Fanfiction writing meme, 2011 edition
Now for the third year!
Fiction posted in 2011:
(As usual, counting last year's Yuletide stories in January because I can't count this year's until the reveal.)
January
1. One Hundred Heads. Psion, gen. For Yuletide 2010. 2595 words.
2. One True Way. Valdemar, gen. For Yuletide 2010. 4385 words.
3. Being an Account of a Journey to the strange new California Republic (and a most peculiar Hotel therein). Echo Bazaar/Hotel California, gen/other. For Yuletide 2010. 3045 words.
February
4. Concatenation. The Professionals, Bodie/Doyle. 6345 words.
5. Fraternization. The Professionals, Bodie/Doyle. 100 words.
March
6. I Wrote Your Name for All to See. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 3695 words.
7. Coax Me. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus, 6259 words.
April
8. If It Feels Good Do It (The Molliculi ac Parum Pudici Remix). The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 5189 words.
VIIII. Post Cenam. Aquila Nonae Legionis, Esca/Marcus. CCCLXXXVI verba.
10. After Dinner. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 536 words.
May
11. I Sing. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 3487 words.
12. Strong and Splendid and True. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 2563 words.
June
13. On the Narrow Edge. The Eagle, Marcus/OFC. For Kink Bingo. 3532 words.
July
14. Thee, O Love, with Hidden Torch. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For Kink Bingo. 1306 words.
15. A Mile Down the Road. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 100 words.
August
16. Five Times Esca Hit Marcus in the Face. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For Kink Bingo. 2270 words.
17. A Collar of Grass. The Eagle, gen. For Kink Bingo. 939 words.
September
18. Who Should Give Law to Lovers? (Love Is a Greater Law to Itself). The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For Kink Bingo. 3796 words.
19. Lie Hidden. The Eagle of the Ninth, gen with implied Cottia/Esca/Marcus. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 673 words.
20. Hard is the Fortune. The Eagle/The Eagle of the Ninth genderswap fusion, Esca/Marcus, Cottia/Esca/Marcus. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 21,680 words.
October
21. Annona. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus pre-slash. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 968 words.
22. Fastened Down. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 2245 words.
November
23. Mixing Nectar in the Cups. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 1190 words.
December
24. An Ancient and Noble Game. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 8155 words.
[Plus of course some Yuletide stories that I cannot reveal until tomorrow.]
This year I wrote and posted:
85,439 words in 24 stories, in seven fandoms.
Overall Thoughts:
Dear God, this year I more than doubled the number of stories I had previously written in my entire fannish history. Next year I will probably double the word count, as this year I also wrote (but did not post) a ~110,000 word Eagle story (the Army AU, which still has no title), and I have maybe 20 or 30,000 more words in WIPs.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
There was no way I could have predicted this. At all. EAGLE ATE MY BRAIN. Oh, and I finally finished a bingo at
kink_bingo. Hooray!
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I'm going to go with The Eagle, mostly because I did not know that The Eagle existed in January. I hadn't heard of either the book or the movie. Then someone on my friendslist reviewed it after it came out and I decided that obviously a slashy Roman fandom was going to be Relevant To My Interests, as they say. I was pretty sure me and this fandom were going to have some fun from the moment Marcus saw Esca in the arena.
(Special mention goes to Frontier Wolf, which -- though I have not worked up enough courage to post any of the stuff I have been writing -- is even better than The Eagle of the Ninth and is slowly creeping up on my brain. I didn't read it until September, because I wanted to finish the Army AU first for fear of stealing any plot.)
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Hmm. A tie between "Five Times Esca Hit Marcus in the Face," which I just am completely pleased with in execution (and it makes me happy! because they're so happy at the end! and hopefully I sold the kink well!) and "Hard is the Fortune," which is the sort of rah-rah-awesome-women stuff that I imprinted on hard as an impressionable teenager who owned the Darkover Renunciates books. Basically, I wrote the kind of f/f I generally like best, and I'm really happy with it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I am proud (and sort of puzzled) that I managed to write het, m/m, f/f, gen, and OT3 fic in Eagle fandom this year, which is really pretty impressive when you consider things like how the Eagle movie has no women with speaking roles. I learned that het writers have it easy, 'cause man, you get to just use pronouns over and over even when your couple is alone in the scene!
Basically, I tried to write a bit of pretty much everything! It was fun! Also, oh, I wrote in Latin, prose and poetry. I think maybe that was a risk. I learned that if I ever want to compose Latin elegiac couplets again I should just hit myself in the head; it will probably hurt less in the long run.
From my past year of writing, what was....
My best story of this year:
Like, that I personally think is my best work? Since I can't name the Army AU (it needs some tightening up anyway), I am again going with "Five Times Esca Hit Marcus in the Face." Clearly other people liked it too, since it won the
kink_bingo Arbitrary Mod Prize "Best Roleplay in Which the Characters Play Themselves."
Alternatively, I still really like "I Wrote Your Name for All to See," which was the first Eagle fic I wrote, and I think I got it right the first time.
Oh oh! And the Valdemar story with the evil Companions. Man, I can't pick.
My most popular story of this year:
Judging by AO3 hits, that would be "Coax Me," which seems to be the most popular thing I've ever written. Weirdly, this is the story I like least of all the Eagle fic I've written, and I knew that pretty much as soon as I posted it. I think it is cliche and predictable and boring and Marcus is not convincingly toppy and it's bleh and also I refer to non-Roman units of time. (Note to other Eagle writers: I swear I only nitpick my own work this much.)
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
"Hard is the Fortune." I was pretty sure this was going to be the case, because genderswap femslash is not everyone's cup of tea, and I'm okay with that. I am really glad I wrote the thing, though.
Most fun story to write:
Another tie here for the two stories where the words pretty much went right from my brain to the page. I did "Hard is the Fortune" (~21,000 words) in eight days -- it is definitely the easiest longfic I've ever written -- and I seriously did the Never Have I Ever story, "An Ancient and Noble Game," (~8,000 words) in 24 hours. Keep in mind that I can only type with one hand.
They were both just so WHEEEEEEE and fun and easy to write. I knew exactly what was going to happen and I didn't have to worry about the plot or anything. It was just magically there.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I am very bad at judging sexiness in my own fic. It's pathetic, I'm sure, but I'd probably pick "Strong and Splendid and True," the story where the only thing the characters get up to is a kissing contest.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
I think the Valdemar story with the evil Companions was pretty wrong, judging by the amount of feedback I got from creeped-out readers at Yuletide. I may have ruined some cherished memories. Go me?
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
"Who Should Give Law to Lovers," for sure. I'd been writing a whole lot of Eagle kinkfic, all of it with Marcus subbing (I like subby Marcus! so sue me!), and for the D/s square on Kink Bingo I dared myself to write a story where Marcus topped. The thing that made me go "huh" after I'd written it was how Esca ended up subbing. I think it was kind of fun.
(Also, writing the Army AU -- and a sequel I can't post yet (no, really, I wasn't kidding about all the WIPs) -- really gave me a different perspective on the characters, because they can relate to each other in ways the canon characters can't, with a different history between them.)
Hardest story to write:
"I Sing." See above, re: elegiac couplets. Also I nearly gave up on the Army AU like fifteen times but that doesn't count because I haven't posted it yet. (Otherwise I could also count all these other WIPs, which are so hard that I haven't finished them.)
Biggest Disappointment:
Dropping out of the Pros Big Bang. Sorry, guys. Also, accumulating way more WIPs than I can finish and generally not posting enough of this fic.
Biggest Surprise:
Look at how much I can write! Aieee.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Ah, but if I told, that would be telling, wouldn't it?
Fic-writing goals for 2012:
1. Edit and post the damn Army AU. Stop worrying whether it is good enough.
2. All that other finished fic that is sitting right here on my hard drive? Do something with that too.
3. Maybe try to finish a Big Bang in time this year. (Yeah, yeah, I'll probably end up dropping out of the Eagle Big Bang too.)
4. Finish ALL THE WIPS. ALL THE WIPS, I say. (That sound you hear is my brain trying to resist starting another strange Eagle AU. People who have seen my WIP list have some idea what I mean by this. My brain is very strange indeed.)
5. Try to post a story every month. Hey, it was fun this year.
This meme takes a long time if you have written many stories.
Read this entry on Dreamwidth ||
comments
Fiction posted in 2011:
(As usual, counting last year's Yuletide stories in January because I can't count this year's until the reveal.)
January
1. One Hundred Heads. Psion, gen. For Yuletide 2010. 2595 words.
2. One True Way. Valdemar, gen. For Yuletide 2010. 4385 words.
3. Being an Account of a Journey to the strange new California Republic (and a most peculiar Hotel therein). Echo Bazaar/Hotel California, gen/other. For Yuletide 2010. 3045 words.
February
4. Concatenation. The Professionals, Bodie/Doyle. 6345 words.
5. Fraternization. The Professionals, Bodie/Doyle. 100 words.
March
6. I Wrote Your Name for All to See. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 3695 words.
7. Coax Me. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus, 6259 words.
April
8. If It Feels Good Do It (The Molliculi ac Parum Pudici Remix). The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 5189 words.
VIIII. Post Cenam. Aquila Nonae Legionis, Esca/Marcus. CCCLXXXVI verba.
10. After Dinner. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 536 words.
May
11. I Sing. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 3487 words.
12. Strong and Splendid and True. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 2563 words.
June
13. On the Narrow Edge. The Eagle, Marcus/OFC. For Kink Bingo. 3532 words.
July
14. Thee, O Love, with Hidden Torch. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For Kink Bingo. 1306 words.
15. A Mile Down the Road. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 100 words.
August
16. Five Times Esca Hit Marcus in the Face. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For Kink Bingo. 2270 words.
17. A Collar of Grass. The Eagle, gen. For Kink Bingo. 939 words.
September
18. Who Should Give Law to Lovers? (Love Is a Greater Law to Itself). The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For Kink Bingo. 3796 words.
19. Lie Hidden. The Eagle of the Ninth, gen with implied Cottia/Esca/Marcus. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 673 words.
20. Hard is the Fortune. The Eagle/The Eagle of the Ninth genderswap fusion, Esca/Marcus, Cottia/Esca/Marcus. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 21,680 words.
October
21. Annona. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus pre-slash. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 968 words.
22. Fastened Down. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. For the ninth_eagle Fanmedia Challenge. 2245 words.
November
23. Mixing Nectar in the Cups. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 1190 words.
December
24. An Ancient and Noble Game. The Eagle, Esca/Marcus. 8155 words.
[Plus of course some Yuletide stories that I cannot reveal until tomorrow.]
This year I wrote and posted:
85,439 words in 24 stories, in seven fandoms.
Overall Thoughts:
Dear God, this year I more than doubled the number of stories I had previously written in my entire fannish history. Next year I will probably double the word count, as this year I also wrote (but did not post) a ~110,000 word Eagle story (the Army AU, which still has no title), and I have maybe 20 or 30,000 more words in WIPs.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
There was no way I could have predicted this. At all. EAGLE ATE MY BRAIN. Oh, and I finally finished a bingo at
kink_bingo. Hooray!
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I'm going to go with The Eagle, mostly because I did not know that The Eagle existed in January. I hadn't heard of either the book or the movie. Then someone on my friendslist reviewed it after it came out and I decided that obviously a slashy Roman fandom was going to be Relevant To My Interests, as they say. I was pretty sure me and this fandom were going to have some fun from the moment Marcus saw Esca in the arena.
(Special mention goes to Frontier Wolf, which -- though I have not worked up enough courage to post any of the stuff I have been writing -- is even better than The Eagle of the Ninth and is slowly creeping up on my brain. I didn't read it until September, because I wanted to finish the Army AU first for fear of stealing any plot.)
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Hmm. A tie between "Five Times Esca Hit Marcus in the Face," which I just am completely pleased with in execution (and it makes me happy! because they're so happy at the end! and hopefully I sold the kink well!) and "Hard is the Fortune," which is the sort of rah-rah-awesome-women stuff that I imprinted on hard as an impressionable teenager who owned the Darkover Renunciates books. Basically, I wrote the kind of f/f I generally like best, and I'm really happy with it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I am proud (and sort of puzzled) that I managed to write het, m/m, f/f, gen, and OT3 fic in Eagle fandom this year, which is really pretty impressive when you consider things like how the Eagle movie has no women with speaking roles. I learned that het writers have it easy, 'cause man, you get to just use pronouns over and over even when your couple is alone in the scene!
Basically, I tried to write a bit of pretty much everything! It was fun! Also, oh, I wrote in Latin, prose and poetry. I think maybe that was a risk. I learned that if I ever want to compose Latin elegiac couplets again I should just hit myself in the head; it will probably hurt less in the long run.
From my past year of writing, what was....
My best story of this year:
Like, that I personally think is my best work? Since I can't name the Army AU (it needs some tightening up anyway), I am again going with "Five Times Esca Hit Marcus in the Face." Clearly other people liked it too, since it won the
kink_bingo Arbitrary Mod Prize "Best Roleplay in Which the Characters Play Themselves."
Alternatively, I still really like "I Wrote Your Name for All to See," which was the first Eagle fic I wrote, and I think I got it right the first time.
Oh oh! And the Valdemar story with the evil Companions. Man, I can't pick.
My most popular story of this year:
Judging by AO3 hits, that would be "Coax Me," which seems to be the most popular thing I've ever written. Weirdly, this is the story I like least of all the Eagle fic I've written, and I knew that pretty much as soon as I posted it. I think it is cliche and predictable and boring and Marcus is not convincingly toppy and it's bleh and also I refer to non-Roman units of time. (Note to other Eagle writers: I swear I only nitpick my own work this much.)
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
"Hard is the Fortune." I was pretty sure this was going to be the case, because genderswap femslash is not everyone's cup of tea, and I'm okay with that. I am really glad I wrote the thing, though.
Most fun story to write:
Another tie here for the two stories where the words pretty much went right from my brain to the page. I did "Hard is the Fortune" (~21,000 words) in eight days -- it is definitely the easiest longfic I've ever written -- and I seriously did the Never Have I Ever story, "An Ancient and Noble Game," (~8,000 words) in 24 hours. Keep in mind that I can only type with one hand.
They were both just so WHEEEEEEE and fun and easy to write. I knew exactly what was going to happen and I didn't have to worry about the plot or anything. It was just magically there.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I am very bad at judging sexiness in my own fic. It's pathetic, I'm sure, but I'd probably pick "Strong and Splendid and True," the story where the only thing the characters get up to is a kissing contest.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
I think the Valdemar story with the evil Companions was pretty wrong, judging by the amount of feedback I got from creeped-out readers at Yuletide. I may have ruined some cherished memories. Go me?
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
"Who Should Give Law to Lovers," for sure. I'd been writing a whole lot of Eagle kinkfic, all of it with Marcus subbing (I like subby Marcus! so sue me!), and for the D/s square on Kink Bingo I dared myself to write a story where Marcus topped. The thing that made me go "huh" after I'd written it was how Esca ended up subbing. I think it was kind of fun.
(Also, writing the Army AU -- and a sequel I can't post yet (no, really, I wasn't kidding about all the WIPs) -- really gave me a different perspective on the characters, because they can relate to each other in ways the canon characters can't, with a different history between them.)
Hardest story to write:
"I Sing." See above, re: elegiac couplets. Also I nearly gave up on the Army AU like fifteen times but that doesn't count because I haven't posted it yet. (Otherwise I could also count all these other WIPs, which are so hard that I haven't finished them.)
Biggest Disappointment:
Dropping out of the Pros Big Bang. Sorry, guys. Also, accumulating way more WIPs than I can finish and generally not posting enough of this fic.
Biggest Surprise:
Look at how much I can write! Aieee.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Ah, but if I told, that would be telling, wouldn't it?
Fic-writing goals for 2012:
1. Edit and post the damn Army AU. Stop worrying whether it is good enough.
2. All that other finished fic that is sitting right here on my hard drive? Do something with that too.
3. Maybe try to finish a Big Bang in time this year. (Yeah, yeah, I'll probably end up dropping out of the Eagle Big Bang too.)
4. Finish ALL THE WIPS. ALL THE WIPS, I say. (That sound you hear is my brain trying to resist starting another strange Eagle AU. People who have seen my WIP list have some idea what I mean by this. My brain is very strange indeed.)
5. Try to post a story every month. Hey, it was fun this year.
This meme takes a long time if you have written many stories.
Read this entry on Dreamwidth ||
comments