2011 year-end fanfic summary type thing
So, this was my second year posting fanfiction on the internet! This year was a good year - I wrote a lot of fic that is pretty okay, and I got way more involved in the people side of fandom, possibly. I joined rewatches, and chatted with people, and met people who I had only known on the internet! And then I rediscovered that a lot of my stress-related social anxiety is focused on non-face-to-face interactions, particularly interacting with people via the internet. And then I got way less involved. So. A year of self-rediscovery, haha!
The (now-annual) numbers:
I wrote and posted 97,582 words of fanfic this year. That breaks down into 35 stories (which includes commentfic and everything). Out of that, all but one or two were written for prompts. I'd feel iffy about that, but this was also the year where I used prompts more as jumping-off points, rather than looking for closely defined prompts. It seemed to work pretty well!
Out of the prompted stories, 1 was for an asexuality prompt, 4 were best_enemies drabbles, 11 were for yuletide, 4 were for other exchanges, 11 were for the best_enemies anonmeme, and 2 were for other anonmemes. (I've owned up to all but 2 anonymous fics - I should write more, I'm catching up.)
All told, it's about 12,000 words less and 13 stories less than last year. Mostly the lower story count comes from a severe shortage of commentfic/drabbles. I should get back on those, I like them. The lower word count, I'm not sure about, but it's not like a huge drop or anything. I also had a pretty even split between Doctor Who and other fandoms, this year: I wrote 53,655 words for Who and 43,927 for other fandoms. Less mono-fannishness was something I aimed for last year, but I didn't think about it when it was happening. I think I just got more confident about writing in other sources.
Last year this was all I did, but I saw aralias and tweedymcgee with this fanfic meme, and thought "why yes, I do like typing out long commentaries that I can read next January, I should do that."
I'm not listing out all of my fics, but if you go to this page on the Ao3 and go down from "Honeymooners," that's most of it. A couple aren't posted, or are there but aren't counted, because they were reposts or something.
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
I actually wrote more than I thought I had? This is pretty close to what I wrote last year, and I'm not counting a piece of originalish fiction and the whole script thing that's going on right now. I thought I had written a lot less, somehow.
I was on break from January to March, during which I wrote A LOT. Also I signed up for a lot of exchanges this year, which was fun and meant that I had to keep writing because deadlines. I resolve to do that again this year.
Where did you publish/archive your stories?
I post to LJ, then get things to the Ao3, and eventually stuff migrates to Teaspoon. It is a long and involved process, and sometimes complicated by the alternate first step of 'post to b_e's anonmeme.' I also started crossposting from Dreamwidth this year.
(Also! It would be really nice if more people would post to the Ao3, because it is so easy to find things there. Doctor/Master and Doctor Who in general is often absent from the archive, and it makes me sad when I am searching for all the Six/Master fic and have to go through a bunch of different community/journal archives instead.)
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I wrote a lot of non-Doctor Who fandoms this year, but I had totally predicted that. I think I wrote a lot of normal stuff, for me - silly or sort of serious fanfic with history, philosophy, obscure canon references and all.
What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
I never like things I've written, haha. I think the existence of Richard Burton RPF makes me happiest, but only if I forget about having made it.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Probably Wager - it was written for a moderately sized fandom right when their first anonmeme opened, and people seem to have liked it. Operator, Operator has also gotten recced quite a bit.
Story most under appreciated by the universe?
I feel pretty appreciated! I don't know what I'm doing right, but I resolve to keep doing it.
Story that could have been better?
All of them, probably. But most of the ones I think I could actually do better on, I never posted, so.
Sexiest story?
Probably Operator, Operator. Sexiest means most sex, right? Even weird sex? Yes.
The stories I wrote that I find sexiest are either still anon or not posted, and may stay that way. There's a lot of terrible id-fic in my documents.
Most fun story?
Probably Common Issues in Childcare. Writing is a really dead space for me, emotionally speaking, but people seemed to find that one fun.
Also I am skipping the next two questions (sweetest moment, fic that made you cry) because I have no answers. I am dead inside :| (only with writing, hopefully...)
Hardest story to write?
I had to keep rewriting both Honeymooners and Common Issues in Childcare - each of them went through extensive revisions, way beyond my normal three-draft system. And there's also all the unfinished fic that I literally can't get anywhere with.
Easiest story to write?
Both Wager and Operator, Operator just sort of fell out on to the the page. They're also the two stories that I wrote as WIPs for anonmemes, so I couldn't rewrite them forever if I had wanted to.
Most overdue story?
My commentary for aralias and my response for the last asexuality prompt. I've learned that I'm bad at doing responses for things I post. I resolve to get on these!
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I wrote for more unfamiliar fandoms! And I tried new things with structure a lot, I'm not sure if that worked.
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Looking above - write more drabbles and anonmeme prompts. Sign up for fests/exchanges again. Continue to do something right. Write the overdue response commentaries/fics.
Also, last year I claimed that I would write for The Thick of It, Horatio Hornblower, and Caprica, and only managed the first one, bah. This year I resolve to not make claims like that, and not be surprised when I end up writing a 20k+ story for Dresden Files instead.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/33762.html. Comment wherever you want.
The (now-annual) numbers:
I wrote and posted 97,582 words of fanfic this year. That breaks down into 35 stories (which includes commentfic and everything). Out of that, all but one or two were written for prompts. I'd feel iffy about that, but this was also the year where I used prompts more as jumping-off points, rather than looking for closely defined prompts. It seemed to work pretty well!
Out of the prompted stories, 1 was for an asexuality prompt, 4 were best_enemies drabbles, 11 were for yuletide, 4 were for other exchanges, 11 were for the best_enemies anonmeme, and 2 were for other anonmemes. (I've owned up to all but 2 anonymous fics - I should write more, I'm catching up.)
All told, it's about 12,000 words less and 13 stories less than last year. Mostly the lower story count comes from a severe shortage of commentfic/drabbles. I should get back on those, I like them. The lower word count, I'm not sure about, but it's not like a huge drop or anything. I also had a pretty even split between Doctor Who and other fandoms, this year: I wrote 53,655 words for Who and 43,927 for other fandoms. Less mono-fannishness was something I aimed for last year, but I didn't think about it when it was happening. I think I just got more confident about writing in other sources.
Last year this was all I did, but I saw aralias and tweedymcgee with this fanfic meme, and thought "why yes, I do like typing out long commentaries that I can read next January, I should do that."
I'm not listing out all of my fics, but if you go to this page on the Ao3 and go down from "Honeymooners," that's most of it. A couple aren't posted, or are there but aren't counted, because they were reposts or something.
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
I actually wrote more than I thought I had? This is pretty close to what I wrote last year, and I'm not counting a piece of originalish fiction and the whole script thing that's going on right now. I thought I had written a lot less, somehow.
I was on break from January to March, during which I wrote A LOT. Also I signed up for a lot of exchanges this year, which was fun and meant that I had to keep writing because deadlines. I resolve to do that again this year.
Where did you publish/archive your stories?
I post to LJ, then get things to the Ao3, and eventually stuff migrates to Teaspoon. It is a long and involved process, and sometimes complicated by the alternate first step of 'post to b_e's anonmeme.' I also started crossposting from Dreamwidth this year.
(Also! It would be really nice if more people would post to the Ao3, because it is so easy to find things there. Doctor/Master and Doctor Who in general is often absent from the archive, and it makes me sad when I am searching for all the Six/Master fic and have to go through a bunch of different community/journal archives instead.)
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I wrote a lot of non-Doctor Who fandoms this year, but I had totally predicted that. I think I wrote a lot of normal stuff, for me - silly or sort of serious fanfic with history, philosophy, obscure canon references and all.
What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
I never like things I've written, haha. I think the existence of Richard Burton RPF makes me happiest, but only if I forget about having made it.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Probably Wager - it was written for a moderately sized fandom right when their first anonmeme opened, and people seem to have liked it. Operator, Operator has also gotten recced quite a bit.
Story most under appreciated by the universe?
I feel pretty appreciated! I don't know what I'm doing right, but I resolve to keep doing it.
Story that could have been better?
All of them, probably. But most of the ones I think I could actually do better on, I never posted, so.
Sexiest story?
Probably Operator, Operator. Sexiest means most sex, right? Even weird sex? Yes.
The stories I wrote that I find sexiest are either still anon or not posted, and may stay that way. There's a lot of terrible id-fic in my documents.
Most fun story?
Probably Common Issues in Childcare. Writing is a really dead space for me, emotionally speaking, but people seemed to find that one fun.
Also I am skipping the next two questions (sweetest moment, fic that made you cry) because I have no answers. I am dead inside :| (only with writing, hopefully...)
Hardest story to write?
I had to keep rewriting both Honeymooners and Common Issues in Childcare - each of them went through extensive revisions, way beyond my normal three-draft system. And there's also all the unfinished fic that I literally can't get anywhere with.
Easiest story to write?
Both Wager and Operator, Operator just sort of fell out on to the the page. They're also the two stories that I wrote as WIPs for anonmemes, so I couldn't rewrite them forever if I had wanted to.
Most overdue story?
My commentary for aralias and my response for the last asexuality prompt. I've learned that I'm bad at doing responses for things I post. I resolve to get on these!
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I wrote for more unfamiliar fandoms! And I tried new things with structure a lot, I'm not sure if that worked.
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Looking above - write more drabbles and anonmeme prompts. Sign up for fests/exchanges again. Continue to do something right. Write the overdue response commentaries/fics.
Also, last year I claimed that I would write for The Thick of It, Horatio Hornblower, and Caprica, and only managed the first one, bah. This year I resolve to not make claims like that, and not be surprised when I end up writing a 20k+ story for Dresden Files instead.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/33762.html. Comment wherever you want.