Secrets Meme

[lurking_latinist]

Nabbed from nostalgia:

Tell the world one (1) fact/anecdote/secret/etc about each of the last ten (or whatever) things you wrote.

Well, we shall have to see if I have any secrets that I haven't already put in the author's notes!

1. Hour of Our Deaths (Six & Peri) - I was disappointed that this didn't magically come out over 1000 words. I've somehow set a bar in my brain that anything over 1000 words is a "real" fic and shorter than that doesn't "count." Which doesn't make sense.

2. What Do I Look Like, Some Kind of Magnet? (Antryg Windrose & Sara Leibnitz) - I think the big secret about this one is just "who are these people and what book are they even from?". Antryg Windrose, the wizard bartender, is from The Windrose Chronicles by Barbara Hambly, a fantasy trilogy which everyone should read. (She said that she imagined him being played by Tom Baker, and I can see it!) Sara Leibnitz is from Sun-Cross, a duology also by Hambly, which I didn't actually like as much as The Windrose Chronicles, but I did like Sara.

3. were it not that I have bad dreams (Six & Seven) - I made a friend who knows very little Classic Who look over this for me, because she was the only person I could get a hold of and she'll beta anything, and she said Seven seemed kind of awful. So I had to explain that actually I love him, in spite of this fic.

4. someone's planted a bath bomb in the Matrix (Gallifrey OT4) - I really want someone who has the knack of writing convincing AUs to take this away from me and finish it. Or an artist!

5. Anything Once (Sabalom Glitz/Inquisitor Darkel) - Blame animate-mush for this one: but blame me, too, because I was the one who started the discussion of how to assemble a cast for Iolanthe out of entirely Doctor Who characters. We got stuck because we had two generations of people that both had to be Six and Peri for different reasons, but at one point we cast Glitz and Darkel in roles that get together in the finale... so this happened.

6. Hic Sunt Dracones (Six & Charley) - I think Six and Charley are the secret. They're wildly underappreciated. Although is it me or has there been a distinct jump in attention paid to them lately? It might just be me getting into them at last.

7. Doubt and Doubles (Five/Tegan) - this was an exchange gift for thisbluespirit but it wasn't the pairing we actually matched on! I didn't offer Five/Tegan because I didn't even know if I could write them. But when I saw thisbluespirit's letter and prompts it just felt right.

8. Book Learning (Ian/Barbara & Susan) - My First Doctor era fics always do really well by my standards, for some reason. But this one got hit by a kudos bot, so that's why it has 61 kudos. But even including only logged-in kudos and comments, this one seemed quite popular (by Aurelia-standards and Classic Who standards). I'm not sure why my fics in that era are so well-received; it's not even an era I'm particularly into, although I like it and like writing it when I get an idea. Maybe it just has a lot of intense fans?

9. Rascals! (Doctor & Master, academy era; by Umanimo, translated by me) - An anecdote, not a secret: Umanimo was really fun to work with and I'd like to do more translation work in the future! But I wish ao3 had a more straightforward way to post it that didn't make it look like it was your own work.

10. Reunion  (Five & Jo) - I forgot the due date for this exchange and wrote this in a hurry on the day it was due. Fortunately it was a drabble exchange!

Comments

[nostalgia]

I've somehow set a bar in my brain that anything over 1000 words is a "real" fic and shorter than that doesn't "count." Which doesn't make sense.

Omg that feels like me-logic! Twins of worrying-our-fic-is-too-short?

There are kudos-bots? :O

[lurking_latinist]

I’ll stop worrying if you’ll do it with me! :D

A kudos bot is actually a search engine indexer bot, clicking on every link it finds so it can map the web. Sometimes they mistake the kudos button for a link that goes somewhere and keep mindlessly clicking it for a while, confused in their little bot brains. Then one ends up with a ludicrous amount of guest kudos!

[nostalgia]

I made myself write a 6000 word fic and then I was like "no, I don't enjoy making longer fic after all" and that helped a bit. But I still feel bad about under 1k words. Like "is it worth people's time, will they get mad?" but nobody seems to mind actually?

I had a fic with an insane number of hits (for the fandom, anyway) and someone suggested a bot of some kind was involved there.

[lurking_latinist]

I mean, it’s not as if we’re asking for very much of their time!

[nostalgia]

Exactly!

[romanajo123]

The Six and Charley surge is a fascinating thing. But I'm enjoying it too. They're very fun to write.


oooh that Gallifrey one sounds fun!

[lurking_latinist]

They are fun to write! They both have really distinctive voices that work well together.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, 1000 words does tend to be the generally agreed dividing line between ficlet and fic, but there's nothing wrong with a ficlet! I love ficlets. I have very low energy and concentration issue and good short fic and ficlets are a joy. Keep up the short stuff! XD Or longer, if you like, but only if you like and the muse obliges.

[lurking_latinist]

I do like writing ficlets! I'm glad people enjoy them.

And I think I'm getting better at guessing what length an idea wants to be, which helps.