End of Year Fic Meme 2016
Stats:
List of Completed Fics:
1. Interesting Conditions
2. I Always Cry At Weddings
3. Such Was Charn, That Great City
4. Degrees of Latitude
5. Song of Songs
6. Taken In
7. In My Contract
8. A/B/Overdrive (The Happy Wreck Remix)
9. Boys Only Want Love If It's Torture
10. After the Sea Change (The Vaster Than Empires Remix)
11. Five-Year Reunion
12. Wall of Sound
13. Soft Power
14. Classic Plays
15. Photographic Memory (The Greyscale Remix)
16. Party Favours (The Sheet-Cake Affair Remix)
Author Actions
17. Certain Misapprehensions
Bathsheba (still need to edit)
Rereading (scrubbed)
Total number: 19
Total word count: 257864 published + 4.6 serial scrubbed + Bathsheba (27507) + nonfic - 3406 for Ch 1 of A/B/Overdrive + nonfic
SUM: 286565 + nonfic
Ship/character breakdown:
7 David/Uriah
12 Blake/Avon
Specifics:
Best/worst title?
Best: Weirdly maybe just 'Bathsheba', but I like my more double-meaning ones two. Looked at the list and liked and disliked everything in equal measure (that is to say, flickering between the two options).
Worst: 'rereading' was last-ditch and doesn't work for me, but then neither did cutting it down to the required length--idk I didn't know quite how to title it for this unfamiliar setting and was tight on time. It's not scrubbed as in a fic you've seen, it's f/f new content D/U I wrote for the anthology because I thought it'd be easy. And it was, until I had to cut it to ribbons/discovered what a hot mess this market was.
Best/worst summary?
Best:
Soft Power: Arrcul is a bunched-up, repressed sort of world: sumptuary laws for subs, leashed formal dining, the works. Blake is a repressed sort of submissive, with little interest in allowing himself to be vulnerable again after his trip through the Federation correctional system. Avon is a repressed sort of dominant, who understands Blake’s position but is nonetheless burdened with an inconvenient desire to kiss (or possibly cane) Blake better (whichever works). In order for Blake to avoid making himself conspicuous on Arrcul, he and Avon are going to have to pretend to be a couple.
It’s a lot of pressure to put on any one working holiday.
Worst:
Classic Plays : "Avon is calculating risks and advantages; everyone else is trying to watch a damn movie." so like... cheap and Ao3 House Style
Best/worst first line?
Best/worst last line?
Interesting Conditions
First: It surprised Davida that the blackmail that had brought about her marriage only relatively infrequently arose as a topic of conversation during the course of it.
Last: It is a great work, and I am only a little advanced in it as yet. But I and many compatriots within the law and outside it apply ourselves to the question from every angle, and between us, we get a little leverage. ‘And really, we ain’t done bad.’
I Always Cry At Weddings
First: Davida Copperfield had been educated at King’s School in Canterbury in company with a great many children a great deal richer than she herself had been.
Last: It didn’t cross Davida’s mind that her soft pink panties could have gone missing for any other reason than innocent accident, any more than it occurred to her to call Uriah, or to so much as message him on Facebook.
Such Was Charn, That Great City
First: There were never any animals hurt by it, that they saw. Uriah supposed it had been quite a specific cataclysm then, for of course there ought to have been.
Last: It was no small thing, to be King of the world. And to have his queen, too, and none of the bother of subjects.
Degrees of Latitude
First: Uriah Heep had been with Davida Copperfield’s household longer even than she had.
Last: They so digressed in this vein as to forget the original source and point of their argument, and if marriage can be said to be a series of such digressions, so happily conducted as to string out over the course of years, then theirs was an eminently successful one.
Song of Songs
EPIGRAM but then
First: Avon slapped the indicator against his palm, frowning when the needle spun around in a full circle and then settled on the symbol that indicated a negative response.
Last: “It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” Avon said quite factually, devouring the toast with a look of devout worship.
Aven rolled his eyes.
Taken In
SECTION OF CANON but then
First: Agnes had advised me to be friendly to Uriah Heep, for her sake and for that of her father. I was not sure how my ‘repelling’ or ‘resenting’ the man might affect anything, for I did not suppose Uriah any more honestly attached to me than I supposed him honestly attached to his position with Mister Wickfield, and thus reluctant to leave it without the chance of some great preferment elsewhere to induce him thither.
Last: My partner’s affection and approval arrived in the strangest forms, but they were potent. I came to rely on them utterly, and thus to be as under his power as ever poor Wickfield had been. But with, I think better safety, in that Uriah hated Wickfield, and if Uriah likewise hated me for my comparatively easy position in society and my being a perfect example of that system’s seeking to trample him down in order to elevate men like me, he loved me at least an inch more, for being myself and for being his.
In My Contract
First: It had gone on so long and so obviously without anything coming of it that no one was sure anymore whether it was actually happening.
Last: And for the rest of his surprisingly long, well-negotiated and thus surprisingly happy life, Avon looked forward to his and Blake’s Annual Revision Day with eager anticipation.
A/B/Overdrive (The Happy Wreck Remix)
This is difficult. Ch 1 is old content to set this up, and Ch 2 begins with a re-written version of the original but is its own thing after 2 short paragraphs.
First: “The mission had a deadline that wouldn’t wait for their bodies to return to quiescence, and Blake was absolutely necessary to its success. As was Avon.” I guess, but. :/
Last: “The dream of what they would do after the war was given a name, and became something as real and tangible as their mating bond. There was no further discussion of a separation.” LOOK DICKENS I’M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING OKAY??
Boys Only Want Love If It's Torture
First: Blake and Avon ran into one another totally by accident, respectively freeing slaves and being sold as one. In the resulting chaos, they managed to shoot Servalan, shut down the slaving ring, and get off the planet alive with their respective teams (plus one kindly old man) and Servalan’s body: a key exhibit in some plan of Blake’s to embarrass and possibly unseat the current Federation government.
Last: "But I only love you,” Blake said, clasping his bedraggled, probably-insane fiancé to his bosom.
“Good,” Avon murmured into his shoulder. “That-makes things easier.”
After the Sea Change (The Vaster Than Empires Remix)
First: Epigram from Tempest, then: “Being a post-human machine intelligence wasn’t nearly as much of an inconvenience as Avon had expected it might be.”
Last: It was so much more than enough, and it would come to be more still. As close to ‘always’ as the mind could conceive, and then beyond the boundary.
Five-Year Reunion
First: It was Jenna who got it first. She began to laugh, and it seemed she couldn't stop, not even when Vila asked 'what, what's funny?'
Last: “I hope you do,” Blake said generously, standing and offering Avon a hand up, “when we’re very much advanced in years.”
“Mm,” Avon agreed, taking it. “In the meantime, I’ve found richer satisfactions.”
Wall of Sound
First: The auditorium was both empty and in a state of considerable disrepair. In fact the building itself had been unlocked: no one had let Blake in, probably because no one appeared to work here in any capacity.
Last: “I wouldn’t mind.”
“That,” Avon said with a yawn, “is what mornings are for.”
Soft Power
First: “Oh for god’s sake,” Blake said, rubbing his forehead with his hand. “There’s no need to go around the room-we all know who it’s going to have to be. It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Last: Blake sighed regretfully (though he was sure they’d make up for lost opportunities back on the ship-though he sulked about the danger to Blake and the inconvenience to himself they involved, Avon was also very fond of rescues). Blake pointed out the way he’d seen the Jafress go.
Classic Plays
First: Gan and Jenna’s recently instituted weekly Liberator Film Night was thus far proving popular. Gan contributed:
1. action movies about noble pioneers to the out-worlds and the desperados of the frontier, and
2. passionate romances (Avon was slightly disturbed to discover that he and Gan apparently had highly compatible taste in films).
Last: Avon liked Ran. In part because it was a visually stunning meditation on pride, power, revenge and the awfulness of facing a cruel and indifferent universe alone, without the support of people you could trust, and in part because it was very long.
Photographic Memory (The Greyscale Remix)
First: Bluescale rendered Blake poorly. The shadows of his face plunged deeper under it-the contrast lied, and told other truths.
Last: It was obscene and pathetic to use Blake like that, if, after all, he was gone. In the midst of loud, brash, people he was responsible for and to, Avon began to feel totally alone.
Party Favours (The Sheet-Cake Affair Remix)
First: “Welcome aboard,” Blake said, clapping his new technician on the shoulder. He’d had a devil of a time locating and extricating the man-Avalon had, if anything, downplayed the severity of the crisis on Delana when they’d discussed potential replacements for Avon.
Last: The ruined sheet-cake had had to be thrown out uneaten, which represented a sad waste. Blake regretted this profligacy, but largely had other things on his mind.
Certain Misapprehensions
First: “Could I come in?” Cally asked when Blake opened the door to her.
Last: Still sufficiently deluded about his life to believe that his emotional entanglements were the sort of thing Cally wanted to hear all about, he resolved to continue telling her about them in future. Cally regretted that, but was largely pleased that they would all escape the misunderstanding with no greater catastrophe than this.
Bathsheba (still need to edit)
AT THE MOMENT
First: The first letter took Mister Copperfield a little by surprise. He was now somewhat in the practice of receiving compliments from his readers, though they still flattered him (and, to a degree, bemused him).
Last: “What are you and I but proof dreams do come true?” Uriah said with a vast, self-parodying enthusiasm that made David laugh, flinging himself over the couch.
Rereading (scrubbed)
First: “You really don’t need to help me pack,” Avery said through her teeth, smiling in a hard way that hurt her jaw.
Last: “Get out,” Avery said, prim and crisp. “But please come back.”
OVERALL:
Best First: Song of Songs because it makes it seem like this is going to be a real story with a plot. Gotcha. Or Degrees, because it does some quiet work making him seem like a piece of furniture in the very phrasing.
Worst First: Certain Misapprehensions and In My Contract have weak, nothingy first lines.
Best Last: Degrees or Sea Change? I like the Jaffress bit of Soft Power. (I'll grant I never saw a Jaffress go/my mistress, when she walks--)
Worst Last: I dislike I Always Cry’s for the smug omniscient narration and the silly fall of the word ‘panties’. That’s a stupid final line for Songs, though I see why the whole fic has this scene where it is.
General questions:
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
A bit less--I'm 34118 off last year. Though I suppose that's just ONE mid-level fic really, or two lower-mid, and that when I might have been doing them I was buying a house with my partner and restoring the living shit out of it.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? AHAHHAHA WHO COULD HAVE FUCKING SAID I'D BE IN DAVID COPPERFIELD/URIAH HEEP? NOT ME! NOT SCIENCE!!
What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
Song of Songs is probably the best, followed by Soft Power or Degrees? I feel like Bathsheba could be good, after a hard edit.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Soft Power followed by Song of Songs. I kind of feel they deserve to be Up There.
Story most underappreciated by the universe? All my D/U tbh? I knew it was a non-fandom and going to have a minuscule audience, but I'm doing good work there.
Story that could have been better? I think I've yet to write the D/U of my HEART. In My Contract is cheap because the b/a inverse of Soft Power I actually wanted to write was LONG and a great idea but effortful. It's the spiritual twin of the shite Omega Avon story, where I have a GOOD idea there and have yet to give it time.
Sexiest story? There are some honorable mentions but Soft Power drips sex.
Saddest story? Song of Songs or Photographic Memory?
Most fun? Huh, I think of myself as a comedy writer as much as anything, but fittingly it seems this was a dour year. Maybe Party Favours or Classic Plays?! No wait, Boys Only Want Love If It's Torture.
Story with single sweetest moment?
...Five Year Reunion? With the 'will be in love with you' convo??
Hardest story to write?
Song of Songs was the most technically challenging: 83,435 word novel/crossover with three pov characters to balance and two casts to assign plot to and lots of plot/subplots
Easiest/most fun story to write?
The really short ones like Charn and Classic Plays were easy, but fun to write... Wall of Sound? ??
Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?
I wrote a new pairing so those stand out--you're always discovering people through your first fics. I used to not especially rate David! Now I understand David is AMAZING!!
Most overdue story?
my thesis (fuck challenges)
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I wrote a fuckton of Victorian fic and some f/f and some first person welcome to my danger zone
I learned none of them were really that bad idk and that I can't do a perfect Dickens pastiche even if I DO try and that this will haunt my dreams forever/until I can
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
2016's theme is obviously fucking despair, but. Idk looking at last lines I am ALWAYS going for the big swelling healing conclusion and I'm a bit sick of my sameness? I should maybe branch out. I guess the most like, FIX EVERYTHING story might be interesting conditions, which I do feel is kind of... fundamentally dodgy and sexist in that it allows someone who blackmails his wife into marrying him to be psychologically interesting/redeemed over 5 years when he constitutionally can't be sorry for what he's done. Look at this privileging of fuckboi interiority, like that's not done EVERYWHERE and thus toxic. His painnnnn, omg. Gross.
I like this story all right, but I'm concerned about what it does.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Fuck this&write my thesis sorry y'all
I mean also I have VAST fic to-do lists so... some of that. x_x
List of Completed Fics:
1. Interesting Conditions
2. I Always Cry At Weddings
3. Such Was Charn, That Great City
4. Degrees of Latitude
5. Song of Songs
6. Taken In
7. In My Contract
8. A/B/Overdrive (The Happy Wreck Remix)
9. Boys Only Want Love If It's Torture
10. After the Sea Change (The Vaster Than Empires Remix)
11. Five-Year Reunion
12. Wall of Sound
13. Soft Power
14. Classic Plays
15. Photographic Memory (The Greyscale Remix)
16. Party Favours (The Sheet-Cake Affair Remix)
Author Actions
17. Certain Misapprehensions
Bathsheba (still need to edit)
Rereading (scrubbed)
Total number: 19
Total word count: 257864 published + 4.6 serial scrubbed + Bathsheba (27507) + nonfic - 3406 for Ch 1 of A/B/Overdrive + nonfic
SUM: 286565 + nonfic
Ship/character breakdown:
7 David/Uriah
12 Blake/Avon
Specifics:
Best/worst title?
Best: Weirdly maybe just 'Bathsheba', but I like my more double-meaning ones two. Looked at the list and liked and disliked everything in equal measure (that is to say, flickering between the two options).
Worst: 'rereading' was last-ditch and doesn't work for me, but then neither did cutting it down to the required length--idk I didn't know quite how to title it for this unfamiliar setting and was tight on time. It's not scrubbed as in a fic you've seen, it's f/f new content D/U I wrote for the anthology because I thought it'd be easy. And it was, until I had to cut it to ribbons/discovered what a hot mess this market was.
Best/worst summary?
Best:
Soft Power: Arrcul is a bunched-up, repressed sort of world: sumptuary laws for subs, leashed formal dining, the works. Blake is a repressed sort of submissive, with little interest in allowing himself to be vulnerable again after his trip through the Federation correctional system. Avon is a repressed sort of dominant, who understands Blake’s position but is nonetheless burdened with an inconvenient desire to kiss (or possibly cane) Blake better (whichever works). In order for Blake to avoid making himself conspicuous on Arrcul, he and Avon are going to have to pretend to be a couple.
It’s a lot of pressure to put on any one working holiday.
Worst:
Classic Plays : "Avon is calculating risks and advantages; everyone else is trying to watch a damn movie." so like... cheap and Ao3 House Style
Best/worst first line?
Best/worst last line?
Interesting Conditions
First: It surprised Davida that the blackmail that had brought about her marriage only relatively infrequently arose as a topic of conversation during the course of it.
Last: It is a great work, and I am only a little advanced in it as yet. But I and many compatriots within the law and outside it apply ourselves to the question from every angle, and between us, we get a little leverage. ‘And really, we ain’t done bad.’
I Always Cry At Weddings
First: Davida Copperfield had been educated at King’s School in Canterbury in company with a great many children a great deal richer than she herself had been.
Last: It didn’t cross Davida’s mind that her soft pink panties could have gone missing for any other reason than innocent accident, any more than it occurred to her to call Uriah, or to so much as message him on Facebook.
Such Was Charn, That Great City
First: There were never any animals hurt by it, that they saw. Uriah supposed it had been quite a specific cataclysm then, for of course there ought to have been.
Last: It was no small thing, to be King of the world. And to have his queen, too, and none of the bother of subjects.
Degrees of Latitude
First: Uriah Heep had been with Davida Copperfield’s household longer even than she had.
Last: They so digressed in this vein as to forget the original source and point of their argument, and if marriage can be said to be a series of such digressions, so happily conducted as to string out over the course of years, then theirs was an eminently successful one.
Song of Songs
EPIGRAM but then
First: Avon slapped the indicator against his palm, frowning when the needle spun around in a full circle and then settled on the symbol that indicated a negative response.
Last: “It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” Avon said quite factually, devouring the toast with a look of devout worship.
Aven rolled his eyes.
Taken In
SECTION OF CANON but then
First: Agnes had advised me to be friendly to Uriah Heep, for her sake and for that of her father. I was not sure how my ‘repelling’ or ‘resenting’ the man might affect anything, for I did not suppose Uriah any more honestly attached to me than I supposed him honestly attached to his position with Mister Wickfield, and thus reluctant to leave it without the chance of some great preferment elsewhere to induce him thither.
Last: My partner’s affection and approval arrived in the strangest forms, but they were potent. I came to rely on them utterly, and thus to be as under his power as ever poor Wickfield had been. But with, I think better safety, in that Uriah hated Wickfield, and if Uriah likewise hated me for my comparatively easy position in society and my being a perfect example of that system’s seeking to trample him down in order to elevate men like me, he loved me at least an inch more, for being myself and for being his.
In My Contract
First: It had gone on so long and so obviously without anything coming of it that no one was sure anymore whether it was actually happening.
Last: And for the rest of his surprisingly long, well-negotiated and thus surprisingly happy life, Avon looked forward to his and Blake’s Annual Revision Day with eager anticipation.
A/B/Overdrive (The Happy Wreck Remix)
This is difficult. Ch 1 is old content to set this up, and Ch 2 begins with a re-written version of the original but is its own thing after 2 short paragraphs.
First: “The mission had a deadline that wouldn’t wait for their bodies to return to quiescence, and Blake was absolutely necessary to its success. As was Avon.” I guess, but. :/
Last: “The dream of what they would do after the war was given a name, and became something as real and tangible as their mating bond. There was no further discussion of a separation.” LOOK DICKENS I’M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING OKAY??
Boys Only Want Love If It's Torture
First: Blake and Avon ran into one another totally by accident, respectively freeing slaves and being sold as one. In the resulting chaos, they managed to shoot Servalan, shut down the slaving ring, and get off the planet alive with their respective teams (plus one kindly old man) and Servalan’s body: a key exhibit in some plan of Blake’s to embarrass and possibly unseat the current Federation government.
Last: "But I only love you,” Blake said, clasping his bedraggled, probably-insane fiancé to his bosom.
“Good,” Avon murmured into his shoulder. “That-makes things easier.”
After the Sea Change (The Vaster Than Empires Remix)
First: Epigram from Tempest, then: “Being a post-human machine intelligence wasn’t nearly as much of an inconvenience as Avon had expected it might be.”
Last: It was so much more than enough, and it would come to be more still. As close to ‘always’ as the mind could conceive, and then beyond the boundary.
Five-Year Reunion
First: It was Jenna who got it first. She began to laugh, and it seemed she couldn't stop, not even when Vila asked 'what, what's funny?'
Last: “I hope you do,” Blake said generously, standing and offering Avon a hand up, “when we’re very much advanced in years.”
“Mm,” Avon agreed, taking it. “In the meantime, I’ve found richer satisfactions.”
Wall of Sound
First: The auditorium was both empty and in a state of considerable disrepair. In fact the building itself had been unlocked: no one had let Blake in, probably because no one appeared to work here in any capacity.
Last: “I wouldn’t mind.”
“That,” Avon said with a yawn, “is what mornings are for.”
Soft Power
First: “Oh for god’s sake,” Blake said, rubbing his forehead with his hand. “There’s no need to go around the room-we all know who it’s going to have to be. It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Last: Blake sighed regretfully (though he was sure they’d make up for lost opportunities back on the ship-though he sulked about the danger to Blake and the inconvenience to himself they involved, Avon was also very fond of rescues). Blake pointed out the way he’d seen the Jafress go.
Classic Plays
First: Gan and Jenna’s recently instituted weekly Liberator Film Night was thus far proving popular. Gan contributed:
1. action movies about noble pioneers to the out-worlds and the desperados of the frontier, and
2. passionate romances (Avon was slightly disturbed to discover that he and Gan apparently had highly compatible taste in films).
Last: Avon liked Ran. In part because it was a visually stunning meditation on pride, power, revenge and the awfulness of facing a cruel and indifferent universe alone, without the support of people you could trust, and in part because it was very long.
Photographic Memory (The Greyscale Remix)
First: Bluescale rendered Blake poorly. The shadows of his face plunged deeper under it-the contrast lied, and told other truths.
Last: It was obscene and pathetic to use Blake like that, if, after all, he was gone. In the midst of loud, brash, people he was responsible for and to, Avon began to feel totally alone.
Party Favours (The Sheet-Cake Affair Remix)
First: “Welcome aboard,” Blake said, clapping his new technician on the shoulder. He’d had a devil of a time locating and extricating the man-Avalon had, if anything, downplayed the severity of the crisis on Delana when they’d discussed potential replacements for Avon.
Last: The ruined sheet-cake had had to be thrown out uneaten, which represented a sad waste. Blake regretted this profligacy, but largely had other things on his mind.
Certain Misapprehensions
First: “Could I come in?” Cally asked when Blake opened the door to her.
Last: Still sufficiently deluded about his life to believe that his emotional entanglements were the sort of thing Cally wanted to hear all about, he resolved to continue telling her about them in future. Cally regretted that, but was largely pleased that they would all escape the misunderstanding with no greater catastrophe than this.
Bathsheba (still need to edit)
AT THE MOMENT
First: The first letter took Mister Copperfield a little by surprise. He was now somewhat in the practice of receiving compliments from his readers, though they still flattered him (and, to a degree, bemused him).
Last: “What are you and I but proof dreams do come true?” Uriah said with a vast, self-parodying enthusiasm that made David laugh, flinging himself over the couch.
Rereading (scrubbed)
First: “You really don’t need to help me pack,” Avery said through her teeth, smiling in a hard way that hurt her jaw.
Last: “Get out,” Avery said, prim and crisp. “But please come back.”
OVERALL:
Best First: Song of Songs because it makes it seem like this is going to be a real story with a plot. Gotcha. Or Degrees, because it does some quiet work making him seem like a piece of furniture in the very phrasing.
Worst First: Certain Misapprehensions and In My Contract have weak, nothingy first lines.
Best Last: Degrees or Sea Change? I like the Jaffress bit of Soft Power. (I'll grant I never saw a Jaffress go/my mistress, when she walks--)
Worst Last: I dislike I Always Cry’s for the smug omniscient narration and the silly fall of the word ‘panties’. That’s a stupid final line for Songs, though I see why the whole fic has this scene where it is.
General questions:
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
A bit less--I'm 34118 off last year. Though I suppose that's just ONE mid-level fic really, or two lower-mid, and that when I might have been doing them I was buying a house with my partner and restoring the living shit out of it.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? AHAHHAHA WHO COULD HAVE FUCKING SAID I'D BE IN DAVID COPPERFIELD/URIAH HEEP? NOT ME! NOT SCIENCE!!
What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
Song of Songs is probably the best, followed by Soft Power or Degrees? I feel like Bathsheba could be good, after a hard edit.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Soft Power followed by Song of Songs. I kind of feel they deserve to be Up There.
Story most underappreciated by the universe? All my D/U tbh? I knew it was a non-fandom and going to have a minuscule audience, but I'm doing good work there.
Story that could have been better? I think I've yet to write the D/U of my HEART. In My Contract is cheap because the b/a inverse of Soft Power I actually wanted to write was LONG and a great idea but effortful. It's the spiritual twin of the shite Omega Avon story, where I have a GOOD idea there and have yet to give it time.
Sexiest story? There are some honorable mentions but Soft Power drips sex.
Saddest story? Song of Songs or Photographic Memory?
Most fun? Huh, I think of myself as a comedy writer as much as anything, but fittingly it seems this was a dour year. Maybe Party Favours or Classic Plays?! No wait, Boys Only Want Love If It's Torture.
Story with single sweetest moment?
...Five Year Reunion? With the 'will be in love with you' convo??
Hardest story to write?
Song of Songs was the most technically challenging: 83,435 word novel/crossover with three pov characters to balance and two casts to assign plot to and lots of plot/subplots
Easiest/most fun story to write?
The really short ones like Charn and Classic Plays were easy, but fun to write... Wall of Sound? ??
Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?
I wrote a new pairing so those stand out--you're always discovering people through your first fics. I used to not especially rate David! Now I understand David is AMAZING!!
Most overdue story?
my thesis (fuck challenges)
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I wrote a fuckton of Victorian fic and some f/f and some first person welcome to my danger zone
I learned none of them were really that bad idk and that I can't do a perfect Dickens pastiche even if I DO try and that this will haunt my dreams forever/until I can
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
2016's theme is obviously fucking despair, but. Idk looking at last lines I am ALWAYS going for the big swelling healing conclusion and I'm a bit sick of my sameness? I should maybe branch out. I guess the most like, FIX EVERYTHING story might be interesting conditions, which I do feel is kind of... fundamentally dodgy and sexist in that it allows someone who blackmails his wife into marrying him to be psychologically interesting/redeemed over 5 years when he constitutionally can't be sorry for what he's done. Look at this privileging of fuckboi interiority, like that's not done EVERYWHERE and thus toxic. His painnnnn, omg. Gross.
I like this story all right, but I'm concerned about what it does.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Fuck this&write my thesis sorry y'all
I mean also I have VAST fic to-do lists so... some of that. x_x