Fic Year in Review - 2015

[jedibuttercup]

2015 went a lot like 2014 for me ... with the exception of that big burst of Falling Skies fic in July last year; I didn't have an equivalent this year. I did, however, finish several WIPs, including The Big One, which: finally! *throws confetti* So, more progress.

Moving onward! TL;DR fic meme, here we go!

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2015 Fanfiction Totals

(FYI, I still count Yuletide stories with the year following, in which the reveals happen; so 2015's count includes the Yule 2014 stories and not the Yule 2015 ones.)

Of the 127,150 words I wrote in 2015, 54,250 of them were non-crossover. Percentage-wise, that's 42.6% or so of content, compared to last year's 49%. And the posts average out to 2,312 words long, not quite the high of last year (2,436) but better than any other year on record.

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

2014 - 143,700 (70,500 non-cross) 2013 - 158,850 (82,100 non-cross)          2012 - 215,450 (88,100 non-cross) 2011 - 272,200 (72,500 non-cross) 2010 - 207,200 (91,500 non-cross)

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 between them totaled about 196,000 words, or an average of 65,000 words a year, most of it composed of My First Fanfic Epic set in the Buffy/Angel universe.

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Breakdown of Fic, by Category and Length:

Book and Movie Fandoms, Non-Crossover Fic:

(give me) things that don't get lost - Expendables 3, 2000 words, Lee/Barney (yuletide)
The Secret To Building Momentum (Is To Take One Day at a Time) - Dresden Files (novels), 5600 words, Dresden & Marcone (yuletide)

Adventures in Cyberparenting - MCU, 1200 words, Tony & JARVIS (for feikoi)
me, i'm just passin' through - Pitch Black, 3000 words, Johns & Riddick (for pronker)

Skirmish; A Parley Sounded - Fast & Furious, 5800 words, Letty & Brian/Vince
Our Story Is Too True to Make Amends - Fast & Furious 6, 2600 words, Brian+Dom
How Can We Not Talk About Family (When Family's All We Got) - Furious 7, 2800 words, Letty/Dom & Brian+Dom

TV Fandoms, Non-Crossover Fic:

Derde Naam is De Charme - Person of Interest, 1200 words, Bear (not_primetime)
For They Shall Be Comforted (The Good Samaritan Remix) - Leverage, Eliot-centric, 1600 words (cof_remix)

e is for excellent (said the time traveler to her fellow) - Stargate SG-1, 1000 words, Sam & Jack
V is for Velocity - Stargate SG-1, 1400 words, Sam & Vala

Non-BtVS Crossover Fic:

A Good Mechanic's Hard to Find - Firefly/Dresden Files, 2000 words, Kaylee & Harry (intoabar)
Where Two or More are Gathered Together - Firefly/Mummy/Sleepy Hollow, 2800 words (for vialethe)

Different Ant, Same Old Boot - Sleepy Hollow/MCU, 3000 words, Fury & Ichabod (for graycardinal)
Nothing He Was Ever Trained For - MCU/Dresden Files, 2300 words, Tony/Pepper (for polgara_5)
The Past's Not Always In The Past - Frozen/MCU, 2600 words (for earcmacfithil)
The Princess is In Another Castle - MCU/Grimm, 1900 words, Natasha & Nick (for thady)
Timely Correspondence - Sleepy Hollow/MCU, 2000 words, Ichabod & Steve (for maevebran)
what the hand dare seize the fire - Dresden Files/MCU, 3100 words, Harry & Natasha (for edenfalling)

Of Iron and Fire - The Last Witch Hunter/Fast & Furious, 2400 words (for xlade)
Settling the Score - Furious Seven/Dracula Untold, 1600 words, Deckard Shaw & Dracula (for xlade)

Business, As They Say, Is Business - Person of Interest/Dresden Files, 2600 words, Elias & Marcone (for moonbeamsfanfic)
It's Never the Little Green Men - Stargate: Atlantis/Castle, 1800 words (for debirlfan)
Like a Storm of Lions - Riddick/Grimm, 2400 words (for hiddencait)
That Subtle Science and Exact Art - Harry Potter/Dresden Files, 1800 words, Snape & Harry (for xiorlanth)
Traveler From the West - Leverage/Mummy, 1500 words, Eliot-centric (for lizbet0)

Buffyverse Crossover Fic:

A Father's Duty - B:tVS/Die Hard 5, 1300 words, John & Jack McClane
a single man, in possession - B:tVS/Leverage, 1000 words, Eliot-centric
Applying Leverage: Part II - B:tVS/Terra Nova, 2400 words, Buffy & Taylor
To Be, Or Not (To Be Where I Am) - A:tS/Star Trek XI, 1000 words, Illyria & Spock

Dawn, Insert Last Name Here - B:tVS/Iron Man, 3000 words, Dawn & Tony (for jilltanith)
An Infinitesimal Problem - B:tVS/Ant Man, 1700 words, Dawn-centric
The More We Get Together (The Happier We'll Be) - B:tVS/MCU, 3000 words, Buffy & Clint & Tony (for pprfaith)

Dr. Buffy Is In (Extra Augh at No Charge) - B:tVS/Stargate SG-1, 1200 words, Buffy & Daniel (for avamclean)
Mother's Day - B:tVS/Stargate SG-1, 700 words, Dawn & Cassie (for lizbet0)
Setting Free - A:tS/Stargate SG-1, 2300 words, Wesley & SG-1 (for kerravonsen)

Carried Safe to Shore - B:tVS/Star Trek XI, 2500 words, Buffy/Bones (for kerrykhat)
Going For a Slay Ride - B:tVS/Leverage, 1000 words, Buffy/Eliot (for pixieinthedark)
In This Life or The Next - B:tVS/Dracula Untold, 1600 words, Buffy & Vlad (for xgirl2222)
said the spider to the fly - A:tS/Dresden Files, 1100 words, Illyria & Harry (for avamclean)
The Way Is Shut (For The Dead Keep It) - Angel/Walking Dead, 1200 words, Illyria-centric (for avamclean)

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Lengthy WIP Series/Entries

Adventures In Rome (B:tVS/Mummy, post-canon, Buffy/Imhotep) - STILL WIP
         Chapter 9 (written for xgirl2222)

Someone With the Skills to Intervene (Person of Interest/Dresden Files) - FINAL WC: 7,000
         Part 4 (written for Fiona_nk)

See For Yourself (B:tVS/SG-1, Season 7 AU, Dawn/Clone!Daniel) - FINAL WC: 27,000
         Chapter 6
         Chapter 7
         Chapter 8

Never Look Back (B:tVS/A:tS, S6/S3 AU, 12th in a series) - FINAL WC: 85,600
         25: The Die is Cast
         26: Breaking the Chains
         27: Moment of Truth
         28: What Can't We Do
         29: Picking Up the Pieces
         30: Business as Usual
         31: What Beside Remains
         32: Aiming to Misbehave
         Epilogue

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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?

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. In wordcount total, I wrote a bit less than 2013 and 2014; definitely less than I'd wanted, but not as bad as it could have been, considering RL. My best year was a bit over a quarter million words, back in 2011; this year, I made a little less than half that. In terms of satisfaction, though?

I finished Never Look Back! And See For Yourself!! And Someone With The Skills to Intervene!!! So what if it took more time and effort to produce that wordcount than with short stories? That's three WIPs off my plate now, the first of which especially I'd feared would never be done!

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

Not many new fandoms this year, and those that were, were new canons; I tend to write more conservatively when RL is more difficult. Most of my output was creative gen crossovers and/or character exploratory fic, which seems to be my fandom bread and butter.

I'd say Disney princess fic, except it was for Wishlist 2014, so I technically already knew it was coming. That Bear POV fic I did for not_primetime, then, I guess; I'd done machine POV before, but animal POV was a new one on me.

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

I participated in a remix, at cof_remix: For They Shall Be Comforted (The Good Samaritan Remix) - Leverage; 1600 words.

The only time I ever completed a remix for anything before had been for a drabble-length fic exchange several years ago. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but overall an enjoyable experience; would do it again!

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

Let's keep it simple. A) Finish Wishlist 2015. And B), for my next magical WIP-finishing trick: backagainharry!!!

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

It would probably be cheating to claim any of the WIPs I finished, since only part of each story was written in this particular year. I'm pretty partial to all of them - hence why they made it to multiple chapters in the first place!

I guess I'd say Skirmish; A Parley Sounded, then; it's the longest thing I wrote purely for myself all year, the Letty-centric third chapter in my Brian/Vince Fast and Furious AU. A lot of the canon F&F universe plotlines are about Letty, but she doesn't really get to drive any of them on-screen; I enjoyed exploring her headspace and the between-movie connecting bits of the universe more here.

6. my best story this year:

Again avoiding mentioning former WIPs... let's qualify that as, which story am I the most satisfied with as it stands, to the point that I wouldn't change a word if I had it to do over?

In This Life or the Next, my B:tVS/Dracula Untold, Mirena-was-a-Potential, reincarnated-as-Buffy story. Maybe it's a weird one to be proud of, but I feel like I hit exactly the mark I was aiming for, and actually managed to make the 1992 movie plot-relevant in the process. *grin*

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

The only new fic that didn't manage to reach at least 200 hits on AO3 in 2015 was me, I'm just passin' through. Not a surprise, though, as it's a gen Riddick-verse fic set before any of the movies, in which nobody dies and Riddick gets outsmarted for once. People that read William J. Johns fic are usually in it for Cole Hauser and Riddick/Johns fic in particular, in my experience; here, Johns is just being a badass.

In terms of dearth of reaction ... To Be, Or Not (To Be Where I Am) got kudos, but almost zero commentary. Again, not a surprise. An Illyria missing her Wesley and with a bit of her power back notices ripples in the timestream, and shows up on Spock!Prime's doorstep for a conversation about destiny. Not what people were probably expecting from the crossover - but I wrote it for me, not anyone else, so.

8. most overrated story, in my opinion:

You know, I really hate this question. *shrug* I guess I'd say ... most of my MCU stuff is miles higher in kudo count than everything else, purely because it's a megafandom, not because it's better writing. Does that count? Same with my HP/Dresden Files cross; it took off like a rocket.

9. most fun story:

Probably either A Good Mechanic's Hard to Find, my Harry Dresden meets Kaylee Frye fic, or The More We Get Together (The Happier We'll Be), the Buffy & Tony & Clint story with bonus Avengers get-together. I sure had fun writing them!

10. story with the sexiest moment:

Again, this was a conservative year for me; more gen than anything else, and those that weren't, very mild. (Looking at all those LJ tags next to the stories makes me kinda glad I had the Wishlist leftovers to push me, or I might not have written much at all other than lesser_men_saga!)

It's kinda sad, but I guess if you count "most intimate" rather than "sexiest", I think the title goes to the continuation chapter of Out of the Silver Sea, my Buffy/Leonard McCoy fic? Oh, and there's a little bit of nonspecific Tony/Pepper kissing in Nothing He Was Ever Trained For, LOL.

11. story with the sweetest moment:

For literally sweet: The Secret To Building Momentum (Is To Take One Day at a Time), when Harry Dresden feeds Marcone, Kincaid and Ivy all ice cream; or e is for excellent (said the time traveler to her fellow), where Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill discuss pie. *grin*

Metaphorically ... there was a lot more bittersweet than straight up saccharine in my lineup this year, but I think Adventures in Cyberparenting would qualify, where JARVIS goes to Tony for advice about a girl and makes his day. *hugs the AI*

12. most friendshippy story:

There were several this year. I think the top two for me were probably the second chapter of Trust Building Exercises, wherein Dawn Summers and Cassie Frasier discuss Mother's Day; and V is for Velocity, with Sam Carter and Vala Mal Doran taking an off-world trip post-series.

13. Holy crap, that's wrong even for you!

I think the creepiest thing I probably wrote all year - aside from maybe the epilogue of Never Look Back? - was The Way Is Shut (For The Dead Keep It), an Angel-verse/Walking Dead story starring Illyria. (She's so much fun to write.)

14. the story that made me cry:

How Can We Not Talk About Family (When Family's All We Got) - concluding the Brian/Mia, Dom/Brian, Dom/Letty triptych.

I have many and very complicated feelings about the Fast and Furious series now because of my dad, who was a street racer in his own teen years back in the 70s; I always watched those movies with him. We talked a lot about Furious 7 especially in the months right before his death, because Paul Walker died two months before he did. I cried in theater when the movie finally came out; the last scene in particular felt like a gut-punch. And of the stories I wrote in the fandom to vent some of those feelings directly afterward, this one was the most emotional for me, though it isn't particularly sad in and of itself. If that makes sense. *clears throat*

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

me, I'm just passin' through, by far. I have never liked the character of William J. Johns in Pitch Black; I was much more pleased by the addition of Boss Johns to the Riddick-'verse. There was absolutely nothing redeeming in his role for me, other than 'face-heel-turn guy we won't mind the anti-hero killing', and no matter how good-looking Cole Hauser was in the role, I can't write a character I despise sympathetically.

... So I went back and watched the movie; then listened to all of Johns' logs included on the DVD; then sought out the cut-scenes from the Butcher Bay game; then put a little thought into the timeline; and finally found an angle on him I could respect and sink my teeth into.

16. most unintentionally telling story:

See For Yourself is basically 27,000 words of leveraging Clone!Jack and Clone!Daniel to fix the shit out of Buffy Season 7. My issues with the canon are all over the place in that one, and unlike NLB and my Fast and Furious fic this year, that wasn't the intention when I started it.

17. hardest story to write:

This one's a big duh. Never Look Back! The time it took to repeatedly reread the existing chapters, make notes on extant plot threads, rewatch episodes to refresh myself on applicable canon moments, and research other details for inclusion in the fic, was exhausting. But it totally paid off.

18. worst story:

Probably a single man, in possession? That fic exists for one purpose, and one purpose only; because I realized I'd left a fairly significant plothole or two between the three Slayers-beat-on-Eliot drabbles that started that series off, and so immovable a dislike, the Buffy/Eliot, Lindsey & Eliot story I wrote for Syd using the drabbles as backstory. It's cute, and I had fun writing it ... but it isn't what I'd call a good story on its own.

19. biggest surprise:

That I actually finished three WIPs, one of which dated all the way back to my pre-LJ, pre-AO3 days when I discovered fanfiction.net at a crucial point in my dissatisfaction with Whedon's oeuvre. And that people were actually still tracking those stories, and were pleased enough to let me know it was worth the wait. *hugs all y'all*

I have much more optimism now about the prospect of plowing through the rest of my WIPs. In order of intent to update, those are currently backagainharry; Adventures in Rome (B:tVS/Mummy); Weathering the Storm (Tin Man/Wizard of Oz); and watching_river (Firefly/B:tVS). We'll see how far I get in 2016.

20. story I wish I'd finished:

See above question. Though I'm more satisfied this year than I have been in recent years. :)


Past analysis posts: 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010| 2009 | 2008 | 2007: Part I & Part II | 2006

Comments

[sulien.livejournal.com]

It takes a helluva lot to research and write with such attention to detail, and you manage to do so while maintaining a full time job and carrying on a 'real life' as well. I may not read everything you write, just because I have no clue about the fandom(s) involved, but I can definitely appreciate that you write and share it. Thank you for writing and sharing what you write, you often make my day (week, month...) with your stories & updates. :)

[jedibuttercup]

You're welcome; and thank you for all your enthusing and support! It always makes my day when you comment on something in one of the fandoms you follow.

I am an incessant note-taker, and a daydreamer; if I didn't capture ideas whilst going about my everyday business, to elaborate on when I have time to sit down with a keyboard, I'd never get as much writing done. :)

[pronker]

It's a pleasure to read this entry. You sound satisfied to a high degree and with appropriate squeeage over the 2015 accomplishments, as you ought. And whee for discovering Johns' mindset and fleshing out my puny prompt. Of all the authors, you make me wish the most for the time and energy to pursue each and every fandom displayed here to appreciate the canons, research and effort placed in these stories.

2016? Bring it on, baby!!!

[jedibuttercup]

Thank you! 'Accomplished' is definitely a good word for how I felt after 2015. Now if I can just keep it up!

You seem to make a habit of giving me prompts that require much thought, in one way or another! But that tends to produce fic I'm really glad to have written, so. :)