Rebcake's Fic Round-up of 2010
Jan. 2nd, 2011 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebcakeThank goodness for communities, where I posted 90% of my fic this year. Particularly helpful in getting me to put fingers to keyboard were still_grrr, fantas_magoria, seasonal_spuffy, and sb_fag_ends. Thanks also for culture in general, since this year's sort-of crossover topics in my fic include war movies, Lysistrata, A Modest Proposal, love songs, Clueless, Rock 'n Roll High School, Veronica Mars, Love and Rockets (the comic), and anti-smoking propaganda. Still, all fic listed here is set in the Jossverse.
Overall Thoughts
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I wrote 24 stories this year, fewer (by 3 drabbles) than last year, but I also wrote longer things than ever before, so the word count is higher. That would be a respectable 2 fics a month, but the spread was less than even. The year got off to a good start, with 12 new stories posted January through April, but then there were 6 less than stellar months before I posted 9 more in November-December. Inconsistent production sums up my year.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
There are quite a few. I don't think anybody could have predicted Skip/D'Hoffryn. There are also Miss Edith/Mr. Gordo and Spike/Jhiera in the unusual pairings category. I wrote several other characters that I didn't expect to: Cordelia, Robin Wood, Número Cinco, and the Chaos Demon, to name a few. I also wrote my first Dollhouse fic, which means my first non-Buffyverse fic. Hooray?
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I can't really choose between my children. They all (or most, anyway) have a thing about them that makes me happy. The Gay Agenda is the most sweetly domestic, which makes me happy — even though I know it all goes wrong in a couple of years, leading Skip to fall in with a bad element. *koff*Jasmine*koff* Mysteries of the Kitchen, which was written for the "Buffy slays something with a kitchen implement and has sex afterward" impromptu ficathon, is also pretty cheery and happy-making. Hmmm, both of those are tales of wedded bliss, more or less. Is my kink is showing?
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Length and plot are not natural to me, so I guess I stretched a little in those areas. I continued to NOT learn to do things ahead of time, which I'm guessing will never change.
Drabbles (100 words)
Miss Understanding (Harmony, Giles, AU AtS S5)
Whale of a Tale (Spike, Xander, BtVS S4)
Just In Time Delivery (Xander, BtVS S3)
Fire and Rain (Spike thinking about Harmony and Buffy, BtVS S5)
Ficlets (under 1,000 words)
The Lioness on the Cheese Grater (Giles, BtVS S4)
Moist and Delicious (Darla, pre-series)
Maybe This Time (Buffy/Spike, BtVS S7)
The Gay Agenda (or, Happy Anniversary) (D'Hoffryn/Skip, BtVS S4)
Mysteries of the Kitchen (Spike/Buffy, post-series)
Everyday Heroes (Buffy and other students, BtVS S3)
The Front Lines (Robin Wood, approximately BtVS S4)
Two Faces Have I (Número Cinco and friends, pre-series)
Urban Myth (Spike/Buffy, Willow, BtVS S4)
Mystery Date (Buffy, Willow, BtVS S4)
Tales of Oden Tal Creamery (BtVS S4):
Longer Fic (over 1,000 words)
No Regrets (Mr. Gordo/Miss Edith, BtVS S2)
WIP - Whose Torments Is This, Anyway? (Spike/Buffy, AtS S5) (On spuffy_wonder, a locked LJ comm)
Gray into Gold (Wood, Giles, the Angel Team - AU AtS S5)
Defenseless (Spike, Buffy, Joyce, Giles, plus more - AU BtVS S4)
Feels Like Heaven (Spike/Buffy, Dawn - post-series)
Yule Be Sorry (The Great Hunt of 1998) — (Spike, Dru, the Chaos Demon - BtVS S3)
From my past year of writing, what was:
My best story of this year:
None of them are without flaw. I like the structure of Feels Like Heaven, though it feels unfinished to many people. That's what I get for skipping the happy ending, I suppose. Moist and Delicious was the most researched, and is satisfying in its plausibility, but then I think that about all my FITB fic.
My most popular story of this year:
Defenseless was pretty popular on the archives. It got much more feedback than I usually get from those sources, probably because it was the most traditionally told. I'm not sure it was as popular with the LJ audience, though. For some reason, The Lioness on the Cheese Grater has been nominated for lots of awards, which shows popularity of some sort. Right?
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
It's a story from last year that I feel that way about, Let the Good Times Roll. I mean, Spike and Dru in New Orleans for Mardi Gras? How is that not something simply everyone would want to read? *shrug* This year, the things that didn't get a lot of response are sort of understandable. My f-list is not super obsessed with Dollhouse, and rare characters are less of a draw than, say, Spike, so it makes sense that those stories would be less appreciated. I'm cool with it. *sob*
Most fun story to write:
All the ones that write themselves. When a story idea comes fully formed out of who knows where, that's when I feel, "Yes, I am a storyteller." If it's not too long, it stays fun to write. Examples this year include, Whale of a Tale, The Gay Agenda, Mysteries of the Kitchen, Double Scoop of Oden Tal, and The Gift of the Techno-Magi.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Although I only dealt in innuendo this year, I think the moments when Buffy and Willow reminisce about their previous respective sexual experiences in Mystery Date might qualify. Or was it Giles reading classical smut in The Lioness on the Cheese Grater? Or the reamer incident in Mysteries of the Kitchen? You tell me.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Well, again, it was a PG13 kind of year for me. SPOILER: Buffy killing Faith in Defenseless was probably the biggest shocker.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Definitely The Front Lines gave me a back story for Robin Wood that makes him a real world, if imperfect, hero — not just the tragic Slayer's son.
Hardest story to write:
Most of them are hard at some point. Defenseless was the hardest for the longest, because it is the longest at 10,000 words. Also, it's really only the first part of the story, and it's been hard to do meaningful work on the continuation.
Biggest Disappointment(s):
Not finishing my WIP, Whose Torment Is This, Anyway? There is a reason I don't often post unfinished stuff, but the deadline wasn't my friend this time. I do think it will get finished early in 2011, though. There is so very little to be done, but oh, that hump seems high most days. It's in a locked comm at the moment, but once it's finished, I'll put it up here, too.
I also have a lot of other things that didn't get posted: meta on love (mostly written), a long historical piece about Sunnydale in the 1950s (off to a great start with 3 chapters written — in 2009), anything for schmoop_bingo. Fail.
Biggest Surprise:
There was no Spike in half my stories this year. Gasp!
I wrote almost no historical fic in 2010. There was one Darla fic, Moist and Delicious, one Número Cinco fic, Two Faces Have I, and that's it for pre-series stories. Dru appeared in just one story, Yule Be Sorry, which was the last thing I wrote this year and also has the worst title. I miss my travels with Spike and Dru...I blame the sudden death of the seasonal_sd community. Grrr.
Less surprising is the plethora of BtVS Season 4 fic this year, as I've been doing a careful rewatch as part of my mod duties at fantas_magoria. Six episodes to go before Season 5! Join us!
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
I'm sure that there is lots that's telling, as many of my stories have a bit of meta at their heart, or I wouldn't bother writing them. I can't think of anything that was unintentionally so, though. I did notice that my fic was fairly cheerful at the beginning of the year, and quite a bit more angsty by the end. I credit the comics for dampening my glee, but it could just be that I've already told a ton of happy(ish) stories, and I'm heading into angst so as not to repeat myself. Hard to say.
Happy New Year everybody! Here's to a happier, healthier, more productive, and prosperous year in 2011!
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I wrote 24 stories this year, fewer (by 3 drabbles) than last year, but I also wrote longer things than ever before, so the word count is higher. That would be a respectable 2 fics a month, but the spread was less than even. The year got off to a good start, with 12 new stories posted January through April, but then there were 6 less than stellar months before I posted 9 more in November-December. Inconsistent production sums up my year.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
There are quite a few. I don't think anybody could have predicted Skip/D'Hoffryn. There are also Miss Edith/Mr. Gordo and Spike/Jhiera in the unusual pairings category. I wrote several other characters that I didn't expect to: Cordelia, Robin Wood, Número Cinco, and the Chaos Demon, to name a few. I also wrote my first Dollhouse fic, which means my first non-Buffyverse fic. Hooray?
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I can't really choose between my children. They all (or most, anyway) have a thing about them that makes me happy. The Gay Agenda is the most sweetly domestic, which makes me happy — even though I know it all goes wrong in a couple of years, leading Skip to fall in with a bad element. *koff*Jasmine*koff* Mysteries of the Kitchen, which was written for the "Buffy slays something with a kitchen implement and has sex afterward" impromptu ficathon, is also pretty cheery and happy-making. Hmmm, both of those are tales of wedded bliss, more or less. Is my kink is showing?
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Length and plot are not natural to me, so I guess I stretched a little in those areas. I continued to NOT learn to do things ahead of time, which I'm guessing will never change.
Drabbles (100 words)
Miss Understanding (Harmony, Giles, AU AtS S5)
Whale of a Tale (Spike, Xander, BtVS S4)
Just In Time Delivery (Xander, BtVS S3)
Fire and Rain (Spike thinking about Harmony and Buffy, BtVS S5)
Ficlets (under 1,000 words)
The Lioness on the Cheese Grater (Giles, BtVS S4)
Moist and Delicious (Darla, pre-series)
Maybe This Time (Buffy/Spike, BtVS S7)
The Gay Agenda (or, Happy Anniversary) (D'Hoffryn/Skip, BtVS S4)
Mysteries of the Kitchen (Spike/Buffy, post-series)
Everyday Heroes (Buffy and other students, BtVS S3)
The Front Lines (Robin Wood, approximately BtVS S4)
Two Faces Have I (Número Cinco and friends, pre-series)
Urban Myth (Spike/Buffy, Willow, BtVS S4)
Mystery Date (Buffy, Willow, BtVS S4)
Tales of Oden Tal Creamery (BtVS S4):
Stay Frosty (Cordelia, Angel, Wesley, and Jhiera [from She])
Packed With Fiber (Buffy, Giles, Joyce, and Jhiera)
Double Scoop of Oden Tal (Spike, Xander, and Jhiera)
Come and Get It (Ensemble and the Oden Tal refugees [from She])
The Gift of the Techno-Magi (Joel Mynor of “Bouncy the Rat” fame and Adelle DeWitt, Dollhouse S1)Packed With Fiber (Buffy, Giles, Joyce, and Jhiera)
Double Scoop of Oden Tal (Spike, Xander, and Jhiera)
Come and Get It (Ensemble and the Oden Tal refugees [from She])
Longer Fic (over 1,000 words)
No Regrets (Mr. Gordo/Miss Edith, BtVS S2)
WIP - Whose Torments Is This, Anyway? (Spike/Buffy, AtS S5) (On spuffy_wonder, a locked LJ comm)
Gray into Gold (Wood, Giles, the Angel Team - AU AtS S5)
Defenseless (Spike, Buffy, Joyce, Giles, plus more - AU BtVS S4)
Feels Like Heaven (Spike/Buffy, Dawn - post-series)
Yule Be Sorry (The Great Hunt of 1998) — (Spike, Dru, the Chaos Demon - BtVS S3)
From my past year of writing, what was:
My best story of this year:
None of them are without flaw. I like the structure of Feels Like Heaven, though it feels unfinished to many people. That's what I get for skipping the happy ending, I suppose. Moist and Delicious was the most researched, and is satisfying in its plausibility, but then I think that about all my FITB fic.
My most popular story of this year:
Defenseless was pretty popular on the archives. It got much more feedback than I usually get from those sources, probably because it was the most traditionally told. I'm not sure it was as popular with the LJ audience, though. For some reason, The Lioness on the Cheese Grater has been nominated for lots of awards, which shows popularity of some sort. Right?
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
It's a story from last year that I feel that way about, Let the Good Times Roll. I mean, Spike and Dru in New Orleans for Mardi Gras? How is that not something simply everyone would want to read? *shrug* This year, the things that didn't get a lot of response are sort of understandable. My f-list is not super obsessed with Dollhouse, and rare characters are less of a draw than, say, Spike, so it makes sense that those stories would be less appreciated. I'm cool with it. *sob*
Most fun story to write:
All the ones that write themselves. When a story idea comes fully formed out of who knows where, that's when I feel, "Yes, I am a storyteller." If it's not too long, it stays fun to write. Examples this year include, Whale of a Tale, The Gay Agenda, Mysteries of the Kitchen, Double Scoop of Oden Tal, and The Gift of the Techno-Magi.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Although I only dealt in innuendo this year, I think the moments when Buffy and Willow reminisce about their previous respective sexual experiences in Mystery Date might qualify. Or was it Giles reading classical smut in The Lioness on the Cheese Grater? Or the reamer incident in Mysteries of the Kitchen? You tell me.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Well, again, it was a PG13 kind of year for me. SPOILER: Buffy killing Faith in Defenseless was probably the biggest shocker.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Definitely The Front Lines gave me a back story for Robin Wood that makes him a real world, if imperfect, hero — not just the tragic Slayer's son.
Hardest story to write:
Most of them are hard at some point. Defenseless was the hardest for the longest, because it is the longest at 10,000 words. Also, it's really only the first part of the story, and it's been hard to do meaningful work on the continuation.
Biggest Disappointment(s):
Not finishing my WIP, Whose Torment Is This, Anyway? There is a reason I don't often post unfinished stuff, but the deadline wasn't my friend this time. I do think it will get finished early in 2011, though. There is so very little to be done, but oh, that hump seems high most days. It's in a locked comm at the moment, but once it's finished, I'll put it up here, too.
I also have a lot of other things that didn't get posted: meta on love (mostly written), a long historical piece about Sunnydale in the 1950s (off to a great start with 3 chapters written — in 2009), anything for schmoop_bingo. Fail.
Biggest Surprise:
There was no Spike in half my stories this year. Gasp!
I wrote almost no historical fic in 2010. There was one Darla fic, Moist and Delicious, one Número Cinco fic, Two Faces Have I, and that's it for pre-series stories. Dru appeared in just one story, Yule Be Sorry, which was the last thing I wrote this year and also has the worst title. I miss my travels with Spike and Dru...I blame the sudden death of the seasonal_sd community. Grrr.
Less surprising is the plethora of BtVS Season 4 fic this year, as I've been doing a careful rewatch as part of my mod duties at fantas_magoria. Six episodes to go before Season 5! Join us!
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
I'm sure that there is lots that's telling, as many of my stories have a bit of meta at their heart, or I wouldn't bother writing them. I can't think of anything that was unintentionally so, though. I did notice that my fic was fairly cheerful at the beginning of the year, and quite a bit more angsty by the end. I credit the comics for dampening my glee, but it could just be that I've already told a ton of happy(ish) stories, and I'm heading into angst so as not to repeat myself. Hard to say.
Happy New Year everybody! Here's to a happier, healthier, more productive, and prosperous year in 2011!