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Fic Year in Review: 2018
This was a light year for many reasons, but I wrote some stuff I was pretty happy with; maybe that makes up for it.
Master List of Fic Written
By canon, then order of publication. Currently missing my Critmas Exchange story, because it won't be published until tomorrow -- I'll include it in next year's list.
The Adventure Zone
Stargazing, Magnus/Julia, spoilers for all of Balance.
The Choice, Magnus/Julia, spoilers through The Eleventh Hour
Critical Role
Undercover, Beau/Yasha
Mellow Fruitfulness, Vex & Pike, spoilers for the first campaign
Dragon Age
Kindred Spirits, Dagna & Finn
Finding a Place, Nathaniel/Bethany
Marvel Cinematic Universe
True North, Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, background Peggy/Daniel and Peggy/Steve
An American in Paris, Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Other Fandoms
Ace Attorney: Career Counseling, Apollo Justice/Ema Skye
Persona 5: Facade, Ann & Makoto, mentions a major spoiler for 11/21
Questions and Answers
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? The obvious winner here is "The Choice", the epic TAZ: Balance fic that ate my brain in October and November.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Definitely "The Choice". This will be a theme.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? No, and I need to get back into doing that.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I'm still formulating exactly how they will look. More details tomorrow, or maybe later today depending on what I end up doing this afternoon.
From my past year of writing, what was...
My best story of this year: "The Choice", no question.
My most popular story of this year: Hands down, it's "Undercover", my Beau/Yasha story, with not only the most hits but the most kudos by an order of magnitude (242 as of this writing; "True North" is second with 35). Not at all surprising, since it's a popular pairing in a big fandom. It's also gotten more comments than any other fic I've ever posted on AO3, ever.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: None of them, really. I feel like pretty much everything I wrote found its audience this year. It helps, I suppose, that half these stories were written for exchanges.
Most fun story to write: "Undercover".
Story with the single sexiest moment: "Undercover", again. Maybe this is the theme...
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I meant to do something somewhat different with Magnus's character when I started writing "The Choice", since it was an AU, but he wouldn't go in that new direction at all. So I wouldn't say my concept of him changed, more that it solidified.
Hardest story to write: Probably "Finding a Place", since it got longer and more complicated in the telling.
Biggest Disappointment: The fact that I only posted 10 stories, and no Final Fantasy at all, especially given that I replayed FFXII this year. We're working on FFXV right now, but so far it seems highly unlikely that I'll get inspired to fic for it. And I should also mention how little progress I made on "Wardens of Ivalice: Part 3", considering that finishing it was a major goal for 2018.
Biggest Surprise: "The Choice"; see above.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Gotta be "The Choice" again. I should not be surprised that I was bunnied to write about Magnus and Julia, finding and losing each other again.
In Conclusion
There's a number of themes I could pull out here, but the one that jumps out at me is just how little I was inspired to write on my own. Except for "The Choice", every single story on here was in response to a prompt from an exchange or a bingo card. When the idea for "The Choice" did come along, I was off to the races, writing like the wind. I'm not sure what this "means" in the big picture, but it's something I need to think about. For one thing, it's probably no accident that I'm writing less fic as I am less involved in the media fandom community -- I've all but quit Tumblr, the new services like Discord and Pillowfort don't entice me to join in, and I haven't really found or participated in Dreamwidth communities to replace them. Chatting meta and seeing other people's thoughts has always been a great source of inspiration for me, and I need to get back to that, somehow. Thoughts for the writing goals post still to come...
Master List of Fic Written
By canon, then order of publication. Currently missing my Critmas Exchange story, because it won't be published until tomorrow -- I'll include it in next year's list.
The Adventure Zone
Stargazing, Magnus/Julia, spoilers for all of Balance.
The Choice, Magnus/Julia, spoilers through The Eleventh Hour
Critical Role
Undercover, Beau/Yasha
Mellow Fruitfulness, Vex & Pike, spoilers for the first campaign
Dragon Age
Kindred Spirits, Dagna & Finn
Finding a Place, Nathaniel/Bethany
Marvel Cinematic Universe
True North, Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, background Peggy/Daniel and Peggy/Steve
An American in Paris, Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Other Fandoms
Ace Attorney: Career Counseling, Apollo Justice/Ema Skye
Persona 5: Facade, Ann & Makoto, mentions a major spoiler for 11/21
Questions and Answers
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? The obvious winner here is "The Choice", the epic TAZ: Balance fic that ate my brain in October and November.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Definitely "The Choice". This will be a theme.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? No, and I need to get back into doing that.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I'm still formulating exactly how they will look. More details tomorrow, or maybe later today depending on what I end up doing this afternoon.
From my past year of writing, what was...
My best story of this year: "The Choice", no question.
My most popular story of this year: Hands down, it's "Undercover", my Beau/Yasha story, with not only the most hits but the most kudos by an order of magnitude (242 as of this writing; "True North" is second with 35). Not at all surprising, since it's a popular pairing in a big fandom. It's also gotten more comments than any other fic I've ever posted on AO3, ever.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: None of them, really. I feel like pretty much everything I wrote found its audience this year. It helps, I suppose, that half these stories were written for exchanges.
Most fun story to write: "Undercover".
Story with the single sexiest moment: "Undercover", again. Maybe this is the theme...
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I meant to do something somewhat different with Magnus's character when I started writing "The Choice", since it was an AU, but he wouldn't go in that new direction at all. So I wouldn't say my concept of him changed, more that it solidified.
Hardest story to write: Probably "Finding a Place", since it got longer and more complicated in the telling.
Biggest Disappointment: The fact that I only posted 10 stories, and no Final Fantasy at all, especially given that I replayed FFXII this year. We're working on FFXV right now, but so far it seems highly unlikely that I'll get inspired to fic for it. And I should also mention how little progress I made on "Wardens of Ivalice: Part 3", considering that finishing it was a major goal for 2018.
Biggest Surprise: "The Choice"; see above.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Gotta be "The Choice" again. I should not be surprised that I was bunnied to write about Magnus and Julia, finding and losing each other again.
In Conclusion
There's a number of themes I could pull out here, but the one that jumps out at me is just how little I was inspired to write on my own. Except for "The Choice", every single story on here was in response to a prompt from an exchange or a bingo card. When the idea for "The Choice" did come along, I was off to the races, writing like the wind. I'm not sure what this "means" in the big picture, but it's something I need to think about. For one thing, it's probably no accident that I'm writing less fic as I am less involved in the media fandom community -- I've all but quit Tumblr, the new services like Discord and Pillowfort don't entice me to join in, and I haven't really found or participated in Dreamwidth communities to replace them. Chatting meta and seeing other people's thoughts has always been a great source of inspiration for me, and I need to get back to that, somehow. Thoughts for the writing goals post still to come...