Fanfic Year in Review 2013

[tarotgal]

This is my sixth time doing this. This year, I didn't keep such awesome records, so it's highly possible I missed a fic here or there. If you notice something missing, let me know so I can add it right away. Thanks!

Here's Year 2008, Year 2009, Year 2010, Year 2011, & Year 2012 if you want to compare.

There's a key in the expredsheet link below saying where each fic was posted, if there's a fic there you want to read and haven't yet.

Fanfic Year in Review: 2013

Total pieces I wrote this year: 66 (rather pathetic total)
Expredsheet list of all: http://tgsrealm.tarotgal.net/yearinreview/FinishedFics13.htm

Fandoms:
BBC Sherlock- 4
Harry Potter- 33
Horatio Hornblower- 2
Lord of the Rings- 1
Marvel (Captain America)- 1
Marvel (Overall)- 1
Marvel (Avengers)- 2
NCIS- 1
Original Fiction- 3
Stargate SG-1- 1
Supernatural- 15
Torchwood- 2

Challenges, fests, etc. I participated in:
January- 12 Ficlets in 12 Days, Dreamwidth Porn Battle
February- Posted Big Bang fic
April- Super-sneezy Supernatural Meme (my own comment meme), Super-sneezy Not Supernatural Meme (my own comment meme)
May- May Madness Ficathon
July- late Running Hot comment meme entry
August- ABC H/C List (personal challenge), ohsam comment fic meme
October- Slash drabble swap on swap-bot
November- Hospitalized!Dean fic & art Week at hoodie-time, NaNoWriMo (completed 50,000+ words in NaNoRebel)
December- 12 Ficlets in 12 Days

Reasons for pieces:
48- Written for fests, challenges, prompts, etc.
13- Written for someone else (request or gift)
4- Written for self, just because
So... without fests and prompts, I pretty much would have gotten nothing written all year! Guess I know where I'm playing next year.

Ratings:
A wide range of ratings, though almost all slash or gen

Monthly Breakdown
~January~ (8)
SPN: Day 8
SPN: Day 9
SPN: Day 10 (I'm sensing a pattern here)
Marvel: Day 11
HP: Day 12
HP: This Isn't Sexy
Marvel: Blush
Sherlock: Trust Issues

~February~ (1)
NCIS: A Rose by Any Other Name

~March~ (1)
SG-1: Allergy Shots

~April~ (10)
SPN: She Who Entangles Men
SPN: The Choices We Make
Sherlock: Have a Sense of Humor
SPN: By the Roadside
SPN: Light Sneezing
HH: The Most Important Meal of the Day
Marvel: Pity Party Table for One
TW: The Sensitive Nature of Delicate Flowers
SPN: There's Something Else Wrong with Sam
SPN: He's Everything You Need

~May~ (31)
HP: Getting to Know You
HP: Nobody Has to Know
HP: In Silence I Grieve
HP: Never-ending
HP: She Would Have Loved This
HP: Fallout
HP: How the Weasleys Do It
HP: Rainy Day
HP: A Hot Pink Lunch
HP: Winning
HP: Pancakes on Boxing Day
HP: Almost Silent
HP: Speak the Truth
HP: Breakup
HP: Interlude
HP: The Godfather
HP: Neville's Kink
HP :Scheduling
HP: Excuses, Excuses
HP: Meal Time
HP: Laughter is Magical
HP: Walking the Dog
HP: Insatiable
HP: Losing
HP: Bes t Laid Plans
HP: A Horse of a Different Color
HP: Exciting Match
HP: One Big Happy Family
HP: Rescue Attempt
HP: Good Morning
HP: Homecoming

~June~ (0)

~July~ (1)
Strokes: Not That Kind of Girl

~August~ (0)

~September~ (0)
Started posting Befores & Afters series; did not finish

~October~ (1)
SPN: You're My Candle in the Window

~November~ (4)
SPN: Befores & Afters (30-chapter series finished)
SPN: Convergence
Original: Ending
Sherlock: A Study in Kink
(Also finished Strokes: Commencement and Strokes: Tryouts but have not posted these yet, so they don't make the list)

~December~ (8)
SPN: Dean's First Snow Day
HH: Day 1
TW: Day 2
Sherlock: Day 3
Strokes: Day 4
SPN: Day 5
LotR: Day 6
SPN: Day 7

So... lots of blank patches throughout the year. That's disappointing.

My Favorite: He's Everything You Need because I really enjoyed all the little h/c moments (that obviously inspired the future B&A series), but even more than that, I enjoyed the balance of sex and honesty and emotion going on there. Dean trying to confess, Sam already knowing, Sam pushing buttons he didn't even know Dean had. I enjoyed writing it (it flowed out of my fingers so easily) and thought it turned out really well.

Most Proud of: A Rose by Any Other Name because it was a huge undertaking and had some good angst and lots of plot. I enjoyed breaking and fixing Tony :-) But I'm also really happy with Not That Kind of Girl, because I've been wanting to write that story for YEARS and I think it turned out all right.

My Best: Gods, why do I even keep this question on here, year after year? I have no bloody idea.

Most Under-Appreciated: Befores & Afters Series because it took me a long time and I think it turned out to be pretty good overall. Also, LJ was going through some crappy times, so a couple chapters and comments went missing, so I'm going to have to post it on my site for a proper, full version.

Most Fun: Maybe The Choices We Make? It was fun writing an allergy attack on top of a cold... and letting the dust unstick a few sneezes Sam had coming. Oh, the build-ups... and the loaded last line of dialogue. heehee But Convergence was a lot of fun as well; I really enjoyed the storyline and there's something that's so much fun to me about writing weechesters and teenchesters :-)

Sexiest: This is going against the rules, choosing a fic that isn't on the list officially, but it's definitely a fic I finished for this year's 12 Fics in 12 Days and haven't posted yet. Day 9. I freakin LOVED writing it in my head for weeks and I can't wait to post it so others can read it.

Single Sexiest Moment: Before & Afters: Part 1. Preface... because there was just something about Dean rubbing Sam's nose with his hand without asking and about Sam rubbing his nose against Dean's palm without having to ask...

Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you: I'm a little tired of picking waterspots fics as the answer to this every year. But I'm going to do it again and go with A Study in Kink, only because it was a full story that combined both watersports and BDSM with a sub!Sherlock. It was my first sub!Sherlock attempt, though I'd written a dom!Sherlock with sub!Watson earlier this year. So switching up their dynamic in my mind was unexpected and weird to me at first. But I think it worked really well for the fic and I convinced myself that was a good dynamic for them, and it worked with the watersports & desperation so well, as control was a key element in the dynamic.

Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Day 11 (from last year's round) because, somehow, I managed to have Tony and Logan in bed together acting sweet to each other... which is something I've WANTED to have happen in my OTP for a while (make it not all about how each of them loves Cap) but not something I thought I could make the characters do. Plus, Logan happily drank tea. Basically, I managed to get them to be completely in character doing unexpected things. I'm proud of that. And it was neat the way they revealed those parts of themselves for me in the story. I've been trying to get them to do the same since ;-)

Hardest to do: This year for the Harry Potter May Madness Fest thing, I decided to only write stories that fit into my The Great Beyond universe. By the end of the month, I was having trouble thinking of things to write.

Biggest disappointment: I don't know. Maybe I'm a little disappointed by Day 2? I guess I just expect my Ianto & Jack to be kinkier ;-) My biggest disappointment is definitely the overall lack of writing this year.

Biggest surprise: Best Laid Plans. I don't usually adore original characters in fics... but there's something about giving Percy a character like Lindsey that makes me so happy. This little ficlet took off with a mind of its own and I was pleasantly surprised by it. You know how they say it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for? heehee Also, for a fic where no one actually has sex, it's super kinky... in a dignified, planned sort of way, naturally.

A story I want remembered: Whichever one you like the best!

Goals from last year: I did post my NCIS Bigbang fic, and I signed up for a new round of hurt/comfort big banging. I did also finish all the stories I definitely wanted to include in a volume of Sinclair short stories. I did NOT write the Sons of Anarchy and Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fic I've had in mind for a while now; phooey. But I did host two comment fic memes on my LJ in April. And I archived a bunch of fics on AO3.

Goals for next year: Finish archiving fics on AO3. Host another comment fic meme in April. Write the LotR/Hobbit fic that's been in my head for a year. Edit Strokes short stories. Finish Marvel/Avengers hurt/comfort big bang fic. WRITE MORE THAN 66 STORIES! That was just plain pathetic.

Comments

[melydia.livejournal.com]

So wait, something with thirty freaking chapters still only counts as a single story?

Also, because I'm curious: how many of these stories had no sex scenes in them at all? ;)

[tarotgal]

Oohhh breaking it down by ratings? I haven't done that before. I'll add it to my spreadsheet and find out. Let me get back to you on that one! :-)

Yeah, it's still one story... the chapters were only a page to a page and a half each. And the "plot" such as it wasn't followed the whole story. Though, to be fair, in 2010 I counted each chapter of Collared as a separate part, posted on a separate day, same as this series. But those separate chapters were a minimum of something like 500 words, I think? 1000 words? I don't remember the exact minimum daily requirement. Okay, so if I count the Befores&Afters as separate chapters, I guess I come up with 95 stories in total. Which, I guess, is much more respectable and in-line with my usual annual totals. However, there were a few months still this year where I didn't write a single word. So... ugh... I still am disappointed with my writing performance this year, overall.

[melydia.livejournal.com]

It's been quite a stressful year for you. Hopefully you'll get back into the groove in 2014.

And the "plot" such as it wasn't

That made me giggle. :)

[tarotgal]

Here's the link with the ratings & sexual content columns: http://tgsrealm.tarotgal.net/yearinreview/FinishedFics2013WithRatings.htm

Looks like 38 of the 66 stories don't have sex in them. Of the 28 that do have sex in them, 10 of those have "off camera" sex scenes not explicitly shown in the story itself.

But there are varying degrees of things in the stories--kissing, mentions of sex, dirty talk, sex starting and being interrupted before it can be finished, etc. If you want to know how many stories don't have to do with sex or relationships at all, that's really difficult to count. Does Bucky sitting at a bar, wishing he could be as awesome as Captain America while Cap gets all the girls count as being about relationships, or is it more about exploring the fact that now Bucky's taking second fiddle for the first time in his life? Is a story where Hornblower gets kicked out of his home because his wife's just had a baby and he's sick and the midwife doesn't want to risk his wife/new baby getting sick count as being about relationships? (Hornblower wouldn't think so, incidentally). So it's hard for me to know where to draw the line. 10 of the 66 fics are pure Gen (no het or slash).

[melydia.livejournal.com]

What is Gen short for?

I was just teasing about the sex, because when you talk about it you often make it sound like you're just writing a bunch of sex scenes between your favorite characters. :)

Most fiction is about relationships. If you really want to break it down, I'd ask yourself how many are about romance - specifically, people falling in and out of love/lust (and their interactions with the objects of their affections). Bucky at the bar and Hornblower's midwife troubles would not count in that case. Now, if Bucky was fantasizing about romancing Cap or Hornblower fell in love with somebody while forced to live elsewhere, well, that would be different. :)

[tarotgal]

From a Wiki Gen stands for: General or non-romantic, used as an official subgenre category on many archives, including fanfiction.net. There is some controversy about what qualifies as a "gen fic", but usually it denotes a story in which there is no sex and any and all romance is a background element of the story, while the main plot centers around non-romantic themes.

I was just teasing about the sex, because when you talk about it you often make it sound like you're just writing a bunch of sex scenes between your favorite characters. :)
Well... that's not far from it in many cases... Fanfic for me is a whole lot of things including exploring new possibilities with characters & worlds I'm already familiar with and seeing them in sexy situations *G*

Now, if Bucky was fantasizing about romancing Cap
Then Wolverine would kick Bucky's ass, that's what would happen.

or Hornblower fell in love with somebody while forced to live elsewhere
Technically, in canon, he loves his ship & duty twice as much as his wife... so ditching her to go do some things for the royal navy is totally a love affair ;-)

[melydia.livejournal.com]

Ah, I should have guessed what Gen meant, but sometimes I am hesitant to Google terms from your fanfic life. I have my innocence to protect, after all! ;)

Another random question: how often do you write non-fanfic stories? I know you do, it's just that you so rarely mention it that I have no idea how much of it you produce. I can't imagine it's nearly the quantity as fanfic, because otherwise you wouldn't have any time at all to be the other three people you already are.

[tarotgal]

The problem with original character stories is that a lot of them are novels and I SUCK SO MUCH at finishing novel writing. And then, when I actually do, I end up hating it or seeing all the plot holes and not wanting to put in the effort to rewriting from scratch. I'd say I've finished maybe... 2 or 3 novels ever out of dozens I've tried writing.

The Strokes short stories are a bit different. I did write a bit of that last year and I finished three of them (but only posted one, as the other two are unedited).

I really enjoy writing original character fiction, though I was talking with a YA author after a Fall for the Book panel once and she was describing it like candy. We have our candy that we like to write. And we know we really should be focusing on the main courses, but the candy is so much more fun and yummy. That's how I feel about fanfic. But most of the time, I don't really get a choice. I write what's in my head in order to get it out of my head, otherwise I can't think properly. I write what the muses want me to write. Many times it sucks and I won't post it. Many times I don't finish it, so it doesn't make the spreadsheet at the end of the year.

I'm say that when I'm in writing mode, it's probably close to 75% fanfiction and 25% original fiction. But that's just a really rough guess. And it changed from week-to-week or month-to-month; I like giving my original characters more attention during NaNoWriMo, as I focus on fanfic for so much of the rest of the year, but this year I wasn't writing much because of Maxwell and my health so I couldn't go a month without the fanfic bunnies gnawing at me. The fanfic I like best to write is sort and easy to finish off, with a GREAT sense of accomplishment when I do. So I definitely lean toward it as nummy candy. Mmmm. I love that feeling when I finish something short and fun where I don't have to worry about plot holes or plots at all, for that matter :-)

Ah, I should have guessed what Gen meant, but sometimes I am hesitant to Google terms from your fanfic life. I have my innocence to protect, after all! ;)
You're probably quite wise to not google fanfic-related terms. I wish someone had taught me that lesson before I googled a few words I came across and discovered squicks I didn't know I had. LOL

[(Anonymous)]

As the day 9 anon, I am very excited!

[tarotgal]

Squee! I hope it won't disappoint! :-)