Meme: A Year's Worth of Fic
Dec. 8th, 2009 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curuchamionI really am inordinately fond of memes, and also of rambling about my fic... Ganked from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stunt_muppet . I'll probably do some more writing this year, but I doubt my answers will change a whole lot.
And I'd love it if my ficcer friends would do this too! (Seriously, guys. I love reading other writers' ramblings just as much as rambling myself - which is a lot.)
For the year of 2009:
Fics Completed:
Jim, We Shrunk the Helmsman (Star Trek: TOS)
The Luau Lounge (Stargate SG-1/MacGyver/others)
Liberation (Doctor Who, Third Doctor)
Poker Face (Man from UNCLE)
Restless (Man from UNCLE)
Point of View (no specified fandom)
Liaison Poetique (tentative title, Man from UNCLE)
Insensitive (Sapphire & Steel)
One More Time (Doctor Who, Thirteenth Doctor)
Worse Than Ever (Doctor Who, Third Doctor)
After the End (Sapphire & Steel)
Golden (Man from UNCLE)
Fics (multi-chapter) Started or Continued:
The Winner By a Nose Affair (Man from UNCLE)
Total: Er, thirteen. Is that good? ;-)
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
A lot more. I'd only written four fanfics before this year. Granted, these are mostly quite short, but that's still a lot of writing compared to my previous output.
Where did you publish/archive your stories?
FFnet, Teaspoon, LJ. And there's a pre-beta version of Liberation somewhere in one of Ravelry's Doctor Who forums, but I doubt that counts.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2009?
Let's see... I was just discovering Doctor Who. Hadn't seen MFU yet, but I knew I'd give "The Project Strigas Affair" a try if the library ever got it; I'm a big admirer of Werner Klemperer's work. So I could probably have predicted writing in both of those fandoms.
I'd have to say I never would have predicted I'd write a genre other than humor. I wanted to - every time I'd read one ofjackwabbit 's angst or friendship pieces, I'd get all sniffly and wish I could do that - but I didn't think I had the ability.
What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
*g* The last one I read. ;-) Really, I love all my stories, or they don't get published. I'm not quite as happy with "After the End" or the ending of "The Luau Lounge", but other than that, I really can't pick just one!
(Maybe "Liberation", because it was the one that changed my viewpoint about my own limitations and therefore made the others possible...)
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
I've really no idea. I like reviews *g*, but I don't keep track of them per story very well, especially on the cross-posted ones. I think "Insensitive" might have gotten the biggest initial response - the S&S fandom is always hungry for new content. Last year's "Hitchhiker's Guide to MacGyver" is my only fic that I know is a lot more popular than I ever expected.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
Again, I don't know. My brain starts playing with permutations and reasons not as many people would have seen this or that fic...
Story that could have been better?
"After the End". I'll probably either pull it, eventually, or do a rewrite so extensive it's not recognizable as the same piece. I'm really not happy with it at all; I posted before it was ready, I think.
Sexiest story?
I don't do sexy. The closest I think I've gotten was "Liaison Poetique", which was Illya/poetry, so... yeah. (Though I keep wanting to write an Illya/car piece that would be pretty darn sexy if I could keep it in mind long enough to write it when I wasn't actually driving...)
Most fun story?
Fun in what sense? I have fun writing all my stories, even the ones I have to hammer out word by word. And I have fun reading all my stories - that's a big part of why I write them. I think I'll go with "One More Time" here, though - definitely the most fun to show to Whovians!
Story with single sweetest moment?
Mmm... probably the ending of "Restless". Though I could just as easily pick any of the fics in that "family" - Restless, Golden, and Liaison Poetique; I have a real soft spot for sleepy!Illya.
The story that made you cry?
Um... I don't cry much. Certainly not at my own stories. I don't cry at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, for Pete's sake!
Hardest story to write?
Liaison Poetique, aka "the one about Illya in Paris pre-series". Which only just acquired any sort of title, and I'm not sure I'm happy with this one. (I love the story, though... totally worth everything.)
The Winner By a Nose Affair addendum is also coming under this heading - withoutillyushadarling 's and lolmac 's help, it would be in the trash bin by now.
Easiest story to write?
The Winner By a Nose Affair. 1300-odd words (and they are very odd *grins*), from inspiration to finished fic in less than twelve hours. It's one of those speedwritten crackfics I produce every year or so - the "Hitchhiker's Guide to MacGyver" was of the same type.
Most overdue story?
Solo Mission, my MFU first-meeting fic. I said I'd write it in November, but then I went and randomly wrote "Winner by a Nose" on Halloween and spent November working on the addendum... I've still got Solo Mission percolating on the back burner, though, if that's not too mixed a metaphor.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Well, I posted a few fics without holding them for a month polishing first... some worked that way, some didn't. I guess I learned that I'm not the best judge of my own fic, since I very nearly threw away "One More Time" and it's become quite a hit. I also did my first posting outside FFnet, and learned (what I already knew) that people in my fandoms are nice to newbies. ;-)
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Well, in general, I hope to keep writing - keep practicing and trying to get better. I hope to do more stories with plots in the new year... maybe I'll even write something over 5,000 words!
More specific goals:
Finish the Winner By a Nose addendum.
Write Solo Mission.
Write that multi-fandom Gilligan's Island crossover forprimsong .
After that, who knows?
stunt_muppet . I'll probably do some more writing this year, but I doubt my answers will change a whole lot.And I'd love it if my ficcer friends would do this too! (Seriously, guys. I love reading other writers' ramblings just as much as rambling myself - which is a lot.)
For the year of 2009:
Fics Completed:
Jim, We Shrunk the Helmsman (Star Trek: TOS)
The Luau Lounge (Stargate SG-1/MacGyver/others)
Liberation (Doctor Who, Third Doctor)
Poker Face (Man from UNCLE)
Restless (Man from UNCLE)
Point of View (no specified fandom)
Liaison Poetique (tentative title, Man from UNCLE)
Insensitive (Sapphire & Steel)
One More Time (Doctor Who, Thirteenth Doctor)
Worse Than Ever (Doctor Who, Third Doctor)
After the End (Sapphire & Steel)
Golden (Man from UNCLE)
Fics (multi-chapter) Started or Continued:
The Winner By a Nose Affair (Man from UNCLE)
Total: Er, thirteen. Is that good? ;-)
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
A lot more. I'd only written four fanfics before this year. Granted, these are mostly quite short, but that's still a lot of writing compared to my previous output.
Where did you publish/archive your stories?
FFnet, Teaspoon, LJ. And there's a pre-beta version of Liberation somewhere in one of Ravelry's Doctor Who forums, but I doubt that counts.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2009?
Let's see... I was just discovering Doctor Who. Hadn't seen MFU yet, but I knew I'd give "The Project Strigas Affair" a try if the library ever got it; I'm a big admirer of Werner Klemperer's work. So I could probably have predicted writing in both of those fandoms.
I'd have to say I never would have predicted I'd write a genre other than humor. I wanted to - every time I'd read one of
jackwabbit 's angst or friendship pieces, I'd get all sniffly and wish I could do that - but I didn't think I had the ability.What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
*g* The last one I read. ;-) Really, I love all my stories, or they don't get published. I'm not quite as happy with "After the End" or the ending of "The Luau Lounge", but other than that, I really can't pick just one!
(Maybe "Liberation", because it was the one that changed my viewpoint about my own limitations and therefore made the others possible...)
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
I've really no idea. I like reviews *g*, but I don't keep track of them per story very well, especially on the cross-posted ones. I think "Insensitive" might have gotten the biggest initial response - the S&S fandom is always hungry for new content. Last year's "Hitchhiker's Guide to MacGyver" is my only fic that I know is a lot more popular than I ever expected.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
Again, I don't know. My brain starts playing with permutations and reasons not as many people would have seen this or that fic...
Story that could have been better?
"After the End". I'll probably either pull it, eventually, or do a rewrite so extensive it's not recognizable as the same piece. I'm really not happy with it at all; I posted before it was ready, I think.
Sexiest story?
I don't do sexy. The closest I think I've gotten was "Liaison Poetique", which was Illya/poetry, so... yeah. (Though I keep wanting to write an Illya/car piece that would be pretty darn sexy if I could keep it in mind long enough to write it when I wasn't actually driving...)
Most fun story?
Fun in what sense? I have fun writing all my stories, even the ones I have to hammer out word by word. And I have fun reading all my stories - that's a big part of why I write them. I think I'll go with "One More Time" here, though - definitely the most fun to show to Whovians!
Story with single sweetest moment?
Mmm... probably the ending of "Restless". Though I could just as easily pick any of the fics in that "family" - Restless, Golden, and Liaison Poetique; I have a real soft spot for sleepy!Illya.
The story that made you cry?
Um... I don't cry much. Certainly not at my own stories. I don't cry at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, for Pete's sake!
Hardest story to write?
Liaison Poetique, aka "the one about Illya in Paris pre-series". Which only just acquired any sort of title, and I'm not sure I'm happy with this one. (I love the story, though... totally worth everything.)
The Winner By a Nose Affair addendum is also coming under this heading - without
illyushadarling 's and lolmac 's help, it would be in the trash bin by now.Easiest story to write?
The Winner By a Nose Affair. 1300-odd words (and they are very odd *grins*), from inspiration to finished fic in less than twelve hours. It's one of those speedwritten crackfics I produce every year or so - the "Hitchhiker's Guide to MacGyver" was of the same type.
Most overdue story?
Solo Mission, my MFU first-meeting fic. I said I'd write it in November, but then I went and randomly wrote "Winner by a Nose" on Halloween and spent November working on the addendum... I've still got Solo Mission percolating on the back burner, though, if that's not too mixed a metaphor.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Well, I posted a few fics without holding them for a month polishing first... some worked that way, some didn't. I guess I learned that I'm not the best judge of my own fic, since I very nearly threw away "One More Time" and it's become quite a hit. I also did my first posting outside FFnet, and learned (what I already knew) that people in my fandoms are nice to newbies. ;-)
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Well, in general, I hope to keep writing - keep practicing and trying to get better. I hope to do more stories with plots in the new year... maybe I'll even write something over 5,000 words!
More specific goals:
Finish the Winner By a Nose addendum.
Write Solo Mission.
Write that multi-fandom Gilligan's Island crossover for
primsong .After that, who knows?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-10 12:01 am (UTC)(Don't get me wrong, I like your stories - they're just really hard to stop in the middle of! ;D I think I actually had to take "Aftershocks" off story alert because it was driving me so crazy not knowing what happened next... oh, I've been meaning to thank you for writing that, by the way. Not only is Dexter being rather useful with Moira, but the tone of the "gesture study" chapters helped inspire Liaison Poetique.)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-10 05:26 am (UTC)At least I have, so far, always finished a story before beginning to post a new one; so I only have one WIP going at any time. But 'Reverb' is going quite slowly -- I'm generally only able to update every three weeks or so.
So which of my stories have you read, and not read? Since you don't do comments on them, I didn't even know you'd read them until that remark showed up in your ff.net profile! I glowed all over when I read that -- it absolutely made my day.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-10 08:12 pm (UTC)I haven't read "Revision" yet - I think maybe I should, y'know, actually watch The Stringer first - and I am not going to start "Reverb" till it's finished. (Though I think I ran across an excerpt in your archives that looked quite fascinating...)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 04:43 am (UTC)But other than "Revision" and "Reverb", you are caught up, and I can't write any faster . . .