2007 Stories in Review
Jan. 4th, 2008 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhSo on New Year's Eve ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ali_wildgoose and emsariel graciously let me help them throw a really fun party in their new, and therefore completely empty, flat. It was tons of fun, a great group of people. We made Tom Collins and manhattans and little sandwiches and chopped liver on toast and had The Thin Man on a loop in the kitchen. At midnight we had excellent sparkling red wine and actually sang Auld Lang Syne and listened to Dick Clark count us down to the new year on the radio. It was awesome.
In that spirit I have finally found a new year meme I actually want to do. I'm not much for introspection and taking stock at the new year—I do that on my birthday, which is in late August and so also is the start of the school year, and I've never stopped thinking in academic terms, I suppose. So instead, I'll take stock of my writing:
21 Jan: Sensoria. John Hughes: Duckie Dale/Cameron Frye, PG, 2800 words. Written as a New Year's Resolution for Yuletide.
16 Mar: Open Your Eyes. Harry Potter: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, NC-17, 2400 words.
25 Mar: 26 Short Drabbles about Simon and Ryan. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-NC-17, 2600 words.
26 Apr: Go Fish. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 2500 words
05 Jun: Itch You Can't Scratch. Harry Potter: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, NC-17, 1500 words.
05 Jun: If At First. Harry Potter: Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley, NC-17, 2500 words.
10 Jun: High Art. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, NC-17, 9600 words in 6 parts.
18 Jun: The Field Equations of Gravitation. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 900 words.
26 Jun: Stanley and Livingstone. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 2000 words.
31 Aug: My Summer of Love. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-NC-17, 10,600 words in 7 parts.
21 Sep: Radio Friendly. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, 28,400 words in 12 parts.
25 Sep: Helga. Harry Potter: Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas, PG, 2000 words. Written as part of the fall![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
choc_fic fest.
07 Oct: Happy Birthday, Simon. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 100 words.
04 Nov: Dinner Party. John Hughes: Duckie Dale/Cameron Frye, PG, 300 words.
04 Nov: Please Be Gentle. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, R, 200 words.
04 Nov: On the Bus. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, R, 500 words.
16 Nov: Let's Take Some E!. American Idol/E!: Ryan Seacrest/Joel McHale, Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 3000 words.
12 Dec: Where the Love Light Gleams. Harry Potter: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, PG, 1850 words.
25 Dec: Leave No Man Behind. How I Met Your Mother: Barney Stinson/Robin Scherbatsky, R, 2900 words. Written for Yuletide 2007.
31 Dec: Dog and Butterfly. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, PG, 1300 words.
Total stories: 20
Total fandoms: 4
Total word count: 74,000
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I can't believe I wrote this much. On the one hand, wow, AI singerfic. On the other hand, HP sequel still not done.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2007?
Cake, obviously, since it didn't "exist" in January 2007. Also Barney/Robin. And I never thought I'd write an AU set in 1962.
What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Helga. East or west, home is best. Also, it was so hard to write but came out so well, so I feel like I earned it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Probably writing the AU—within my former HP circle there was nothing that got more disdain than "RPS AU" but I wrote one anyway. Mostly what I learned from that was that the people I knew were snobbier than I am, and that it's fun to follow inspiration.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
I don't have "pro" goals anyway and I sort of reject the notion that I should. I will be writing for a living, in a sense, but not fiction, and I'd like the fanfic to be just a hobby. As for fanfic goals, I'd like to finish the HP sequel and my S/Dfanfic100 claim.
From my past year of writing, what was my...
Best story: Stanley and Livingstone.
Story most underappreciated by the universe: My Summer of Love. It was posted on a holiday weekend, and it languished too long after I wrote it so the lack of feedback got me very insecure about it. But I think it's a really good story. I've definitely learned, from that and from something that I've written but can't be posted for a little bit, to show things to people very soon after writing them, and to try to get them posted rather soon as well.
Most fun story: Radio Friendly. It was fun to find pictures and upload songs and get illustrations fromali_wildgoose and watch people's reactions as they tried to guess what it was all leading up to, which was The Beatles, but then doesn't everything? It was also fun to just allow myself to be as history and music geeky as I wanted to be.
Sexiest story: Itch You Can't Scratch, because Hermione was so aggressive and Harry was so "this is awesome!" about it.
Story with single sexiest moment: The Cake missing scene of Radio Friendly, with slut-boy!Blake and strong-man!Chris.
Story with single sweetest moment: High Art part 4 (Fruit in a Bowl) where Ryan is telling the story of his first hook-up with Simon, and then Chris tells Simon to "step up", and Simon does, and Blake tells Chris that girls count.
Most unintentionally *telling* story: About me? None of them. But I misread this as most emotionally telling story, so I'll answer that: Stanley and Livingstone.
Holy crap, that's wrong: Nothing that I wrote.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Sensoria, because before that I hadn't really thought of Cameron as gay.
Hardest story to write: Helga. I was on deadline and the story just wouldn't take shape; I probably wrote 500 or so words I never used. I ended up feeling my way through the story from Seamus's POV—the reason it feels so realistic that he doesn't know what he's really upset about until the end of the story is that I didn't know, either, until I wrote it.
Easiest story to write: Dog and Butterfly, which I wrote in about two hours.
Biggest disappointment: Open Your Eyes should have been posted when I wrote it years ago, and by now Harry/Draco is such a closed group of writers that there is literally no place to post it where anyone would read it, not to mention that there are almost no Harry/Draco shippers still reading this LJ. There were good reasons why it wasn't posted at the time, but I have learned not to allow a story to be held up, or to write "secret" stories, ever again.
Biggest surprise: Leave No Man Behind. Where the story ended up going was surprising, as before I started writing I had a completely different concept. Of course being assigned How I Met Your Mother was surprising, especially a request for Barney/Robin, though a very pleasant surprise. But the biggest part of this biggest surprise is the overwhelming response the story received. I'm flabbergasted—pleased, but flabbergasted.
Overall: You never know when a new fandom will spring up and grab you by the throat. It's alllillijulianne's fault actually; I'd never really been into singerfic until hers. I'm not sure how I feel about all this writing given the state of my schoolwork; perhaps 2007 was a year of displacement for me in many other ways as well.
ali_wildgoose and emsariel graciously let me help them throw a really fun party in their new, and therefore completely empty, flat. It was tons of fun, a great group of people. We made Tom Collins and manhattans and little sandwiches and chopped liver on toast and had The Thin Man on a loop in the kitchen. At midnight we had excellent sparkling red wine and actually sang Auld Lang Syne and listened to Dick Clark count us down to the new year on the radio. It was awesome.In that spirit I have finally found a new year meme I actually want to do. I'm not much for introspection and taking stock at the new year—I do that on my birthday, which is in late August and so also is the start of the school year, and I've never stopped thinking in academic terms, I suppose. So instead, I'll take stock of my writing:
21 Jan: Sensoria. John Hughes: Duckie Dale/Cameron Frye, PG, 2800 words. Written as a New Year's Resolution for Yuletide.
16 Mar: Open Your Eyes. Harry Potter: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, NC-17, 2400 words.
25 Mar: 26 Short Drabbles about Simon and Ryan. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-NC-17, 2600 words.
26 Apr: Go Fish. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 2500 words
05 Jun: Itch You Can't Scratch. Harry Potter: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, NC-17, 1500 words.
05 Jun: If At First. Harry Potter: Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley, NC-17, 2500 words.
10 Jun: High Art. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, NC-17, 9600 words in 6 parts.
18 Jun: The Field Equations of Gravitation. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 900 words.
26 Jun: Stanley and Livingstone. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 2000 words.
31 Aug: My Summer of Love. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG-NC-17, 10,600 words in 7 parts.
21 Sep: Radio Friendly. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, 28,400 words in 12 parts.
25 Sep: Helga. Harry Potter: Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas, PG, 2000 words. Written as part of the fall
choc_fic fest.07 Oct: Happy Birthday, Simon. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, PG, 100 words.
04 Nov: Dinner Party. John Hughes: Duckie Dale/Cameron Frye, PG, 300 words.
04 Nov: Please Be Gentle. American Idol: Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, R, 200 words.
04 Nov: On the Bus. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, R, 500 words.
16 Nov: Let's Take Some E!. American Idol/E!: Ryan Seacrest/Joel McHale, Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell, NC-17, 3000 words.
12 Dec: Where the Love Light Gleams. Harry Potter: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, PG, 1850 words.
25 Dec: Leave No Man Behind. How I Met Your Mother: Barney Stinson/Robin Scherbatsky, R, 2900 words. Written for Yuletide 2007.
31 Dec: Dog and Butterfly. American Idol: Chris Richardson/Blake Lewis, PG, 1300 words.
Total stories: 20
Total fandoms: 4
Total word count: 74,000
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I can't believe I wrote this much. On the one hand, wow, AI singerfic. On the other hand, HP sequel still not done.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2007?
Cake, obviously, since it didn't "exist" in January 2007. Also Barney/Robin. And I never thought I'd write an AU set in 1962.
What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Helga. East or west, home is best. Also, it was so hard to write but came out so well, so I feel like I earned it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Probably writing the AU—within my former HP circle there was nothing that got more disdain than "RPS AU" but I wrote one anyway. Mostly what I learned from that was that the people I knew were snobbier than I am, and that it's fun to follow inspiration.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
I don't have "pro" goals anyway and I sort of reject the notion that I should. I will be writing for a living, in a sense, but not fiction, and I'd like the fanfic to be just a hobby. As for fanfic goals, I'd like to finish the HP sequel and my S/D
fanfic100 claim.From my past year of writing, what was my...
Best story: Stanley and Livingstone.
Story most underappreciated by the universe: My Summer of Love. It was posted on a holiday weekend, and it languished too long after I wrote it so the lack of feedback got me very insecure about it. But I think it's a really good story. I've definitely learned, from that and from something that I've written but can't be posted for a little bit, to show things to people very soon after writing them, and to try to get them posted rather soon as well.
Most fun story: Radio Friendly. It was fun to find pictures and upload songs and get illustrations from
ali_wildgoose and watch people's reactions as they tried to guess what it was all leading up to, which was The Beatles, but then doesn't everything? It was also fun to just allow myself to be as history and music geeky as I wanted to be.Sexiest story: Itch You Can't Scratch, because Hermione was so aggressive and Harry was so "this is awesome!" about it.
Story with single sexiest moment: The Cake missing scene of Radio Friendly, with slut-boy!Blake and strong-man!Chris.
Story with single sweetest moment: High Art part 4 (Fruit in a Bowl) where Ryan is telling the story of his first hook-up with Simon, and then Chris tells Simon to "step up", and Simon does, and Blake tells Chris that girls count.
Most unintentionally *telling* story: About me? None of them. But I misread this as most emotionally telling story, so I'll answer that: Stanley and Livingstone.
Holy crap, that's wrong: Nothing that I wrote.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Sensoria, because before that I hadn't really thought of Cameron as gay.
Hardest story to write: Helga. I was on deadline and the story just wouldn't take shape; I probably wrote 500 or so words I never used. I ended up feeling my way through the story from Seamus's POV—the reason it feels so realistic that he doesn't know what he's really upset about until the end of the story is that I didn't know, either, until I wrote it.
Easiest story to write: Dog and Butterfly, which I wrote in about two hours.
Biggest disappointment: Open Your Eyes should have been posted when I wrote it years ago, and by now Harry/Draco is such a closed group of writers that there is literally no place to post it where anyone would read it, not to mention that there are almost no Harry/Draco shippers still reading this LJ. There were good reasons why it wasn't posted at the time, but I have learned not to allow a story to be held up, or to write "secret" stories, ever again.
Biggest surprise: Leave No Man Behind. Where the story ended up going was surprising, as before I started writing I had a completely different concept. Of course being assigned How I Met Your Mother was surprising, especially a request for Barney/Robin, though a very pleasant surprise. But the biggest part of this biggest surprise is the overwhelming response the story received. I'm flabbergasted—pleased, but flabbergasted.
Overall: You never know when a new fandom will spring up and grab you by the throat. It's all
lillijulianne's fault actually; I'd never really been into singerfic until hers. I'm not sure how I feel about all this writing given the state of my schoolwork; perhaps 2007 was a year of displacement for me in many other ways as well.
