Writing: 2008 Year in Review
Jan. 2nd, 2009 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_water_clockI'm not much for introspection and taking stock at the new year—I do that on my birthday. So instead, as I did last year, I'll take stock of my writing:
28 Jan: One Big Circle. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, Katharine McPhee/Elliott Yamin, Gina Glocksen/Haley Scarnato, NC-17, 6400 words. In the Radio Friendly alternate universe.
19 Feb: No Way of Turning. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 1700 words.
22 Feb: Goodbye, Mr. Seacrest, or, To Simon, with Love. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-NC-17, 18,500 words in 14 parts. In![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lillijulianne's Fast Times at Idol High alternate universe.
27 Mar: Bound. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 3300 words.
25 Apr: Simon Loves Me (This Week). American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-13, 350 words.
22 May: The J-Word. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 1800 words.
17 Sep: A Good Place We Could Start. Avatar the Last Airbender: Mai/Zuko, PG-13, 1800 words. Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
kindoflikeyou, the Mai/Zuko fic exchange.
22 Sep: Pinks. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 800 words.
29 Oct: Trust in the Process. Top Design: Carisa/Carl, R, 1200 words.
2 Nov: Earth Boys are Easy. Avatar the Last Airbender: Suki/Toph, NC-17, 2200 words. Written for theatla_slash_swap.
25 Dec: So Many Roads to Choose. Broken Hearts Club: Dennis/Kevin, PG, 1300 words. Written for Yuletide 2008.
Total stories: 11
Total fandoms: 4
Total word count: 39,400
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I wrote a lot that hasn't been posted yet because I decided to write two long chaptered fics but not post them until they were completed. I'm glad because I think they'll be much better for being able to go back to the beginning and change things as I wrote, and in fact most of my chaptered stories have been mostly completed by the time they were posted. But it does make this not as reflective of what I actually wrote as it seems. That said, I posted slightly more than half the words and half the stories in 2008 as I did in 2007
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
Probably Broken Hearts Club, but that's a gimme since it's Yuletide and Yuletide always makes you stretch. The Top Design was a very old fic I finally finished and posted, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I wrote Avatar fic.
What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I don't actually know! I want to say Goodbye Mr. Seacrest but that was such a bittersweet experience, in the end.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Because of howlillijulianne was writing Fast Times at Idol High, I wrote Goodbye Mr. Seacrest in the present tense. It was actually quite difficult to remember to stay in the present tense, and also to work out the right tenses for various actions that had happened in the past. It was pretty uncomfortable, so I don't think it's something I would do again, but it was an interesting exercise.
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Finish my two works-in-progress, plus finally post a fic that's been finished and sitting in the drive waiting for another event for over a year now, and then work on my S/Dfanfic100 claim. And I think I want to post more writing on this journal, and per ali_wildgoose's suggestion, post here everything I've written that wasn't posted on this journal, but is in other places.
From my past year of writing, what was my...
Best story: Last year I could answer this pretty easily but this year I'm not sure. Probably No Way of Turning, mostly because it was sentimental without being mawkish.
Story most underappreciated by the universe: Obviously Goodbye Mr. Seacrest. I find that it's just not enough to write something that long just for yourself, while posting it to no real reactions. My decision on finishing these WIPs in private before posting them was probably based on that experience. Even if no one cares about either of them, they're finished, and the reactions of others won't be a demotivator.
Most fun story: Simon Loves Me (This Week) because it was just a little silly moment, or The J-Word for similar reasons.
Sexiest story: One Big Circle, with its grab bag of sex games and mix and match partners.
Story with single sexiest moment: Bound, when Simon gets Ryan's cock out of his briefs without using his hands.
Story with single sweetest moment: No Way of Turning, with Simon taking care of a sick Ryan.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Earth Girls Are Easy, because I had to really think about grown-up Toph, which made me think more about young Toph, too.
Hardest story to write: A Good Place We Could Start, because it was my first story in a new fandom, but instead of the low pressure of Yuletide I had the very high pressure of being friends with very good Avatar writers and knowing that this particular pairing was very important to them. I didn't want to let them down! And that led to more false starts on that story and more just general anxiety about it than others I wrote this year.
Easiest story to write: Pinks. I wrote it in about an hour.
Biggest disappointment: Funnily enough, I said here last year that I wasn't going to be writing secret stories or letting stories be held up again. And yet I still have a long story that's been finished for a year but for various reasons I haven't been able to post. So that's been disappointing. And of course, Goodbye Mr. Seacrest was disappointing. But I would say that in terms of overall fandom and not writing, the biggest disappointment was that Ryan kissed Simon on live television and no one cares. I can't help but think that in any other fandom it would lead to an influx of stories an interest, but that didn't happen. And it's really hard not to be very sad about that.
Biggest surprise: Maybe that I wrote no Potterfic at all this year, or at least, I posted no Potterfic. I was surprised to see that, looking back, since I'd written a good amount of it in 2007 and I was still writing a lot of Idolfic that year too. It's also strange because of course I've been working on a Potterfic, I just haven't posted it.
Overall: It wasn't really a year about my writing, I feel. Of the eleven stories I wrote, three were for exchanges, one was in another fic writer's AU, one in an AU I established in 2007, and one a rather old story I finally got around to posting (the Top Design). I spent most of the year very happily beta'ing FTIH, and writing my own story within that universe, and only came up with the fic I wanted to write, myself, in May. Clearly it's having a very long gestation, but as I can't really talk about the writing I've actually done this year, I feel like this list isn't that representative.
28 Jan: One Big Circle. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, Katharine McPhee/Elliott Yamin, Gina Glocksen/Haley Scarnato, NC-17, 6400 words. In the Radio Friendly alternate universe.
19 Feb: No Way of Turning. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 1700 words.
22 Feb: Goodbye, Mr. Seacrest, or, To Simon, with Love. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-NC-17, 18,500 words in 14 parts. In
lillijulianne's Fast Times at Idol High alternate universe.27 Mar: Bound. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 3300 words.
25 Apr: Simon Loves Me (This Week). American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-13, 350 words.
22 May: The J-Word. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 1800 words.
17 Sep: A Good Place We Could Start. Avatar the Last Airbender: Mai/Zuko, PG-13, 1800 words. Written for
kindoflikeyou, the Mai/Zuko fic exchange.22 Sep: Pinks. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 800 words.
29 Oct: Trust in the Process. Top Design: Carisa/Carl, R, 1200 words.
2 Nov: Earth Boys are Easy. Avatar the Last Airbender: Suki/Toph, NC-17, 2200 words. Written for the
atla_slash_swap.25 Dec: So Many Roads to Choose. Broken Hearts Club: Dennis/Kevin, PG, 1300 words. Written for Yuletide 2008.
Total stories: 11
Total fandoms: 4
Total word count: 39,400
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I wrote a lot that hasn't been posted yet because I decided to write two long chaptered fics but not post them until they were completed. I'm glad because I think they'll be much better for being able to go back to the beginning and change things as I wrote, and in fact most of my chaptered stories have been mostly completed by the time they were posted. But it does make this not as reflective of what I actually wrote as it seems. That said, I posted slightly more than half the words and half the stories in 2008 as I did in 2007
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
Probably Broken Hearts Club, but that's a gimme since it's Yuletide and Yuletide always makes you stretch. The Top Design was a very old fic I finally finished and posted, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I wrote Avatar fic.
What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I don't actually know! I want to say Goodbye Mr. Seacrest but that was such a bittersweet experience, in the end.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Because of how
lillijulianne was writing Fast Times at Idol High, I wrote Goodbye Mr. Seacrest in the present tense. It was actually quite difficult to remember to stay in the present tense, and also to work out the right tenses for various actions that had happened in the past. It was pretty uncomfortable, so I don't think it's something I would do again, but it was an interesting exercise.Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Finish my two works-in-progress, plus finally post a fic that's been finished and sitting in the drive waiting for another event for over a year now, and then work on my S/D
fanfic100 claim. And I think I want to post more writing on this journal, and per ali_wildgoose's suggestion, post here everything I've written that wasn't posted on this journal, but is in other places.From my past year of writing, what was my...
Best story: Last year I could answer this pretty easily but this year I'm not sure. Probably No Way of Turning, mostly because it was sentimental without being mawkish.
Story most underappreciated by the universe: Obviously Goodbye Mr. Seacrest. I find that it's just not enough to write something that long just for yourself, while posting it to no real reactions. My decision on finishing these WIPs in private before posting them was probably based on that experience. Even if no one cares about either of them, they're finished, and the reactions of others won't be a demotivator.
Most fun story: Simon Loves Me (This Week) because it was just a little silly moment, or The J-Word for similar reasons.
Sexiest story: One Big Circle, with its grab bag of sex games and mix and match partners.
Story with single sexiest moment: Bound, when Simon gets Ryan's cock out of his briefs without using his hands.
Story with single sweetest moment: No Way of Turning, with Simon taking care of a sick Ryan.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Earth Girls Are Easy, because I had to really think about grown-up Toph, which made me think more about young Toph, too.
Hardest story to write: A Good Place We Could Start, because it was my first story in a new fandom, but instead of the low pressure of Yuletide I had the very high pressure of being friends with very good Avatar writers and knowing that this particular pairing was very important to them. I didn't want to let them down! And that led to more false starts on that story and more just general anxiety about it than others I wrote this year.
Easiest story to write: Pinks. I wrote it in about an hour.
Biggest disappointment: Funnily enough, I said here last year that I wasn't going to be writing secret stories or letting stories be held up again. And yet I still have a long story that's been finished for a year but for various reasons I haven't been able to post. So that's been disappointing. And of course, Goodbye Mr. Seacrest was disappointing. But I would say that in terms of overall fandom and not writing, the biggest disappointment was that Ryan kissed Simon on live television and no one cares. I can't help but think that in any other fandom it would lead to an influx of stories an interest, but that didn't happen. And it's really hard not to be very sad about that.
Biggest surprise: Maybe that I wrote no Potterfic at all this year, or at least, I posted no Potterfic. I was surprised to see that, looking back, since I'd written a good amount of it in 2007 and I was still writing a lot of Idolfic that year too. It's also strange because of course I've been working on a Potterfic, I just haven't posted it.
Overall: It wasn't really a year about my writing, I feel. Of the eleven stories I wrote, three were for exchanges, one was in another fic writer's AU, one in an AU I established in 2007, and one a rather old story I finally got around to posting (the Top Design). I spent most of the year very happily beta'ing FTIH, and writing my own story within that universe, and only came up with the fic I wanted to write, myself, in May. Clearly it's having a very long gestation, but as I can't really talk about the writing I've actually done this year, I feel like this list isn't that representative.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 06:04 am (UTC)Also your cut text says "2007" but I think you meant "2008"?
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Date: 2009-01-02 06:14 am (UTC)Also, you're clearly a more honest soul than I, for you only included posted fics in your roundup whereas I was a jerk.
And I think I'm going to do these meme EVERY YEAR for as long as I'm writing fic because it's a damn good time. <3