Meme: 2013 Fanfic Year-in-Review

[argentum_ls]

Total Word Count in 2013 = 83,600*

*(not counting all unposted WIPs)

Stories written: 22
Number of fandoms written in: 7
Shortest story: 509 words
Longest story: 19,938 words (so far)
Average story length: 3800 words


Crossovers/Fusions

From My Heart and From My Hand - Teen Wolf/Weird Science fusion - 5162 words - Lydia and Danny can't find the perfect man, so they decide to make one.
The Thickness of Blood - chapters 1-5 - Arrow/The Tomorrow People (2013) - 19,938 words - When Oliver and Stephen learn that secrets run in the family, they also learn that there's more than one way to fight a war.
The Ways of Hard-Knock School Arrow/The Tomorrow People (2013) - 2538 words - To lead the Tomorrow People forward, John needs some help to clear the way first. intoabar

Forever Knight

Coercive Power - 838 words - LaCroix has some words for Nick over Nick's handling of a case. fandom_stocking
Never Saw This World Before - 2220 words - After a shooting, LaCroix is forced to spend the day with Nick and to broach the consequences of their push-and-pull relationship. fkficfest

Highlander: the Series

Old and Familiar - 1746 words - Richie's appeal to the comforts of his childhood makes him wonder what Adam's are. fandom_stocking
Troll the Ancient - 3126 words - To celebrate Christmas, Cory has planned a specific heist for which he's going to need some very old help. hlh_shortcuts

The Listener

Mindful - 3720 words - The morning after "Fatal Vision," Toby works to rebuild his relationship with Tia while trying to find a person who they suspect is going to commit a crime. yuletide

Teen Wolf

Alibi Me - 1590 words - What Isaac is asking for and what he wants are not the same thing. fandom_stocking
Be With Me - 3100 words – Melissa is pregnant, and that't not the worst of it. angst_bingo
Broken - 509 words - Broken bones aren't the worst pain. angst_bingo
Extra Duty - 600 words – Coach Finstock wants to get his view on record.
Fatherly - 1171 words - The only person who knows a son better than his father is the man who sired him.
Hardest Road to Travel - 5000 words - In the days after the fire, Laura just wants to get Derek as far from Beacon Hills, as fast as she can. Then the car runs out of gas. rarewomen
Muscle Memory - 7186 words - After Danny and Isaac are assigned to share a room at summer lacrosse camp, they learn a few things about themselves and each other. shipswap
Only the Young - 7032 words - Erica and Boyd ran away from Beacon Hills in search of a new life. Just when they think they can't go any farther, a chance to help someone leads them to the place that neither of them knew they were running to.
Shipwrecked - 2000 words - Coach is a Danny/Scott shipper while Stiles prefers Scott/Isaac. They discuss.
Under the Mistletoe - 2000 words - Stiles makes use of seasonal traditions to get Danny's kiss. Danny has his own plans. trope_bingo
Youth and Consequences - chapters 1-3 – 10,567 words - The summer after their sophomore year has Scott, Stiles, and Isaac taking some time to relax and to reexamine their relationships.

The Tomorrow People (2013)

Pushed - 1723 words – Stephen tried to keep Astrid away. He should have known it wouldn't work. hc_bingo
Resistance - 785 words - Stripping people of their powers doesn't neutralize them. It only transforms them into a different kind of enemy. fan_flashworks

Tower Prep

Speechless - 1049 words – Gabe has lost his voice and Ian doesn't know why.

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Overall Thoughts

This was a very different writing year than 2012. For starters, I had a lot less time to write since I was losing eight hours every week driving home. There's also a big shift in what I chose to write. While 2012 was the year of short bingo fills, 2013 appeared to be the year of long stories.

My best stories of the year

The story with the highest kudos count appears to be “Under the Mistletoe.” It's also the story with the highest number of hits, though “The Thickness of Blood” is a really close second. The story with the highest number of comments is “Shipwrecked,” again with “The Thickness of Blood” as a close second. Whereas the story with the largest number of bookmarks is “Youth and Consequences.”

My favorite story of the year

I think my favorite is “The Thickness of Blood” just because of how much fun I've been having writing it. I'm also surprised by how little it got Jossed with the new seasons.

Story of mine most unappreciated by the universe

“Only the Young.” I really thought this would go over a lot better because people keep talking about how they want more Boyd/Erica. Either the story isn't very good (which is always possible) or people really don't want more B/E stories. Based on the crickets the story is getting, I can't tell.

Most fun story to write

“Shipwrecked” was the single most fun story to write, as well as being one of those “bit by inspiration” stories. I saw the prompt on the kinkmeme and had the first draft posted about 90 minutes later. When I transferred it over to AO3, I cleaned it up and added a few hundred more words because of how much fun the whole scenario was.

Story with the sexiest moments

I'm going to go with “Muscle Memory” on this one. Since I don't porn very much, and I almost never go truly explicit, there aren't a lot of choices for sexiest moments, but this one has a lot of interactions that please me.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story

I've got nothing for this one.

Story that shifted my perceptions of the characters

Do people routinely find their perceptions of characters shifted because of stories they wrote? I guess they must, or the question wouldn't exist. I suppose “Troll the Ancient” comes the closest to fulfilling this question. While it didn't shift my perceptions of the characters, it did require me to create perceptions of two characters I've never before thought much about.

Hardest story to write:

“Youth and Consequences” has been the hardest story to write so far. I started it about this time last year in response to a rarepairfest prompt. I got a plan mapped out for the shape of the story and wrote several major scenes, but the story just wasn't gelling, so I put it aside. Over the summer, I went back to work on it. It's been significantly rewritten, the original plan thrown out entirely. I'm still struggling with the story direction and getting parts written/rewritten.

Biggest disappointment:

As far as stories go, I don't really have any huge disappointments. I think “Mindful” could be stronger, and I wouldn't mind revisiting it at some point. My real disappointment is with the death of comment culture. I find it very frustrating how many people favorite, follow, and subscribe to my stories (especially “Muscle Memory,” “Youth and Consequences,” and “The Thickness of Blood”) yet can't be bothered to leave even one comment.

Biggest surprise:

“From My Heart and From My Hand” is, by far, the biggest surprise. I wasn't planning on it, wasn't thinking about it, and honestly thought that I didn't have the time or energy to get any more writing done at the end of November, and then I got the idea for this one and 40 hours later it was written. While I have become a much faster writer than I ever used to be, 5000 words in 40 hours is still a record for me.

Most unintentionally telling story:

All of them? Does anyone want to chime in on this question?

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

Much less overall, though much more than I thought I had.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2013?

I wrote in Arrow for the first time (granted, both stories are crossovers with The Tomorrow People). At the end of 2012, I had no interest in Arrow and I was still resisting htbthomas's efforts to get me to change my mind.

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

Big stories! WIPs! I'm about 50/50 with finishing stories that I start posting before finishing, and most of those have several chapters in the bag before I start posting. “The Thickness of Blood” has been a post-as-you-go story in its entirety, and “Youth and Consequences” effectively is. To have one active WIP isn't terribly unusual for me; to have two is nearly unheard of.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

Finish ToB and Y&C so I can move on to other ideas without feeling guilty.

I'd like to thank the academy...

htbthomas, bethskink, and tptigger were either my biggest helpers, or my biggest egger-on-ers, or both.