End of Year Fic Meme
Jan. 3rd, 2024 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurking_latinistMeme'd from thisbluespirit!
Stats
List of Completed Fic
I wrote 51 stories, most of them very short, so I won't make a complete list: I'll just link to my AO3 page.
Total number:
51. Most of them very short. 28 over single-drabble length.
Total word count:
31,395. Not bad, for me!
Ship/Character breakdown:
Sixth Doctor - 11
Charley Pollard - 7
Seventh Doctor - 7
Ace McShane - 6
Eighth Doctor - 6
Romana II - 5
And based on that, absolutely no prizes for guessing my top ships (i.e. the ones I wrote more than once)...
Sixth Doctor & Charley Pollard - 3
Eighth Doctor/Charley Pollard - 2
Seventh Doctor & Ace McShane - 2
Peri Brown & Sixth Doctor - 2
Twelfth Doctor/Missy - 2
Seventh Doctor/Romana II - 2
Well, except for the surprise Twissy.
Specifics
Best/worst title?
Best: All the poetry quotes were clever, this was a great year for poetry quotes. tell truth and shame the devil (Blake's 7) is an Extremely Apt Shakespeare quote slightly wasted on a very small 3SF fic.
a butterfly dreaming (The Dominie & Alice, from the BBV audios) was another one where the title considerably enhanced the story, I think.
Worst: Warmth (Tegan & Team Five coffeeshop AU); I just needed A Title and that was A Title.
Best/worst summary?
Best: The Two-Body Problem (Twelve/Missy) did a great job accounting for its obscurely clever title and also sounding like a fun story, I think.
The two-body problem: In academic slang, refers to the difficulties faced by two spouses who are both academics, trying to get jobs close to one another. In physics, refers to the difficulty of calculating the motion of two particles each of which influences the other.
See also: the day Missy swapped places with her counterpart from another dimension.
I also thought honey for the bee (Eight/Charley) had a pretty good summary:
Aren't there rules against this sort of thing?; or, the Doctor nearly figures out he's in fanfiction.
Worst: Lots of summaries that are just "the prompt was this".
Best first line?
Maybe the simple secret of the plot (Seven/Romana):
(The perfunctory ‘bing!’ of a space-time vessel performing a default function of which she disapproves.)
Best last line?
I thought like a vast shadow moved (Colin Baker!Warrior & Rebecca Night!Romana, from Doctor of War) had a pretty good last line:
He would save those dry words of hers. A night would come when they would be enough like forgiveness.
It's a depressing fic, OK? XD
General questions
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
Twissy! Alternate universe Twissy, admittedly, but still. I love them but rarely make them actually romantic (Missy yells at me when I do), but I came across a couple of exchange prompts that sparked me in that direction: one in a dimension-swapping situation (The Two-Body Problem) and one with fobwatches (Childhood Sweethearts). I feel like the complexity of their relationship is such that, at least the way I write it, I only feel comfortable tagging it as romantic when there's this kind of insulation supplied by that kind of situation, such that they'd say or do things they never normally would. (As a personal organizing principle, I try not to use / tags when the characters are being so repressed you'd never even know unless I tagged it. Except for Six/Charley because if you're searching for Six/Charley that's probably what you're into.)
...That sounds suspiciously like an excuse for not writing more Twissy. Maybe I should.
What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
I'm pretty proud of Dollhouse of Death (Seven and Ace). It has more plot than a lot of what I write, which was really fun to do, and I got to talk it out in person with beloved beta januarydivide, and it's Seven and Ace. :3 And I think it kicked off this year's obsession with telepathic stuff. (As opposed to last year's obsession with telepathic stuff, which was unrelated?)
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
By kudos, also Dollhouse of Death! People were mostly right this year about me. By bookmarks, which I actually kind of prefer as a metric, The Two-Body Problem.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
Probably te quaerens, Ariadna... Zagreus!Eight/Charley is niche and the Latin title probably didn't help (the fic's in English!), but I knew Heimeldat would enjoy it. I mean, 16 kudos is actually pretty good for Zagreus!Eight/Charley--there's a reason it was in the Fandom Growth Exchange--but still.
Story that could have been better?
with joyance bring her (Six/Charley, fake honeymoon). It was an Unconventional Courtship fic based on a really fun synopsis, but I left it way too late and couldn't do nearly as much as I had wanted to before my posting day. (And, um, slightly after midnight at the end of my posting day.)
Or maybe the better to see you with (Rose & Bad Wolf). I probably shouldn't have offered Rose; I'm not used to her and don't feel I know her well, and maybe it showed. But it was only a flash exchange, and I had fun stretching myself and I think the recip enjoyed it well enough, so what more can you ask?
Sexiest story?
Lol I am Too Gen For This. Sexy is rarely my goal. But I do have a couple of good kisses, in honey for the bee, and the simple secret of the plotis super romantic (but in the spirit of its tag, "weird time lord flirting"), and I guess there's something, not exactly sexy, but very very intimate in the rewards of being loved (Seven/Romana, telepathy).
Saddest story?
Maybe lessons, a 3SF piece about Seven expecting Ace to kill him if he ever needs taking down? But she wouldn't. But he hopes she would. If he ever really went bad.
Most fun?
Maybe Case Study (Rani POV on Seven)? Writing in the Rani's voice is kind of concerningly fun.
Story with single sweetest moment?
Some of them I already listed while dodging the "sexiest story" question, so a sweet gen moment: Mel and Six's extremely fake marriage in A Marriage of Convenience. It's the gen-ness of it that *makes* it so sweet to me--an unconventional affirmation of friendship (as well as, in the context of the story, a complicated legal dodge)--because that's very much how I see Mel and Six.
Alternatively, I really want to say a butterfly dreaming even though that's... quite bleak in some ways. It's that "hot drink on a cold day" kind of sweetness.
Hardest story to write?
The ones I never finished. XD
Easiest/most fun story to write?
Both of the Missy ones were pretty easy, especially Childhood Sweethearts; when I write Missy I don't have to come up with stuff, she just walks in and bosses me around. Warmth also sort of sprang into my head fully formed, which is surprising since I rarely write coffee shop AUs. Tegan also has a bit of that ability to walk in and dictate the story.
Most overdue story?
darkness and silence (Four/Romana, "forehead kiss") was an answer to a prompt from at least a year or two ago.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I signed up for way too many exchanges. I learned not to sign up for a bunch of overlapping exchanges. (I'm going to try to focus on treating in exchanges this year - more flexibility, and no signups to do.)
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Telepathy? Telepathy as a metaphor for love, maybe? In that case it's most blatant in the simple secret of the plot.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Write some fic! XD
If I can, I'd really like to complete this longfic I've been working on for... a year already??..., which is partly why I'm toning it down with the exchanges.
(I'll still be there for my favorites like Just Married and TARDIS Festivities, though!)
thisbluespirit!Stats
List of Completed Fic
I wrote 51 stories, most of them very short, so I won't make a complete list: I'll just link to my AO3 page.
Total number:
51. Most of them very short. 28 over single-drabble length.
Total word count:
31,395. Not bad, for me!
Ship/Character breakdown:
Sixth Doctor - 11
Charley Pollard - 7
Seventh Doctor - 7
Ace McShane - 6
Eighth Doctor - 6
Romana II - 5
And based on that, absolutely no prizes for guessing my top ships (i.e. the ones I wrote more than once)...
Sixth Doctor & Charley Pollard - 3
Eighth Doctor/Charley Pollard - 2
Seventh Doctor & Ace McShane - 2
Peri Brown & Sixth Doctor - 2
Twelfth Doctor/Missy - 2
Seventh Doctor/Romana II - 2
Well, except for the surprise Twissy.
Specifics
Best/worst title?
Best: All the poetry quotes were clever, this was a great year for poetry quotes. tell truth and shame the devil (Blake's 7) is an Extremely Apt Shakespeare quote slightly wasted on a very small 3SF fic.
a butterfly dreaming (The Dominie & Alice, from the BBV audios) was another one where the title considerably enhanced the story, I think.
Worst: Warmth (Tegan & Team Five coffeeshop AU); I just needed A Title and that was A Title.
Best/worst summary?
Best: The Two-Body Problem (Twelve/Missy) did a great job accounting for its obscurely clever title and also sounding like a fun story, I think.
The two-body problem: In academic slang, refers to the difficulties faced by two spouses who are both academics, trying to get jobs close to one another. In physics, refers to the difficulty of calculating the motion of two particles each of which influences the other.
See also: the day Missy swapped places with her counterpart from another dimension.
I also thought honey for the bee (Eight/Charley) had a pretty good summary:
Aren't there rules against this sort of thing?; or, the Doctor nearly figures out he's in fanfiction.
Worst: Lots of summaries that are just "the prompt was this".
Best first line?
Maybe the simple secret of the plot (Seven/Romana):
(The perfunctory ‘bing!’ of a space-time vessel performing a default function of which she disapproves.)
Best last line?
I thought like a vast shadow moved (Colin Baker!Warrior & Rebecca Night!Romana, from Doctor of War) had a pretty good last line:
He would save those dry words of hers. A night would come when they would be enough like forgiveness.
It's a depressing fic, OK? XD
General questions
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
Twissy! Alternate universe Twissy, admittedly, but still. I love them but rarely make them actually romantic (Missy yells at me when I do), but I came across a couple of exchange prompts that sparked me in that direction: one in a dimension-swapping situation (The Two-Body Problem) and one with fobwatches (Childhood Sweethearts). I feel like the complexity of their relationship is such that, at least the way I write it, I only feel comfortable tagging it as romantic when there's this kind of insulation supplied by that kind of situation, such that they'd say or do things they never normally would. (As a personal organizing principle, I try not to use / tags when the characters are being so repressed you'd never even know unless I tagged it. Except for Six/Charley because if you're searching for Six/Charley that's probably what you're into.)
...That sounds suspiciously like an excuse for not writing more Twissy. Maybe I should.
What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
I'm pretty proud of Dollhouse of Death (Seven and Ace). It has more plot than a lot of what I write, which was really fun to do, and I got to talk it out in person with beloved beta januarydivide, and it's Seven and Ace. :3 And I think it kicked off this year's obsession with telepathic stuff. (As opposed to last year's obsession with telepathic stuff, which was unrelated?)
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
By kudos, also Dollhouse of Death! People were mostly right this year about me. By bookmarks, which I actually kind of prefer as a metric, The Two-Body Problem.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
Probably te quaerens, Ariadna... Zagreus!Eight/Charley is niche and the Latin title probably didn't help (the fic's in English!), but I knew Heimeldat would enjoy it. I mean, 16 kudos is actually pretty good for Zagreus!Eight/Charley--there's a reason it was in the Fandom Growth Exchange--but still.
Story that could have been better?
with joyance bring her (Six/Charley, fake honeymoon). It was an Unconventional Courtship fic based on a really fun synopsis, but I left it way too late and couldn't do nearly as much as I had wanted to before my posting day. (And, um, slightly after midnight at the end of my posting day.)
Or maybe the better to see you with (Rose & Bad Wolf). I probably shouldn't have offered Rose; I'm not used to her and don't feel I know her well, and maybe it showed. But it was only a flash exchange, and I had fun stretching myself and I think the recip enjoyed it well enough, so what more can you ask?
Sexiest story?
Lol I am Too Gen For This. Sexy is rarely my goal. But I do have a couple of good kisses, in honey for the bee, and the simple secret of the plotis super romantic (but in the spirit of its tag, "weird time lord flirting"), and I guess there's something, not exactly sexy, but very very intimate in the rewards of being loved (Seven/Romana, telepathy).
Saddest story?
Maybe lessons, a 3SF piece about Seven expecting Ace to kill him if he ever needs taking down? But she wouldn't. But he hopes she would. If he ever really went bad.
Most fun?
Maybe Case Study (Rani POV on Seven)? Writing in the Rani's voice is kind of concerningly fun.
Story with single sweetest moment?
Some of them I already listed while dodging the "sexiest story" question, so a sweet gen moment: Mel and Six's extremely fake marriage in A Marriage of Convenience. It's the gen-ness of it that *makes* it so sweet to me--an unconventional affirmation of friendship (as well as, in the context of the story, a complicated legal dodge)--because that's very much how I see Mel and Six.
Alternatively, I really want to say a butterfly dreaming even though that's... quite bleak in some ways. It's that "hot drink on a cold day" kind of sweetness.
Hardest story to write?
The ones I never finished. XD
Easiest/most fun story to write?
Both of the Missy ones were pretty easy, especially Childhood Sweethearts; when I write Missy I don't have to come up with stuff, she just walks in and bosses me around. Warmth also sort of sprang into my head fully formed, which is surprising since I rarely write coffee shop AUs. Tegan also has a bit of that ability to walk in and dictate the story.
Most overdue story?
darkness and silence (Four/Romana, "forehead kiss") was an answer to a prompt from at least a year or two ago.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I signed up for way too many exchanges. I learned not to sign up for a bunch of overlapping exchanges. (I'm going to try to focus on treating in exchanges this year - more flexibility, and no signups to do.)
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Telepathy? Telepathy as a metaphor for love, maybe? In that case it's most blatant in the simple secret of the plot.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Write some fic! XD
If I can, I'd really like to complete this longfic I've been working on for... a year already??..., which is partly why I'm toning it down with the exchanges.
(I'll still be there for my favorites like Just Married and TARDIS Festivities, though!)
