attackfish (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
attackfish) wrote2012-01-19 01:25 pm
attackfish) wrote2012-01-19 01:25 pm
Entry tags:
The Year In Fandom, 2011 Edition
Raw Data:
Total: 87,480
Avatar: the Last Airbender: 60,830
White Collar: 26,349
Harry Potter: 566
There is some overlap between A:tLA and HP fic, because of the Hufflepuff Zuko crossover.
Part I - General Fic Writing
What surprised and still surprises you the most about writing fan fiction?
What surprised my most at he beginning was how much the characters would come to feel like my own, the way they showed up to party with my original novel characters. Now, it’s mostly the way I have come to love writing drabbles, and how fiendishly difficult they are. It’s a lot like poetry.
What is the best thing about writing fan fiction?
The readers, the other writers, and the (yes, I’m going to say it) the comments. I’d write without them, but it would be a compulsion, not a joy.
What did you create this year that you didn’t last year? (Fandom, pairings, genres, types of fanworks)
I joined the White Collar fandom, God help me, and with that came both my first episode tag and a sudden need to write fantasy AUs. In fantasy fandoms, my AUs tend to be “What if this happened instead?” AUs, what if Remus had bitten Snape, what if Zuko had been blinded, etc. Suddenly, I’m writing about mirror universes crashing into canon ones, and vampires, and dragons. Thanks a lot, White Collar, thanks a lot. I also wrote my first sentence fics, a drabble about a threesome, a short story completely about original characters, and a crossover. Two, actually. This has been a strange, strange year.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I’ve been averaging about 100,000 words a year, so I wrote a little less than usual, but I expected that.
Part II – Specific Stories
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
White Collar, oh man, I swore I wouldn’t, but I am weak, and it is a pretty shiny little fandom.
Aside from that, a lot of the stories I wrote this year, I actually started earlier but due to many reasons, sort of fizzled out, or dragged on, or otherwise made me want to scream, so most of what I wrote I expected to write. I also didn’t write a single chapterfic this year. Oh dear.
What's your own favorite story of the year?
We writers love all our children... Yeah yeah... Hmm, the fanfic I like best is probably either “Spitfire” or “Versions of Themselves”, or one of the drabbles, like “Pigs Fly”, or “Shadows on the Floor” and “Stand Beside the World” (the two of which are really one fic).
Did you take any writing risks this year?
I wrote a story with almost all original characters, with the canon characters appearing only briefly about genocide and assorted other war crimes, including rape and forced marriage.
Aside from that, I also wrote my first happy shipfic, which was something I was convinced I couldn’t do, and when I was writing the sentence fest fics, I didn’t have an outline, or any idea about where the story was going, which was riskier in a different way.
Your quantifiably best story and why:
Hmm, probably “Only Truly Dead” or the drabble pair, “Shadows on the Floor” and “Stand Beside the World”. The first is a very heavily structured fic with a lot of scope, with a lot of things implied, and a subject matter that made me wonder what was wrong with me on a regular basis. The latter two are a very brief flash of canon through the eyes of two characters, and I’m very proud of them.
Your most popular story of this year:
"Spitfire", like woah.
Your riskiest story of this year (and why):
"Only Truly Dead". Genocide and original characters, sure, everybody wants to read about that...
Story of yours most under-appreciated by the universe, in your opinion:
My Avatar: the Last Airbender drabbles are tragically under-appreciated, as far as I’m concerned. Get with the program, people!
Most fun story to write:
"Spitfire" was so much fun. Sentence fics in general are, but this time, I had a tiny little dragon!Neal to play with. I also had a lot of fun writing continuing AUs for the Atlaland bingo.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I’m a gen writer, so I don’t write a lot of sexy moments period. The closest has got to be the ending scene in “Down to Sleep” when vampire!Peter is feeding on Neal, and Neal’s mostly asleep and in his underwear.
Most "holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
As I said before, I’m not big on the sexy, so my wrong stuff tends to be wrong in other ways. In this case, I have a hard time chosing between “Only Truly Dead” with genocide and raping nuns, the terrifying that is young Avatar Azula, and the mirrorverse where Zuko kills evil Aang and visits his morally good but had a psychotic break anyway sister. All of them are very, very dark.
What story left you scratching your head, wondering how this happened?
“Spitfire”. I knew I’d have dragon!Neal, but I hadn’t worked out how that would work. And I really really didn’t plan on having a real plot, character conflict, and all that tie in to season three.
Story that shifted your own perceptions of the characters:
I’m not sure if any of them really did. Well, “Down to Sleep” made me like Peter less than I had, and the Fire Nation Suki verse made me think a lot about her characterization. Oh, and Iroh in some of my atlaland drabbles... Really points out some things I don’t like to think about with him.
Hardest story to write:
This has been the year for monstrously hard to write fics, thus explaining my word count. “Only Truly Dead” was difficult both technically and emotionally, given the subject matter, but the two stories that I had to drag kicking and screaming into the light of day were “Yesterday’s Flame” and “Holding This Breath”, both of which took months to write. People keep asking about a continuation of “Holding This Breath”. Not in a million years.
Biggest disappointment:
I wasn’t able to complete the second part of Ice Flows Through for the Avatar Big Bang. I guess I shall have to write the second and third parts before the big bang this year.
Biggest surprise:
People actually read “Only Truly Dead”. Also, how popular some of my white collar stuff is. Also, the google ranking of my essay on disabled characters and fanfiction.
Most unintentionally telling story:
Probably “Pigs Fly”. I will certainly never let my family read it.
What, if any story, feels important to you, and why?
“Only Truly Dead”, which is about genocide and assimilation, and cultural loss. I posted it on Yom HaShoah for a good reason. It’s about how even the people who survived lost themselves, and it is one of my saddest stories.
Part III - Looking Forward
Is there any story you'd like to rewrite?
No, at this point, I want to hide from most of my stories.
How will new canon change your writing?
Ha ha ha! I like my canons closed, and my AUs out there. At the moment, I can’t predict how the new season of White Collar, or the upcoming Legend of Korra will affect my writing, but I bet they will somehow.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year?
I want to finish the Good People and Death Eaters verse, finish Children of Mars, maybe write a short companion to “Between”, finish Ice Flows Through, finish Xenolith, finish the White Collar slavefic I’m writing, and have a big enough buffer of fanfic to post while I work on my novel. Yeah right.
Total: 87,480
Avatar: the Last Airbender: 60,830
White Collar: 26,349
Harry Potter: 566
There is some overlap between A:tLA and HP fic, because of the Hufflepuff Zuko crossover.
Part I - General Fic Writing
What surprised and still surprises you the most about writing fan fiction?
What surprised my most at he beginning was how much the characters would come to feel like my own, the way they showed up to party with my original novel characters. Now, it’s mostly the way I have come to love writing drabbles, and how fiendishly difficult they are. It’s a lot like poetry.
What is the best thing about writing fan fiction?
The readers, the other writers, and the (yes, I’m going to say it) the comments. I’d write without them, but it would be a compulsion, not a joy.
What did you create this year that you didn’t last year? (Fandom, pairings, genres, types of fanworks)
I joined the White Collar fandom, God help me, and with that came both my first episode tag and a sudden need to write fantasy AUs. In fantasy fandoms, my AUs tend to be “What if this happened instead?” AUs, what if Remus had bitten Snape, what if Zuko had been blinded, etc. Suddenly, I’m writing about mirror universes crashing into canon ones, and vampires, and dragons. Thanks a lot, White Collar, thanks a lot. I also wrote my first sentence fics, a drabble about a threesome, a short story completely about original characters, and a crossover. Two, actually. This has been a strange, strange year.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I’ve been averaging about 100,000 words a year, so I wrote a little less than usual, but I expected that.
Part II – Specific Stories
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
White Collar, oh man, I swore I wouldn’t, but I am weak, and it is a pretty shiny little fandom.
Aside from that, a lot of the stories I wrote this year, I actually started earlier but due to many reasons, sort of fizzled out, or dragged on, or otherwise made me want to scream, so most of what I wrote I expected to write. I also didn’t write a single chapterfic this year. Oh dear.
What's your own favorite story of the year?
We writers love all our children... Yeah yeah... Hmm, the fanfic I like best is probably either “Spitfire” or “Versions of Themselves”, or one of the drabbles, like “Pigs Fly”, or “Shadows on the Floor” and “Stand Beside the World” (the two of which are really one fic).
Did you take any writing risks this year?
I wrote a story with almost all original characters, with the canon characters appearing only briefly about genocide and assorted other war crimes, including rape and forced marriage.
Aside from that, I also wrote my first happy shipfic, which was something I was convinced I couldn’t do, and when I was writing the sentence fest fics, I didn’t have an outline, or any idea about where the story was going, which was riskier in a different way.
Your quantifiably best story and why:
Hmm, probably “Only Truly Dead” or the drabble pair, “Shadows on the Floor” and “Stand Beside the World”. The first is a very heavily structured fic with a lot of scope, with a lot of things implied, and a subject matter that made me wonder what was wrong with me on a regular basis. The latter two are a very brief flash of canon through the eyes of two characters, and I’m very proud of them.
Your most popular story of this year:
"Spitfire", like woah.
Your riskiest story of this year (and why):
"Only Truly Dead". Genocide and original characters, sure, everybody wants to read about that...
Story of yours most under-appreciated by the universe, in your opinion:
My Avatar: the Last Airbender drabbles are tragically under-appreciated, as far as I’m concerned. Get with the program, people!
Most fun story to write:
"Spitfire" was so much fun. Sentence fics in general are, but this time, I had a tiny little dragon!Neal to play with. I also had a lot of fun writing continuing AUs for the Atlaland bingo.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I’m a gen writer, so I don’t write a lot of sexy moments period. The closest has got to be the ending scene in “Down to Sleep” when vampire!Peter is feeding on Neal, and Neal’s mostly asleep and in his underwear.
Most "holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
As I said before, I’m not big on the sexy, so my wrong stuff tends to be wrong in other ways. In this case, I have a hard time chosing between “Only Truly Dead” with genocide and raping nuns, the terrifying that is young Avatar Azula, and the mirrorverse where Zuko kills evil Aang and visits his morally good but had a psychotic break anyway sister. All of them are very, very dark.
What story left you scratching your head, wondering how this happened?
“Spitfire”. I knew I’d have dragon!Neal, but I hadn’t worked out how that would work. And I really really didn’t plan on having a real plot, character conflict, and all that tie in to season three.
Story that shifted your own perceptions of the characters:
I’m not sure if any of them really did. Well, “Down to Sleep” made me like Peter less than I had, and the Fire Nation Suki verse made me think a lot about her characterization. Oh, and Iroh in some of my atlaland drabbles... Really points out some things I don’t like to think about with him.
Hardest story to write:
This has been the year for monstrously hard to write fics, thus explaining my word count. “Only Truly Dead” was difficult both technically and emotionally, given the subject matter, but the two stories that I had to drag kicking and screaming into the light of day were “Yesterday’s Flame” and “Holding This Breath”, both of which took months to write. People keep asking about a continuation of “Holding This Breath”. Not in a million years.
Biggest disappointment:
I wasn’t able to complete the second part of Ice Flows Through for the Avatar Big Bang. I guess I shall have to write the second and third parts before the big bang this year.
Biggest surprise:
People actually read “Only Truly Dead”. Also, how popular some of my white collar stuff is. Also, the google ranking of my essay on disabled characters and fanfiction.
Most unintentionally telling story:
Probably “Pigs Fly”. I will certainly never let my family read it.
What, if any story, feels important to you, and why?
“Only Truly Dead”, which is about genocide and assimilation, and cultural loss. I posted it on Yom HaShoah for a good reason. It’s about how even the people who survived lost themselves, and it is one of my saddest stories.
Part III - Looking Forward
Is there any story you'd like to rewrite?
No, at this point, I want to hide from most of my stories.
How will new canon change your writing?
Ha ha ha! I like my canons closed, and my AUs out there. At the moment, I can’t predict how the new season of White Collar, or the upcoming Legend of Korra will affect my writing, but I bet they will somehow.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year?
I want to finish the Good People and Death Eaters verse, finish Children of Mars, maybe write a short companion to “Between”, finish Ice Flows Through, finish Xenolith, finish the White Collar slavefic I’m writing, and have a big enough buffer of fanfic to post while I work on my novel. Yeah right.