Fic Year In Review - 2010

[jedibuttercup]

I finally broke 200K words this year; and I'm about 18K away from the million-word mark at TtH. Best fic writing year yet; also most media consumed (TV, movies, books) since I started tracking.

I think I have enough tracking years in progress now to definitively say my output and fandom activity rise and fall directly with my health and mood. Not a surprise, but interesting to watch.

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2010 Fanfiction Totals

Of the 207,200 words written this year, 91,500 of them were non-crossover. That's closer to last year's ratio than previous years. I'm still addicted to improbable crossovers, but it seems I'm also having more fun exploring single universes than I was from '05 through '08. Eureka was this year's biggest single fandom, due largely to the Big Bang and the episode tag comm.

For comparison purposes, here are the previous years' totals:

2009 - 189,412 (97,800 non-cross)
2008 - 45,058 (25,758 non-cross)
2007 - 141,018 (24,300 non-cross)
2006 - 163,612 (26,136 non-cross)
2005 - 47,878 (All crossovers)

2002, 2003, and 2004 are harder to differentiate, as I didn't keep records of chapters and fics by month until late 2004, so I'm not sure just where everything fell. But between them, it comes to about 196,000 words, or an average of 65,000 words a year, most of it Buffy/Angel non-crossovers.

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Breakdown of Fic, by Category and Length:

Book Fandoms, Non-Crossover Fic:

With These Two Hands - The Rivers of War, 1000 words, Henry Crowell (yuletide)

Be Of Good Cheer - Dresden Files, 1800 words, Harry Dresden (for maevebran)
Dum Spiro, Spero - Dresden Files, 2200 words, Michael Carpenter
Holding My Ground - Dresden Files, 2200 words, Harry Dresden (for sticksnstrings)
I, that spent life upon Thy cause - Dresden Files, 1600 words, Michael Carpenter (for izhilzha)

Movie Fandoms, Non-Crossover Fic:

Respecting Tradition - Showdown in Little Tokyo, 2500 words, Kenner & Murata pre-slash (yuletide)
Strange Attractors - Jurassic Park series, 1500 words, Alan/Ian (yuletide)

And There Was Light - Skyline, 1900 words, OC
Marking Time - Death Race, 1200 words, Jensen/Joe
Originating Agent - Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1300 words, Balthazar Blake (for lady_with_cats)
Past the Point of Safe Return - AvP, 900 words, Alexa Woods
What Heaven Looks Like - The Mummy Returns, 1000 words, Rick O'Connell

Memoriam - Star Trek XI, 1000 words, Pike
Thanks, But No Thanks - Star Trek XI, 700 words, Uhura

1. Destiny By Any Other Name - Prince of Persia, 1000 words, Tamina
2. What Every Man Could Dream Of - Prince of Persia, 1000 words, Dastan
3. The Sword That Defends - Prince of Persia, 2000 words, Dastan & Sharaman

1. That Old Ten-Percent Chestnut - Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1500 words, Balthazar & Dave
2. Waking To Light - Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1500 words, Balthazar/Veronica
3. Conservation of Energy - Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1500 words, Balthazar & Drake Stone
4. A Learning Experience - Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1500 words, Becky & Veronica
5. Freedom to Live - Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1500 words, Balthazar & Dave

TV Fandoms, Non-Crossover Fic:

Data Quality Management - Leverage, 500 words, Hardison (yuletide)

Damage Done - Firefly, 1500 words, Mal & The Operative
Strength in Broken Places - Firefly, 2500 words, Zoë & Mal (girlsavesboyfic)
Weep Not For The Past - B:tVS, 1800 words, Kennedy & Buffy (for not_purrrfect)

Here For You (The Time and Again Remix) - Eureka, 30000 words, Jack/Tess (smallfandom_bb)

4.0a. On the Altar of Science - Eureka, 1000 words (eureka_tag)
4.0b. The New Vacation Destination - Eureka, 600 words (eureka_tag)
4.1. Looking On Tempests - Eureka, 800 words, Henry (eureka_tag)
4.2. Questions With No Good Answers - Eureka, 600 words, Jack (eureka_tag)
4.3. Within The Bending Sickle's Compass - Eureka, 700 words, Grace (eureka_tag)
4.4. Facing the Consequences - Eureka, 900 words, Allison (eureka_tag)
4.5. Clearing The Air - Eureka, 1700 words, Jack & Henry (eureka_tag)
4.6. Dreaming of Softer Places - Eureka, 800 words, Jo (eureka_tag)
4.7. What's Done Is Done - Eureka, 700 words, Jo (eureka_tag)
4.8. We Lie Loudest When We Lie To Ourselves - Eureka, 900 words, Jack/Allison (eureka_tag)
4.9. A Blessing In Each Trial - Eureka, 500 words, Jack/Allison (eureka_tag)

Non-BtVS Crossover Fic:

An Even Exchange of Favors - Human Target/Leverage, 2000 words, Guerrero-centric

Conversational Minefields - Eureka/Stargate SG-1, 1600 words, Jack Carter & Paul Davis (intoabar)
The Trust Job - Stargate SG-1/Leverage, 1900 words, Nate Ford & Vala Maldoran (sg_rarepairings)
With Friends Like These - Eureka/Leverage, 3000 words, Jack Carter & Parker (xover_exchange)

A Faithful Narrative - SG-1/Pride & Prejudice, 1700 words, Daniel/Vala (for maevebran
Closing Pandora's Box - Castle/Percy Jackson, 1500 words (for graycardinal)
First Impressions - Firefly/Star Trek:TNG, 2200 words (for wnnb_darklord)
The Husband of Shau'ri - Mummy/Stargate SG-1, 2200 words, Evie & Daniel (for brendanm720)
To Storm or Fire - Stargate SG-1/Percy Jackson, 2700 words, Daniel & Poseidon (for starshinedown)

A Bit of a Mystery - Mummy 3/Eureka, 1400 words (for po_thang)
A Proper Introduction - Sorcerer's Apprentice/SG-1, 1600 words (for kaylashay81)
Hazard of the Job - Sorcerer's Apprentice/Mummy Returns, 2000 words (for brendanm720)
Murphyonic Field Dynamics - Dresden Files/Eureka, 1500 words (for polgara_5)
One Such Possible Journey - Star Trek XI/SG-1, 2100 words (for tpeej)
Seeking That Which Is Lost - Leverage/The Mummy, 1600 words (for tygermama)
Seizing The Opportunity - Eureka/SG-1, 1300 words (for kerrykhat)
The Only Logical Conclusion - Dresden Files/Star Trek XI, 2200 words (for jilltanith)
There Is No Such Thing As Chance - Sorcerer's Apprentice/various, 1200 words, for morgynleri_fic)

Buffyverse Crossover Fic:

Handle ID Slayer - B:tVS/DOOM, 10000 words, Buffy/Reaper (rewrite; 1600 words new)

Big Trouble, Little Slayer - B:tVS/Big Trouble in Little China, 1500 words, Buffy/Jack Burton
It's All In The Reflexes - B:tVS/Big Trouble in Little China, 1700 words, Buffy/Jack Burton (for speakr2customrs)

Crossing the Timestreams - A:tS/Eureka, 1200 words, Illyria & Jo Lupo
Emergency Meetings - B:tVS/SG-1, 4200 words, clone!Daniel in Sunnydale
Five By Five, Sister - B:tVS/Firefly, 1600 words, Buffy & Faith
Half What, Now? - B:tVS/Percy Jackson, 8 x 200 words, Dawn-centric
In An Antique Land - A:tS/LotR, 1000 words, Wes & Illyria
Substitute Duties - B:tVS/Die Hard, 2000 words, John McClane & Wes
The Heroine and the Half-Shell - B:tVS/TMNT, 5100 words, Buffy/Raphael
Time To Stop Falling - A:tS/Firefly, 2100 words, Gunn-centric
Unnatural Condescension - SG-1/B:tVS, 900 words, Sam-centric

A Perfect Dinner - B:tVS/CSI, 4200 words, Buffy/Nick Stokes (for jerseyfabulous)
Challenging Assumptions - Stargate SG-1/B:tVS, 2300 words, Buffy Carter series (for kerravonsen)
Favored of Merlin - Stargate SG-1/B:tVS, 4200 words, Mitchell & Buffy (for avamclean)
Figures of Myth and Legend - Sanctuary/B:tVS comics, 1400 words (for nothorse)
Loaded For Bear - B:tVS/Dresden Files, 2700 words, Buffy & Harry (for polgara_5)
Making (Re)-Connections, A:tS/Harry Potter, 2000 words, Wes & Weasleys (for beatrice_otter)
Out Of This World - B:tVS/SGA, 1000 words, Oz (for butterflyflame)
Small Steps - A:tS/SG-1, 3800 words, Wes & SG-1 (for kerravonsen)
This Skin That I Live In - A:tS/Leverage, 1100 words, Lindsey (for maevebran)
Walk No More In Shadow - SG-1/B:tVS/LotR, 2200 words, Daniel & Buffy (for kerrykhat)

Into the Lioness' Den - B:tVS/Leverage, 1200 words, Buffy & Eliot (for stellarluna35)
The Definition of Damsel Stargate SG-1/B:tVS, 2800 words, Daniel & Buffy (for avamclean)
things worse than walls - Angel/Firefly, 1000 words, Illyria & River (for theotherwillow)

Drabbles & Tinyfic:

Drabble Bending - Avatar: the Last Airbender, 45 x 100 (indexed by episode)

the sweetest little song - B:tVS, 500 words, Drusilla & Cordy
there make a garden - LOTR, 500 words, Eowyn & Arwen

He Knows Better - Salt, 100 words, Salt/Peabody
Triumph - Salt/SG-1 , 200 words
Prelude to Disaster - Die Hard III/Showdown in Little Tokyo, 800 words

Dubious Distinctions - B:tVS/Leverage, 600 words
Matching Stride For Stride - B:tVS/DOOM, 600 words, Dawn/Reaper (for musesinspire)
More Than Just Memories - A:tS/Star Trek XI, 700 words, Bones & Illyria (for azraelz_angel)
No, I See How It Is - B:tVS/SG-1/SGA, 700 words, Buffy & John Sheppard

Fugitive Apprehension - A:tS/Eureka, 200 words, Lindsey & Jack (tthdrabbles)
Just As Fast As She Can, Now - B:tVS/TF2007, 200 words, Buffy & Jazz (tthdrabbles)
Seeking Justice - B:tVS/Firefly, 200 words, Joyce (tthdrabbles)
Turn of the Wheel - A:tS/Firefly, 200 words, Lindsey (tthdrabbles)

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Major WIP Series/Entries

No Place Like Eureka (Dawn in Eureka Season 3; Stark fix-it)
Parts: 8 | 9 | epilogue

backagainharry (Harry Potter post-DH time-travel AU)
Chapters: Thirteen | Fourteen

Book's Legacy (Firefly post-movie AU with B:tVS elements)
Chapters: Twelve | Thirteen

Adventures in Rome B:tVS post-series crossed with The Mummy
Chapters: Six | Seven

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The Year In Review

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

I'd hoped to break 200k words this year - and I made it, just. \0/

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

Fandom? Avatar: the Last Airbender. That was a pleasant surprise.
Pairing? Definitely Buffy/Raphael, from TMNT. Quite possibly my most unlikely Buffy-pairing yet.
Character? Balthazar Blake of Sorcerer's Apprentice. ♥♥♥

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

I signed up for Nanowrimo, and flunked it; I tried three more Big Bangs, and succeeded at one. Apparently I'm brilliant over the short stretch, but to succeed at long-form fic I really, really need to be sufficiently motivated - my ADHD at work. So I need to find better ways to motivate myself.

I also signed up for wishlist_fic, and though I have a few left over still, that went much better! In fact, by stats, if you look at the reasons I wrote fic all year long, there's a clear pattern:

Fic written on my own initiative, including WIP chapters - 91,400 words
Fic written for community-based challenges (including Yule & Big Bang) - 56,200 words
Fic written for requests (including wishlist_fic) - 69,600 words

More than half of what I produced was dedicated to other people, or prompted by others. Interesting, yes?

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

Working at more request fic? Completing a couple more big bangs? And seeing if I can reach 200k again.

I don't know if I'll try for NaNoWriMo again; maybe if I get a blazingly brilliant idea ahead of time.

5. my favorite story (of mine) this year:

The ones I had the most fun writing were mostly from the wishlist fic sprint; there are a lot of fun crossovers in there, and some fun detail and character work.

Other than that, though - gosh, there's so many. The Daniel & Poseidon fic, or the clone!Daniel in Sunnydale fic, or Favored of Merlin, or the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence.... I ♥ them all.

6. my best story this year:

Mmm. I'd say it's a toss-up on that score. Either Strength in Broken Places, the Zoë and Mal pre-series fic I did, or this year's Big Bang, Here For You, the Jack/Tess epic rewrite of ep 3.4 in which I also save Stark. I did a ton of research for that one, and am rather proud of the result, even though it received very few reviews.

7. the story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

... I don't actually think I had a story go uncommented all year, even my Skyline fic, which I wrote purely for my own entertainment as a reaction to a terrifically awful movie. Maybe my A:tLA drabbles? There didn't seem to be very many fen of the series on my f'list. Or Here For You? Though I expected low turnout for that rare pair.

8. most overrated story, in my opinion:

Of all the stories to win an award for this year, it was No Place Like Eureka? Not that I'm not proud of the award, or that I didn't enjoy the writing and the responses, but compared with some of the other things that were eligible...?

9. most fun story:

Oh, that's a toss-up for me, and both are Mummy crosses; almost bookends to the year:

The Husband of Shauri (Mummy/SG-1) & Hazard of the Job (SA/Mummy) ... Hey look, and they're both for brendanm720, too. You have the touch with prompts, my friend.

Oh, and I can't forget tygermama's Seeking That Which Is Lost, the Eliot-is-an-O'Connell fic. *laughing*

There are a number of honorable mentions, too... just check out wishlist_fic, really. =)

10. most sexy story:

Um. Did I actually write any characters in sensual situations this year? *scans list*

Probably the closest I got was in Marking Time, the Jensen/Joe Death Race tag I wrote back in January. Or maybe that Salt drabble: He Knows Better, Salt/Peabody.

Honorable mention to my eureka_tag stuff, though, and the Eureka BB; there was relationship stuff in those as well on the Jack/Allison and Jack/Tess fronts, though I think they were all fade-to-black moments. I'm not going to reread them all to check.

11. story with single sweetest moment:

Hmmm. Either Waking to Light, my little Balthazar/Veronica story from Sorcerer's Apprentice, or A Perfect Dinner, the sixth in my Buffy/Nick Stokes crossover series.

12. most friendshippy story:

I write so much gen or 'bob' fiction, that's hard to pick! Pure fandom, I'd say either there make a garden, my Eowyn & Arwen drabblet, or Strength in Broken Places, the Zoë & Mal story.

Crossover wise, it would be With Friends Like These, I think. That's the xover_exchange fic I did for faithburke; it's all about Jack Carter and Parker as friends, and how that may have come about.

13. the story that made me cry:

Oddly? Freedom to Live, fifth in my Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence, though it's actually a fairly fluffy story. It's just... I finished it, and suddenly had this very vivid memory flash of the grandfather who died violently when I was 12, and realized exactly where I was getting my Balthazar characterization from.

14. story that shifted my own perception of the characters:

Weep Not For The Past, a Chosen tag in which Kennedy talks to Buffy. I was never a Kennedy fan before, but writing that request got me into her head enough to respect her perspective.

15. most unintentionally telling story:

I hesitate to try to pin it down, given how much I wrote this year. Probably the introspective Dresden Files stories, which touch on issues of faith and coping; or the pair of Damage Done and Strength in Broken Places, both of which glancingly deal with suicidal intentions. (Due to a friend that attempted, and the grandfather who succeeded).

16. hardest story to write:

Here For You certainly took me the longest; at 30,000 words, it required several episode rewatches, a lot of online research, and months of writing and heavy editing to make the time loops all line up properly.

Other than that... the ones I didn't finish? =)

17. worst story:

I don't even know how to evaluate that! If you mean "story I'm most dissatisfied with", probably Figures of Myth and Legend, the Sanctuary/B:tVS short; I knew even as I wrote it I probably wasn't living up to the requester's expectation, but I detest the comics, so it was like pulling teeth to come up with even as much as I did.

18. biggest surprise:

I already covered Buffy/Raphael and Balthazar Blake, right? So.... how about Buffy/Jack Burton? The pair of stories I did as a cross between the Buffy movie and Big Trouble in Little China were definitely unexpected, but a lot of fun.

19. story I wish I'd finished:

The Star Trek Big Bang I tentatively started work on and had to bail; and the DS6CD story set in the Tin Man 'verse I also had to bail on for lack of time. I'm holding onto the seed files for those for this year.

20. story I didn't write but swear I will, someday:

More like, what won't I write? You'll see. And some of it, you'll see about the same time it occurs to me, since my muse likes to surprise me with new fandoms and ideas all the time. =)

Comments

Congratulations on this.

[pronker]

That is a fantastic list -- and re your last sentence, I hope your muse surprises you with some Star Wars inspirations, any era or category.

[dizzykj.livejournal.com]

I was going to get an early night tonight - just thought I'd look at my flist first... 3 hours later and I'm STILL reading through your fabulous fic!

Thanks so much for all that you write - you have such a wonderful way with character voices - in my head, so much of what you write becomes cannon!

[ninja-lurker.livejournal.com]

Ooh. *runs off to read*

Re: Congratulations on this.

[jedibuttercup]

Thank you!

I keep meaning to write some Star Wars, but my muse on that one's slow burning; there's a lot of really excellent fic already in the fandom.

[jedibuttercup]

You're welcome-- and thank you for your kind comments! I have so much fun exploring the characters I enjoy, I'm just glad other people enjoy my efforts, too. =)

[jedibuttercup]

*grin*

Re: Congratulations on this.

[pronker]

There is. Every time I try to think of a Qui/Obi plot, the truly great stories hang over me and I haven't much to say. Also, it would be action/adventure and plotty and I think all my plot bunnies got burned up in my long stories.