Fic year in review.

Six fics. All at least four digits of words. All Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All completely posted during this calendar year, even if I started them earlier.

Stranger, Take My Helping Hand, 62,773 words, Spike/Buffy and Spike&Drusilla, very post-canon action/adventure/always having to be ready for the end of the world.
Love Bites So Deep, 7,814 words, Spike/Buffy, "Five moments from six decades."
Reach for the Living, 5,051 words, Spike/Buffy, Buffy getting her feet back underneath her in the summer between seasons six and seven.
May You Ever Return, 43,744 words, Spike&Drusilla, walking out of the world and back into it again.
95816, 1,902 words, Spike/Buffy, "Six months in, reality hits."
Sleeping Arrangements, 1,624 words, Spike/Buffy and Giles, "Giles fights one last battle before finally laying down to rest - and achieves another victory in the process."

A grand total of 122,908 words posted this year.

Leitmotif of the year: The distance between people and the work to bridge it.

My best story of this year: I remain tremendously proud of "Stranger."

My favorite and/or truest story of this year: Favorite, ask me in ten minutes and I'll change my mind again. Truest, I'm going to go with "Return" which was conceived ahead of the Covid pandemic, written in reflection and response to it, and pretty well articulated my feelings about how things were going in my life in 2020.

Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I never know how to answer this one.

Most fun story to write: I'll go with "Reach for the Living" because I liked the return to the pottery studio.

Story with the single sexiest moment: There's a few moments of implied sex, and vaguely described sensuality, and "Stranger" is the only one with on-page sex, so I'll go with that.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: I'm not really sure if anything qualifies this year. But maybe "Stranger."

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: "Sleeping Arrangements" was the first time I wrote Giles POV, so that's my answer here.

Hardest story to write: "Return" needed a fair amount of rewriting of a couple segments, much more than the rest.

Biggest disappointment: I wanted a stronger ending for "Love Bites So Deep" instead of it gently stopping. I can live with it as it is, but still.

Biggest surprise: Realizing I'd done three four-word titles in a row.

Most unintentionally telling story: Unintentionally? "95816." "Return" is much more telling, but that's all deliberate intention.

The last few times I've done this, it was during one-fic years, and could answer all the following questions myself. This year, I'm opening it up for audience participation. Drop in a fic title, and a number or two, and I'll answer to the best of my abilities.

1. What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me?
2. What’s my favorite part of the fic?
3. What’s the part of the fic I’m most proud of?
4. What part of the fic was the hardest for me to write?
5. What part of the fic am I still dissatisfied with?
6. Who’s my favorite character in the fic?
7. Were there any major decisions I made about the fic that could have made it go a whole different direction?
8. Was there anything I only learned about the fic after I had finished it? (themes, motifs, symbolism, etc)
9. Did anyone in the fic surprise me by doing anything? If so, what?
10. If I had to sum up this fic in a sentence, what would it be?
11. If I were to rewrite this fic, what would I change?
12. Did any thing about this fic’s reception surprise me?
13. What were my beta’s major comments about the first draft of this fic?
14. If I were to write a sequel to this fic, what would it be about?
15. Any other question about the fic.