Fic Year in Review: 2016
Because I'll be out of town for the rest of the week, and not bringing my laptop along, I think it's time to call it in terms of fic writing and posting (although not writing goals for the year -- I'll take care of that when I get back).
Master List of Fic Written
By canon, then order of publication. Missing one exchange story that won't be revealed until January.
Critical Role
Opportunity, Percy/Vex, spoilers through Episode 69
Past Time for Later, Percy/Vex, spoilers through Episode 73
Those Who Wait, mainly OCs, spoilers through Episode 56
Dragon Age
Climbing Home, Leliana/f!Brosca
Grown, Bethany/Leliana
In the Lists, Blackwall/f!Cadash, Varric
Landlubbers, Isabela/Merrill/f!Hawke
Apologies, Alistair & Fiona
Final Fantasy X-2
Change of Plans, Balthier/Gippal
Fair Trade, Leblanc/Nooj
Gilmore Girls
Acts of Love, Luke/Lorelai
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Help the Helpless, Trish Walker/Karen Page
Taking Responsibility, Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, Bobbi Morse, Sharon Carter, Steve Rogers, others, spoilers for CA3: Civil War
Crossovers
Another Round, Garrus Varkarian/Balthier (Mass Effect/FFXII)
Insubordination, Peggy Carter, Natasha Romanoff, Carver Hawke (Dragon Age/MCU)
Gather Ye Lords and Ladies Fair, Cassandra, Paine, Bethany Hawke (Dragon Age/FFX-2_
Strange Bedfellow, Cassandra Pentaghast/Peggy Carter (Dragon Age/MCU)
Questions and Answers
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Critical Role is the easy answer to this, since I wasn't even aware of its existence in January. I suppose I could also say that I couldn't have predicted finding a new fandom and OTP. But even that wasn't enough to pull me out of the rut that I've been feeling for the last couple of years.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? The story not listed above, because it's out to beta and most likely won't go up until January: Wardens of Ivalice Part 2. Parts of it are better than others, but what I like, I really love, and mostly it makes me happy to have finally started making progress on it again.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Not really? Writing a Critical Role stories populated almost entirely by OCs felt risky from a fandom perspective, but it seems to have worked out. But otherwise, well. See the writing rut problem.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I'll detail these when I do my full goals post next week. But I have some early thoughts to share that I'll get into when I wrap up here.
From my past year of writing, what was...
My best story of this year: Either "Landlubbers" or "Those Who Wait".
My most popular story of this year: "Opportunity" had both the most hits and the most kudos. Not surprising, since it's a popular pairing (Percy/Vex) in a hot fandom that came out when a lot was going on with them in canon.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Nothing in particular comes to mind.
Most fun story to write: "Another Round" with "Landlubbers" a close second.
Story with the single sexiest moment: I wrote almost nothing porny this year -- only "Landlubbers" even had a sex scene. I will say I was pretty happy with it, though.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I wasn't quite certain who Laine was going to be when I started "Those Who Wait", and that discovery process was pretty great.
Hardest story to write: Wardens of Ivalice Part 2. Of the published stories, probably "Climbing Home".
Biggest Disappointment: Not getting Wardens of Ivalice to beta in time for publication this year, followed by falling so short of my
getyourwordsout target (unless something really weird happens while I'm traveling, I'm probably going to wind up with fewer than 110k words this year).
Biggest Surprise: Maybe the Gilmore Girls story.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Nothing unintentional about two Perc'ahlia stories in a month, but it's sure telling. I'm a little surprised there weren't more.
In Conclusion
Not a great writing year, for a number of reasons both personal and structural, although it could have been worse. It seems so long ago, now, with everything that's happened since, but dealing with Lexi's illness, then losing him, took a toll on me in the first part of the year, and then during the second half I was consumed with the election. Either of those issues would have been a problem at any time, but they only worsened the problem of what feels like a long-term writing slump. One thing I did manage to mostly do, though, is meet most of my writing goals, especially the annual ones. I'll be able to take a closer look at that next week; I'll also decide at that time whether to participate in
getyourwordsout again. Right now I'm leaning toward no, although I could easily be convinced otherwise. One thing I've really lost over the last few years is the feeling of being part of an active community of writers. I fell out of touch with ushobwri this year, and never really jumped into GYWO at all, and have been mostly off Tumblr lately as well. I need to think about what types of communities and challenges are the most useful to me, and how it all plays into my longer-term issues with motivation. Giving up writing is the last thing I want to do, but I have some big questions to ask myself about what I want out of it.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/765527.html. There are currently
comments on DW.
Master List of Fic Written
By canon, then order of publication. Missing one exchange story that won't be revealed until January.
Critical Role
Opportunity, Percy/Vex, spoilers through Episode 69
Past Time for Later, Percy/Vex, spoilers through Episode 73
Those Who Wait, mainly OCs, spoilers through Episode 56
Dragon Age
Climbing Home, Leliana/f!Brosca
Grown, Bethany/Leliana
In the Lists, Blackwall/f!Cadash, Varric
Landlubbers, Isabela/Merrill/f!Hawke
Apologies, Alistair & Fiona
Final Fantasy X-2
Change of Plans, Balthier/Gippal
Fair Trade, Leblanc/Nooj
Gilmore Girls
Acts of Love, Luke/Lorelai
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Help the Helpless, Trish Walker/Karen Page
Taking Responsibility, Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, Bobbi Morse, Sharon Carter, Steve Rogers, others, spoilers for CA3: Civil War
Crossovers
Another Round, Garrus Varkarian/Balthier (Mass Effect/FFXII)
Insubordination, Peggy Carter, Natasha Romanoff, Carver Hawke (Dragon Age/MCU)
Gather Ye Lords and Ladies Fair, Cassandra, Paine, Bethany Hawke (Dragon Age/FFX-2_
Strange Bedfellow, Cassandra Pentaghast/Peggy Carter (Dragon Age/MCU)
Questions and Answers
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Critical Role is the easy answer to this, since I wasn't even aware of its existence in January. I suppose I could also say that I couldn't have predicted finding a new fandom and OTP. But even that wasn't enough to pull me out of the rut that I've been feeling for the last couple of years.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? The story not listed above, because it's out to beta and most likely won't go up until January: Wardens of Ivalice Part 2. Parts of it are better than others, but what I like, I really love, and mostly it makes me happy to have finally started making progress on it again.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Not really? Writing a Critical Role stories populated almost entirely by OCs felt risky from a fandom perspective, but it seems to have worked out. But otherwise, well. See the writing rut problem.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I'll detail these when I do my full goals post next week. But I have some early thoughts to share that I'll get into when I wrap up here.
From my past year of writing, what was...
My best story of this year: Either "Landlubbers" or "Those Who Wait".
My most popular story of this year: "Opportunity" had both the most hits and the most kudos. Not surprising, since it's a popular pairing (Percy/Vex) in a hot fandom that came out when a lot was going on with them in canon.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Nothing in particular comes to mind.
Most fun story to write: "Another Round" with "Landlubbers" a close second.
Story with the single sexiest moment: I wrote almost nothing porny this year -- only "Landlubbers" even had a sex scene. I will say I was pretty happy with it, though.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I wasn't quite certain who Laine was going to be when I started "Those Who Wait", and that discovery process was pretty great.
Hardest story to write: Wardens of Ivalice Part 2. Of the published stories, probably "Climbing Home".
Biggest Disappointment: Not getting Wardens of Ivalice to beta in time for publication this year, followed by falling so short of my
getyourwordsout target (unless something really weird happens while I'm traveling, I'm probably going to wind up with fewer than 110k words this year).
Biggest Surprise: Maybe the Gilmore Girls story.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Nothing unintentional about two Perc'ahlia stories in a month, but it's sure telling. I'm a little surprised there weren't more.
In Conclusion
Not a great writing year, for a number of reasons both personal and structural, although it could have been worse. It seems so long ago, now, with everything that's happened since, but dealing with Lexi's illness, then losing him, took a toll on me in the first part of the year, and then during the second half I was consumed with the election. Either of those issues would have been a problem at any time, but they only worsened the problem of what feels like a long-term writing slump. One thing I did manage to mostly do, though, is meet most of my writing goals, especially the annual ones. I'll be able to take a closer look at that next week; I'll also decide at that time whether to participate in
getyourwordsout again. Right now I'm leaning toward no, although I could easily be convinced otherwise. One thing I've really lost over the last few years is the feeling of being part of an active community of writers. I fell out of touch with ushobwri this year, and never really jumped into GYWO at all, and have been mostly off Tumblr lately as well. I need to think about what types of communities and challenges are the most useful to me, and how it all plays into my longer-term issues with motivation. Giving up writing is the last thing I want to do, but I have some big questions to ask myself about what I want out of it.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/765527.html. There are currently
comments on DW.