2015 Year in Review
Fannish Year In Review 2015
1. Your main fandom of the year: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Your favourite film this year: It's a toss up between Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian tbh.
3. Your favorite book this year: Well, I actually read books, which is an improvement! But I only read two: The Circle by Sara B Elfgren and Mats Strandberg, and My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I really enjoyed both and will be acquiring the remaining books in their respective series, but I think The Circle just wins out as favourite for the fantasy setting.
4. Your favorite album or song this year: Many Great Companions by Dar Williams. It's an old album but I just discovered it. It's inspired more than one story this year.
5. Your favorite TV show this year: Sense8. I didn't write anything about it as we were watching, but I loved it for so many reasons -- diversity, storytelling, sci-fi-ness...
6. Your favorite LJ community this year: sb_fag_ends, the scene of some surprising productivity for me :)
7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year: bewilde/bewildered ♥ She has been an absolutely awesome partner in crime and I am very grateful to have found her.
8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: A certain BNF who shall not be named refusing to remove or even see the problem with the deeply pointless racial slur in her very popular fanfic.
9. Your TV boyfriend of the year: Lol, too easy.
10. Your TV girlfriend of the year: Christina Yang.
I got into Grey's Anatomy last winter. She's such an asshole, I love her.
11. Your biggest squee moment of the year: Oh, wow, the last few months have been very kind to me in fandom. I won stuff for the first time, and that was amazing, and I've had some fantastic reviews. But the single biggest squee for me was finally getting to post Winter Lights with all its beautiful illustrations. I was beyond excited and proud :)
12. Your most missed old fandom: Meh, not really.
13. Your fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? Again, not really.
14. Your biggest anticipation of the New Year: Finishing my WIPs holy crap! The Soul Lies Down is beyond overdue, and now I have something of a personal deadline to get it done by July, so there's some added motivation.
The Writing
Links below are largely to Elysian Fields (since that's where most of the comments are) but everything can also be found on my AO3 page here. Dates are by date-uploaded.
May - Reciprocal, Making It
Jun - Hills of Iowa
Aug - Fool Proof
Sep - Letter to a Sixteen Year Old Girl, Damned If You Do, This is Permanent, Plucky Side-Kicks, The Soul Lies Down (latest update; WIP)
Nov - Spuffy Ficlets (actually 14 short stories), Winter Lights, Baser Instincts, Fool(ing around) for Love, Gunning for Buffy, The Good Thing About Old Somethings, The Ewer of Enheduanna (WIP)
Dec - The Crystal Ball Is Not Your Friend (WIP)
Total words: around 77,000. Not my best year but definitely not too shoddy, esp towards the end of the year :)
My best story(ies) of this year: Winter Lights, definitely. I've never written something so personal, and so textured. I was really pleased with my prose and my storytelling in that one. Not to mention the three lovely artists who really brought it to life -- their work has amplified the love I already have for this fic :)
My favourite story of this year: Probably also Winter Lights. It ended up being quite cathartic.
Most fun story to write: I actually wrote a lot of comedy this year! Definitely treading new ground. I seem to remember an awful lot of cackling while spilling out Fool Proof, though, so we'll go with that one :D
Sexiest story: Lots of comedy this year; less smut. Still, I feel I did not shame myself in the porn stakes. For me, the hottest was The Ewer of Enheduanna (or, the first two chapters of it, as currently posted).
Story with the single sexiest moment: Reciprocal, when things get a bit kinky towards the end. I think the prose possibly came out a bit jumbled as to what I was actually aiming for, but I still have the pretty, pretty images in my head ;)
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I did a lot of thinking about Buffy for Winter Lights, which definitely developed my conception of her character in the later seasons. Hills of Iowa made me think more sympathetically (or rather, from Buffy's point of view) about Riley Finn and their relationship.
Hardest story to write: Reciprocal :-/ It just didn't come out as I'd envisioned.
Biggest Disappointment: Not finishing The Soul Lies Down. Somehow I wound up making a whole bunch of distractions for myself!
Biggest Surprise: Winning an award for Reciprocal. I am sometimes quite down on that fic, but it's so good to know people have enjoyed it :)
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I've happily left off pro-fic for the time being, so it's all fanfic-related. I will definitely be finishing Ewer, and I would LOVE to finish Soul. After that, there is this epic fanfic I've been brewing in my notebook for a couple of years now that I would really like to make a start on, tentatively called Conversations We Never Had. It... the correct structure for it has been eluding me, but I've come to the conclusion that I should just start it, and worry about structuring it later. At any rate, I don't foresee much writing happening after July, so this might be pushing it a bit.
I'd like to thank the academy...(Thanks to your betas, frequent commenters/supporters, the people who stayed up with you late on IM...)
How lucky, so many people to thank :) First of all yavannie82, who is my rock and goddess, and even though our fandoms have diverged, she has still been invaluable in giving me writing advice, discussion and occassionally even still beta-ing for me. bewilde has been an awesome beta and turbo-smile-generating friend since we stumbled into each other a few months ago, and not only that but lent her (breathtaking) artistic talent to Winter Lights. rahirah has not only been a generous beta, but has also been so welcoming to this new(ish) fandom. herself-nyc has been a lovely & supportive new friend this year. kylathelurker not only gave me some incredible support and motivation through the writing of Winter Lights, but also drew three beautiful illustrations (one of which is still on my hard drive, ready to be posted -- I can't wait to share it!) and has been personally very kind to me through some difficult times. Wolveswithhats was also so generous in providing art for Winter Lights, and it is beyond beautiful. And there have been a whole slew of commenters who've left me insightful, inspirational and constructive feedback, which is greatly cherished, though you are too many to name <3 Thanks, everyone. This time last year things weren't looking so great, but it turned out to be a fantastic year in the end :)
1. Your main fandom of the year: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Your favourite film this year: It's a toss up between Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian tbh.
3. Your favorite book this year: Well, I actually read books, which is an improvement! But I only read two: The Circle by Sara B Elfgren and Mats Strandberg, and My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I really enjoyed both and will be acquiring the remaining books in their respective series, but I think The Circle just wins out as favourite for the fantasy setting.
4. Your favorite album or song this year: Many Great Companions by Dar Williams. It's an old album but I just discovered it. It's inspired more than one story this year.
5. Your favorite TV show this year: Sense8. I didn't write anything about it as we were watching, but I loved it for so many reasons -- diversity, storytelling, sci-fi-ness...
6. Your favorite LJ community this year: sb_fag_ends, the scene of some surprising productivity for me :)
7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year: bewilde/bewildered ♥ She has been an absolutely awesome partner in crime and I am very grateful to have found her.
8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: A certain BNF who shall not be named refusing to remove or even see the problem with the deeply pointless racial slur in her very popular fanfic.
9. Your TV boyfriend of the year: Lol, too easy.
10. Your TV girlfriend of the year: Christina Yang.
I got into Grey's Anatomy last winter. She's such an asshole, I love her.
11. Your biggest squee moment of the year: Oh, wow, the last few months have been very kind to me in fandom. I won stuff for the first time, and that was amazing, and I've had some fantastic reviews. But the single biggest squee for me was finally getting to post Winter Lights with all its beautiful illustrations. I was beyond excited and proud :)
12. Your most missed old fandom: Meh, not really.
13. Your fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? Again, not really.
14. Your biggest anticipation of the New Year: Finishing my WIPs holy crap! The Soul Lies Down is beyond overdue, and now I have something of a personal deadline to get it done by July, so there's some added motivation.
The Writing
Links below are largely to Elysian Fields (since that's where most of the comments are) but everything can also be found on my AO3 page here. Dates are by date-uploaded.
May - Reciprocal, Making It
Jun - Hills of Iowa
Aug - Fool Proof
Sep - Letter to a Sixteen Year Old Girl, Damned If You Do, This is Permanent, Plucky Side-Kicks, The Soul Lies Down (latest update; WIP)
Nov - Spuffy Ficlets (actually 14 short stories), Winter Lights, Baser Instincts, Fool(ing around) for Love, Gunning for Buffy, The Good Thing About Old Somethings, The Ewer of Enheduanna (WIP)
Dec - The Crystal Ball Is Not Your Friend (WIP)
Total words: around 77,000. Not my best year but definitely not too shoddy, esp towards the end of the year :)
My best story(ies) of this year: Winter Lights, definitely. I've never written something so personal, and so textured. I was really pleased with my prose and my storytelling in that one. Not to mention the three lovely artists who really brought it to life -- their work has amplified the love I already have for this fic :)
My favourite story of this year: Probably also Winter Lights. It ended up being quite cathartic.
Most fun story to write: I actually wrote a lot of comedy this year! Definitely treading new ground. I seem to remember an awful lot of cackling while spilling out Fool Proof, though, so we'll go with that one :D
Sexiest story: Lots of comedy this year; less smut. Still, I feel I did not shame myself in the porn stakes. For me, the hottest was The Ewer of Enheduanna (or, the first two chapters of it, as currently posted).
Story with the single sexiest moment: Reciprocal, when things get a bit kinky towards the end. I think the prose possibly came out a bit jumbled as to what I was actually aiming for, but I still have the pretty, pretty images in my head ;)
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I did a lot of thinking about Buffy for Winter Lights, which definitely developed my conception of her character in the later seasons. Hills of Iowa made me think more sympathetically (or rather, from Buffy's point of view) about Riley Finn and their relationship.
Hardest story to write: Reciprocal :-/ It just didn't come out as I'd envisioned.
Biggest Disappointment: Not finishing The Soul Lies Down. Somehow I wound up making a whole bunch of distractions for myself!
Biggest Surprise: Winning an award for Reciprocal. I am sometimes quite down on that fic, but it's so good to know people have enjoyed it :)
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I've happily left off pro-fic for the time being, so it's all fanfic-related. I will definitely be finishing Ewer, and I would LOVE to finish Soul. After that, there is this epic fanfic I've been brewing in my notebook for a couple of years now that I would really like to make a start on, tentatively called Conversations We Never Had. It... the correct structure for it has been eluding me, but I've come to the conclusion that I should just start it, and worry about structuring it later. At any rate, I don't foresee much writing happening after July, so this might be pushing it a bit.
I'd like to thank the academy...(Thanks to your betas, frequent commenters/supporters, the people who stayed up with you late on IM...)
How lucky, so many people to thank :) First of all yavannie82, who is my rock and goddess, and even though our fandoms have diverged, she has still been invaluable in giving me writing advice, discussion and occassionally even still beta-ing for me. bewilde has been an awesome beta and turbo-smile-generating friend since we stumbled into each other a few months ago, and not only that but lent her (breathtaking) artistic talent to Winter Lights. rahirah has not only been a generous beta, but has also been so welcoming to this new(ish) fandom. herself-nyc has been a lovely & supportive new friend this year. kylathelurker not only gave me some incredible support and motivation through the writing of Winter Lights, but also drew three beautiful illustrations (one of which is still on my hard drive, ready to be posted -- I can't wait to share it!) and has been personally very kind to me through some difficult times. Wolveswithhats was also so generous in providing art for Winter Lights, and it is beyond beautiful. And there have been a whole slew of commenters who've left me insightful, inspirational and constructive feedback, which is greatly cherished, though you are too many to name <3 Thanks, everyone. This time last year things weren't looking so great, but it turned out to be a fantastic year in the end :)