Writing meme

[pensnest]

I seem to have managed to do this writing meme in December for a couple of years in a row now, so I thought I'd have another go. I hope some of you will be interested in doing the same thing.


Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?

I'm going to go back and count my last year's SeSa stories as part of this year's oeuvre, since I never get to talk about them otherwise! This year's SeSa will be in next year's meme.

So, in total, sixteen stories, which is quite a lot down on last year, when I produced twenty four, and the first two years of my popslash fannishness when it was closer to forty each. However, a pretty respectable word count, as my main MTYG story, A Tale of Dreams and Asses, was not far short of 10,000 words, The White Room and Trials both came in at more than 10,000, and my bittybang story amounted to just over 25,600 words. With a couple of mid-sized dragon stories and an MTYG pinch-hit of nearly 5,000 words as well as the ficlets, I actually produced over 80,000 words of popslash this year. That's a third more than last year. Go me!

So, not perhaps as many stories as I would have expected, but more long ones.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2007?

Well, I wouldn't have expected that my longest single-shot story to date would be a Backstreet one instead of an Nsync story! It's good, though, because I find that writing about these characters helps me to love them more.

What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

I don't know that I can choose. I'm really proud of A Tale of Dreams and Asses, I remember making strenuous efforts to show, not tell, and I love the way it came out. The White Room is another one I'm really pleased with, again, I was working on not being self-indulgent with the writing, and I like the result. And I love Show You the Shape of My What? that bittybang story, not just because I proved to myself that I could write something quite a lot longer than I've done before, but because I loved these boys so much as I was writing them. I really can't pick just one of these.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Hmm. I don't think I took risks, no. I did get intrigued by a particular brand of meta that was around at one point, which was what inspired me to write The White Room and the Slave story - issues of consent, and how to write dub-con without making it 'romantic'. Fun stuff.

From my past year of writing, what was...

Best story
I don't know. One of my three favourites, but which one, I truly can't say.

Story Most Underappreciated by the Universe
I think it must be 'Trials', the most recent installment in the Chronicles series. I thought it was going to be a couple of thousand words long, a couple of scenes, and intended it as the introduction to the next story in the series. Well, it grew into 10,000 words of actual story, and by the end of it I knew a lot more details about the world they live in than I'd known before. But sadly, I don't think many people are interested in this kind of fantasy AU. On the other hand, those who have been following it gave me very happy-making feedback.

Most fun
Probably the Dragon Challenge stories. I seem to remember struggling a bit with Wide Eyed and Legless, but Tribute came to me as I was driving home from Lincoln, and I basically sat down that evening and let it flow onto the screen. That's the kind of writing I like best! Nice and easy.

Most disappointing
My remix... well, not exactly - I like what I did, and it was a gleeful experience writing it, too, but I had *meant* to write the serious, sexy and disturbing version that I know phaballa longed to read, and I couldn't. I just could not do it. *sigh*

Most sexy

Haven't really written a lot of sex this year. Sex scenes, yes, but I don't know that I'd describe much of my output this year as 'sexy'. (Possibly I'm just used to it now...)

Story With a Single Sexy Moment
Perhaps Roped, a ficlet written for a fic_requests prompt. Kevin capturing Justin with a lasso... hmm.

Hardest to Write
Probably Show you the Shape of my What? simply because the prospect was so daunting, at the beginning.

"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Heh. ravenbat reminded me of an utterly cracked smidgin I wrote for a crack!meme, in which AJ lays eggs, and I did a tiny sequel in which JC wishes to hatch them.

(Interesting that it didn't occur to me to nominate the one in which Justin has murdered his mother and best friend! But hey, that's Justin for you.)

Most Unintentionally Telling
I don't think there was anything particular. I mean, no doubt my easy life is reflected in my stories, but nothing outstanding springs to mind.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

Well, I *still* have the Chronicles to finish. But at least I made some progress this year.

I thought I was going to use bittybang to write my Wallow, but I kept getting so very stuck. I have a horrid feeling I *can't* write it now (which fills me with woe), because the canon I wanted to address has changed - and I *couldn't* write it three years ago because I hadn't figured out how. :-(

I would like to do more in fic__requests than I did this year, and I want to get sky_pie back in order again, if anybody out there is still interested in these little challenges. We'll see. I think I'd better make another vow to do at least one fic_requests story a month—anyone care to join me?

I'm inching closer to completing my fanfic100 prompts—fifteen or sixteen to go, depending on whether I can get away with using Lance's guest appearance in SYTSOMW? to fill one of the prompts—but of course I spend more time these days writing about people who are not Lance, how shocking! I've yet to write the pairing that occurred during our Camp Sparkle game... There's also the wtf27 set of prompts, I did two more of these this year (Slaves and Fuck or Die), though both turned out to be quite serious stories, not crack at all. I feel sure I have more insane stories inside me that need to be liberated.

One more thing I really need to do is the re-working of It Pays to Advertise, my pinch-hit MTYG story from 2007. I'm very happy with it, but it could definitely do with a bit of re-shaping and expansion. If anyone can point me at any particular bits and say, there, that needs something doing to it, please, go ahead. I also vowed to record it, since it's set in London and my accent won't jar horribly, but I must do the rewrite first.

Comments

[rikes]

You've written so many awesome stories this year! I think my favourites are A Tale of Dreams and Asses, Wide Eyed and Legless and your bittybang, and I'm sure there are lots of others but those are the ones I actually remember by title. :)

I have to agree with you on the single sexy moment, because I really wasn't expecting anything and then just, whoa. My jaw dropped open, like, literally.

Also, I got your gorgeous glittery christmas card today! Thank you! :)

[pensnest]

Well, thank you! I am pleased with this year's output, now I look back on what I've written. Having a good word count definitely makes up for not having written as many different stories.

Ah, the cards are starting to arrive. Excellent.

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed with your fanfic100 productivity. I gave up my claim last year, because I knew I'd never finish. I think I got about 25 stories done on it. I was distracted by slashfic25 in 2006, which led to the The Epic and I never got back to poor JC and his prompts.

Show You the Shape of My What? is still the best title ever, and the story is a wonderful accomplishment.

[pensnest]

Some of the fanfic100 prompts are a lot better than others... I have about six stories -to-be-written that match prompts, after that it's going to be a bit of a struggle to pretend that they fit. But I suspect that doing 100 stories about Lance is what made me fall totally in love with him. A hundred prompts is too many, really! But I have done well over 200,000 words for the challenge so far, so I'm *going* to finish it. And boast insufferably, when I do.

However, giving it up for the Epic of the Lambs was an entirely forgivable and reasonable thing to do. :-)