End of Year Fanfic Meme
My fics from 2022 are listed in my previous post. I've been so glad to receive a couple of kind responses both on LJ and here: heartwarming congratulations on what can look like an impressive collection. (For quite a while I haven't felt like sharing anything about my headaches and heartaches - at least not anything beyond writing struggles - on these journals, but I trust you understand that behind these little works, there's a little, old and rather lonely person, whom your words make happier.) Here are my answers to too many meme questions.
This year I wrote:
31 100 words of fiction: 32 stories, including drabbles. (Around 4 450 of those words have been submitted to fests in which they will be revealed as mine only in January and February.)
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
My writing had already got less and less every year since 2020 (after I'd written 121 500 words in 2019, when I returned from an eight-year hiatus). A year ago I had no goals. I just hoped I'd continue to write because I needed it as a source of joy. I was happily surprised that according to AO3 my word count for the year had become clearly over 40K. But now that I take out those fest fics which I'd included in my end of 2021 report even though they were still anonymous/not even posted yet at the journal fests, I'm startled to see that I've written barely half of the number of words I wrote in 2021. The number of fics is not fewer but actually four more than in 2021, and that's definitely a better achievement than I could have ever predicted. I made no fanart.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Argus Filch (in Being Not Normal) and Cuthbert Binns (in A Different Truth) are characters I had never thought I'd write! Petunia Evans (in Some Hopes), too.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most: I can't think of any other than... otherness.
Being Not Normal (Argus & Mrs Norris, Argus/Albus, Argus/the Fat Lady, Argus & Remus, Remus/Sirius, T, 5999 words)
Argus has lived to mature years before he realises that he lacks something else besides magic. There's still more for him to learn about rats and pranksters, about restoring paintings, and about himself.
What's your own favourite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Perhaps Timeless Like the Wolf's World.
I'm happy there's now such a story on AO3 (in a fest collection, too, in which some readers have received it) in which my post-OotP Remus (after the events in my post-OotP novel) feels connected with those with whom he's spent his full-moon nights - now and in the past.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Choosing the perspectives of such characters who are boring or unpleasant - without being fascinating - in canon. And writing their first-person voices. Also committing myself to using prompts in a Wolfstar community, even those that are more fitting for setting-change AU. I guess I learnt that I can always write what I find meaningful: themes that are important to me, and stories that belong to the single continuity in my Remus's world.
My best story of this year:
Being Not Normal
My most popular story of this year:
Is It True He's Mad?
No other fic by me has ever got even one third of the number of this fic's comment threads on AO3, but that's no wonder because I've never posted another chaptered fic to the archive. However, this micro-chaptered fic has also got about twice as many kudos as the next most popular fics among my works in 2022.
A different truth is that...
A Different Truth
got ten lovely comments on Firewhiskeyfic (on DW), which is one of the very best communities for writer interaction, and two more on AO3, and that means feedback from more than double the number of readers than the micro-chaptered fic got, and it was also included in a rec list on tumblr by broomsticks (leftsidedown). (Then again, Is It True He's Mad? was posted as a WiP also on tumblr, and some of its chapters must have got some likes over there.)
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
(All of them? :D A couple of readers’ attention in the whole wide HP fandom and in its corners where I thought I'd found community is not too much.) Perhaps only the best one.
My least favourite story this year:
To Reach the Moving Image,
I guess, because it's a third-person rewrite of a first-person memory/autobiography scene from the novel. I wonder why I felt I needed to use a more popular technique and to post on AO3 something that's not a new story at all. (On the basis of the Wolfstarmicrofic prompts I rewrote several scenes from old fics, but I posted most of those only on tumblr.)
Most fun story to write:
Enjoy His Touch, because of the very unusual choice of POV character.
Story with the sweetest moment:
How about Penny Sweets (Remus/Sirius, 235 words)? :D
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Perhaps Suggested for This Season (Severus/Kingsley, T, 2541 words). kellychambliss has said that the flirting here is quite sexy.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Right Here Right Now
in which I used the prompt pirate in a way which made me include this note after the story: Desperate Voyage is a TV film from 1980 that features modern-day pirates, and also an autobiographical book by John Caldwell, published in 1949.
Most overdue:
I could mention any of those scenes set in the 1970s, but since I never thought they'd be absolutely necessary parts in the story of my characters' lives... Perhaps just
Relearning Closeness,
because it could have been direct continuation to my first Sirius fic set in Angola (This Mind Now, This Far).
Most eye roll-worthy title:
Your Little Head?
I still stick to my habit of picking the title from the completed story text so as to use my own original combinations of words. The voice in this fic can be interpreted either as Sirius's second-person perspective or as Kreacher talking to Sirius, and I did not mean to call my reader's head little. :)
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Let's say
Eyes Wide and Wise (Ginny & Luna, G, 200 words),
because (unlike the Argus fic and the Binns fic) it showed a character I'd written before, but very differently, at a different age: Ginny.
Hardest story to write:
Definitely the two most recently completed fics: those that I'll post on AO3 after the reveals at Hoggywartyxmas and Snapecase!
Otherwise maybe Was There Love Involved?
on the basis of how I worked on it several times. It's a scene based on one of the pieces of autobiography my Remus wrote to Harry in my long post-OotP story Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures. I crafted this scene as an exercise at the Punctuation Mini-Workshop at HP Fanfic Writers' Guild on Discord in early May, then edited it about a month later to offer it as a fill for a Wolfstarmicrofic prompt on Tumblr.
Easiest story to write:
Maybe Secret Records,
because I knew what the closing line would be, as that sentence (originally dictated by Sirius) had been used by me in 2006 and by my Remus in 1996: as the climax in a letter written to Harry).
Biggest Disappointment:
I've tried not to have expectations, but at a small fest where I commented on everything, I was a bit disappointed that Being Not Normal was ignored by all the other participants.
Biggest Surprise:
How one of the prompt-based Wolfstar microfics turned into another self-indulgent portrait of my artistic and tragic PoA-era Remus:
To See His Figure.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Perhaps Figuring It Out
(Everyone expects... something sexy. Or perhaps nobody expects anything from you anymore. Your body's not like it used to be, and your career's gone nowhere. )
Favourite opening line:
When Sirius's death recurs in Remus's nightmares, he gets an odd foreboding that, in case he, too, dies in this second war, perhaps after ten years there'll be rumours about a werewolf who lost all his friends, was seduced by a young witch, and left behind an orphan.
(There are only two other sentences in this fic: His and Sirius's Tale.)
Favourite closing line:
(Perhaps because I want to share as much of my writing as possible :D) I choose again a long one:
"May I?" he'll say at Puddifoot's, in the romantic rosy light, which will bring out the deep brown complexion's warm reddish undertones, and he'll swipe off Kingsley's knit cap, caressing the shapely shaved head. (Another Rebel)
In conclusion:
In the end, I'm glad that resorting to Tumblr in my search of connection led me to experimenting with 50-word drabbles and to returning to my young Marauders. On the other hand, even when motivation was hard to find, I felt it was liberating to choose very unusual (unpopular) protagonists, and such decisions led to fics that might be considered more interesting. It was an extra joy to receive some amazing comments on some of them - as well as (thanks to concrit_x on DW) on two older stories which are particularly close to my heart (The Angel of Charity, or This Awfully Long Month and Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures.
Fic-writing goals for 2023:
To continue For a Change, making it work both separately and as a meaningful part of my ficverse.
I've signed up for Remus Lupin Fest (because the sign-ups closed quite a while ago), but I haven't decided if I'll take part in it, or in Salt & Pepper Fest, or in any fest.
This year I wrote:
31 100 words of fiction: 32 stories, including drabbles. (Around 4 450 of those words have been submitted to fests in which they will be revealed as mine only in January and February.)
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
My writing had already got less and less every year since 2020 (after I'd written 121 500 words in 2019, when I returned from an eight-year hiatus). A year ago I had no goals. I just hoped I'd continue to write because I needed it as a source of joy. I was happily surprised that according to AO3 my word count for the year had become clearly over 40K. But now that I take out those fest fics which I'd included in my end of 2021 report even though they were still anonymous/not even posted yet at the journal fests, I'm startled to see that I've written barely half of the number of words I wrote in 2021. The number of fics is not fewer but actually four more than in 2021, and that's definitely a better achievement than I could have ever predicted. I made no fanart.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Argus Filch (in Being Not Normal) and Cuthbert Binns (in A Different Truth) are characters I had never thought I'd write! Petunia Evans (in Some Hopes), too.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most: I can't think of any other than... otherness.
Being Not Normal (Argus & Mrs Norris, Argus/Albus, Argus/the Fat Lady, Argus & Remus, Remus/Sirius, T, 5999 words)
Argus has lived to mature years before he realises that he lacks something else besides magic. There's still more for him to learn about rats and pranksters, about restoring paintings, and about himself.
What's your own favourite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Perhaps Timeless Like the Wolf's World.
I'm happy there's now such a story on AO3 (in a fest collection, too, in which some readers have received it) in which my post-OotP Remus (after the events in my post-OotP novel) feels connected with those with whom he's spent his full-moon nights - now and in the past.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Choosing the perspectives of such characters who are boring or unpleasant - without being fascinating - in canon. And writing their first-person voices. Also committing myself to using prompts in a Wolfstar community, even those that are more fitting for setting-change AU. I guess I learnt that I can always write what I find meaningful: themes that are important to me, and stories that belong to the single continuity in my Remus's world.
My best story of this year:
Being Not Normal
My most popular story of this year:
Is It True He's Mad?
No other fic by me has ever got even one third of the number of this fic's comment threads on AO3, but that's no wonder because I've never posted another chaptered fic to the archive. However, this micro-chaptered fic has also got about twice as many kudos as the next most popular fics among my works in 2022.
A different truth is that...
A Different Truth
got ten lovely comments on Firewhiskeyfic (on DW), which is one of the very best communities for writer interaction, and two more on AO3, and that means feedback from more than double the number of readers than the micro-chaptered fic got, and it was also included in a rec list on tumblr by broomsticks (leftsidedown). (Then again, Is It True He's Mad? was posted as a WiP also on tumblr, and some of its chapters must have got some likes over there.)
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
(All of them? :D A couple of readers’ attention in the whole wide HP fandom and in its corners where I thought I'd found community is not too much.) Perhaps only the best one.
My least favourite story this year:
To Reach the Moving Image,
I guess, because it's a third-person rewrite of a first-person memory/autobiography scene from the novel. I wonder why I felt I needed to use a more popular technique and to post on AO3 something that's not a new story at all. (On the basis of the Wolfstarmicrofic prompts I rewrote several scenes from old fics, but I posted most of those only on tumblr.)
Most fun story to write:
Enjoy His Touch, because of the very unusual choice of POV character.
Story with the sweetest moment:
How about Penny Sweets (Remus/Sirius, 235 words)? :D
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Perhaps Suggested for This Season (Severus/Kingsley, T, 2541 words). kellychambliss has said that the flirting here is quite sexy.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Right Here Right Now
in which I used the prompt pirate in a way which made me include this note after the story: Desperate Voyage is a TV film from 1980 that features modern-day pirates, and also an autobiographical book by John Caldwell, published in 1949.
Most overdue:
I could mention any of those scenes set in the 1970s, but since I never thought they'd be absolutely necessary parts in the story of my characters' lives... Perhaps just
Relearning Closeness,
because it could have been direct continuation to my first Sirius fic set in Angola (This Mind Now, This Far).
Most eye roll-worthy title:
Your Little Head?
I still stick to my habit of picking the title from the completed story text so as to use my own original combinations of words. The voice in this fic can be interpreted either as Sirius's second-person perspective or as Kreacher talking to Sirius, and I did not mean to call my reader's head little. :)
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Let's say
Eyes Wide and Wise (Ginny & Luna, G, 200 words),
because (unlike the Argus fic and the Binns fic) it showed a character I'd written before, but very differently, at a different age: Ginny.
Hardest story to write:
Definitely the two most recently completed fics: those that I'll post on AO3 after the reveals at Hoggywartyxmas and Snapecase!
Otherwise maybe Was There Love Involved?
on the basis of how I worked on it several times. It's a scene based on one of the pieces of autobiography my Remus wrote to Harry in my long post-OotP story Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures. I crafted this scene as an exercise at the Punctuation Mini-Workshop at HP Fanfic Writers' Guild on Discord in early May, then edited it about a month later to offer it as a fill for a Wolfstarmicrofic prompt on Tumblr.
Easiest story to write:
Maybe Secret Records,
because I knew what the closing line would be, as that sentence (originally dictated by Sirius) had been used by me in 2006 and by my Remus in 1996: as the climax in a letter written to Harry).
Biggest Disappointment:
I've tried not to have expectations, but at a small fest where I commented on everything, I was a bit disappointed that Being Not Normal was ignored by all the other participants.
Biggest Surprise:
How one of the prompt-based Wolfstar microfics turned into another self-indulgent portrait of my artistic and tragic PoA-era Remus:
To See His Figure.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Perhaps Figuring It Out
(Everyone expects... something sexy. Or perhaps nobody expects anything from you anymore. Your body's not like it used to be, and your career's gone nowhere. )
Favourite opening line:
When Sirius's death recurs in Remus's nightmares, he gets an odd foreboding that, in case he, too, dies in this second war, perhaps after ten years there'll be rumours about a werewolf who lost all his friends, was seduced by a young witch, and left behind an orphan.
(There are only two other sentences in this fic: His and Sirius's Tale.)
Favourite closing line:
(Perhaps because I want to share as much of my writing as possible :D) I choose again a long one:
"May I?" he'll say at Puddifoot's, in the romantic rosy light, which will bring out the deep brown complexion's warm reddish undertones, and he'll swipe off Kingsley's knit cap, caressing the shapely shaved head. (Another Rebel)
In conclusion:
In the end, I'm glad that resorting to Tumblr in my search of connection led me to experimenting with 50-word drabbles and to returning to my young Marauders. On the other hand, even when motivation was hard to find, I felt it was liberating to choose very unusual (unpopular) protagonists, and such decisions led to fics that might be considered more interesting. It was an extra joy to receive some amazing comments on some of them - as well as (thanks to concrit_x on DW) on two older stories which are particularly close to my heart (The Angel of Charity, or This Awfully Long Month and Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures.
Fic-writing goals for 2023:
To continue For a Change, making it work both separately and as a meaningful part of my ficverse.
I've signed up for Remus Lupin Fest (because the sign-ups closed quite a while ago), but I haven't decided if I'll take part in it, or in Salt & Pepper Fest, or in any fest.