2008 fanfic review
I saw this on friendshipper's journal and thought it was a good idea.
What I wrote in 2008: Quite a bit more than I expected, considering I just started writing fanfic in December of 2007. It's been all SGA. In November I did NaNo and came out with a novel (The Keeper's Kin). Still needs a lot of work, though.
Making Up The Past . Blush (interlude) . Back Home (in progress) - Ronon/Keller
Blood On Our Hands - Ronon/Keller
Leather - Ronon-centric
Let Go - Ronon/Keller
Left Behind (in progress) - Ronon/Keller
Parallax - John/Teyla, Ronon/Keller
The Secret of Takeout - Ronon/Keller
Side By Side, They Both Get Bright - Ronon/Keller
Breathe In Breathe Out - Ronon/Keller
The Last Session - Lorne/Keller
It Takes Time To Get It Right (Glimmer) - Ronon/Keller
Best Interest - Ronon/Keller
Under Blue Skies - Ronon/Keller, pure fluff
Eternal Stimuli - Ronon/Keller
Total fics in 2008: 16 (more or less)
WIPs currently residing in my SGA WIP folder: None. Though 2 fics are published, but unfinished. Don't know if this is bad or not, but I'm kinda a comment!whore, in that I crave immediate validation on my writing. So, I'll pretty much post it after I get the first chapter knocked out and beta'd. The exception is if it's for a ficathon and can only be posted at a certain date.
My favorite story of 2008: "Parallax", "Glimmer"
Biggest surprise: Just the amount of stories that I wrote this past year. I never would have thought. When people started rec'ing "Parallax." That was a great moment of validation. Getting nominated for an Isis Award was cool, too. :)
Most difficult story: "Making Up The Past"/"Back Home". The story turned into a monster, literally. When I first thought conceived the idea, I thought it might be 3 chapters. That so didn't happen. It's still in the works and I hope to have it finished by February, so then I would have been working on it a year. "Parallax" was in a different way because I was writing it from a personal place and I'd never written John/Teyla before, so I was very nervous about how it would be received. "Left Behind" is proving very difficult because it's one of the more plot-heavy stories that I've written.
Best fangirl moment: Don't really know what this means. Ok, I got to chat with tielan after like, salivating over her fic for ages. She's very cool.
Second-best fangirl moment: It is better to give than receive. I wrote "Best Interest" for journeyman07 , because she's an awesome beta and writer, and she had a spell of being utterly uninspired after the events of "The Lost Tribe." She then turned around and wrote "Never Give Away Your Advantage," which turned out to be a rather awesome Ronon/Keller fic, with Kiryk and Larrin to boot.
What I'm most proud of: Just the fact that I started to write. As far as stories, I was very proud that I got "Glimmer" written in one go, as a multichapter fic. Although, I think that was mainly because I had to get it done like that per the rules of the ficathon I wrote it for. "Parallax" still holds the spot as the best thing I've written so far. I'm also very fond of my first fic, "Save Room" because I learned so much about the characters while writing it. I "won" NaNo my first year doing it.
Things I learned about writing in 2008: It's hard. LOL. Not that I thought it would be easy, by any means. S'prolly why I didn't start writing earlier, truthfully. But it's so rewarding when someone reads it and leaves a review, and from their comments, you can see that they really "got" what I was trying to say with my story. I wrote my first fic because I wanted to read a specific story, and it wasn't there. I decided to try my hand at it and post, and I thought it was be the only thing I ever wrote. Obviously I was wrong. I blame writing prompts for that.
I also thought that it didn't matter if anyone liked my fic or not. It was important for me to keep my integrity as far as what I would write and wouldn't write, but the positive feedback I received definitely drove me to write more. I also really appreciated the constructive criticism. It's very important to proofread and I'm terrible at doing to to my own stuff. It's really shocking that people trust me as a beta. ;)
It's totally ok to take things from fic I've read, adopt the things I like and make them my own. Borrow, don't steal.
Finally, it's important to remember the story that you're trying to tell with your fic.
Status of WIPs: Still updating chapters on both fics slowly. I write as the muse hits me.
Writing goals/hopes/plans for 2009: Finish my "Let Behind" and "Back Home." I just started a Ronon/Amelia fic called " Need To Know" and I don't want to start anything else new until I finish that. I don't really plan to write more than I did this past year. I just want to write better quality. Also, I'd like to be finish stories before I start new ones, but I don't really see that happening. I'm slowly branching out to writing other characters. I can do Ronon and Jen with my eyes closed, but then...I'll read something that will totally open my eyes to another angle on the character that I never thought of before. So, I'd like to do that in my writing. Teyla's dialogues is easy, but I'd like to get into her head better.
Not sure if I'll branch out into other fandoms. I really need to focus on revising my novel. :)
What I wrote in 2008: Quite a bit more than I expected, considering I just started writing fanfic in December of 2007. It's been all SGA. In November I did NaNo and came out with a novel (The Keeper's Kin). Still needs a lot of work, though.
Making Up The Past . Blush (interlude) . Back Home (in progress) - Ronon/Keller
Blood On Our Hands - Ronon/Keller
Leather - Ronon-centric
Let Go - Ronon/Keller
Left Behind (in progress) - Ronon/Keller
Parallax - John/Teyla, Ronon/Keller
The Secret of Takeout - Ronon/Keller
Side By Side, They Both Get Bright - Ronon/Keller
Breathe In Breathe Out - Ronon/Keller
The Last Session - Lorne/Keller
It Takes Time To Get It Right (Glimmer) - Ronon/Keller
Best Interest - Ronon/Keller
Under Blue Skies - Ronon/Keller, pure fluff
Eternal Stimuli - Ronon/Keller
Total fics in 2008: 16 (more or less)
WIPs currently residing in my SGA WIP folder: None. Though 2 fics are published, but unfinished. Don't know if this is bad or not, but I'm kinda a comment!whore, in that I crave immediate validation on my writing. So, I'll pretty much post it after I get the first chapter knocked out and beta'd. The exception is if it's for a ficathon and can only be posted at a certain date.
My favorite story of 2008: "Parallax", "Glimmer"
Biggest surprise: Just the amount of stories that I wrote this past year. I never would have thought. When people started rec'ing "Parallax." That was a great moment of validation. Getting nominated for an Isis Award was cool, too. :)
Most difficult story: "Making Up The Past"/"Back Home". The story turned into a monster, literally. When I first thought conceived the idea, I thought it might be 3 chapters. That so didn't happen. It's still in the works and I hope to have it finished by February, so then I would have been working on it a year. "Parallax" was in a different way because I was writing it from a personal place and I'd never written John/Teyla before, so I was very nervous about how it would be received. "Left Behind" is proving very difficult because it's one of the more plot-heavy stories that I've written.
Best fangirl moment: Don't really know what this means. Ok, I got to chat with tielan after like, salivating over her fic for ages. She's very cool.
Second-best fangirl moment: It is better to give than receive. I wrote "Best Interest" for journeyman07 , because she's an awesome beta and writer, and she had a spell of being utterly uninspired after the events of "The Lost Tribe." She then turned around and wrote "Never Give Away Your Advantage," which turned out to be a rather awesome Ronon/Keller fic, with Kiryk and Larrin to boot.
What I'm most proud of: Just the fact that I started to write. As far as stories, I was very proud that I got "Glimmer" written in one go, as a multichapter fic. Although, I think that was mainly because I had to get it done like that per the rules of the ficathon I wrote it for. "Parallax" still holds the spot as the best thing I've written so far. I'm also very fond of my first fic, "Save Room" because I learned so much about the characters while writing it. I "won" NaNo my first year doing it.
Things I learned about writing in 2008: It's hard. LOL. Not that I thought it would be easy, by any means. S'prolly why I didn't start writing earlier, truthfully. But it's so rewarding when someone reads it and leaves a review, and from their comments, you can see that they really "got" what I was trying to say with my story. I wrote my first fic because I wanted to read a specific story, and it wasn't there. I decided to try my hand at it and post, and I thought it was be the only thing I ever wrote. Obviously I was wrong. I blame writing prompts for that.
I also thought that it didn't matter if anyone liked my fic or not. It was important for me to keep my integrity as far as what I would write and wouldn't write, but the positive feedback I received definitely drove me to write more. I also really appreciated the constructive criticism. It's very important to proofread and I'm terrible at doing to to my own stuff. It's really shocking that people trust me as a beta. ;)
It's totally ok to take things from fic I've read, adopt the things I like and make them my own. Borrow, don't steal.
Finally, it's important to remember the story that you're trying to tell with your fic.
Status of WIPs: Still updating chapters on both fics slowly. I write as the muse hits me.
Writing goals/hopes/plans for 2009: Finish my "Let Behind" and "Back Home." I just started a Ronon/Amelia fic called " Need To Know" and I don't want to start anything else new until I finish that. I don't really plan to write more than I did this past year. I just want to write better quality. Also, I'd like to be finish stories before I start new ones, but I don't really see that happening. I'm slowly branching out to writing other characters. I can do Ronon and Jen with my eyes closed, but then...I'll read something that will totally open my eyes to another angle on the character that I never thought of before. So, I'd like to do that in my writing. Teyla's dialogues is easy, but I'd like to get into her head better.
Not sure if I'll branch out into other fandoms. I really need to focus on revising my novel. :)