Annual End of the Year Writing Meme 2018

[thisbluespirit]

Now that Yuletide is done, I can finish and post this, too! (Last year's post is here.)

Stats
List of Completed Fic
So Near, So Far (DW, Ian/Barbara), 500 prompts
Legend's Ending (Shadow of the Tower, Henry VII/Elizabeth of York) 500 prompts, hc_bingo
That's the Spirit (DW, Four, Sarah & Harry) 500 prompts, who_allsorts
Night Jitters (Jack & Bella, When the Boat Comes In) hc_bingo & genprompt_bingo
some chosen curse (Enemy at the Door, Laidlaw/von Wittke) hc_bingo & genprompt_bingo
By the Book (Origfic, Librarian/Demon) for hetswap
Protection Racket (Sid Halley series, Sid & Charles) hc_bingo
looking over a four leaf clover (Origfic, Spoilt Heiress/Her Father's Valet) for hetswap
We Plough the Fields and Scatter (Enemy at the Door, all) for tic_tac_woe
I Shall But Love Thee Better After Death (DW, Eight/Romana II), 500 Prompts
Heart of the Trouble (DW/S&S, Silver/Liz Shaw) for hc_bingo Amnesty Challenge
There's Coffee in That Galaxy (Far Far Away) (Star Wars/ST:Voyager, Janeway & Obi-Wan) for space_swap if a bit belated.
Myths & Legends (DW/OUaT, Twelfth Doctor & Snow), for intoabar
Sharp Bargaining (Onedin Line, Anne/James) for genprompt_bingo
Predictable (Zodiac, Esther/Grad) for Obscure & British
Final Stand (DW, Brig/Liz) 500 prompts
Not So Much Awry (S&S, Original Elements) for Obscure & British
Restless Spirits (Dracula 1968, all) for Obscure & British
Out of the Darkness (Dracula 1968, Mina Harker) for genprompt_bingo
White Feather (Origific Edward/Julia) for genprompt_bingo
Run Forever (DW, Seven & Ace) 500 Prompts genprompt_bingo
False Gold (B7, Deva & Vila) 500 prompts
Autumn Mourning (The Falling Leaves and Elephants Remix) (B7/DW, Orac & TARDIS), for remix_revival
When the Lights Go Out (S&S, Sapphire, Steel, Copper, Original Characters) originally started for fandom_stocking 2015 & finished this year.
in the woods they found my bones (DW, Twelve & Amelia Rumford) 500 prompts
receiver of voices inaudible (B7, Deva/Cally) 500 prompts & hc_bingo
Stuck in the Middle With You (The Apple for the Teacher Remix) (OUaT, Snow & Regina) for remix_revival
Paper Games (origfic, Edward/Julia) for genprompt_bingo
blue is the colour (SotT, Henry/Elizabeth) 500 Prompts
Excess of Time (S&S, Copper & Sapphire) hc_bingo & 100 Elements
the only game in town (Origfic, Edward/Julia) for hc_bingo and genprompt_bingo
i love the rose both red and white (SotT, Henry/Elizabeth) yuletide 2018
The Haunting of Lyell Manor (AAL! Adam & Georgie & Simms), yuletide 2018
We'll Burn That Barn When We Come To It (11th C RPF Harold/William the Conqueror, Modern AU) for yuletide 2018
Road to Recovery (Dracula TV 1968, Mina/Jonathan, John) for yuletide 2018

Fandom Stocking (Drabbles)
After the Festival (Saphire/Silver/Steel), for kaffy_r
At World's End (Six Wives of Henry VIII, Cranmer/Cromwell), for liadt
all the things you are not yet (DW, Twelve) for ravenskyewalker
what we need is here (DW, Eight/Charley), for paynesgray

Genremixer Meme
Trouble on the Line (DW/S&S, Silver, Martha)
Half an Angel (SotT, Henry VII/Elizabeth of York)
Trouble Comes in Threes (Dracula 1968, Jonathan/Mina/John)
Like Wolves in the Night (DW, Seven & Mel & Ace)
Hungover (DW, Liz Shaw/Delgado Master)
In the Depths (DW/S&S, Silver, Sapphire, Seventh Doctor)

Unconventional Pairing Birthday Ficlets
The Ginger Parkin Plot (DW, Amy/Tegan)
A Wicked Liaison (Torchwood/Avengers, Toshiko/John Steed)
Stand and Deliver (Zoe, Dalek Sec)
Make Me Beg(gar My Neighbour) (Mel/Rose)
On the Cards (DW, Ten/Missy)

AU Meme
Seven & Ace (DW)
Three & Jo & the Brigadier (DW)
Mina Harker/John Seward/Lucy Weston (Dracula TV 1968)


Total number: 53


Total word count: 144,540 (according to AO3, although it includes the whole of When the Lights Go Out, two chapters of which were written prior to 2018).


Ship/character breakdown:

LOL. This meme is not made for people who multiship in multiple fandoms, is it?

Ships - 23 in total, I think, of which were written more than once:

Henry VII/Elizabeth of York (SotT) - 4
Edward/Julia (OCs) - 3
Mina Harker/Jonathan Harker (Dracula TV 1968) - 2

Characters - the list is long enough that I'm not going to count it because life is too short, but those that occurred more than twice:

John Seward (Dracula 1968) - 5
Mina Harker (Drac 1968) - 5
Jonathan Harker (Drac 1968) - 4
Silver (S&S) - 4
Henry VII - 4
Elizabeth of York - 4
Seventh Doctor - 4
Sapphire (S&S) - 4
Lucy Weston - 3
Edward Iveson (OC) - 3
Julia Graves (OC) - 3
Liz Shaw (DW) - 3
Twelfth Doctor - 3

The thing is, some of this is me, some of it is just what people request in memes and things.


Specifics:

Best/worst title?

Autumn Mourning (The Falling Leaves and Elephants Remix)

I do like making up Remix titles! I'm not very punny anywhere else, but I am in Remix. I so nearly called it Autumn Grieving, though, until it finally dawned on me what the alternative was.

On a different level, I quite like Not So Much Awry for a small assignment involving house servants. (It's from the old washing rhyme - they that wash on Tuesday are not so far/much awry.)

As for worst, there are a lot of quotes, one word meme ficlets etc etc. I have no shame any more when it comes to those. (Even if I get the kudos emails and go... which one was that? Have I given two of them the same name now? *coughs*)


Best/worst summary?

For Myths & Legends, a DW/OUaT crossover: We're all stories in the end, it's true - and, sooner or later, all stories find themselves in Storybrooke.

(If you don't know either, "We're all stories in the end, make it a good one," is the mantra of Moffat-era DW and all stories ending up in Storybrooke is a OUaT tagline too.)


And, from By the Book: Saleos has never been summoned by accident before. He has also never, in all these millennia, been called upon to help out at Music and Rhyme Time.

Plus from Legend's Ending: Elizabeth surrenders everything; it's how she'll win in the end.

(I don't do the worst unless I feel like it. I get depressed enough by my writing as it is.)


Best first line?

It was a fine evening in late spring, but nevertheless no time to be out on a small boat on the North Sea as the light failed, especially not when you considered the time of the century. (That's the Spirit)


“How do elephants climb trees?” Vila asks. “Or wait, no, maybe it was a rhinoceros or a brontosaurus. One of those really big extinct Terran animals, anyway. How does it get up a tree, assuming it wants to?” (Autumn Mourning (The Falling Leaves and Elephants Remix))


“I knew Idwal Morgan was a scoundrel, but I didn’t think he’d stoop this low. How much did he pay you to steal that?” (in the woods they found my bones)


It takes months of careful planning, one supreme sacrifice and a lot of dark magic to enact the curse. It takes all of two days before the reality starts to pall on Regina. (Stuck in the Middle With You).


Best last line?

He tries to tell himself it’s for the best, but her echo remains in his mind: the ghost of a thin, dark-eyed woman with a crooked smile haunts his quarters to the end. (receiver of voices inaudible)


Somewhere in another universe, a brontosaurus falls out of a tree. (Autumn Mourning (The Falling Leaves and Elephants Remix))


“I was trying to decide about tomorrow,” she said, and smiled, dark laughter dancing in her eyes. “Who shall we have for dinner?” (Out of the Darkness)


“The Doctor?” said Snow, her eyes widening. “The one with the magic box and a hundred faces? You know, there are stories about you from all round the realms. I really thought you must be a myth.”

“Oh, I am,” he said, and winked. “Aren’t we all?” (Myths & Legends. Slightly longer, but that was my most complimented last line of the year, probably even more than the falling Brontosaurus, but it needs the context.)


General questions:

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

Probably around the amount I hoped - I wrote less than usual last year. This was more in line with the usual word count.


What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I think I've learnt by now to never even try and predict what random prompt might set me off. I love random generators and exchanges precisely for this kind of reason. Things that happened out of the blue that way this year:

A librarian/the demon she accidentally summons due to a strange donation

The Battle of Hastings as a 21st C AU in texts, emails, and blogs, with organic farming, horoscopes, bees and a happy ending.

That one time Captain Janeway and Obi-wan Kenobi went on a coffee heist together.

What my flist will make me write next is always a fun game, too. :-D


What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Well, those two things aren't unrelated, because if a fic gets no response, I think it's terrible and I can't be happy with it, but let's see...

By the Book - it was a lot of fun to think of, hard work to type up, contains a lot of librarian in-jokes, and went down well in the exchange it was part of.

Autumn Mourning (The Falling Leaves and Elephants Remix). Lycoris's "Grieved It on Its Way" was such a wonderful fic to remix and I enjoyed doing this, I think it came out pretty well, and again people liked it.

It's a terrible fic to use the word 'happy' for but some chosen curse was something I'd wanted to write for ages, and it was good to have at least two people in the fandom by this point who appreciate it, for all its weirdness, dark historical period and bleakness.

I'd add There's Coffee in That Galaxy save for the tense thing I need to fix. (It's not hard, I was just waiting for surplus brain and guess what I never had since April?)

I wrote Paper Games to cheer me up, and it worked, so that too - and somebody liked it, always a win with odd origfic.


Okay, NOW your most popular story.

It's a bit hard to judge between them, because of Yuletide being so recent and Hetswap back in Feb, but there's not much to choose between We'll Burn That Barn When We Come To It and By the Book, and given the timing, probably that makes We'll Burn That Barn the winner.

By whatever methods I sort, There's Coffee in That Galaxy, Myths & Legends, and Legend's Ending are the next most popular.


Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Technically Night Jitters, but since it's a ficlet for a very obscure fandom that needs serious editing, I don't think it's underappreciated. The one kudos is probably more than the poor thing deserves. (I was clearly lacking in sufficient brain when I typed it up.)


Story that could have been better?

Aside from all of them, as ever: Night Jitters isn't good. And while There's Coffee in That Galaxy is, I got tired and fudged over a tense issue and while nobody else actually seems to have noticed, I DO.


Sexiest story?

Hmm. Since tumblr finds hand-holding NSFW, probably At World's End, a Cranmer/Cromwell hand-holding drabble for liadt.

Other than that, there are some bits where I implied people might have sex at some point, usually in a random pairing thing, or Edward/Julia stuff.

(I'm backsliding. I was doing so well with S&S, vampires, and the Runaway Tales stuff a couple of years ago, but I've gone terribly gen again. Send help.)


Saddest story?

some chosen curse. But also Legend's Ending probably too. Except nothing comes near some chosen curse for bleakness this year.



Most fun?

There's Coffee in That Galaxy, We Plough the Fields and Scatter, Paper Games and We'll Burn That Barn When We Come To It. And By the Book.


Story with single sweetest moment?

Maybe Myths & Legends with Snow and Twelve. Someone said in a comment that the fic felt like a hug, and it kind of was like that. It was lovely to write.

Also literally, as Twelve has six sugars in his tea at Granny's. So.


Hardest story to write?

some chosen curse, i love the rose both red and white, The Haunting of Lyell Manor, By the Book. I wept tears over all of them and not because I was in love with my tragic prose or anything, just sheer exhaustion (from the ME/CFS, though, more than the fic).

some chosen curse and i love the rose took the most research respectively.


Easiest/most fun story to write?

I Shall But Love Thee Better After Death. It just came, and was fun and sweet, and maybe actually that had the sweetest/sexiest moments, actually?

Autumn Mourning (The Falling Leaves and Elephants Remix) almost just fell out from the original almost as-is, really.


Most overdue story?

I finished When the Lights Go Out! Just before it was three years overdue! \o/


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

some chosen curse and i love the rose both red and white probably both count. And There's Coffee in That Galaxy, because I've never seriously done any Star Wars where anyone would look at it.


This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

...

I'm trying, but the best I can think is that there is more James Maxwell in there than is obvious to the uninitiated, I had a bit of S&S revival, and almost everything is written for a prompt.

The theme is: there is no theme?


What are your fic writing goals for next year?

To carry on writing, similar to this year, but shorter and less complicated where possible. (I have to try and not despise myself/my writing, it's a current project - because I despise and hate my illness, I carry that over to my writing (and other things) because I see the results of my illness all over it quite often. And that's an unhelpful attitude!) Also stop worrying about having too many works on AO3.

Do some more exchanges if I can, and write for bingos and prompts and enjoy it, hopefully. I actually did quite well on my last year's goals, and these are building on those.

Comments

[corvidology]

That's an amazing output across a lot of fandoms. :D

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! I get so frustrated with myself that it's hard to see it like that - I could do more! Or less, but better, longer!! People who write less are more careful; proper writers!

Meanwhile, the people who write less are envying me my ability to write fast when I do get going. (We should probably all write each other's end of year reviews, lol.)

[corvidology]

Some of us would be easier than others. :D

Someone has a bookmark to the collection of my Person of Interest fic and all it says is "John pines."

[sovay]

Now that Yuletide is done, I can finish and post this, too!

That's a lot of fic! Go, you.

there is more James Maxwell in there than is obvious to the uninitiated, I had a bit of S&S revival

Well, I really like your Copper, so please keep it up.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I really like your Copper, so please keep it up.

Aw, thank you! I hope to, certainly. :-D

[mab_browne]

That was a busy year, well done. :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! I think I get embarrassed because it wasn't a busy year for me, considering I, er, don't do much else at all - I had long stretches of not being able to write much at all - and yet it is a lot still, you're right! So, I am going to work on being shameless and not fear that quantity automatically =/= quality. Or something...

I don't know. Something!

[astrogirl]

Oh, this is the better version of this meme that I vaguely remember exists every year when I go to do mine and am always too lazy to find!

I don't think I'd realized you'd written anywhere near this much this year! You are making some of us look bad. ;) Of course, I suppose the reason I didn't realize that is because a lot of them are in fandoms that aren't mine. But looking over this does remind me all over again how good some of the things you wrote in the fandoms I do know were.

I have to try and not despise myself/my writing,

Aww, yes, as entirely understandable as hating being ill is, this here is definitely a thing you should try to do! You and your writing are not at all hate-worthy things!

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, this is the better version of this meme that I vaguely remember exists every year when I go to do mine and am always too lazy to find!

If only I were quicker at posting it! ;-p

You are making some of us look bad.

I just assume that I am writing casual crap and the people writing less are writing beautiful careful gems and think I'm making myself look bad. (As I said, the not despising myself bit is a WIP, but it's muchly improved from 2017 already!)

But looking over this does remind me all over again how good some of the things you wrote in the fandoms I do know were.

Thank you! :-D

[astrogirl]

If only I were quicker at posting it! ;-p

Yes, clearly my laziness is all your fault! :)

I just assume that I am writing casual crap and the people writing less are writing beautiful careful gems

Oh, if only I thought that were true of my own less prolific writing...

And I sort of wish I were even writing more stuff that was just sort of casually tossed out and not carefully crafted. At least then I'd be keeping my hand in better, instead of letting my writing brain stagnate so often.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, clearly my laziness is all your fault!

Combined laziness! I still read yours and forget that it even is different, anyway...

Oh, if only I thought that were true of my own less prolific writing...

It looks that way to me! And, as to the casual thing... daft writing meme ahoy maybe??

[astrogirl]

I used to do a lot of daft writing memes. Somehow, I've entirely gotten out of the habit.

[thisbluespirit]

I can always lend you some!! ;-)

[umadoshi]

That's an amazing amount of writing and finished work. ^_^

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you!

[liadt]

Lots of fics, fandoms and words; bravo!

I'm glad my fs fic was the filthiest, lol.

I think your writing is excellent:)

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you!

[paranoidangel]

I like that you have "and enjoy it" as part of your goals.

[thisbluespirit]

It's an important bit, and sometimes I forget! :-)