Random Writing meme
Feb. 23rd, 2025 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritWhat better than a quick and daft AO3 meme for a small distraction? I swiped this one from astrogirl.
Rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.
Most hits: Not Bad For A First Attempt (G, 200 words, The Convenient Marriage) with 4,143 hits.
I'm never absolutely sure if this hit count is genuine or if it's one of the tiny handful of works that got hit by that weird hit-count bug ages ago (the actual top on my stats definitely is, so I always have to ignore it), but this one has similar kudos numbers to its nearest neighbours in the stats, so I think it's genuine. Anyway, I wrote this double drabble very hastily because one time early on in my AO3 wrangling days, back when you could do this, I accidentally canonised Heyer's The Convenient Marriage and then realised it had no works. So I wrote a quick post-canon double drabble and voila! It's continued to get a silly amount of hits ever since.
2nd most kudosed: it's the rain that will strengthen your soul (Teen, 10,926 words. Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Padme, post- RotS Padme Lives AU, for Space Swap 2020.) - Fast catching up on Miss Marple (yes, don't worry, she's still top for now), is this one, which I would agree, is probably the best of that whole epic SW Prequels patch I went through in 2020. It was the best fic to write in Lockdown, a lovely gift to be able to give, and obv I can see faults, but still. I'm happy with this.
3rd most comment threads: By the Book (Original, Teen, 5863 words, Demon/Librarian, for Het Swap 2018.) (Top most is still Miss Marple here too.)
Aww, so delighted that people still like this one. It is one of the things I remain the most pleased with, and it's such a compliment when it's Original fic with no particular reason to pull people in outside of the original exchange. I suppose people might be reading through the Libraries tag? Anyway, every so often people still find it. <3
4th most bookmarks: i love the rose both red and white (Teen, 8070 words, Shadow of the Tower, Henry VII/Elizabeth of York, 5 times canon divergence, for Yuletide 2018.) (Miss Marple is no longer top here.) I'm also pretty happy with this one, barring the fact that unfortunately I don't think the recip liked it, which does make me feel guilty about still otherwise being pleased with it. At least it was only a treat!
Most words: UNIT: Strange Weapons ( Teen, 34,661 words. DW, Winifred Bambera, Colonel Crichton, Sarah Jane Smith, OCs.)
Leaving out collections, this is the longest single work, although as it's one of only 2 of the 1980s UNIT stories I've actually transferred over to AO3, it feels fake here as the longest - there were two of that series that were twice as long again, and more. Of 'real' works - i.e. written since I actually had an AO3 account, it's really The Poison Tree (27,259 words for Dracula 1968 for Yuletide 2016.)
Shortest: I have a whole bunch of drabbles, which were all 100 words exactly in Word back in the day, so I reject the notion that any of them are actually shorter, but there are two AO3 puts (wrongly) at 98 - Reprise (DW, Jo Grant/Benton, which was part of a joke series of random AU marriages - i.e. just as random as the characters' actual marriages, so...) and Get to the Point (Four & Leela, for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dw100 back in the day.)
astrogirl.Rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.
Most hits: Not Bad For A First Attempt (G, 200 words, The Convenient Marriage) with 4,143 hits.
I'm never absolutely sure if this hit count is genuine or if it's one of the tiny handful of works that got hit by that weird hit-count bug ages ago (the actual top on my stats definitely is, so I always have to ignore it), but this one has similar kudos numbers to its nearest neighbours in the stats, so I think it's genuine. Anyway, I wrote this double drabble very hastily because one time early on in my AO3 wrangling days, back when you could do this, I accidentally canonised Heyer's The Convenient Marriage and then realised it had no works. So I wrote a quick post-canon double drabble and voila! It's continued to get a silly amount of hits ever since.
2nd most kudosed: it's the rain that will strengthen your soul (Teen, 10,926 words. Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Padme, post- RotS Padme Lives AU, for Space Swap 2020.) - Fast catching up on Miss Marple (yes, don't worry, she's still top for now), is this one, which I would agree, is probably the best of that whole epic SW Prequels patch I went through in 2020. It was the best fic to write in Lockdown, a lovely gift to be able to give, and obv I can see faults, but still. I'm happy with this.
3rd most comment threads: By the Book (Original, Teen, 5863 words, Demon/Librarian, for Het Swap 2018.) (Top most is still Miss Marple here too.)
Aww, so delighted that people still like this one. It is one of the things I remain the most pleased with, and it's such a compliment when it's Original fic with no particular reason to pull people in outside of the original exchange. I suppose people might be reading through the Libraries tag? Anyway, every so often people still find it. <3
4th most bookmarks: i love the rose both red and white (Teen, 8070 words, Shadow of the Tower, Henry VII/Elizabeth of York, 5 times canon divergence, for Yuletide 2018.) (Miss Marple is no longer top here.) I'm also pretty happy with this one, barring the fact that unfortunately I don't think the recip liked it, which does make me feel guilty about still otherwise being pleased with it. At least it was only a treat!
Most words: UNIT: Strange Weapons ( Teen, 34,661 words. DW, Winifred Bambera, Colonel Crichton, Sarah Jane Smith, OCs.)
Leaving out collections, this is the longest single work, although as it's one of only 2 of the 1980s UNIT stories I've actually transferred over to AO3, it feels fake here as the longest - there were two of that series that were twice as long again, and more. Of 'real' works - i.e. written since I actually had an AO3 account, it's really The Poison Tree (27,259 words for Dracula 1968 for Yuletide 2016.)
Shortest: I have a whole bunch of drabbles, which were all 100 words exactly in Word back in the day, so I reject the notion that any of them are actually shorter, but there are two AO3 puts (wrongly) at 98 - Reprise (DW, Jo Grant/Benton, which was part of a joke series of random AU marriages - i.e. just as random as the characters' actual marriages, so...) and Get to the Point (Four & Leela, for
dw100 back in the day.)
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Date: 2025-02-23 09:25 pm (UTC)Might have to steal this meme soon.
I think I’ve read one or two of those AU marriages
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Date: 2025-02-24 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-23 09:26 pm (UTC)Was it a bug, or was it some kind of bot? I always had the impression it was a bot, although don't ask me what it was trying to do. Super annoying, either way, though. Very glad I didn't get hit with it.
I accidentally canonised Heyer's The Convenient Marriage and then realised it had no works. So I wrote a quick post-canon double drabble and voila!
That it quite possibly the best, or at least the most entertaining, reason for writing something ever. :)
I'm also pretty happy with this one, barring the fact that unfortunately I don't think the recip liked it, which does make me feel guilty about still otherwise being pleased with it.
Aww, well, you can't control how your exchange recipient reacts to something, and sometimes you just run into an irreconcilable mismatch between a writer and a reader. I say, as long as it's a good faith effort, there's no point feeling guilty. Likely they've already forgotten about it, anyway, while other people (and you) are still enjoying it.
which were all 100 words exactly in Word back in the day, so I reject the notion that any of them are actually shorter, but there are two AO3 puts (wrongly) at 98
Oh, god, that used to drive me absolutely crazy. These days I use Open Office, and that seems to agree with AO3 more than Word did, which is a relief.
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Date: 2025-02-23 09:39 pm (UTC)Yes, actually, you're right - I'm pretty sure it was a bot, too. It was annoying! I have two stories that were unquestionably hit (there is simply no other explanation for their hit count and the comments/kudos ratio is hugely off compared to anything else), but I had a couple of others I've never really been sure of since. I think this one is genuine - I think it gets the same sort of traffic as a couple of other pieces of rare lit/hist het where there are a lot of guest views.
That it quite possibly the best, or at least the most entertaining, reason for writing something ever. :)
I think every wrangler has written something for wrangling purposes at some point! But, yeah, back in the day anyone could canonise fandoms (which, ahem, led to errors and fandom-wrangling becoming limited to trained experts), but you had to request someone to de-canonise them or something, idk at this late date, it's all changed so much. So the easiest thing to do was sit down and dash off a double drabble to fix my stupidity. "It doesn't matter what it is," I said to myself, "nobody will read it anyway!" *rolls eyes*
As you were saying, it's always the way! And, tbf, it did deserve fic, so there was that.
Oh, god, that used to drive me absolutely crazy. These days I use Open Office, and that seems to agree with AO3 more than Word did, which is a relief.
I don't mind it, because I counted and I know what I counted, lol. But I object to stats telling me that they're shorter than the others, because they aren't! XD
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Date: 2025-02-24 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-24 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-24 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-24 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-24 07:34 pm (UTC)I'm so going to steal this meme soon :)
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Date: 2025-02-24 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 11:35 am (UTC)back when you could do this, I accidentally canonised Heyer's The Convenient Marriage and then realised it had no works.
Lol, this is hilarious! And there has been fic written for worse reasons. :D
I reject the notion that any of them are actually shorter, but there are two AO3 puts (wrongly) at 98
Grrr, I hate it when that happens, too!
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Date: 2025-03-02 06:39 pm (UTC)Ha, yes, I'm sure. It is traditional amongst wranglers to write fic for wrangling purposes, because, heh, that is fandom for you. XD