jlh | 2012 Writing Year in Review (Reply)

We had friends over last night, just a few people and it was pretty excellent even if the power mysteriously went out at 11pm!

2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

(No LJ links because fuck LJ, seriously.)

10 February: A Beard Is a Sometime Thing, Avengers: Clint/Coulson, NC-17, 1830 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: sensation play
14 February: Let Me Hear Your Body Talk, ST: Kirk/McCoy, NC-17, 2646 words. (DW | AO3) Written for km_anthology and kink_bingo: gags
10 March: A High Road Out From Here, Avengers: Clint/Coulson, PG, 2171 words. (DW | AO3)
18 March: What Happens In Greenwich, ST: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 14,751 words. (DW | AO3) Written for jim_and_bones Rom Com Challenge.
22 March: I'll Throw Away My Striped Tie, ST RPF: Chris/Karl,Z squared, PG, 613 words. (DW | AO3) Sequel to Some People Ain't Me.
16 April: They Say I'm Slippin', Glee: Mercedes/Quinn, PG-13, 290 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr).
17 April: Ain't Nothing Wrong with Dreaming, Community: Shirley/Jeff, PG, 285 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr).
18 April: A Beautiful Reflection, ST: Spock/Uhura, PG, 297 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr).
19 April: I Really Really Want to Catch Your Eye, White Collar: Diana/Elizabeth, PG, 291 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr).
20 April: When You Move I Move with You, ST: Pavel/Hikaru, PG, 302 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr); part of the 20s-in-Paris 'verse of April Is Over.
21 April: If You'd Escaped What I've Escaped, Inception: Ariadne/Yusuf, PG, 293 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr).
24 April: Time Knew to Move On, HP: Seamus/Dean, PG, 540 words. (DW | AO3) Written for Versicolor Week (tumblr).
25 April: Appropriate Motivation Is Required, Avengers: Clint/Coulson, PG-13, 997 words. (DW | AO3) Written from a prompt from pts
26 April: The Shoes Make the Woman, Avengers: Pepper/Natasha, PG-13, 1589 words. (DW | AO3) Has a podcast by reena jenkins.
28 April: Domesticity Is a Cult, Avengers: Pepper/Natasha, PG-13, 1338 words. (DW | AO3)
30 April: Things That You Might Have Done, Avengers: Pepper/Natasha, NC-17, 1887 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: prostitution
24 May: Surround Sound, Avengers: Coulson/Clint/Natasha/Pepper, PG, 1782 words. (DW | AO3)
13 June: Please Take Me Along As You Slide On Down, Avengers: Clint/Coulson, NC-17, 1888 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: authority figures
23 July: Girls to Talk To, ST: Janice/Christine, R, 20,449 words. (DW | AO3) Written for heroinebigbang, art by kymericl; the Radcliffe side of When the Game Ends, We'll Sing Again.
11 August: Steve and David Make a Porno, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, NC-17, 2055 words. (DW | AO3)
28 August: Invitations, Avengers: Pepper/Natasha, NC-17, 8611 words. (DW | AO3) Written for the avengers_rbb to go with art by chicagoartnerd; podcast by intransitive
9 September: Thought That Was a Good Solution, Glee: Quinn/Mercedes, PG, 5110 words. (DW | AO3)
30 September: Distractions, Teen Wolf: Lydia/Erica, NC-17, 1872 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: phone sex; companion to Distracted
30 September: Distracted, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, NC-17, 1932 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: wild card; companion to Distractions
6 October: Do You Want It On Your Biscuits, Baby?, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, PG, 1987 words. (DW | AO3) Companion to Scott McCall Is an Awesome Friend and The Only One That's Ever Known How
1 November: Loose and Tight in All the Right Places, Avengers: Pepper/Natasha, PG-13, 15,128 words. (DW | AO3) Written for marvel_bang; art by rosalui
12 November: The Migratory Patterns of Omegas, Teen Wolf: Lydia/Erica, NC-17, 8554 words. (DW | AO3) Written for a_b_o_ladies.
19 November: Back in High Spirits, Suits: Harvey/Mike, NC-17, 1149 words. (DW | AO3) Written for bulletproof_fic's frottage challenge.
20 November: An Excellent Thing, Suits: Harvey/Mike, NC-17, 2224 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: collars.
21 November: They Know How to Take Care of You in Brooklyn, White Collar: Diana/Elizabeth, Elizabeth/Peter/Neal, NC-17, 6472 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: obedience
22 November: Seize the Day, Community: Shirley/Jeff, NC-17, 3692 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: celibacy/virginity
23 November: All You Had to Do Was Ask, HP: Harry/Hermione, NC-17, 1549 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: nipple/breast play.
24 November: Taking What's Offered, HP: Seamus/Dean, NC-17, 981 words. (DW | AO3) kink_bingo: bondage—held down.
25 November: Another Set of Eyes, HP: Seamus/Dean, PG, 484 words. (DW | AO3) fanfic100: square
26 November: Because of Elizabeth, Teen Wolf: Scott/Allison, PG, 512 words. (DW | AO3)
27 November: Driving in Cars with Boys, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, PG, 284 words. (DW | AO3)
28 November: Hands-On, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, PG, 321 words. (DW | AO3)
29 November: Scott McCall Is an Awesome Friend, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, Scott/Allison, PG-13, 1582 words. (DW | AO3) Companion to Do You Want It on Your Biscuits, Baby? and The Only One That's Ever Known How.
30 November: It's Really Quite Simple, Teen Wolf: Lydia/Erica, NC-17, 502 words. (DW | AO3)
23 December: Where We Ought to Be, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, NC-17, 20,144 words. (DW | AO3) Written for teenwolf_bb, art by goss.
24 December: To Know One's Part, Star Trek: Kirk/McCoy, PG, 896 words. (DW | AO3) Written for space_wrapped.
25 December: Linen Trousers and Moleskin Bags, Tipping the Velvet: Nancy/Florence, PG-13, 1518 words. (AO3) Written for yuletide
27 December: The Only One That's Ever Known How, Teen Wolf: Derek/Stiles, PG-13, 1934 words. (DW | AO3) Companion to Scott McCall Is an Awesome Friend and Do You Want It on Your Biscuits, Baby?
31 December: A Balanced Meal, Teen Wolf RPF: Dylan/Hoechlin, PG, 1258 words. (DW | AO3) Written for verity.

Total Stories: 44
Total Fandoms: 12! Teen Wolf (12), Avengers (10), Star Trek (6), Harry Potter (4), Glee (2), Community (2), White Collar (2), Suits (2), Inception (1), Star Trek RPF (1), Teen Wolf RPF(1), Tipping the Velvet (1)
Total Word Count: 143,754

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
About what I thought—I had a lot of big bangs planned, and I came in around the same number of words as last year and the year before.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2012?
Teen Wolf, certainly! Also Avengers; I thought I'd just lurk there and when Clint/Coulson pulled me in I didn't realize I'd be saying for the Pepper/Natasha.

What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
It's a close call between what I've put under most fun, below, and The Migratory Patterns of Omegas. First, it is far and away more popular than I had any idea it would be, and I'm not sure what that's about but it's awesome and I am very appreciative! Second, I really love writing in Erica's POV, and it was fun to give Stiles another friend in addition to Scott, and really Stiles and Erica commiserating about being omegas is what drives the story. Third, femslash. Fourth, A/B/O what? I'd been wondering about femslash omega verse for a while and working out the logistics (thanks again Wincon femslash panel!) and having an excuse to work that out was amazing.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Scott McCall is an Awesome Friend, especially if you look at AO3 and the original tumblr post. I don't even know with that story; it just got HUGE and was something that people wanted in their face, I guess. In terms of Sterek there are a lot of stories much more popular, but in terms of me, it's the most kudos I've ever received. (Do You Want It On Your Biscuits, Baby? is a close second.)

Story most underappreciated by the universe:
You know, I've gotten to a place where I really don't feel like there is one. Stories find their audiences, and large or small that audience is appreciated by this writer. I had the good fortune to not write a single story that didn't get at least a few kudos. As long as someone likes it, it's not under appreciated, I think. I appreciate all the appreciation I receive!

Most fun story:
Probably Loose and Tight in All the Right Places. Having a long-time BFF who's been in bands for the past (yikes) twenty years meant I could write that Avengers band AU just off the top of my head. What was hilarious was how many people thought it was a bandom-esque thing and I had to say no, no, just bands I know! All band related shenanigans are the same, I guess! Also, it was too much fun to write from the POV of Natasha and Pepper as rocker ladies.

Sexiest story:
They Know How to Take Care of You in Brooklyn. It's turtles all the way down, that story, and fun to think about how Peter controls all the action without seeming to, and how Diana finds a way to thank him for that that she's okay with. There was also a lot of care and respect being expressed in that story, which is always sexy. Plus a lot of dirty talk in that story, if dirty talking is your thing.

Story with single sexiest moment:
I would say the moment with Pepper and Natasha on the windowsill in Invitations, except that sexy moment was in the art that drove the reverse big bang fic in the first place and therefore I cannot take credit for it. So instead I'll say when Mike says that no one but him will ever see Harvey in that corset in An Excellent Thing.

Story with single sweetest moment:
I write a lot of sweet stories, you guys. Is it Jeff declaring that Shirley should have as many orgasms as her body can stand, in Seize the Day? Is it Coulson realizing that Clint got all the other Avengers to visit him after his very unwanted office move in A High Road Out from Here? Is it how Harry and Hermione negotiate trying out a new kink in All You Had to Do Was Ask? Is it Derek buying Stiles a stand mixer in Do You Want It on Your Biscuits, Baby? Also, is it weird how un-sweet my femslash ships are?

Hardest story to write:
Probably What Happens in Greenwich. I like how it turned out, very much, but I was writing it under a time crunch when I was pretty burnt out from doing a lot of holiday writing and I hadn't honestly planned to write it at all but was feeling a lot of outside pressure to do so. I'm glad it exists but I'm much firmer now about not letting people talk me into writing things when I'm not feeling them inside myself.

Easiest story to write:
Distractions and Distracted I wrote in a day. They just came out, and alerted me to the depth of my Derek/Stiles + Erica/Lydia feels, the way I see the ships as reflecting each other.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I don't know if you can really call it a risk to either write smaller ships or to write omega-verse, but I did both of those things. I wrote a LOT of big bangs which means I had a lot of deadlines this year, which might have been risky but I find deadlines helps me set priorities and give myself some structure. I did a reverse bang which I've never done because I generally hate writing to prompts—I save all that energy for Yuletide—but that is a risk that paid off in a fic I love an an artist I'm lucky enough to be pals with now.

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Keeping that semi-monthly list of WIPs has been great for getting things done that have been kicking around my hard drive for a while, as has linking them to big bangs. When the

inception_bang posts in February, I'll have cleared out all the old fic ideas.

That leaves so much room for the NEW!! All this Teen Wolf and Avengers fic wouldn't have been possible if I were still carrying around the weight of all the stuff I hadn't finished yet. I'm writing and posting so much closer to my original ideas now which is an amazing feeling. I'll never be that person who is only in a fandom during its white-hot epicenter just because it takes me a while to really digest a canon and figure out what I want to write; I write long ensemble AUs and haven't written ongoing canon reaction fics since IdolRPF (and don't expect to do so again). But I'll take "within the first few months" definitely!

The other goal is to keep writing what I want to write, whether it's for a popular pairing or not, and not let the external chatter in fandom get me down. It's so easy to feel that what one is writing doesn't matter because people talk about numbers so much in fandom, but small ships are not unimportant, and they deserve love, too. I meant to give myself the cookies this year and I wasn't always successful in doing that. But I should have, and I want to be better about that in 2013.

So here are my cookies for 2012: More than half the words I wrote this year were femslash. 14% of the words I wrote this year were about characters of color. I think that's a pretty fantastic end-of-the-year statistic!