwordsout (signed up for the 150k challenge) and also
inkingitout with the same word count. I wonder if I can keep up with the word count (and keep up with participating in both communities, hm~). I also hope to write more just for myself and not for writing communities though (as I seem to be only writing for writing communities these days). But I'm going to immediately go against that by saying I hope to participate in 31_days more as well as
fic_promptly...