2013 Year End Fic Meme

[the_deep_magic]

This year I wrote and posted:
 
1 Chris/Zach: The Rubble or Our Sins
 Derek/Stiles: Pack Up; Don’t Stray, Blushing Pretty, Pucker Up, 4 Mating games fics, 4 Mating Games bonuses, Check, Bought the T-Shirt, Closed Circuit, The Old Familiar Sting, Entelechy, Service Weapon
3 Erica/Stiles: 1 Mating Games fic, 1 Mating Games bonus, Shoebox Menagerie
1 Derek/Erica/Stiles: 1 Mating Games fic
1 Derek/everybody: Likes, Dislikes, and Necessities
2 Teen Wolf ladies gen: Mating Games bonuses

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
2010: 238,879 words
2011: 122,277
2012: 80,197
2013: 163,756
However, about 55K of that (namely Pack Up; Don’t Stray) was written almost entirely last year; it just got posted in January.  Still, that’s more than 100K for the year.  Unfortunately, I kind of dropped off pretty sharply in November (though that was probably fortunate for my grades), so the total wasn’t as high as it could have been.  But shifting Pack Up to last year means I’ve been relatively steady for about three years running.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? I don’t know if I was thinking about Erica/Stiles until Mating Games.  Also I wrote a fluffy gangbang.  Did not see that one coming.

What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Entelechy.  I’m just really fascinated with the idea of Stiles and Derek as an alpha pair (obviously, as I did post 3 versions of the same story) and I’m just really happy with the way this one turned out from beginning to end.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I wrote 3 fics over 20K words this year, one nearly novel-length.  I’m definitely learning patience in the writing process since I don’t post WIPs, so I have to keep myself motivated and not rely on positive feedback.  I also have to have faith in myself, since at some point(s) in the middle of a long fic, I inevitably think it sucks more than anything has ever sucked in the history of suckage.

From my past year of writing, what was . . .

My best story of this year: Errr, probably Pack Up.  It’s the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written, and I’m really proud of myself when I reread it.

My most popular story of this year: Pack Up has the most hits and comments, but I was completely surprised by the popularity of Pucker Up.  It’s just a silly little PG-13 fic I dashed off in two days and I was sure everyone would think it was stupid, but I think it got the highest kudos-to-hits ratio of anything I wrote this year.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: The last fic I wrote for Mating Games.  I went dark – well, dark for me, which is probably just, um, dim for most people.  And the response I got was dim – not a single comment on it.  I actually really like the fic and the mini-dystopia I imagined for it, so I wonder if maybe people just don’t expect dark from me because we all know I usually ride around on rainbow-farting unicorns and didn’t know how to respond to it.  Or maybe it wasn’t dark enough, who knows.

Most fun story to write: Probably Service Weapon, particularly the beginning and the little dialogue-only sections interspersed throughout.  I meant it to be a collection of vignettes that was originally titled Derek Hale: Werewolf Cop, but then I decided to make it my Big Bang and the plot came together pretty organically.

Story with the single sexiest moment: STILES KNOTTING DEREK.  That was the whole reason Entelechy got written – I’d never come across a fic where that had happened.  Sounding is also a personal favorite of mine, so Check takes second place.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: I would classify anything I wrote as “wrong,” but the one and only Pinto fic I wrote was not within my usual happy-fluff zone.  I actually wanted to make it longer and angstier, but I ran out of time and ultimately softened what I’d already written because I didn’t have the heart to leave the story without a hopeful note.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Maybe Service Weapon?  Because of the canon I’d changed in Cherrybomb, I had to really sit and think about how this Stiles and this Derek would interact with each other and with everyone else.  A lot of people commented on my very different take on Laura, but we really aren’t told anything about Derek’s relationship with her.  I can’t imagine that she didn’t feel just as guilty about surviving the death of her family, and if she didn’t find some outlet for that, she’d probably end up not much different from canon!Derek.

Hardest story to write: Parts of The Old Familiar Sting fought back.  I know a good deal about recovery, and it doesn’t make for very interesting or sexy storytelling.  I feel like I cheated by compressing the timeframe so much, but I wanted to keep the focus on Derek’s relationships with other people and the outside world rather than the dull, painful grind of kicking substance addiction.

Biggest Disappointment: I’m only maybe a third of the way through my sequel to Tribute.   Seeing Catching Fire has revived my interest in it a bit and I do know where I want to go with it, but I’ve been writing a lot less in general lately, despite the break from school (also disappointing), and various commitments I’ve made to Teen Wolf fandom have taken precedence.  I really do want to finish and post it!

Biggest Surprise: The popularity of Pucker Up and the overwhelming and continued positive response to Pack Up.  Really, I’m surprised that I wrote it sometimes.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: I never really know how to answer this question, because it usually takes a while – more than a year, even – to look back on a story and realize “Wow, I didn’t realize I poured that much of myself in there.”  I drew on my experience with insomnia and knowledge of being close to someone with substance addiction for The Old Familiar Sting, but if there was anything in there that was unintentionally telling, I might not notice it for a long time yet.  And Shoebox Menagerie was intentionally telling, because yay vibrators and dudes who aren’t threatened by them.

My fic writing goals for 2014:  Wow, I finished ONE of the five goals I set last year (editing and posting Pack Up).  Let’s say… finish the fucking Tribute sequel, finish both of my Reel Wolf fics on time, and write at least one Garcia/Reid.  Not setting the bar too high here.

I have a fic I hope to put up tonight, but I wanted to get the 2013 summary up first!  Maybe I'll do favorite lines later.

Comments

[lousy-science.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on all you did - yeah, it rarely feels like 'enough' but it's loads, and I hope you do feel proud of yourself.