2020 in fic writing
The Fic
March:
Reaching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Kira Nerys (Kira Nerys/Bareil Antos). PG. Missing scene from episode 3.15. 277 words. Summary: For a while, she is a grieving, devout woman.
Five Threads, Some Crimson Red Riding Hood (fairy tale). Red Riding Hood, Her Grandmother, The Wolf, The Woodcutter, Red Riding Hood’s Mother, Red Riding Hood/The Woodcutter. Teen. 1,030 words. Summary: Five threads of the story of Red Riding Hood.
April
The One Where Everyone Needs All The Hugs Friends. Universal. Chandler Bing/Monica Geller, ensemble mentioned. 296 words. CW: set now. For the prompt ‘any, any, everyone needs a hug' at comment_fic
Impressed Batman Forever, Dr Chase Meridian/Bruce Wayne. PG. Drabble. Summary: Chase has a crick in her neck.
July
looking at you looking at me Scorpion. PG. Paige Dineen, Walter O’Brien, (Paige/Walter) Summary: It’s late, or early, Paige gets Walter to take a break. Written for a comment_fic prompt Spoilers for season 1. 800 words.
How Pandora Felt (After Opening the Box) Scorpion. PG. Paige Dineen/Walter O’Brien. Summary: Paige. Leaning against the door. After. My take on the last scene of 2.01 ‘Satellite of Love’. 427 words.
August
Achilles’ Heel Scorpion. Universal. Dan Smaisley, Walter O’Brien, Paige Dineen, (Walter/Paige). Summary: Dan Smaisley thinks he’s found Walter O’Brien’s Achilles’ heel. Spoilers for 2.6 ‘Tech, Drugs and Rock & Roll’. 390 words.
Never Let Her Go Scorpion. PG. Cabe Gallo, Walter O’Brien, Paige Dineen, (Walter/Paige). Summary: Cabe is watching, and Walter and Paige are uncomfortable, not just because Happy’s driving. Triple drabble. Inspired by the prompt ‘lap sitting’.
The Ties That Bind Scorpion. Universal. Ralph Dineen, Walter O’Brien, Paige Dineen (Walter/Paige). Summary: Ralph observes a morning ritual. Speculative future fic, written after watching ‘Satellite of Love’. (Jossed by season 2 wardrobe choices.) 438 words.
September
Cat Got Your Tongue? Gotham. Teen. Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle. Summary: Three times Bruce Wayne doesn’t apologize to Selina Kyle. Post-series fic. 2,071 words.
Old, Forgotten Things Ghosts. Universal. Ensemble. Gen. Summary: It’s hard to remember things when you’re trying to reunite your head with your body or when Thomas is being really annoying. 955 words. (Written after the first series)
The numbers:
In 2020, I posted 2 fics and 9 ficlets in 7 fandoms. (I’m treating Batman and Forever and Gotham as separate fandoms.) Five of those were new and three of those were from the 1990s. This is down on all counts from 2019. I class anything as 1,000 words or more as a fic.
I also posted the following original fiction: That Merrie Month of May (Historical English setting. PG. May Queen/May King. 376 words.); Blood and Flame (Victorian setting. Teen. OFC/OMC. 699 words.); At Midnight (PG. Drabble.) Basically, I filled three comment-fic prompts with original fic in May. I also wrote X-word or X-sentence ficlets for comment-fic, so my AO3 wordcount is 7,083, but I know I posted more than that, although not even 10,000 words, and I definitely wrote more.
The (selected) questions:
Least favourite fic of the year:Eh, they all filled a need.
Most popular fic of 2020: 'Cat Got Your Tongue?', with 'Old, Forgotten Things' coming second. My Scorpion ficlets got a good reaction on ff.net.
Least popular fic of 2020: 'Impressed' according to AO3 (hee). It’s a drabble, there was no reason for anyone else to rewatch ‘Batman Forever’.
Easiest story to write: A lot of them came quickly (duh, they were mainly ficlets) when I was on a run.
Hardest story to write: 'Old, Forgotten Things' (so much pressure trying to be funny and get as many characters in as possible).
The longest completed fic you posted in 2020: 'Cat Got Your Tongue?' so it’s not surprising that that was the most popular. ('Old, Forgotten Things' was the longest one I wrote entirely in 2020).
The shortest completed fic you wrote in 2020: A one-sentence fic about Arewn, but 'Impressed' is the shortest fic I posted on AO3.
Fandom you enjoyed writing for the most in 2020: Scorpion in that I wrote the most in it and I enjoyed the reaction the fics got.
Favourite character to write about in 2020: Ooh, this is tough, because I obviously wrote a lot about Waige, but from an outside POV. I wrote a couple of fics from Paige’s POV, but I’m wary of writing it and have totally avoided writing from Walter’s POV, but I enjoyed writing from Ralph’s POV.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Everything other than the Red 'Riding Hood' and 'Gotham' fics, which I’d started on in 2019. Less flippantly, I had a past connection to all the fandoms and I wa watching DS9 and had written Scorpion fic before, but I wasn’t expecting comfort rewatches of Friends and the Batman movies or to find a way to write Ghosts fic. I might have expected there to be more Sky High or Gotham fics. Of the original fics, 'Blood and Flame' and 'That Merrie Month of May', perhaps.
Current number of WIPs: It’s hard to say, because how do you define ‘in progress’? For example, I have seven Word document with fic in them open, but I’ve only got a new idea for three of them. There’s still the Gotham fics that I mentioned last year. I only managed to work on two of them and posted one over 2020.
Most memorable comment/review: I had a nice comment about how consistently I’d written Selina and Bruce in 'Cat Got Your Tongue?
'
Story with the sweetest moment: 'The One Where Everyone Needs All the Hugs'/'The Ties that Bind'. Both are domestic fluff.
Story with the single sexiest moment: 'Blood and Flame'.
Saddest story: 'Reaching', 'Five Threads, Some Crimson'. and 'The One Where Everyone Needs All the Hugs' - all posted early in the year. After that, I lost my appetite for it.
Most eye roll-worthy title: 'The Ties That Bind' according to Harry Hill, because a lot of medical dramasuse it fore episodes. In the main, I kept it simple - TTTB features an actual tie. 'Five Threads, Some Crimson' is a bit pretentious. 'looking at you, looking at me' stands out for being lower case.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: None and I don’t think any story is at odds with my perceptions of them. I was mostly working with canon as known at the time of writing, I thnk.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: I knew what I was doing with 'The One Where Everyone Needs All The Hugs', but going over what I posted and my posts explaining my thinking at the time has been trippy.
In conclusion: I had no writing goals for 2020, which is good, because they’d have gone out of the window. (I had hoped to post something before the end of December, but didn’t have the bandwidth, which is also true of all autumn and the first few months of 2020.) Lockdown and restrictions sent me scuttling back to old fandoms, Ghosts was the most contemporary fandom, although I hadn’t properly got into Scorpion until last year. It was nice to have fic writing be part of my interaction with Scorpion.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/449636.html.
March:
Reaching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Kira Nerys (Kira Nerys/Bareil Antos). PG. Missing scene from episode 3.15. 277 words. Summary: For a while, she is a grieving, devout woman.
Five Threads, Some Crimson Red Riding Hood (fairy tale). Red Riding Hood, Her Grandmother, The Wolf, The Woodcutter, Red Riding Hood’s Mother, Red Riding Hood/The Woodcutter. Teen. 1,030 words. Summary: Five threads of the story of Red Riding Hood.
April
The One Where Everyone Needs All The Hugs Friends. Universal. Chandler Bing/Monica Geller, ensemble mentioned. 296 words. CW: set now. For the prompt ‘any, any, everyone needs a hug' at comment_fic
Impressed Batman Forever, Dr Chase Meridian/Bruce Wayne. PG. Drabble. Summary: Chase has a crick in her neck.
July
looking at you looking at me Scorpion. PG. Paige Dineen, Walter O’Brien, (Paige/Walter) Summary: It’s late, or early, Paige gets Walter to take a break. Written for a comment_fic prompt Spoilers for season 1. 800 words.
How Pandora Felt (After Opening the Box) Scorpion. PG. Paige Dineen/Walter O’Brien. Summary: Paige. Leaning against the door. After. My take on the last scene of 2.01 ‘Satellite of Love’. 427 words.
August
Achilles’ Heel Scorpion. Universal. Dan Smaisley, Walter O’Brien, Paige Dineen, (Walter/Paige). Summary: Dan Smaisley thinks he’s found Walter O’Brien’s Achilles’ heel. Spoilers for 2.6 ‘Tech, Drugs and Rock & Roll’. 390 words.
Never Let Her Go Scorpion. PG. Cabe Gallo, Walter O’Brien, Paige Dineen, (Walter/Paige). Summary: Cabe is watching, and Walter and Paige are uncomfortable, not just because Happy’s driving. Triple drabble. Inspired by the prompt ‘lap sitting’.
The Ties That Bind Scorpion. Universal. Ralph Dineen, Walter O’Brien, Paige Dineen (Walter/Paige). Summary: Ralph observes a morning ritual. Speculative future fic, written after watching ‘Satellite of Love’. (Jossed by season 2 wardrobe choices.) 438 words.
September
Cat Got Your Tongue? Gotham. Teen. Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle. Summary: Three times Bruce Wayne doesn’t apologize to Selina Kyle. Post-series fic. 2,071 words.
Old, Forgotten Things Ghosts. Universal. Ensemble. Gen. Summary: It’s hard to remember things when you’re trying to reunite your head with your body or when Thomas is being really annoying. 955 words. (Written after the first series)
The numbers:
In 2020, I posted 2 fics and 9 ficlets in 7 fandoms. (I’m treating Batman and Forever and Gotham as separate fandoms.) Five of those were new and three of those were from the 1990s. This is down on all counts from 2019. I class anything as 1,000 words or more as a fic.
I also posted the following original fiction: That Merrie Month of May (Historical English setting. PG. May Queen/May King. 376 words.); Blood and Flame (Victorian setting. Teen. OFC/OMC. 699 words.); At Midnight (PG. Drabble.) Basically, I filled three comment-fic prompts with original fic in May. I also wrote X-word or X-sentence ficlets for comment-fic, so my AO3 wordcount is 7,083, but I know I posted more than that, although not even 10,000 words, and I definitely wrote more.
The (selected) questions:
Least favourite fic of the year:Eh, they all filled a need.
Most popular fic of 2020: 'Cat Got Your Tongue?', with 'Old, Forgotten Things' coming second. My Scorpion ficlets got a good reaction on ff.net.
Least popular fic of 2020: 'Impressed' according to AO3 (hee). It’s a drabble, there was no reason for anyone else to rewatch ‘Batman Forever’.
Easiest story to write: A lot of them came quickly (duh, they were mainly ficlets) when I was on a run.
Hardest story to write: 'Old, Forgotten Things' (so much pressure trying to be funny and get as many characters in as possible).
The longest completed fic you posted in 2020: 'Cat Got Your Tongue?' so it’s not surprising that that was the most popular. ('Old, Forgotten Things' was the longest one I wrote entirely in 2020).
The shortest completed fic you wrote in 2020: A one-sentence fic about Arewn, but 'Impressed' is the shortest fic I posted on AO3.
Fandom you enjoyed writing for the most in 2020: Scorpion in that I wrote the most in it and I enjoyed the reaction the fics got.
Favourite character to write about in 2020: Ooh, this is tough, because I obviously wrote a lot about Waige, but from an outside POV. I wrote a couple of fics from Paige’s POV, but I’m wary of writing it and have totally avoided writing from Walter’s POV, but I enjoyed writing from Ralph’s POV.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Everything other than the Red 'Riding Hood' and 'Gotham' fics, which I’d started on in 2019. Less flippantly, I had a past connection to all the fandoms and I wa watching DS9 and had written Scorpion fic before, but I wasn’t expecting comfort rewatches of Friends and the Batman movies or to find a way to write Ghosts fic. I might have expected there to be more Sky High or Gotham fics. Of the original fics, 'Blood and Flame' and 'That Merrie Month of May', perhaps.
Current number of WIPs: It’s hard to say, because how do you define ‘in progress’? For example, I have seven Word document with fic in them open, but I’ve only got a new idea for three of them. There’s still the Gotham fics that I mentioned last year. I only managed to work on two of them and posted one over 2020.
Most memorable comment/review: I had a nice comment about how consistently I’d written Selina and Bruce in 'Cat Got Your Tongue?
'
Story with the sweetest moment: 'The One Where Everyone Needs All the Hugs'/'The Ties that Bind'. Both are domestic fluff.
Story with the single sexiest moment: 'Blood and Flame'.
Saddest story: 'Reaching', 'Five Threads, Some Crimson'. and 'The One Where Everyone Needs All the Hugs' - all posted early in the year. After that, I lost my appetite for it.
Most eye roll-worthy title: 'The Ties That Bind' according to Harry Hill, because a lot of medical dramasuse it fore episodes. In the main, I kept it simple - TTTB features an actual tie. 'Five Threads, Some Crimson' is a bit pretentious. 'looking at you, looking at me' stands out for being lower case.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: None and I don’t think any story is at odds with my perceptions of them. I was mostly working with canon as known at the time of writing, I thnk.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: I knew what I was doing with 'The One Where Everyone Needs All The Hugs', but going over what I posted and my posts explaining my thinking at the time has been trippy.
In conclusion: I had no writing goals for 2020, which is good, because they’d have gone out of the window. (I had hoped to post something before the end of December, but didn’t have the bandwidth, which is also true of all autumn and the first few months of 2020.) Lockdown and restrictions sent me scuttling back to old fandoms, Ghosts was the most contemporary fandom, although I hadn’t properly got into Scorpion until last year. It was nice to have fic writing be part of my interaction with Scorpion.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/449636.html.