2013 Fic-in-review Meme
Because the last week of January is totally the right time for this, right?. *sigh* I feel like this month has completely slipped away from me. And not in a good way.
Statistics
Number of fics: 12
Collective word count: 32,392
Shortest fic: 312 words (Sixteen Hours)
Longest fic: 11,785 words (Heartsease)
Gen: 6
Slash: 5
Het: 2
Femslash: 0
Threesome/moresome/etc: 0
By Fandom:
7 Person of Interest
1 Arrow
1 Avengers
1 NCIS
1 Star Trek AOS
1 Temeraire
Most popular story: Date Night. Hah, really? Okay.
Favorite story: Candid, definitely. I'm happiest with the technical writing in it, it did exactly what I wanted emotionally (which is hard with these two repressed assholes, much as I love them for it), and the whole thing just feels warm and golden in my memory. Plus, the story of how it came to be is an extra layer of delight:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inmyriadbits sent me a series of text messages laying out the story while I was at work, and then let me write it fully as a birthday present for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neery. ♥
Best story: Candid again.
Sexiest/Story with the single sexiest moment: Hey, that's right - I posted porn for the first time this year! Go me! The sex scene at the end of Learning Curve is far better and less self-conscious than The Prepared Mind in my opinion, and ends with laughter, which is important to me. The kiss in Heartsease gets an honorable mention: apparently, the preceding 10K of Regency repression and pining makes the payoff for something as simple as an open-mouthed kiss exponentially more hot.
Most fun to write: Learning Curve. Immersing myself into the extended TGB universe was a fantastic experience, and any time I got stuck, I could just reread, latch onto another detail, and run with it. Plus, I got to indulge in massive amounts of h/c and Steve angst and my beloved dynamic of people realizing that my favorite is actually the best. I mean, I did it with somewhat more subtlety than that, but it's a thing for me.
Hardest to write: Fucking Heartsease, why did you have to grow a plot on me? Also, all the Regency styling and the inevitable research - because despite ignoring vast swathes of sociopolitical and gender dynamics in order to get what I wanted, it was still very important for me to research ALLLLL the flower symbolism, what plants you grow hedge mazes with, and the historical unfashionable status of spectacles. *headdesk* I should have made it a genderswap AU, in hindsight. That would have been fun.
Easiest to write: Probably Date Night. I was riding the new-fandom high, banter and humor come easily to me, and I did the whole thing in one draft plus a beta. Candid is a close second, with Sixteen Hours.
"Holy crap, that's wrong even for you": I still feel guilty about Date Night's blatantly humorous treatment of Reese and Finch's stalker-y invasion of privacy. I mean, yes, it's the show, but still, so wrong....although it *was* funny. /o\
Alternately:
a) wrote a PWP entirely because ofkatieupsidedown's hatred of 'the Boy Scout joke', i.e., where someone conveniently has condoms and lube and the other person asks if they were a Boy Scout. Instead, I had Finch quote Louis Pasteur. Because Harold.
b) wrote a rural regency AU of a scifi TV show set in NYC. *facepalm* Why did I think that was a good idea? Oh right: these assholes.
Biggest disappointment: That I didn't post more Avengers/SHIELD fic. I've been writing lots, I just didn't finish any. Also, not completing the Ten in Ten challenge. *shakes tiny fist at the cold virus* I'll have to try that again sometime.
Biggest surprise: Hmm. I suppose I'm surprised at how much beta work I ended up doing, actually. Usually I just edit forinmyriadbits, but last year I helped out with:
Outsider Perspective (POI) by neery
Of Bones Are Coral Made (POI) by callmecathy
The Dawn of That Last Great Day (Avengers) by ignipes
A Season For All Activities (Curse of Chalion) by arsenicjade
Dungeons & Hawkeyes (Hawkeye) by inmyriadbits
Mrs Grey, In Scotland Yard, With A Map (Bletchley Circle) by inmyriadbits
Really Is A Hero (Arrow) by inmyriadbits
They were all awesome! I can't exactly recommend myself as a beta, though. I'm always horribly slow getting back to the authors. Except for Lindsey, who can sit on the couch and poke me until I do what she wants. :)
Favorite title: Candid. I like dual meanings in general, but the layered meaning is particularly suited to that story and that pairing.
Story with single sweetest moment: In Learning Curve, when Bruce offers to teach Steve how to make his marinara recipe. Man, his and Thor's sections were real bitches to write, but that scene was worth all of the trouble and more.
Story that got the most unexpected reaction from readers: Candid. I was certainly not expecting it to get as many hits and comments and recs as it did - I thought it would fall by the wayside like most 1K short stories do. I'm glad it didn't, though. ♥
Fic that shifted my own preconceptions of the characters: Hmm. Point of Departure made me like Carol Marcus much more. She's still not someone I would make friends with, but that's sort of the point - that's she's driven and bad with people/subtleties despite having good intentions, and that *is* the kind of person Christine likes (see further: Bones, Spock).
Favorite opening line: They're all kinda meh. Candid's is okay, I guess? And balm of hurt minds and the old lie both have good payoffs based on their first lines, although the sentences are not terribly interesting in and of themselves.
Favorite closing line: From Learning Curve -
“Hell yes,” she laughs, and pulls him back down to meet her.
And the end of the old lie is viciously awful in a way that I'm proud of, but only if you know the reference -
For once, it would be nice to be there in time.
(Hilariously, I also just noticed that every single one of my Finch/Reese stories closes with John smiling. Not very subtle, subconscious of mine.)
Favorite anywhere line: From Candid -
The moment stretches, and Harold's kiss becomes a question, his heart pounding in his ears – surely he had seen it correctly, surely he hadn't made a mistake....
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most: For a while there, I was working on a fics-involving-torture streak. Learning Curve is the 11K pinnacle of that trend, for sure.
What's next for 2014: There's a Rivers of London/Attack the Block drabble that I just need to make Lindsey beta, we need to finish our MI4![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
smallfandombang, I'm fantasizing about polishing off some women-centric WIP shorts for 14 Valentines (though I'm not sure anyone's running it this year - the comm appears to be defunct), and I REALLY fucking want to finish that timeloop Clint-meets-Natasha story (and loosely-associated SHIELD backstory series). Additionally, I'm obsessing over Thorin's tragic broody face but Hobbit fandom is not providing sufficiently good POV characterization for him, which might result in epic fix-it fic unless my interest fizzles out. We'll see.
I also still need to finish that epic Avengers fic before Winter Soldier, or it's gonna die a slow death, I just know.
Collected Links
balm of hurt minds (Temeraire, gen, *torture)
"Tenzing," Laurence said, and Tharkay opened his eyes.
Candid (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese)
He picks up the phone: one picture message, from 'Reese'.
Date Night (Person of Interest, genish Finch/Reese, Carter/Beecher)
"Mr. Reese, what is that sound?”
“I’m making popcorn,” John said, like it was obvious.
gimel (Arrow, teamfic gen)
In a way, Felicity was kind of glad that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving weren't going to overlap for another 70,000 years.
Heartsease (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese)
For several months after his arrival in Yorkshire, John was too much lost in grief to comprehend his situation.
Learning Curve (Avengers, Steve/Natasha, *explicit)
Six times the team learned something about Steve, and one time they already knew. (set in arsenicjade's The Goat's Back universe)
the old lie (Person of Interest, gen)
"Your country needs you, Sergeant," the man tells John, standing over his hospital bed.
Point of Departure (ST:AOS, gen)
When Carol Marcus cornered Christine at the Port Side Bar and demanded to know why she'd transferred off the Enterprise, Christine decided she was not above running. If only she hadn't already ordered her drink.
The Prepared Mind (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese, *explicit)
Harold hadn't planned for this to happen, exactly.
Recoil (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese)
John didn't flinch.
Sixteen Hours (Person of Interest, gen *torture)
All they wanted was his name.
Yellow Tape (NCIS, gen)
Gibbs slid out of the car and looked around the near-empty lot. He'd lost Foster on I-95 again.
Statistics
Number of fics: 12
Collective word count: 32,392
Shortest fic: 312 words (Sixteen Hours)
Longest fic: 11,785 words (Heartsease)
Gen: 6
Slash: 5
Het: 2
Femslash: 0
Threesome/moresome/etc: 0
By Fandom:
7 Person of Interest
1 Arrow
1 Avengers
1 NCIS
1 Star Trek AOS
1 Temeraire
Most popular story: Date Night. Hah, really? Okay.
Favorite story: Candid, definitely. I'm happiest with the technical writing in it, it did exactly what I wanted emotionally (which is hard with these two repressed assholes, much as I love them for it), and the whole thing just feels warm and golden in my memory. Plus, the story of how it came to be is an extra layer of delight:
inmyriadbits sent me a series of text messages laying out the story while I was at work, and then let me write it fully as a birthday present for neery. ♥Best story: Candid again.
Sexiest/Story with the single sexiest moment: Hey, that's right - I posted porn for the first time this year! Go me! The sex scene at the end of Learning Curve is far better and less self-conscious than The Prepared Mind in my opinion, and ends with laughter, which is important to me. The kiss in Heartsease gets an honorable mention: apparently, the preceding 10K of Regency repression and pining makes the payoff for something as simple as an open-mouthed kiss exponentially more hot.
Most fun to write: Learning Curve. Immersing myself into the extended TGB universe was a fantastic experience, and any time I got stuck, I could just reread, latch onto another detail, and run with it. Plus, I got to indulge in massive amounts of h/c and Steve angst and my beloved dynamic of people realizing that my favorite is actually the best. I mean, I did it with somewhat more subtlety than that, but it's a thing for me.
Hardest to write: Fucking Heartsease, why did you have to grow a plot on me? Also, all the Regency styling and the inevitable research - because despite ignoring vast swathes of sociopolitical and gender dynamics in order to get what I wanted, it was still very important for me to research ALLLLL the flower symbolism, what plants you grow hedge mazes with, and the historical unfashionable status of spectacles. *headdesk* I should have made it a genderswap AU, in hindsight. That would have been fun.
Easiest to write: Probably Date Night. I was riding the new-fandom high, banter and humor come easily to me, and I did the whole thing in one draft plus a beta. Candid is a close second, with Sixteen Hours.
"Holy crap, that's wrong even for you": I still feel guilty about Date Night's blatantly humorous treatment of Reese and Finch's stalker-y invasion of privacy. I mean, yes, it's the show, but still, so wrong....although it *was* funny. /o\
Alternately:
a) wrote a PWP entirely because of
katieupsidedown's hatred of 'the Boy Scout joke', i.e., where someone conveniently has condoms and lube and the other person asks if they were a Boy Scout. Instead, I had Finch quote Louis Pasteur. Because Harold.b) wrote a rural regency AU of a scifi TV show set in NYC. *facepalm* Why did I think that was a good idea? Oh right: these assholes.
Biggest disappointment: That I didn't post more Avengers/SHIELD fic. I've been writing lots, I just didn't finish any. Also, not completing the Ten in Ten challenge. *shakes tiny fist at the cold virus* I'll have to try that again sometime.
Biggest surprise: Hmm. I suppose I'm surprised at how much beta work I ended up doing, actually. Usually I just edit for
inmyriadbits, but last year I helped out with:Outsider Perspective (POI) by neery
Of Bones Are Coral Made (POI) by callmecathy
The Dawn of That Last Great Day (Avengers) by ignipes
A Season For All Activities (Curse of Chalion) by arsenicjade
Dungeons & Hawkeyes (Hawkeye) by inmyriadbits
Mrs Grey, In Scotland Yard, With A Map (Bletchley Circle) by inmyriadbits
Really Is A Hero (Arrow) by inmyriadbits
They were all awesome! I can't exactly recommend myself as a beta, though. I'm always horribly slow getting back to the authors. Except for Lindsey, who can sit on the couch and poke me until I do what she wants. :)
Favorite title: Candid. I like dual meanings in general, but the layered meaning is particularly suited to that story and that pairing.
Story with single sweetest moment: In Learning Curve, when Bruce offers to teach Steve how to make his marinara recipe. Man, his and Thor's sections were real bitches to write, but that scene was worth all of the trouble and more.
Story that got the most unexpected reaction from readers: Candid. I was certainly not expecting it to get as many hits and comments and recs as it did - I thought it would fall by the wayside like most 1K short stories do. I'm glad it didn't, though. ♥
Fic that shifted my own preconceptions of the characters: Hmm. Point of Departure made me like Carol Marcus much more. She's still not someone I would make friends with, but that's sort of the point - that's she's driven and bad with people/subtleties despite having good intentions, and that *is* the kind of person Christine likes (see further: Bones, Spock).
Favorite opening line: They're all kinda meh. Candid's is okay, I guess? And balm of hurt minds and the old lie both have good payoffs based on their first lines, although the sentences are not terribly interesting in and of themselves.
Favorite closing line: From Learning Curve -
“Hell yes,” she laughs, and pulls him back down to meet her.
And the end of the old lie is viciously awful in a way that I'm proud of, but only if you know the reference -
For once, it would be nice to be there in time.
(Hilariously, I also just noticed that every single one of my Finch/Reese stories closes with John smiling. Not very subtle, subconscious of mine.)
Favorite anywhere line: From Candid -
The moment stretches, and Harold's kiss becomes a question, his heart pounding in his ears – surely he had seen it correctly, surely he hadn't made a mistake....
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most: For a while there, I was working on a fics-involving-torture streak. Learning Curve is the 11K pinnacle of that trend, for sure.
What's next for 2014: There's a Rivers of London/Attack the Block drabble that I just need to make Lindsey beta, we need to finish our MI4
smallfandombang, I'm fantasizing about polishing off some women-centric WIP shorts for 14 Valentines (though I'm not sure anyone's running it this year - the comm appears to be defunct), and I REALLY fucking want to finish that timeloop Clint-meets-Natasha story (and loosely-associated SHIELD backstory series). Additionally, I'm obsessing over Thorin's tragic broody face but Hobbit fandom is not providing sufficiently good POV characterization for him, which might result in epic fix-it fic unless my interest fizzles out. We'll see. I also still need to finish that epic Avengers fic before Winter Soldier, or it's gonna die a slow death, I just know.
Collected Links
balm of hurt minds (Temeraire, gen, *torture)
"Tenzing," Laurence said, and Tharkay opened his eyes.
Candid (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese)
He picks up the phone: one picture message, from 'Reese'.
Date Night (Person of Interest, genish Finch/Reese, Carter/Beecher)
"Mr. Reese, what is that sound?”
“I’m making popcorn,” John said, like it was obvious.
gimel (Arrow, teamfic gen)
In a way, Felicity was kind of glad that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving weren't going to overlap for another 70,000 years.
Heartsease (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese)
For several months after his arrival in Yorkshire, John was too much lost in grief to comprehend his situation.
Learning Curve (Avengers, Steve/Natasha, *explicit)
Six times the team learned something about Steve, and one time they already knew. (set in arsenicjade's The Goat's Back universe)
the old lie (Person of Interest, gen)
"Your country needs you, Sergeant," the man tells John, standing over his hospital bed.
Point of Departure (ST:AOS, gen)
When Carol Marcus cornered Christine at the Port Side Bar and demanded to know why she'd transferred off the Enterprise, Christine decided she was not above running. If only she hadn't already ordered her drink.
The Prepared Mind (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese, *explicit)
Harold hadn't planned for this to happen, exactly.
Recoil (Person of Interest, Finch/Reese)
John didn't flinch.
Sixteen Hours (Person of Interest, gen *torture)
All they wanted was his name.
Yellow Tape (NCIS, gen)
Gibbs slid out of the car and looked around the near-empty lot. He'd lost Foster on I-95 again.
no subject
no subject
Also: hi, how are you? I'm so behind in POI I've lost touch with everyone, which I regret.
no subject
And hi back! 8D Ug, yeah. I'm not always the best at keeping up either, so sorry, too. I'm good! I'm doing what I think many are doing, which is the POI fandom vacillation dance of how to rectify what once was with what is. /o\ And for me right now that means writing a self indulgent time travel fic that I'm posting as a WIP. I'm currently struggling to get back into Reese's head for the next chapter. Writings WIPs is... interesting! I haven't quite decided how I feel about it yet.
How have you been? Other than quite productive, apparently. :D
no subject
On the other hand, TIME TRAVEL. Ooh, that is tempting....