Sophinisba Solis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophinisba) wrote2011-12-30 11:55 pm
sophinisba) wrote2011-12-30 11:55 pm
Fic year in review 2011!!
It's possible I've written fewer words of fic this year than any year since I've been in fandom, and most of that has been short PWPs (plus a few other ficlets that didn't have porn or plot). However, I would never skip the fic year in review meme because I love it, plus it is nice to compare from year to year.
January
I'll Be Yr Bird (Remix under the Dirt), Arthur/Merlin-ish
People gonna talk (whether you doing bad or good), Freya/Merlin
Lady in Waiting, Gwen/Morgana and Gwen/knights
February
Too Marvelous for Words, Arthur/Merlin
March
From the Honolulu Heights Guestbook, Being Human/Jewish folklore/Torchwood/Merlin crossover for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
purimgifts
April
nothing
May
nothing
June
Where History Ends, Gwen/Morgana
Hush, Gwen/Lancelot
Dusk in the Market Square, Aredian/Merlin
July
If Lost, Freya/Morgana
Believe This Is Real, Freya/Merlin
Deep Breathless Black, Merlin/Morgana/octopus
the least of the pain, Gwen/Morgana
Put a Ribbon on It, Gwen/Morgana
August
Jump In, Jump In, Gwen/Merlin
Aglain's School for Gifted Youngsters, Aglain/Morgana
September
Don't Need Forgiving, Arthur/Merlin
November
nothing
December
Only That I Am Yours, Lancelot/Morgana
As a Groom, Freya/Lancelot
If I Cannot Be Your Queen, Arthur/Gwen
Perfect, Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot-ish
low Sky, Firefly erasure
Girls & Horses, Elena/Mithian
Or Stay, Lancelot/Merlin-ish
Sexy Bastards Like Us, Gwaine/Lancelot-ish
24 fics, 27691 words, average length 1154. This is a good deal less than I wrote last year or the year before:
However, I don't feel bad about that because I also made a lot of podfic this year and accomplished some big things in my life outside of fandom. Plus I am happy with the quality of the little things I did write. I feel bad for dropping out of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
merlinreversebb earlier this week, but I also think it's for the best. Next year, no signing up for collaborations (as a writer) or exchanges (except for maybe purimgifts)!
This is similar to the shape of what I did last year. I wonder if it's pretty typical for people on academic schedules (especially two-semester ones) in the northern hemisphere.
This is not the first time that most of my fic has been from a female POV but it is the first time most of it has been from the POV of characters of color.
I used to think that counting Gwenfic in one's efforts to write more about characters of color was "cheating" a little because 1) race does not seem to mean much in the canon universe and 2) who wouldn't want to write about Gwen? But this year I keep being surprised at how seldom Gwen gets written so now I think, yeah, she gets mistreated by fandom the way women of color often do.
A problem I noticed when I did this meme in 2009 was that a lot of my femslash was tragic or wistful or unrequited or whatever, so I made it a goal to write more happy femslash and did well with that in both 2010 and 2011. Three things I noticed when I did this meme last year were that I'd barely written anything about men of color and that I hadn't written anything at all about transgender characters or characters with disabilities. So this year I wrote a few ficlets about Aglain and Lancelot, and one about FTM Merlin, but still no fics about characters with disabilities. Maybe next year (especially if I fall into another fandom somehow).
This is also definitely the first time that most of my writing has been NC-17! Like I specifically remember signing up forkink_bingo a year and a half ago and telling myself over and over again, "It's okay that you're a PG-13 writer, they still want you anyway!" and they did, but then also I started writing porn. And then this year I made myself believe that they still wanted me at summerpornathon even though I don't write much boyslash, and that was also fine!
Where did you post your stories this year?
The Archive of Our Own, baby! I love it sooooo much!! I mean I have been using it for a while but (apart from the whole skins thing that happened) it has been getting better and better, with more people reading there all the time and leaving kudos and all. I have found that posting at the Archive, waiting a few hours or even a day or two, and then putting up an announcement on LJ/Dreamwidth really helps me to feel less anxious about posting. There were also a couple that I posted first atkinkme_merlin, and a bunch that were posted first at summerpornathon
Leitmotif(s) of the year:
PWP!
Story I am proud of:
(I got rid of the "best story" question because I never know how to answer it, so why should I?) I feel good about three fics where I felt like I really went there with the kink: Lady in Waiting (general D/s), If Lost (kitten play), and the least of the pain (period sex).
My favorite story of this year:
I am really fond of People Gonna Talk! I wish I'd done a few things differently, including being more generous with Gwaine, but I really like the feeling of the joy of discovery for young people figuring themselves and each other out.
Most popular story:
Believe This Is Real may have gotten the most recognition, which makes sense because people were happy to see an upbeat story with a trans character. Too Marvelous for Words has by far my highest hitcount at the AO3 and probably the most kudos, which makes sense because it's the only explicit Arthur/Merlin I've written. I don't feel bad about this at all! That story has lots of things I love, including top!Merlin, kink in a loving relationship, and gags.
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
I usually have a long tale of woe for this question, but this year I feel like I was treated very well. It was awkward posting the least of the pain and Deep Breathless Black at the kink meme and not getting any comments there, since that hadn't happened to me before. But I eventually got some really nice detailed fb on the least of the pain, and Deep Breathless Black has quietly racked up a lot of hits at the AO3, as dubcon tends to do. So I feel fine about both of those now!
Most fun story to write:
I got a lot of pleasure out of scribbling parts of Lady in Waiting in a notebook while flying out to a series of serious job interviews last January.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I tend to think Lady in Waiting! Though I'm guessing more readers would say Too Marvelous for Words.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
I felt really anxious about Lady in Waiting, Put a Ribbon on It, and especially If I Cannot Be Your Queen, I guess because they all somehow, like, eroticized the idea of Gwen's partners thinking she was a slut and punishing her for it. I think most of the folks who actually want to read fic about Gwen tend to be very protective of her and I get that, but I thought I should go ahead and write idfic about her and I'm glad I did. Still, posting these was scarier (and involved more angst around content notes) than posting actual noncon.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Oh, idk, I didn't really spend that long with any of them so there were no big insights from writing this year.
Hardest story to write:
Again, I didn't do anything too ambitious this year so there was no serious struggle. I guess Don't Need Forgiving was difficult, rushing to finish it up by thekink_bingo deadline, feeling out of practice after not writing through most of August/September, and my normal nervousness around writing Arthur/Merlin. But it was not too bad.
Biggest Disappointment:
No big disappointments to speak of, just the thing with the Reverse Big Bang that wasn't happening at all.
Biggest Surprise:
I wasn't writing at all this fall and I was surprised by how much 4x09 inspired me to go at it again. Goodness but that episode was upsetting.
MostUnintentionally Telling Story:
Both People Gonna Talk and Girls & Horses felt very personal, being about Nice Girls without a lot of sexual experience and all. It was really great to get such a nice response on both of them, and right near the beginning and the end of the year like that.
Story I haven't yet written, but intend to:
I was going to say mymerlinreversebb story, but yeah, I chickened out and defaulted on that. I don't actually have anything else in progress right now and am a lot more excited about upcoming podfic projects.
Do you have any writing goals for next year?
Not really! Maybe I will do a remix challenge. Probably I will sign up forkink_bingo again next year and maybe I will write fic for it or maybe not. I would really like to avoid LJ-only comms but I had so much fun at summerpornathon that I will probably do that again too if I can.
Do you have anything else to say?
Yes! I started having sex in the middle of this year, and I had always kind of thought that doing that would change the way I wrote fic and especially porn. And then I would go back and read my old stuff and be embarrassed. Dude, it has not changed the way I write at all! There are some people who like to go around mocking badfic by saying "This was obviously written by virgins." Those people are assholes and they can fuck off! I can't believe I ever wasted so much energy on what they thought.
January
I'll Be Yr Bird (Remix under the Dirt), Arthur/Merlin-ish
People gonna talk (whether you doing bad or good), Freya/Merlin
Lady in Waiting, Gwen/Morgana and Gwen/knights
February
Too Marvelous for Words, Arthur/Merlin
March
From the Honolulu Heights Guestbook, Being Human/Jewish folklore/Torchwood/Merlin crossover for
purimgiftsApril
nothing
May
nothing
June
Where History Ends, Gwen/Morgana
Hush, Gwen/Lancelot
Dusk in the Market Square, Aredian/Merlin
July
If Lost, Freya/Morgana
Believe This Is Real, Freya/Merlin
Deep Breathless Black, Merlin/Morgana/octopus
the least of the pain, Gwen/Morgana
Put a Ribbon on It, Gwen/Morgana
August
Jump In, Jump In, Gwen/Merlin
Aglain's School for Gifted Youngsters, Aglain/Morgana
September
Don't Need Forgiving, Arthur/Merlin
November
nothing
December
Only That I Am Yours, Lancelot/Morgana
As a Groom, Freya/Lancelot
If I Cannot Be Your Queen, Arthur/Gwen
Perfect, Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot-ish
low Sky, Firefly erasure
Girls & Horses, Elena/Mithian
Or Stay, Lancelot/Merlin-ish
Sexy Bastards Like Us, Gwaine/Lancelot-ish
24 fics, 27691 words, average length 1154. This is a good deal less than I wrote last year or the year before:
However, I don't feel bad about that because I also made a lot of podfic this year and accomplished some big things in my life outside of fandom. Plus I am happy with the quality of the little things I did write. I feel bad for dropping out of
merlinreversebb earlier this week, but I also think it's for the best. Next year, no signing up for collaborations (as a writer) or exchanges (except for maybe purimgifts)! This is similar to the shape of what I did last year. I wonder if it's pretty typical for people on academic schedules (especially two-semester ones) in the northern hemisphere.
This is not the first time that most of my fic has been from a female POV but it is the first time most of it has been from the POV of characters of color.
I used to think that counting Gwenfic in one's efforts to write more about characters of color was "cheating" a little because 1) race does not seem to mean much in the canon universe and 2) who wouldn't want to write about Gwen? But this year I keep being surprised at how seldom Gwen gets written so now I think, yeah, she gets mistreated by fandom the way women of color often do.
A problem I noticed when I did this meme in 2009 was that a lot of my femslash was tragic or wistful or unrequited or whatever, so I made it a goal to write more happy femslash and did well with that in both 2010 and 2011. Three things I noticed when I did this meme last year were that I'd barely written anything about men of color and that I hadn't written anything at all about transgender characters or characters with disabilities. So this year I wrote a few ficlets about Aglain and Lancelot, and one about FTM Merlin, but still no fics about characters with disabilities. Maybe next year (especially if I fall into another fandom somehow).
This is also definitely the first time that most of my writing has been NC-17! Like I specifically remember signing up for
kink_bingo a year and a half ago and telling myself over and over again, "It's okay that you're a PG-13 writer, they still want you anyway!" and they did, but then also I started writing porn. And then this year I made myself believe that they still wanted me at summerpornathon even though I don't write much boyslash, and that was also fine!Where did you post your stories this year?
The Archive of Our Own, baby! I love it sooooo much!! I mean I have been using it for a while but (apart from the whole skins thing that happened) it has been getting better and better, with more people reading there all the time and leaving kudos and all. I have found that posting at the Archive, waiting a few hours or even a day or two, and then putting up an announcement on LJ/Dreamwidth really helps me to feel less anxious about posting. There were also a couple that I posted first at
kinkme_merlin, and a bunch that were posted first at summerpornathonLeitmotif(s) of the year:
PWP!
Story I am proud of:
(I got rid of the "best story" question because I never know how to answer it, so why should I?) I feel good about three fics where I felt like I really went there with the kink: Lady in Waiting (general D/s), If Lost (kitten play), and the least of the pain (period sex).
My favorite story of this year:
I am really fond of People Gonna Talk! I wish I'd done a few things differently, including being more generous with Gwaine, but I really like the feeling of the joy of discovery for young people figuring themselves and each other out.
Most popular story:
Believe This Is Real may have gotten the most recognition, which makes sense because people were happy to see an upbeat story with a trans character. Too Marvelous for Words has by far my highest hitcount at the AO3 and probably the most kudos, which makes sense because it's the only explicit Arthur/Merlin I've written. I don't feel bad about this at all! That story has lots of things I love, including top!Merlin, kink in a loving relationship, and gags.
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
I usually have a long tale of woe for this question, but this year I feel like I was treated very well. It was awkward posting the least of the pain and Deep Breathless Black at the kink meme and not getting any comments there, since that hadn't happened to me before. But I eventually got some really nice detailed fb on the least of the pain, and Deep Breathless Black has quietly racked up a lot of hits at the AO3, as dubcon tends to do. So I feel fine about both of those now!
Most fun story to write:
I got a lot of pleasure out of scribbling parts of Lady in Waiting in a notebook while flying out to a series of serious job interviews last January.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I tend to think Lady in Waiting! Though I'm guessing more readers would say Too Marvelous for Words.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
I felt really anxious about Lady in Waiting, Put a Ribbon on It, and especially If I Cannot Be Your Queen, I guess because they all somehow, like, eroticized the idea of Gwen's partners thinking she was a slut and punishing her for it. I think most of the folks who actually want to read fic about Gwen tend to be very protective of her and I get that, but I thought I should go ahead and write idfic about her and I'm glad I did. Still, posting these was scarier (and involved more angst around content notes) than posting actual noncon.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Oh, idk, I didn't really spend that long with any of them so there were no big insights from writing this year.
Hardest story to write:
Again, I didn't do anything too ambitious this year so there was no serious struggle. I guess Don't Need Forgiving was difficult, rushing to finish it up by the
kink_bingo deadline, feeling out of practice after not writing through most of August/September, and my normal nervousness around writing Arthur/Merlin. But it was not too bad.Biggest Disappointment:
No big disappointments to speak of, just the thing with the Reverse Big Bang that wasn't happening at all.
Biggest Surprise:
I wasn't writing at all this fall and I was surprised by how much 4x09 inspired me to go at it again. Goodness but that episode was upsetting.
Most
Both People Gonna Talk and Girls & Horses felt very personal, being about Nice Girls without a lot of sexual experience and all. It was really great to get such a nice response on both of them, and right near the beginning and the end of the year like that.
Story I haven't yet written, but intend to:
I was going to say my
merlinreversebb story, but yeah, I chickened out and defaulted on that. I don't actually have anything else in progress right now and am a lot more excited about upcoming podfic projects.Do you have any writing goals for next year?
Not really! Maybe I will do a remix challenge. Probably I will sign up for
kink_bingo again next year and maybe I will write fic for it or maybe not. I would really like to avoid LJ-only comms but I had so much fun at summerpornathon that I will probably do that again too if I can.Do you have anything else to say?
Yes! I started having sex in the middle of this year, and I had always kind of thought that doing that would change the way I wrote fic and especially porn. And then I would go back and read my old stuff and be embarrassed. Dude, it has not changed the way I write at all! There are some people who like to go around mocking badfic by saying "This was obviously written by virgins." Those people are assholes and they can fuck off! I can't believe I ever wasted so much energy on what they thought.