2011 Writing Year in Review

[jlh]

Once again at BFF C's place in Mass where punch was had and a gong was struck at midnight. Brilliant.

2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

1. 17 January: Score, score, score, score!, Idol: Ryan/Simon, NC-17, 2058 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kink_bingo: uniforms/military fetish, season 7
   
2. 17 January: Desert Hearts, Idol: Ryan/Simon, NC-17, 1233 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kissbingo: experimental—biting, season 3
   
3. 17 January: Saving Face, Idol: Ryan/Simon, NC-17, 3798 words. (LJ | DW | AO3), season 4 rewrite of Who's Afraid of Janis Ian
   
4. 24 February: I Think I Need a Devil to Help Me Get Things Right, ST: Kirk/McCoy, NC-17, 4308 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kink_bingo: suspension bondage; km_anthology
   
5. 14 March: Meat, Beatles: Gen, PG, 474 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: camping; written for glockgal
   
6. 26 March: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy drabble series, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG-R, 1100 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) Birthday drabbles written for my fellow mods at jim_and_bones
   
7. 29 April: Chocolate Kisses, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 641 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kissbingo: experimental—chocolate, Hollywood-verse
   
8. 29 April: Make It Better, HP: Seamus/Dean, PG, 570 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kissbingo: location—knee
   
9. 29 April: So Fresh, So Clean, HP: Seamus/Dean, NC-17, 978 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kissbingo: type—clean
   
10. 1 May: Shut Your Eyes and Think of Somewhere, HP: Draco/Ginny, PG, 1343 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kissbingo: greetings—hello
    
11. 14 May: Cooler Than Being Cool, HP: Parvati/Pansy, NC-17, 1670 words. (LJ | DW | AO3). kink_bingo: temperature play
    
12. 15 May: Horchata, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 735 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) Written for the Vampire Weekend challenge at jim_and_bones, Hollywood-verse
    
13. 15 May: Out of Character, ST: Chekov/Sulu, NC-17, 3872 words. (LJ | DW | AO3). kink_bingo: film/photograpy, Hollywood-verse
    
14. 30 May: If I'm to Be Your Camera, Who Will Be Your Face?, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 812 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: wild card.
    
15. 30 May: Lucy, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 1175 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: stuffed animal
    
16. 30 May: The Pajama Game, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG-13, 1237 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: bedtime rituals
    
17. 30 May: The Secret Life of Couches, ST RPF: Chris/Karl, PG-13, 593 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: fire in the fireplace
    
18. 30 May: Breakthrough, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 536 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: baby—feeding, Hollywood-verse
    
19. 30 May: Shake It Loose and Let It Fall, ST: Chapel/Rand, PG, 604 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: swimming, Hollywood-verse
    
20. 30 May: Lips Like Sugar, H50: Steve/Danny, PG, 504 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: kidfic
    
21. 30 May: In Preparation for Arrival, HP: Percy/Oliver, PG, 722 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: baby—setting up nursery
    
22. 30 May: Introducing Katie and Jules, HP: Seamus/Dean, PG, 560 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: kiss—first
    
23. 30 May: How to Be a Domestic God(dess), HP: Harry/Hermione, PG-13, 523 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: feeding—erotic
    
24. 30 May: Party Goin' On Over Here, HP: Draco/Ginny, PG, 675 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: kidfic—birthday
    
25. 30 May: They Say You Think I'm Fine, HP: Ron/Padma, PG, 781 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: dancing
    
26. 30 May: Padfoot and Moony Sing Songs of Love, HP: Remus/Sirius, PG, 729 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: karaoke
    
27. 30 May: One Warm Spark, HP: Parvati/Pansy, PG, 533 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: cuddling
    
28. 30 May: We'll Make It Up As We Go Along, Idol: Amanda/Carly, PG, 719 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: summer holiday, WWII-verse
    
29. 30 May: A Few Kisses Ago, Idol: Kimberley/Anwar, PG-13, 538 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: memories, WWII-verse
    
30. 30 May: Code Breaking, Idol: Blake/Chris, NC-17, 944 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: falling in love, WWII-verse
    
31. 30 May: That Certain Feeling, Idol: Katharine/Elliott, NC-17, 660 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo:
    
32. 30 May: Twist and Turn 'til You've Got It Right, Idol: Kris/Adam, PG-13, 660 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: spooning, 90s-verse
    
33. 30 May: Ninety-nine, Idol: Ryan/Simon, PG, 577 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: illness—minor; Imagine-verse
    
34. 30 May: All of the Doubts and the Certainties, Hughes: Duckie/Cameron, PG, 693 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) schmoop_bingo: long-lost love
    
35. 11 July: Sounds Like a Party, The Voice: Adam/Blake, Blake/Miranda, Miranda/Christina, Christina/Adam, NC-17, 2538 words. (LJ | DW | AO3)
    
36. 11 August: No One Needs to Know, HP: Parvati/Pansy, PG, 1523 words. (LJ | DW | AO3)
    
37. 17 August: Entr'Acte, HP: Harry/Hermione, Parvati/Pansy, Ron/Padma, Draco/Ginny, Seamus/Dean, PG-13, 7047 words. (LJ | DW | AO3)
    
38. 9 September: The Trick Is to Keep Breathing, HP: Harry/Hermione, Parvati/Pansy, Ron/Padma, Draco/Ginny, Seamus/Dean, R, 56,040 words. (LJ | DW | AO3)
    
39. 18 September: Backchannels, Bourne: Kirill/Bottle Shock: Bo, NC-17, 3790 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) Written for the jim_and_bones Crossover Challenge.
    
40. 6 October: Adventure Time Again, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 1786 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) Harvard-verse
    
41. 12 November: April Is Over, ST: Chapel/Rand, NC-17, 27,595 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) Written for the startrekbigbang
    
42. 11 December: I'm All Lit Up, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG-13, 2428 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) Written for space_wrapped, Harvard-verse
    
43. 20 December: Patience Is Its Own Reward, HP: Parvati/Pansy, NC-17, 1958 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kink_bingo: orgasm control
    
44. 22 December: Fresh Air, HP: Parvati/Pansy, NC-17, 1344 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) kink_bingo: exhibitionism
    
45. 23 December: Above All This Bustle, HP: Pansy/Parvati, PG, 1206 words. (LJ | DW | AO3)
    
46. 25 December: All Around You Now, The Voice: Blake Shelton & Reba McEntire, PG-13, 2048 words. (LJ>/a> | DW | AO3) Written for Yuletide 2011
    
47. 27 December: Killing That Envious Moon, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 849 words. (LJ | DW | AO3) The other side of The Sun Rising; written for a flashfic challenge at jim_and_bones.
    

Total Stories: 47
Total Fandoms: 10! Harry Potter (17), Star Trek (14), American Idol RPF (9), The Voice RPF (2), Star Trek RPF (1), John Hughes (1), Beatles RPF (1), Hawaii Five-O (1), Bottle Shock/Bourne Trilogy (1)
Total Word Count: 147,707

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
More, because I didn't think I'd decide to go all blackout on the schmoop_bingo.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2010?
Obviously The Voice, as it didn't exist yet in 2010, and amazing that I wrote it at mid-year and then got it for Yuletide—that's never happened to me before. Not that The Voice isn't a tiny, tiny fandom; that fic I wrote in July was I think the first posted on AO3 and the comm has maybe 10 fics?
I don't remember when the idea behind "Breakthrough", the Bourne/Bottle Shock crossover fic, came to me, but I'd already thought of it when I started planning the Crossover Challenge. I thought, hey, maybe other people would like to write random Chris/Karl character crossovers too, and I was right!

What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
The Trick Is to Keep Breathing, the EWFS sequel. In the planning stages for years, literally. I am so glad that I succeeded in doing what I wanted to do with that story, and that it made sense and reached at least some of the people who'd enjoyed EWFS. I feel very accomplished!

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Thanks to the bingo cards I really pushed myself to write several short stories over a brief period of time. I'd had the vague idea to write 300-word cuddlefics for each of my pairings, and when I realized how well many of them mapped to my schmoop_bingo prompts, I decided to make them 500-word fills for that. Definitely learned how to just bang things out—and also began to feel better about fluffy fic in general.

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
For once, "finish the EWFS sequel, no really, I mean it this time" is not on the list! I guess, to just keep writing what I want to write, keep "giving myself the cookies," not think about reception and comments and fandom trends and all of that stuff that keeps me from doing what I want. Keep writing lots of femslash, because it's fun. Keep writing lots of Kirk/McCoy because I adore them. Keep writing little one-offs for random fandoms because it's fun and because sometimes that's all I have to say.

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

• Best story:
The Trick Is to Keep Breathing

• Story most underappreciated by the universe: Don't really have one this year! Even TTItKB got many more people interested than I would have thought after all this time.
  
• Most fun story: April Is Over. So fun to have Jim and Bones hovering around in the background while Jan and Chris try to work their shit out.
  
• Sexiest story: Patience Is Its Own Virtue or I Think I Need a Devil to Help Me Get Things Right
  
• Story with single sexiest moment: Either Parvati pouting in the above, or Bones all tied up in the above.
  
• Story with single sweetest moment: Really any of all those schmoop fics. How can I choose between them?
  
• Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: All of them! You always learn something new about them when you write a story.
  
• Hardest story to write: The Trick Is to Keep Breathing, because it took years
  
• Easiest story to write: Sounds Like a Party, which just came pouring out of me, or All Around You Now. Basically, Voice fic just happens.
  
• Biggest disappointment: I wasn't really disappointed this year, I think because I've adjusted my expectations about stories. Sure, there are some stories that don't have many comments, but that's really okay. I wrote them because they wanted to exist, and sometimes that's enough.
  
• Biggest surprise: The strong response to April Is Over. Perhaps I underestimated ST fandom's interest in minor character femslash?

Overall: Recently I started thinking about this idea of giving myself the cookies. Going from HP to Idol to ST, and in between writing a huge Yuletide fic and ones that were more modestly received, made me much more philosophical about comments on fic, even as nowadays the overall number of comments is much fewer. Now I'm working on being better about just writing what I want to write and not worrying quite so much about what other people think I should be writing, mostly because even if I wrote what those people say they want to read they wouldn't reward me anyway.

So this year, I wrote a TON of fluffy fics, and a lot of stuff that I really wanted to get out there like the shorter Pansy/Parvati fics. I'm thinking a lot about various not-as-popular femslash pairings. I'm having fun being multifannish, but I clearly still have time and energy to write plenty of K/Mc and participate in our challenges on jim_and_bones.

My goal for next year is to get even more of my backlog of fic ideas written and posted, and to still have fun doing the things I'm doing. Definitely to comment a lot more (I was very bad this year) and to try harder to get the judging out of my head and away from my fannish enjoyment.