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2011: Words What We Wrote.
Supernatural
Hosting Messengers (840)
Children of the Wanderers (Rock of Ages translation) (13,841)
Team Fortress 2
Put On Your Face (50,307)
Stand Aside (9,124)
Ludis Mundi (1,859)
Other
True And Everlasting, True Blood (3,725)
Fit Us Right, House (2,130)
Drink Order, The Devil Wears Prada (526)
Gathering Pace, The Good Wife (333)
Streamline Promenade, The Good Wife (448)
Total wordcount: 75,933. About ten thousand less than what I wrote last year, which included a few longer short fics. It also included fewer cover letters, so it's a trade-off.
--
Leitmotif(s) of the year: An individual's placement and standing in large and small groups, whether that's society at large or just one's family. I didn't realize that until I stepped back to look at them from here, and now it's screaming at me. I knew it was a major theme in a couple of them, but it popped up in the rest in various forms as well - it's different in all of them, but it's there.
Favorite(s) of the batch: Children of the Wanderers, Put On Your Face, and Stand Aside.
Best of the batch: See previous answer.
Most underappreciated by the universe: True And Everlasting. There's not much of a market for that sort of fic, but I still held out hope.
Favorite first lines: They never caught me when I set the hills on fire. It just popped into my head as I was walking down the street like the character said it to me.
Most fun to write: Put On Your Face. Thinking back to some of the conversations in there still makes me smile - Scout is a blast to write when he's running his mouth off.
Sexiest fic: Stand Aside. I've never written a graphic sex scene I've been happy with before, and I think this was the first time I've written a sex scene that the plot actually needed, instead of something that would've been fine fading to black for the duration. I'm sure these have something to do with each other.
"Holy crap, that's wrong even for you" fic: Put On Your Face. The respawn aggression therapy scene. Only in Team Fortress 2.
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Thinking about it, probably Put On Your Face, since the way I wrote it meant I had to figure out both what the characters would be like, how other characters would see them, and how to balance everything while keeping a tight first-person narrative voice and letting characterization show up through action instead of exposition.
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: Team Fortress 2. Just...Team Fortress 2. In January I don't think I knew it existed, and by April, I was truly, madly, deeply in love and set myself on a path to write a nine-story cycle for the nine main characters, and once I was about ten thousand words into the first story, knew that there wasn't any looking back.
Hardest fic to write: True And Everlasting took at least two false starts, and more editing than I'm used to for something that small. But I got it out there, and that's what counts.
Biggest disappointment: True And Everlasting and Hosting Messengers still don't feel like they got out of my head properly.
Biggest surprise: Children of the Wanderers. The night Remix went out, I went through the author's works to see what I could do, and when I got to Rock Of Ages, something clicked. It seemed too good at first, like I was just deluding myself, but the next day the idea was just as strong and good as it'd been the night before, so I took that idea and ran with it. I ended up needing to remix the whole driving force of the show and its overarching messages - breaking up the status quo instead of keeping it steady, having to work towards a goal instead of just keeping things at bay - and being able to talk about those things was one of the most satisfying parts of the challenge.
Most telling fic: Children of the Wanderers, for giving me a rare chance to be able to sort out if not fully articulate my feelings about being Jewish and certain aspects of the religion in regards to the idea of the world to come as well as my frustrations with Supernatural itself, and Put On Your Face, for being able to take the opportunity to talk about forming identities when dealing with new groups and spaces, how to present oneself, being able to maintain that persona and keep one's privacy and different identities distinct, and my memories of being the only girl in the room.
What's next? The rest of the nine-story cycle, then on to publication.
No, what's really next? I'm serious about the publication thing.
When I realized how wide and deep my goals were with the class' cycle, I knew that when I was done with it I'd be able to see any writing project through, no matter how daunting it'd look at first. Right after that, I realized that this would be the last fic thing I'd let myself do. It's too easy to keep on going with fic - it's very satisfying and fun, but it's not how I want to spend the rest of my time when I can be doing more. I know myself, I know what's out there, and I know how I'll feel when I'm done with it all. There are other fics I'd like to have told, and there will be fics I'd like to tell in the future, and there will be tempting and delightful challenges and exchanges and all sorts of wonderful things along the way. But they'll be distractions, and I need to focus in on what I want my goals to be. I want to write novels to get my name on a shelf, and the only way to do that is to write a novel. So this big project - at about 60,000 words and counting, already enough for a YA novel manuscript - will be my chance to teach myself how to see a long writing project through to the end, with everything that entails. And what will come when I'm done with the ninth story will be me sitting down, opening up another Word document, and starting something new.
Hosting Messengers (840)
Children of the Wanderers (Rock of Ages translation) (13,841)
Team Fortress 2
Put On Your Face (50,307)
Stand Aside (9,124)
Ludis Mundi (1,859)
Other
True And Everlasting, True Blood (3,725)
Fit Us Right, House (2,130)
Drink Order, The Devil Wears Prada (526)
Gathering Pace, The Good Wife (333)
Streamline Promenade, The Good Wife (448)
Total wordcount: 75,933. About ten thousand less than what I wrote last year, which included a few longer short fics. It also included fewer cover letters, so it's a trade-off.
--
Leitmotif(s) of the year: An individual's placement and standing in large and small groups, whether that's society at large or just one's family. I didn't realize that until I stepped back to look at them from here, and now it's screaming at me. I knew it was a major theme in a couple of them, but it popped up in the rest in various forms as well - it's different in all of them, but it's there.
Favorite(s) of the batch: Children of the Wanderers, Put On Your Face, and Stand Aside.
Best of the batch: See previous answer.
Most underappreciated by the universe: True And Everlasting. There's not much of a market for that sort of fic, but I still held out hope.
Favorite first lines: They never caught me when I set the hills on fire. It just popped into my head as I was walking down the street like the character said it to me.
Most fun to write: Put On Your Face. Thinking back to some of the conversations in there still makes me smile - Scout is a blast to write when he's running his mouth off.
Sexiest fic: Stand Aside. I've never written a graphic sex scene I've been happy with before, and I think this was the first time I've written a sex scene that the plot actually needed, instead of something that would've been fine fading to black for the duration. I'm sure these have something to do with each other.
"Holy crap, that's wrong even for you" fic: Put On Your Face. The respawn aggression therapy scene. Only in Team Fortress 2.
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Thinking about it, probably Put On Your Face, since the way I wrote it meant I had to figure out both what the characters would be like, how other characters would see them, and how to balance everything while keeping a tight first-person narrative voice and letting characterization show up through action instead of exposition.
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: Team Fortress 2. Just...Team Fortress 2. In January I don't think I knew it existed, and by April, I was truly, madly, deeply in love and set myself on a path to write a nine-story cycle for the nine main characters, and once I was about ten thousand words into the first story, knew that there wasn't any looking back.
Hardest fic to write: True And Everlasting took at least two false starts, and more editing than I'm used to for something that small. But I got it out there, and that's what counts.
Biggest disappointment: True And Everlasting and Hosting Messengers still don't feel like they got out of my head properly.
Biggest surprise: Children of the Wanderers. The night Remix went out, I went through the author's works to see what I could do, and when I got to Rock Of Ages, something clicked. It seemed too good at first, like I was just deluding myself, but the next day the idea was just as strong and good as it'd been the night before, so I took that idea and ran with it. I ended up needing to remix the whole driving force of the show and its overarching messages - breaking up the status quo instead of keeping it steady, having to work towards a goal instead of just keeping things at bay - and being able to talk about those things was one of the most satisfying parts of the challenge.
Most telling fic: Children of the Wanderers, for giving me a rare chance to be able to sort out if not fully articulate my feelings about being Jewish and certain aspects of the religion in regards to the idea of the world to come as well as my frustrations with Supernatural itself, and Put On Your Face, for being able to take the opportunity to talk about forming identities when dealing with new groups and spaces, how to present oneself, being able to maintain that persona and keep one's privacy and different identities distinct, and my memories of being the only girl in the room.
What's next? The rest of the nine-story cycle, then on to publication.
No, what's really next? I'm serious about the publication thing.
When I realized how wide and deep my goals were with the class' cycle, I knew that when I was done with it I'd be able to see any writing project through, no matter how daunting it'd look at first. Right after that, I realized that this would be the last fic thing I'd let myself do. It's too easy to keep on going with fic - it's very satisfying and fun, but it's not how I want to spend the rest of my time when I can be doing more. I know myself, I know what's out there, and I know how I'll feel when I'm done with it all. There are other fics I'd like to have told, and there will be fics I'd like to tell in the future, and there will be tempting and delightful challenges and exchanges and all sorts of wonderful things along the way. But they'll be distractions, and I need to focus in on what I want my goals to be. I want to write novels to get my name on a shelf, and the only way to do that is to write a novel. So this big project - at about 60,000 words and counting, already enough for a YA novel manuscript - will be my chance to teach myself how to see a long writing project through to the end, with everything that entails. And what will come when I'm done with the ninth story will be me sitting down, opening up another Word document, and starting something new.