Year In Writing Review 2019
Jan. 3rd, 2020 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
konstantyaList of fics:
'Cause You're a Criminal (As Long As You're Mine) (Star Trek: TNG; 3,947 words)
Satisfaction Brought Him Back (Star Trek: TNG; 510 words)
To Sleep, Perchance (Star Trek: TNG; 851 words)
Anything You Can Do... (Star Trek: TNG; 1,375 words)
Consider This the Slip (Star Trek: TNG; 2,205 words)
Ligaments (Star Trek: TNG; 1,540 words)
The Devil Is a Gentleman (Hetalia; 1,530 words)
Don't You Mess Around With Me (The Tick (2017); 1,486 words)
Total fic wordcount for 2019: Somewhere around 16,000? And amazingly, most of that actually ended up getting published, and not stuck in WIPs.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?
'Cause You're a Criminal (As Long As You're Mine) (Star Trek: TNG; 3,947 words)
Satisfaction Brought Him Back (Star Trek: TNG; 510 words)
To Sleep, Perchance (Star Trek: TNG; 851 words)
Anything You Can Do... (Star Trek: TNG; 1,375 words)
Consider This the Slip (Star Trek: TNG; 2,205 words)
Ligaments (Star Trek: TNG; 1,540 words)
The Devil Is a Gentleman (Hetalia; 1,530 words)
Don't You Mess Around With Me (The Tick (2017); 1,486 words)
Total fic wordcount for 2019: Somewhere around 16,000? And amazingly, most of that actually ended up getting published, and not stuck in WIPs.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?
Way more than I expected, considering my track record for 2017 and 2018.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2019?
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2019?
The Tick, for sure. I was aware of it, but only ever caught bits and pieces of the cartoon back in the day (and I can't say it ever did much for me at the time). I wouldn't have even gotten into the new series if it wasn't for my S.O. wanting to check it out, and I sure as hell didn't expect it to grab me enough to want to write fic about it. But in this era of superhero (over?)saturation (and especially the darker, more serious takes on them), it was just the kind of optimistic absurdity I needed.
Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?
Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?
I wrote more sex than I usually do, and I guess learned that smut maybe isn't as daunting as I once thought? I mean, as with just about anything, the more you do it, the better and more comfortable you get with it, and that's not to say my writing is going to shift and suddenly become all about sex from here on out…but I could see it working its way into my fics a bit more in the future. It would have to suit the characters, obviously, but for those characters who are highly sexual, or whose relationships heavily revolve around sex (*cough*Lore/Ishara*cough*), it…idk, can be a legitimately interesting and unique way to explore certain characters/dynamics, I guess.
Do you have any fanfic or pro-fic goals for the New Year?
My writing goals have progressively decreased as I've gotten older (I just don't have much time to write anymore), but I would like to finish up at least one of the two Tick WIPs I have, along with a Lore/Ishara WIP (which is kind of a sequel of sorts to this fic). In addition to those, I'd love to get back to my old, historical AusHun WIP, Forward and Reverse, along with my YA historical romance rewrite, Catherine and the Pirate (The Reformed Criminal Remix).
Do you have any fanfic or pro-fic goals for the New Year?
My writing goals have progressively decreased as I've gotten older (I just don't have much time to write anymore), but I would like to finish up at least one of the two Tick WIPs I have, along with a Lore/Ishara WIP (which is kind of a sequel of sorts to this fic). In addition to those, I'd love to get back to my old, historical AusHun WIP, Forward and Reverse, along with my YA historical romance rewrite, Catherine and the Pirate (The Reformed Criminal Remix).
From my past year of writing, what was…
My Favorite Story: Hmm, in truth, I like them all for different reasons. But if pressed, I might make it a three-way tie between 'Cause You're a Criminal (As Long As You're Mine) (because even though I'm not usually one for smut, I'm still pretty proud of the smut there? particularly how the character psychology and dynamics play into itshit is dark, yo), The Devil Is a Gentleman (because it was wonderful to get back to my fave Hetalia pairing, a nice change of pace to write in present tense again, plus I'm an absolute sucker for Greek mythology, and especially Hades/Persephone parallels, pfft), and Don't You Mess Around With Me (because the whole thing was a hilarious joy to write, and Overkill is my new tragic, trash prince superhero).
My Best Story: Maybe The Devil Is a Gentleman? I really like the way it came together, what with the mythology parallels and the characterizations. But 'Cause You're a Criminal... would be a close second (if not actually a tie).
Most Popular Story: If we're talking fics written in 2019, then probably 'Cause You're a Criminal... (the dark, dubious smut brings all the readers to the yard, pfft), but I feel it's worth noting that Silver and Exact, my old Hans/Elsa Frozen fic from 2015, probably saw the most attention overall, due to Frozen 2 kicking up interest in the fandom.
Story Most Underappreciated by the Universe: Considering I write for tiny fandoms and/or rarepairs, idk, all of them? XP Probably Don't You Mess Around With Me, though. The fandom was small to begin with (and not likely to grow, since the show got axed after only two seasons...), plus I published it at the end of December, so it didn't have much of a chance to be appreciated before doing this survey.
Most Fun: Any of the Star Trek prompt fics I wrote (so Satisfaction Brought Him Back, To Sleep, Perchance, and Anything You Can Do...), or else Don't You Mess Around... (I'm tempted to lean toward Don't You Mess Around..., but that might just be because it still has that new fic smell to it, heh. In truth, all the above were a blast to write.)
Most Surprising: A few, to be honest. Consider This the Slip was surprising, because I'd never written Lore/Ishara from Lore's perspective (with the exception of the then-very-recent prompt fics, which were distinctly on the humorous side). But it kind of just came out of nowhere and demanded to be written. A similar thing happened with The Devil Is a Gentleman--I'd made the Hades/Persephone connection with AusHun before (mostly due to character types), but it wasn't until I saw a gifset drawing parallels between Austria and Hades that it really crystallized. And then all of a sudden it was like, "MUST. WRITE. NOW." And lastly, Don't You Mess Around With Me was surprising, because, well, series/fandom I wasn't even aware of for most of the year, but also I was not expecting to fall for Overkill/Dot as hard as I did.But then episode 1x10 hit where he grabbed her wrist, and suddenly the UST was apparently too much for me to handle, pfft.
Most Disappointing: None of the ones I actually published, but a couple of my WIPs for sure. I had hoped to finish a couple more chapters of my Catherine and the Pirate rewrite, and would have liked to at least make some significant progress on Forward and Reverse, if not actually get around to posting the first part.
Sexiest: Probably 'Cause You're a Criminal..., but if you don't like dubious consent with your smut, then Consider This the Slip or Anything You Can Do... All three of them are pretty sexy!
Sexiest Single Moment: I'm gonna say the bit from 'Cause You're a Criminal... where Lore's like, "Yo, were you friends-with-benefits with my brother?" (It's sexier in context, I promise.)
Hardest to Write: Probably 'Cause You're a Criminal... I'd had the idea since, like, idk, 2015? But it was extremely slow-going, in part because the tone and the focus kept shifting as I wrote it. It started off as just a smut fic, maybe with a hint of uniform fetish?--which was bad enough, because smut is not exactly my forte. But then as I wrote more of it, it became more about character and relationship drama, which had a side-effect of turning the smut really dark, and then I had to figure out an actual premise for the fic, and ughhh. For a long time, I didn't even know if I'd ever finish it, and it's honestly something of a miracle that it came together as well as it did in the end.
Easiest to Write: The prompt fics (Satisfaction..., To Sleep..., and Anything You Can Do...) were pretty easy, but The Devil Is a Gentleman also came together surprisingly quickly. Like, it literally took me only 2-3 days from basic idea to polished fic, which is insanely fast for me.
“Holy crap, that’s wrong even for you” Fic: 'Cause You're a Criminal..., without a doubt, pfft. Not only way more explicit than I usually get when it comes to sex, but also sooo dubious on the consent front.
Fic That Shifted My Own Perceptions of the Characters: Consider This the Slip and Ligaments, for sure. Up until then, I wasn't even sure the Lore/Ishara relationship could develop beyond sex, but then Consider... comes along, and there Lore is wondering if he maybe loves her, and then Ligaments after that, where they're being all weirdly domestic, and he actively goes out of his way to help her (even if he's kind of a dick about it and still doing it for semi-selfish reasons), and...idk. It got me thinking that maybe they have a real chance at something actually resembling a functional romance down (way down) the line.
Most Unintentionally Telling: Hmm, in a weird way, maybe Ligaments?
My Favorite Story: Hmm, in truth, I like them all for different reasons. But if pressed, I might make it a three-way tie between 'Cause You're a Criminal (As Long As You're Mine) (because even though I'm not usually one for smut, I'm still pretty proud of the smut there? particularly how the character psychology and dynamics play into it
My Best Story: Maybe The Devil Is a Gentleman? I really like the way it came together, what with the mythology parallels and the characterizations. But 'Cause You're a Criminal... would be a close second (if not actually a tie).
Most Popular Story: If we're talking fics written in 2019, then probably 'Cause You're a Criminal... (the dark, dubious smut brings all the readers to the yard, pfft), but I feel it's worth noting that Silver and Exact, my old Hans/Elsa Frozen fic from 2015, probably saw the most attention overall, due to Frozen 2 kicking up interest in the fandom.
Story Most Underappreciated by the Universe: Considering I write for tiny fandoms and/or rarepairs, idk, all of them? XP Probably Don't You Mess Around With Me, though. The fandom was small to begin with (and not likely to grow, since the show got axed after only two seasons...), plus I published it at the end of December, so it didn't have much of a chance to be appreciated before doing this survey.
Most Fun: Any of the Star Trek prompt fics I wrote (so Satisfaction Brought Him Back, To Sleep, Perchance, and Anything You Can Do...), or else Don't You Mess Around... (I'm tempted to lean toward Don't You Mess Around..., but that might just be because it still has that new fic smell to it, heh. In truth, all the above were a blast to write.)
Most Surprising: A few, to be honest. Consider This the Slip was surprising, because I'd never written Lore/Ishara from Lore's perspective (with the exception of the then-very-recent prompt fics, which were distinctly on the humorous side). But it kind of just came out of nowhere and demanded to be written. A similar thing happened with The Devil Is a Gentleman--I'd made the Hades/Persephone connection with AusHun before (mostly due to character types), but it wasn't until I saw a gifset drawing parallels between Austria and Hades that it really crystallized. And then all of a sudden it was like, "MUST. WRITE. NOW." And lastly, Don't You Mess Around With Me was surprising, because, well, series/fandom I wasn't even aware of for most of the year, but also I was not expecting to fall for Overkill/Dot as hard as I did.
Most Disappointing: None of the ones I actually published, but a couple of my WIPs for sure. I had hoped to finish a couple more chapters of my Catherine and the Pirate rewrite, and would have liked to at least make some significant progress on Forward and Reverse, if not actually get around to posting the first part.
Sexiest: Probably 'Cause You're a Criminal..., but if you don't like dubious consent with your smut, then Consider This the Slip or Anything You Can Do... All three of them are pretty sexy!
Sexiest Single Moment: I'm gonna say the bit from 'Cause You're a Criminal... where Lore's like, "Yo, were you friends-with-benefits with my brother?" (It's sexier in context, I promise.)
Hardest to Write: Probably 'Cause You're a Criminal... I'd had the idea since, like, idk, 2015? But it was extremely slow-going, in part because the tone and the focus kept shifting as I wrote it. It started off as just a smut fic, maybe with a hint of uniform fetish?--which was bad enough, because smut is not exactly my forte. But then as I wrote more of it, it became more about character and relationship drama, which had a side-effect of turning the smut really dark, and then I had to figure out an actual premise for the fic, and ughhh. For a long time, I didn't even know if I'd ever finish it, and it's honestly something of a miracle that it came together as well as it did in the end.
Easiest to Write: The prompt fics (Satisfaction..., To Sleep..., and Anything You Can Do...) were pretty easy, but The Devil Is a Gentleman also came together surprisingly quickly. Like, it literally took me only 2-3 days from basic idea to polished fic, which is insanely fast for me.
“Holy crap, that’s wrong even for you” Fic: 'Cause You're a Criminal..., without a doubt, pfft. Not only way more explicit than I usually get when it comes to sex, but also sooo dubious on the consent front.
Fic That Shifted My Own Perceptions of the Characters: Consider This the Slip and Ligaments, for sure. Up until then, I wasn't even sure the Lore/Ishara relationship could develop beyond sex, but then Consider... comes along, and there Lore is wondering if he maybe loves her, and then Ligaments after that, where they're being all weirdly domestic, and he actively goes out of his way to help her (even if he's kind of a dick about it and still doing it for semi-selfish reasons), and...idk. It got me thinking that maybe they have a real chance at something actually resembling a functional romance down (way down) the line.
Most Unintentionally Telling: Hmm, in a weird way, maybe Ligaments?
