Yuletide 2009 roundup.
I know you people have been waiting with baited breath lo, these many moons for the second installment of my Knight Rider recs. But I need to talk about Yuletide first.
It was my first time, and it was a lot of fun. I spent a not insignificant number of hours hanging out in the #yuletide IRC channel, and having not done IRC since my Due South days, it felt really strange and flashbacky. Channel topics! Ops! Trout-slapping! But the crowd there was endlessly funny and kind, and I couldn't have gotten the fic finished without their company.
THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID I FINISHED THE FIC! I'll link to and/or post it here after the 1st, but essentially, it is my first completed piece in over three years. This is more than a little intimidating given the built-in exposure, and I'm ashamed to admit that I'd been tinkering with the final draft even after the reveal. I quickly realized that was kind of obnoxious and knocked it off (for now), but there's still stuff I wish I had executed slightly better. On the whole, though, I'm relatively satisfied. Especially considering the fandom has never been quite as popular as it rightfully should, I got a good number of hits, a respectable number of comments, and a couple of recs (though they weren't posted to the comm). Most importantly? My recipient was delighted! I've read her comment like twelve thousand times, and am kind of stalking her. In a good, non-creepy way.
My own Yuletide gift was a pretty jaw-dropping, nearly 5k-word Back to the Future fic called Fearful Symmetry, which is justifiably getting quite a lot of attention. *beams, flails* My prompt was like, "Please write Marty and Doc hugging and crying while riding unicorns in space!" so it is a true testament to my author's skill and imagination that s/he was able come up with something so smart and interesting and just, you should read it, even if you simply remember the movies fondly.
A couple of extraneous thoughts on the whole shebang. I know that a lot of people were on their second or third or fourth Yuletide, and while there have apparently been serious snafus in past years, I guess the archive and the stories themselves have always been fairly easy to access on Yuletide Day...? I mean, I don't rightly know, but when AO3 began to inch along on its belly after the reveal, there were definitely a few vocally unhappy campers. Not the majority by any means--but a few. And you know, I get that it was frustrating. You work your ass off to write a shiny, custom-made gift for your recipient by deadline, and maybe you even do some pinch-hitting. And the whole idea is that because you've been a good little fan, when Yuletide comes you get to tear open not just your own shiny, custom-made gift, but everyone else's, too! So a slow archive is a real bummer, because it's like someone sits you down in the middle of those thousands of shiny, custom-made gifts and tells you that before you can open any of them, you have to stare at each one for five to ten minutes at a stretch. So, yes. It kind of sucked.
But also? Shut up, you ungrateful little shits. I'm sure that if you ran Yuletide, the switch to AO3 would've gone flawlessly and it would've been running like the Indy 500 and the stories would've smelled like roses. But you weren't, and you must have very little appreciation for the massive amount of unpaid work that goes into putting it together. My understanding is that the move to AO3 had become pretty necessary anyway; regardless, the intent was ultimately make Yuletide a better experience for you. It's the first year on a new server. It's technology. It's not going to be perfect right away. It will doubtlessly be much, much better next year. Meanwhile, it was running markedly better by the 26th, and the fic will be there all year. Re. Lax. If a slow fanfic archive genuinely wrecked your Christmas, or if OMG this is the one time you have all year to read for leisure and now it's totally ruined, then...I don't know what to tell you about the unfortunate state of your life, basically.
I also had some musings about story comments, though nothing especially revelatory. My awesome friend of awesomeness ignazwisdom noted that a ratio of one comment per 100 hits was generally really good; she's like ten times more active in online fandom than I am, as I mostly keep to myself for, you know, mental health reasons. So while it would be disingenuous to try to compare my observations to hers, it did make me ponder: My Yuletide fic got more than a half-dozen comments in the first 60 or so hits, which under Iggy's Formula is pretty darned good. But after that initial burst, the comments stopped completely--even as the hits climbed to 70, 80, 90, 100. I saw this happening with a couple of other fics, too, and was wondering about it. To me, the most obvious explanation--at least in a multi-fandom context--is that the people most likely to comment on my story are the people most into the fandom I've written for, and therefore also the people who are hitting the story first. However, might there also be less of an impetus to comment on a story that already has feedback? You've already left plenty of comments for other authors, and you're kinda tired of it, and hey, this story already has x number of comments anyway so you don't need to bother? If that's the case, I can see why someone who has 100 hits and only one comment might be disappointed, because it's not as if the ratio will necessarily improve exponentially as hits go up. It would be awfully interesting to conduct some kind of survey of fanfic readers' online commenting behavior. (ETA: Aaaand I've gotten several more comments on my fic in the day or so since I first wrote this entry, probably as people come back from break. Which just goes to show that I have no idea what I'm talking about. joyfulfeather's theory: "People are weird about commenting." I'm going to go with that for now.)
Now, some recs! (No, not Knight Rider. Yuletide. Try to contain your disappointment.)
Where We're Going, and How To Get Back (American Idol RPF, Ryan/Simon) - He doesn't think about it at all, not until he turns to grin at Ellen and she gives him a really strange look. He wonders if his hair is messed up for a few seconds before he realizes what she's actually trying to indicate with her eyebrows: that he and Simon are pressed against each other, hip to shoulder, and that they both look pretty comfortable. "He wonders if his hair is messed up for a few seconds"--BWAH! I don't know why, this line is just so...that's exactly what he would think, isn't it? Like, he could be jerking Simon off at the judges' table and Ellen could be giving him a scandalized look, and his first thought would be, "Oh God, what's wrong with my hair?" Anyway, this is sweet without being sticky (though I suppose one could consider that a negative) and features a rather adorably passive-aggressive Simon.
The Game of Love (Boston Legal, Alan/Denny, Alan/Denny/Shirley) - Funny, sexy, and warm, with a sharply drawn Shirley and a heartbreaking Alan. Excellent use of the night terror device. I laughed and cried, guys. Really.
All The Single Ladies (Glee) - Most of the Glee fic appears to center around the McKinley students, so I'm not apt to pay it much mind. Give me some nice Will/Sue, or something. "All The Single Ladies" is an exception to my rule--a fun, endearing slice-of-life told from the POV's of Mercedes, Tina, Rachel, Quinn, Brittany, and Santana as they navigate their high-school day. In-character and surprisingly insightful.
If Only In My Dreams (Quantum Leap, Sam and Al friendship) - Aww. This author is kickin' it old skool: Sam leaps home just long enough to spend Christmas with Al, and to help a homeless vet get a leg up. But really to spend Christmas with Al. It's sappy, but I don't care. Reminds me of those heady Green Eggs & Ham days.
No fic for Alien Nation or Knight Rider--kinda disappointing. But I guess there's still NYR's!
It was my first time, and it was a lot of fun. I spent a not insignificant number of hours hanging out in the #yuletide IRC channel, and having not done IRC since my Due South days, it felt really strange and flashbacky. Channel topics! Ops! Trout-slapping! But the crowd there was endlessly funny and kind, and I couldn't have gotten the fic finished without their company.
THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID I FINISHED THE FIC! I'll link to and/or post it here after the 1st, but essentially, it is my first completed piece in over three years. This is more than a little intimidating given the built-in exposure, and I'm ashamed to admit that I'd been tinkering with the final draft even after the reveal. I quickly realized that was kind of obnoxious and knocked it off (for now), but there's still stuff I wish I had executed slightly better. On the whole, though, I'm relatively satisfied. Especially considering the fandom has never been quite as popular as it rightfully should, I got a good number of hits, a respectable number of comments, and a couple of recs (though they weren't posted to the comm). Most importantly? My recipient was delighted! I've read her comment like twelve thousand times, and am kind of stalking her. In a good, non-creepy way.
My own Yuletide gift was a pretty jaw-dropping, nearly 5k-word Back to the Future fic called Fearful Symmetry, which is justifiably getting quite a lot of attention. *beams, flails* My prompt was like, "Please write Marty and Doc hugging and crying while riding unicorns in space!" so it is a true testament to my author's skill and imagination that s/he was able come up with something so smart and interesting and just, you should read it, even if you simply remember the movies fondly.
A couple of extraneous thoughts on the whole shebang. I know that a lot of people were on their second or third or fourth Yuletide, and while there have apparently been serious snafus in past years, I guess the archive and the stories themselves have always been fairly easy to access on Yuletide Day...? I mean, I don't rightly know, but when AO3 began to inch along on its belly after the reveal, there were definitely a few vocally unhappy campers. Not the majority by any means--but a few. And you know, I get that it was frustrating. You work your ass off to write a shiny, custom-made gift for your recipient by deadline, and maybe you even do some pinch-hitting. And the whole idea is that because you've been a good little fan, when Yuletide comes you get to tear open not just your own shiny, custom-made gift, but everyone else's, too! So a slow archive is a real bummer, because it's like someone sits you down in the middle of those thousands of shiny, custom-made gifts and tells you that before you can open any of them, you have to stare at each one for five to ten minutes at a stretch. So, yes. It kind of sucked.
But also? Shut up, you ungrateful little shits. I'm sure that if you ran Yuletide, the switch to AO3 would've gone flawlessly and it would've been running like the Indy 500 and the stories would've smelled like roses. But you weren't, and you must have very little appreciation for the massive amount of unpaid work that goes into putting it together. My understanding is that the move to AO3 had become pretty necessary anyway; regardless, the intent was ultimately make Yuletide a better experience for you. It's the first year on a new server. It's technology. It's not going to be perfect right away. It will doubtlessly be much, much better next year. Meanwhile, it was running markedly better by the 26th, and the fic will be there all year. Re. Lax. If a slow fanfic archive genuinely wrecked your Christmas, or if OMG this is the one time you have all year to read for leisure and now it's totally ruined, then...I don't know what to tell you about the unfortunate state of your life, basically.
I also had some musings about story comments, though nothing especially revelatory. My awesome friend of awesomeness ignazwisdom noted that a ratio of one comment per 100 hits was generally really good; she's like ten times more active in online fandom than I am, as I mostly keep to myself for, you know, mental health reasons. So while it would be disingenuous to try to compare my observations to hers, it did make me ponder: My Yuletide fic got more than a half-dozen comments in the first 60 or so hits, which under Iggy's Formula is pretty darned good. But after that initial burst, the comments stopped completely--even as the hits climbed to 70, 80, 90, 100. I saw this happening with a couple of other fics, too, and was wondering about it. To me, the most obvious explanation--at least in a multi-fandom context--is that the people most likely to comment on my story are the people most into the fandom I've written for, and therefore also the people who are hitting the story first. However, might there also be less of an impetus to comment on a story that already has feedback? You've already left plenty of comments for other authors, and you're kinda tired of it, and hey, this story already has x number of comments anyway so you don't need to bother? If that's the case, I can see why someone who has 100 hits and only one comment might be disappointed, because it's not as if the ratio will necessarily improve exponentially as hits go up. It would be awfully interesting to conduct some kind of survey of fanfic readers' online commenting behavior. (ETA: Aaaand I've gotten several more comments on my fic in the day or so since I first wrote this entry, probably as people come back from break. Which just goes to show that I have no idea what I'm talking about. joyfulfeather's theory: "People are weird about commenting." I'm going to go with that for now.)
Now, some recs! (No, not Knight Rider. Yuletide. Try to contain your disappointment.)
Where We're Going, and How To Get Back (American Idol RPF, Ryan/Simon) - He doesn't think about it at all, not until he turns to grin at Ellen and she gives him a really strange look. He wonders if his hair is messed up for a few seconds before he realizes what she's actually trying to indicate with her eyebrows: that he and Simon are pressed against each other, hip to shoulder, and that they both look pretty comfortable. "He wonders if his hair is messed up for a few seconds"--BWAH! I don't know why, this line is just so...that's exactly what he would think, isn't it? Like, he could be jerking Simon off at the judges' table and Ellen could be giving him a scandalized look, and his first thought would be, "Oh God, what's wrong with my hair?" Anyway, this is sweet without being sticky (though I suppose one could consider that a negative) and features a rather adorably passive-aggressive Simon.
The Game of Love (Boston Legal, Alan/Denny, Alan/Denny/Shirley) - Funny, sexy, and warm, with a sharply drawn Shirley and a heartbreaking Alan. Excellent use of the night terror device. I laughed and cried, guys. Really.
All The Single Ladies (Glee) - Most of the Glee fic appears to center around the McKinley students, so I'm not apt to pay it much mind. Give me some nice Will/Sue, or something. "All The Single Ladies" is an exception to my rule--a fun, endearing slice-of-life told from the POV's of Mercedes, Tina, Rachel, Quinn, Brittany, and Santana as they navigate their high-school day. In-character and surprisingly insightful.
If Only In My Dreams (Quantum Leap, Sam and Al friendship) - Aww. This author is kickin' it old skool: Sam leaps home just long enough to spend Christmas with Al, and to help a homeless vet get a leg up. But really to spend Christmas with Al. It's sappy, but I don't care. Reminds me of those heady Green Eggs & Ham days.
No fic for Alien Nation or Knight Rider--kinda disappointing. But I guess there's still NYR's!