2011 year in fic meme
Jan. 2nd, 2012 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbard2011: not quite as dire as I thought it was.
Dust in the Air: 23 (6181) | 24 (7156) | Interlude (2230) | 25 (5827) | 26 (7979)
Second Sight | Narnia; Jill, Peter, and Susan and dream interpretations (1896)
Be Bold, Be Bold | Narnia; Rilian, the one with the poetry (4164)
Our Impudent Crimes | Narnia; Rilian, the one with the artwork (5073)
The White Harvest | Narnia; Golden Age, Osumare Seaworth, Peter, and others, the conquest of Terebinthia (18444)
- To the Victors | Narnia; coda to Harvest (1154)
Written in the Dust | Narnia; OCs and Caspian I the Conqueror, the one with academia (5500)
Peaches and Cream | BSG; Helo/Sharon, the one with makeouts (807)
The Dog Days are Done | BSG; Apollo and Helo, the one where Helo has PTSD (2222)
Nightfall | BSG; Helo/Sharon, the one with the haunted cabin (3939)
I also posted a giant stack of Narnia UFOs, the most significant of which was Be Like Water, the 70K girl!Peter genderfuck PC AU.
Total wordcount: a respectable 72,572, out of which 29,373 was part of Dust and 6968 was in BSG.
Looking back, did you make more fannish stuff than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I never know how much I'm going to make in a given year! Probably less, though; I expected to shake loose another Jill story and another Rilian story, and I always hope I'm actually going to finish Dust, not that that ever happens. (SOME DAY.)
What pairing/genre/fandom did you do that you would never have predicted in January?
BSG! I mean, this year is surprising, I wrote in TWO FANDOMS. Scandalous!
What's your own favorite story/vid/podfic of the year? Not the most popular, but the piece that makes you happiest?
The White Harvest. I went back and reread it yesterday, and it just makes me so happy, because there's a battle, and there's world-building, and all my lovely OCs, and did I mention there was a GIANT BATTLE? I write a lot of action scenes, but the one in Harvest was actually my first battle. And it was so much fun to write, omg.
Did you take any creative risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Written in the Dust was probably my riskiest fic, since it was for an exchange and it was basically all OCs, plus it was -- eh, people call it alternate history, and I'm not necessarily sure that's how I think of it, but you know. The idea that the history of the Telmarines in Narnia didn't go exactly the way everyone thinks, and Caspian the Conqueror mightn't have been. I'm not entirely happy with it, because I wrote it way too fast and didn't have enough time to clean it up or do exactly what I wanted with it, but I'm still happy with it.
I was also very heavy on the non-Pevensie fic this year; I get the most comments on fic with the Pevensies in, and particularly on fic where the Pevensies are prominent, either as narrators or as the subjects. So maybe writing a lot of non-Golden Age fic is sort of a risk? This was just a year of vast world-building, as well as Dust starting to expand away from the Pevensies -- two OC narrators this year, Elizar and Marcia Bracken. People still read.
My best piece of this year:
The White Harvest, I think. I mean, it's self-indulgent as hell, but it does everything I wanted it to do and it hangs together really well. Also, BATTLE.
My most popular piece of this year:
Well, Written in the Dust was my NFE fic, so it was seen by a lot more people and got the most comments that way, but for fic that was just on my journal, Dust 26 (er, because I flipped out, I think) and The White Harvest. Because Osumare Seaworth and the Golden Age, which are always popular.
Piece of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Probably Nightfall, my BSG haunted cabin fic, but I don't have much of a readership in BSG and I don't post to comms, so I wasn't expecting much.
Most fun piece to make:
The White Harvest! BECAUSE I GOT TO WRITE A GODDAMN BATTLE, THAT'S WHY. *cough* Harvest is basically totally self-indulgent id-fic. Lots of world-building, lots of action, lots of OCs, a chance to exercise my strategy muscles; what more do I need out of a fic?
Single sexiest moment:
This scene from The White Harvest:
Or maybe this one from Nightfall: The scent of hot food gets to Helo, too, because he comes drifting in about ten minutes later, flight suit back on but left unzipped to his hips. He slings an arm around her waist and kisses her neck. “Dinner smells good,” he says.
Unless we're talking food porn, in which case, from To the Victors: There was a bowl of mixed-fish stew, yellow from saffron and with small octopus tentacles, whole shrimp, and mussels still in the shell protruding from the bowl; toasts anointed with garlic and olive oil; grape leaves stuffed with pine nuts, currants, and golden raisins; meatballs made of ground lamb and fragrant with the scent of mint; finished off with fried pastry ribbons drenched in a sweet honey syrup and sprinkled with sugar-crusted almonds.
Single funniest moment:
The scene in Harvest where Osumare signals to the fleet, "Narnia expects that everyone will do their duty," and Peter starts cackling; it makes me snicker every time.
I'm super-easily amused, though, so Rilian bitching about his studies always make me cackle. (Usually because they're the result of me channeling my own academic angst, heh.)
Most "Holy crap, that's out there, even for you" piece:
Eh, I don't think I wrote anything that out there, most of my really out-there stuff is still conceptual or stored on my computer. I mean, unless you count Written in the Dust, but that's pretty standard Bedlam fare. And I didn't even write Pevensie/random crossover pairing this year, so there's that out.
Piece that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Dust 26, which was in progress basically the entire year, and finally had a breakthrough a few months ago, though it didn't get written until a few weeks ago. I've had trouble with Jill as a character all through Dust and at some point in the conceptual stages -- about five hundred words into the chapter, which had been stalled out since January -- I said to myself, "Okay, what would Jill do if she was the hero of the story?" and that was when I really got it.
Hardest piece to make:
Well, Dust 26 was in progress since January, so probably that.
Biggest Disappointment:
I didn't write more Dust. *shrug* But, you know. I wrote more this year than I actually thought I had. I also didn't get either of my BSG AUs done, or past more than the first 1K to couple thousand words.
Biggest Surprise:
Stumbling into BSG as a fannish enterprise, since I've seen three-quarters of the show and wasn't inclined to get fannish about it before, but this time I did, and big time, though not big time compared to Narnia. But into it enough to write fic!
Most Unintentionally Telling Piece:
As much as The White Harvest is all the things I love, I'm pretty sure that's not unintentional, heh. As are the dreams in Second Sight. Well, and I flipped out over Dust 26, but...that wasn't really the fic, that was me having a mental break of some sort. Maybe Written in the Dust, but...that was also probably intentional. I am not subtle.
Overall Thoughts:
Wow, I wrote more fic than I thought, heh. Also, I think I wrote less action this year than usual, probably because it all came out in The White Harvest and thus I didn't feel compelled to stuff it into all my other fic? (HEH.) Or, alternately, I spent this year learning how to write things other than action, including the Big Damn Plot of Dust (politics! newspapers! crime!), which proceeds apace, and the academia bits of the Rilian fics and Written in the Dust. I guess I'm also surprised that Harvest was the only Golden Age fic (along with To the Victors, the coda, which was originally written as part of Harvest).
...actually, the more I think about it, the more surprised I am that I didn't write more action. The White Harvest is basically one giant battle scene, but there weren't that many even in Dust -- just the assassination attempt in Dust 25, I don't think there was anything else, just a couple of scenes that could have gone that way but didn't.
Goals for 2012: Finish up the Rilian lawcode fic. Oh, and the one where Helo's family survived the Fall. I want to try and finish up Dust II, because I know more or less where it's going and the scene it ends on. I want to write at least one of my two BSG AUs (the one where Helo's captured by Cavil's people during "The Hub" and the Dollhouse crossover where Helo is Paul Ballard). Ideally I will also actually write my NBB, which is a Dust prequel that's part of Border Wars. Alternately, I will settle for just writing.
Dust in the Air: 23 (6181) | 24 (7156) | Interlude (2230) | 25 (5827) | 26 (7979)
Second Sight | Narnia; Jill, Peter, and Susan and dream interpretations (1896)
Be Bold, Be Bold | Narnia; Rilian, the one with the poetry (4164)
Our Impudent Crimes | Narnia; Rilian, the one with the artwork (5073)
The White Harvest | Narnia; Golden Age, Osumare Seaworth, Peter, and others, the conquest of Terebinthia (18444)
- To the Victors | Narnia; coda to Harvest (1154)
Written in the Dust | Narnia; OCs and Caspian I the Conqueror, the one with academia (5500)
Peaches and Cream | BSG; Helo/Sharon, the one with makeouts (807)
The Dog Days are Done | BSG; Apollo and Helo, the one where Helo has PTSD (2222)
Nightfall | BSG; Helo/Sharon, the one with the haunted cabin (3939)
I also posted a giant stack of Narnia UFOs, the most significant of which was Be Like Water, the 70K girl!Peter genderfuck PC AU.
Total wordcount: a respectable 72,572, out of which 29,373 was part of Dust and 6968 was in BSG.
Looking back, did you make more fannish stuff than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I never know how much I'm going to make in a given year! Probably less, though; I expected to shake loose another Jill story and another Rilian story, and I always hope I'm actually going to finish Dust, not that that ever happens. (SOME DAY.)
What pairing/genre/fandom did you do that you would never have predicted in January?
BSG! I mean, this year is surprising, I wrote in TWO FANDOMS. Scandalous!
What's your own favorite story/vid/podfic of the year? Not the most popular, but the piece that makes you happiest?
The White Harvest. I went back and reread it yesterday, and it just makes me so happy, because there's a battle, and there's world-building, and all my lovely OCs, and did I mention there was a GIANT BATTLE? I write a lot of action scenes, but the one in Harvest was actually my first battle. And it was so much fun to write, omg.
Did you take any creative risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Written in the Dust was probably my riskiest fic, since it was for an exchange and it was basically all OCs, plus it was -- eh, people call it alternate history, and I'm not necessarily sure that's how I think of it, but you know. The idea that the history of the Telmarines in Narnia didn't go exactly the way everyone thinks, and Caspian the Conqueror mightn't have been. I'm not entirely happy with it, because I wrote it way too fast and didn't have enough time to clean it up or do exactly what I wanted with it, but I'm still happy with it.
I was also very heavy on the non-Pevensie fic this year; I get the most comments on fic with the Pevensies in, and particularly on fic where the Pevensies are prominent, either as narrators or as the subjects. So maybe writing a lot of non-Golden Age fic is sort of a risk? This was just a year of vast world-building, as well as Dust starting to expand away from the Pevensies -- two OC narrators this year, Elizar and Marcia Bracken. People still read.
My best piece of this year:
The White Harvest, I think. I mean, it's self-indulgent as hell, but it does everything I wanted it to do and it hangs together really well. Also, BATTLE.
My most popular piece of this year:
Well, Written in the Dust was my NFE fic, so it was seen by a lot more people and got the most comments that way, but for fic that was just on my journal, Dust 26 (er, because I flipped out, I think) and The White Harvest. Because Osumare Seaworth and the Golden Age, which are always popular.
Piece of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Probably Nightfall, my BSG haunted cabin fic, but I don't have much of a readership in BSG and I don't post to comms, so I wasn't expecting much.
Most fun piece to make:
The White Harvest! BECAUSE I GOT TO WRITE A GODDAMN BATTLE, THAT'S WHY. *cough* Harvest is basically totally self-indulgent id-fic. Lots of world-building, lots of action, lots of OCs, a chance to exercise my strategy muscles; what more do I need out of a fic?
Single sexiest moment:
This scene from The White Harvest:
“All hands to board the Rising Sun!” Admiral Breakwave bellowed. “A hundred gold dragons to whoever brings me the High King alive!”
Peter laughed, somewhat ruining the effect.
Or maybe this one from Nightfall: The scent of hot food gets to Helo, too, because he comes drifting in about ten minutes later, flight suit back on but left unzipped to his hips. He slings an arm around her waist and kisses her neck. “Dinner smells good,” he says.
Unless we're talking food porn, in which case, from To the Victors: There was a bowl of mixed-fish stew, yellow from saffron and with small octopus tentacles, whole shrimp, and mussels still in the shell protruding from the bowl; toasts anointed with garlic and olive oil; grape leaves stuffed with pine nuts, currants, and golden raisins; meatballs made of ground lamb and fragrant with the scent of mint; finished off with fried pastry ribbons drenched in a sweet honey syrup and sprinkled with sugar-crusted almonds.
Single funniest moment:
The scene in Harvest where Osumare signals to the fleet, "Narnia expects that everyone will do their duty," and Peter starts cackling; it makes me snicker every time.
I'm super-easily amused, though, so Rilian bitching about his studies always make me cackle. (Usually because they're the result of me channeling my own academic angst, heh.)
Most "Holy crap, that's out there, even for you" piece:
Eh, I don't think I wrote anything that out there, most of my really out-there stuff is still conceptual or stored on my computer. I mean, unless you count Written in the Dust, but that's pretty standard Bedlam fare. And I didn't even write Pevensie/random crossover pairing this year, so there's that out.
Piece that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Dust 26, which was in progress basically the entire year, and finally had a breakthrough a few months ago, though it didn't get written until a few weeks ago. I've had trouble with Jill as a character all through Dust and at some point in the conceptual stages -- about five hundred words into the chapter, which had been stalled out since January -- I said to myself, "Okay, what would Jill do if she was the hero of the story?" and that was when I really got it.
Hardest piece to make:
Well, Dust 26 was in progress since January, so probably that.
Biggest Disappointment:
I didn't write more Dust. *shrug* But, you know. I wrote more this year than I actually thought I had. I also didn't get either of my BSG AUs done, or past more than the first 1K to couple thousand words.
Biggest Surprise:
Stumbling into BSG as a fannish enterprise, since I've seen three-quarters of the show and wasn't inclined to get fannish about it before, but this time I did, and big time, though not big time compared to Narnia. But into it enough to write fic!
Most Unintentionally Telling Piece:
As much as The White Harvest is all the things I love, I'm pretty sure that's not unintentional, heh. As are the dreams in Second Sight. Well, and I flipped out over Dust 26, but...that wasn't really the fic, that was me having a mental break of some sort. Maybe Written in the Dust, but...that was also probably intentional. I am not subtle.
Overall Thoughts:
Wow, I wrote more fic than I thought, heh. Also, I think I wrote less action this year than usual, probably because it all came out in The White Harvest and thus I didn't feel compelled to stuff it into all my other fic? (HEH.) Or, alternately, I spent this year learning how to write things other than action, including the Big Damn Plot of Dust (politics! newspapers! crime!), which proceeds apace, and the academia bits of the Rilian fics and Written in the Dust. I guess I'm also surprised that Harvest was the only Golden Age fic (along with To the Victors, the coda, which was originally written as part of Harvest).
...actually, the more I think about it, the more surprised I am that I didn't write more action. The White Harvest is basically one giant battle scene, but there weren't that many even in Dust -- just the assassination attempt in Dust 25, I don't think there was anything else, just a couple of scenes that could have gone that way but didn't.
Goals for 2012: Finish up the Rilian lawcode fic. Oh, and the one where Helo's family survived the Fall. I want to try and finish up Dust II, because I know more or less where it's going and the scene it ends on. I want to write at least one of my two BSG AUs (the one where Helo's captured by Cavil's people during "The Hub" and the Dollhouse crossover where Helo is Paul Ballard). Ideally I will also actually write my NBB, which is a Dust prequel that's part of Border Wars. Alternately, I will settle for just writing.