Fic Year in Review - 2016

[jedibuttercup]

Big disappointment this year: I ended the year with only half a chapter of BAH written. Obviously, I failed in my promise to update that particular WIP; I just couldn't get it off the ground. That'll have to carry over to 2017. (Current progress: two-thirds of Chapter 19 written!)

However... I did complete a novel-length fic! And two other big bangs! And one of my Yuletide 2015 fics was 10,000 words long! Between those and finishing Lesser Men in 2015, I feel like I stretched my writing muscles a lot, so I'm not entirely displeased with myself. *grin*

So, TL;DR fic meme, here we go!

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2016 Fanfiction Totals

(FYI, I still count Yuletide stories with the year following, in which the reveals happen; so 2016's count includes the Yule 2015 stories and not the Yule 2016 ones.)

Of the 198,835 words I wrote in 2016, 171,635 of them were non-crossover. Percentage-wise, that's 86.4% or so of content, compared to last year's 42.6%. And the posts average out to 7,361 words long, which is 5,000-ish words more than last year's average! (Those three big bangs I participated in had a very noticeable effect on the stats!)

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

2015 - 127,150 (54,250 non-cross) 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:

His Greatest Gift - Olympus Has Fallen, 16,600 words, Ben/Mike (smallfandombang)
now ask me a serious question - Olympus Has Fallen, 1500 words, Ben/Maggie/Mike (yuletide)

I Was a Different Person Yesterday, You See - Alice Through the Looking Glass, 1400 words, Hatter

push the button and go - The Fast and the Furious, 700 words, Soulmark AU
Weighting the Odds - The Fast and the Furious, 1000 words, Mutant AU
A Whole Different Level - Furious Seven, 1800 words, Brian/Hobbs/Mia

TV Fandoms, Non-Crossover Fic:

Now That the Dawn Has Come - Falling Skies, 106,135 words, Tom/Pope (extreme_bigbang)

Ladies Night Out in Battle Creek - Battle Creek, 1000 words, Guziewicz (yuletide)
Lost to Be Found - Battle Creek, 10,000 words, Milt & Russ (yuletide)

when all other lights go out - Sleepy Hollow, 3500 words, Ichabod/Abbie (not_primetime)
where the streets have no name - Sleepy Hollow, 18,200 words, Ichabod/Abbie (het_bigbang)

B is for Back to Basics - Stargate SG-1, 3400 words, Jack
N is for Not Your Grandfather's Paradox - Stargate SG-1, 900 words, Cam

Some Reassembly Required (The Found in the Ashes Remix) - Firefly, 3700 words, Mal/Kaylee (cof_remix)
spoonfuls of sugar need not apply - B:tVS, 1800 words, Dawn & Spike (genex)

Non-BtVS Crossover Fic:

A Visit From Mayhem - Battle Creek/Allstate Mayhem Commercials, 1300 words (chocolateboxcomm)

The Dinosaur Job - Leverage/Jurassic World, 3000 words (for kerrykhat)
hang the treasure; it's the glory of the hunt - National Treasure/Jurassic World, 3400 words (crossovering)
A Relationship Based on Mutual Respect - Leverage/Jurassic World, 1000 words (for Fiona_nk)

An Energy Like No Other: Part 2/4 - Fast & Furious/Transformers, 3100 words (for ymfaery)
half of writing history is hiding the truth - Firefly/Walking Dead, 2000 words (for thisis.thenewnormal)
Reach Out and Touch Someone - Sleepy Hollow/MCU, 2100 words (for maevebran)

Buffyverse Crossover Fic:

Hold On To Me As We Go - Stargate SG-1/B:tVS, 2500 words, Sam & Buffy
Into Every Generation-- Whoops, Wrong Tagline - Sleepy Hollow/B:tVS, Abbie, 2100 words

The Benefits of Inter-Agency Cooperation - B:tVS/Fast & Furious 6, 1600 words, Buffy/Hobbs (for syddracc)
Engineers Wear Red Shirts, Too - B:tVS/ST:AOS, 3000 words, Oz (for tvashti)
Teenage Trojan Horse of Chaos - Iron Man/B:tVS, 2100 words, Dawn (for jilltanith)

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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?

Both more and less, I guess? My word count is much better than I had hoped for! On the other hand, more than two thirds of that word count came in just three stories. I only posted a total of 27 fics in 2016 overall; that's half as many as 2015, and less than a third as many as 2009, the nearest comparable past year in total word count.

So despite the respectable word count, I feel like I didn't post nearly as much as I intended. But between the mental exertion of finishing a novel-length fic and the overall nastiness of 2016, I'm not going to beat myself up too much over it.

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

That Allstate Mayhem Commercials crossover, definitely. *laughing* Never would have touched a TV Commercial fandom without the Chocolate Box exchange, but it was fun to write.

I was also clubbed over the head with Hatter POV in that post-Alice Through the Looking Glass fic; it's been awhile since I heard a voice that strongly walking out of the movie theater. :)

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

I participated in three Big Bangs and finished them all: smallfandombang, extreme_bigbang, and the het_bigbang. The extreme big bang, with its 100,000 word minimum length, was by far the most challenging of them, but they all three required a degree of storytelling focus and complexity that I have in the past found I really, really require a lot of passion to muster. That's why I have so much trouble with WIPs; after awhile, my focus fizzles, and it's hard to get back once I've lost it.

I dared them because of my success with lesser_men_saga, and from them I learned that I can, in fact, do this. *grin* (But also that they suck up more mental energy than I was expecting, and that getting paired with an enthusiastic and gifted artist is a blessing, not a guarantee.)

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

I won't be doing any "extreme" big bangs again this year; hopefully I'll be able to successfully redirect that energy to backagainharry. I will try to do a couple of the regular big bangs again, though; I don't want to let those medium fic sized muscles atrophy again.

(Because eventually, I do still intend to try out the profic thing... but I won't feel right doing it until my long WIPs are wrapped. *crossing fingers*)

Also, I need to finish (ugh) Wishlist 2015, and successfully open and complete Wishlist 2017 early in the year.

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

There's a lot of competition for that this year, despite the smaller number of stories; but I think I'll have to say where the streets have no name, my 18,200-word Abbie/Ichabod het big bang fic for Sleepy Hollow. It's a canon-divergence get-together tale set in the middle of Season 3, and I'm extremely satisfied with everything about it.

6. my best story this year:

There's a lot of competition for that too, this year. But ... in sheer terms of value per word, I think I'll have to go with I Was a Different Person Yesterday, You See, that Alice Through the Looking Glass fic. I did a lot of heavy lifting in my longer stories and am quite proud of the results in all of them, but every phrase in this 1,400 word piece feels so carefully faceted to me when I reread it; sometimes I marvel at myself.

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

Lost to Be Found, that 10,000-word casefic I wrote for Battle Creek TV in Yuletide 2015. I know, I know: tiny dead fandom, no sex scenes, no wonder. I do have a few fic up with fewer hits and kudos, including my Falling Skies slash epic sequel, but for some reason that one stings most.

8. most overrated story, in my opinion:

Hmm, maybe Weighting the Odds, that 1,000 word snippet of a Fast & Furious mutants AU? It's fun, yeah; but compared to some of the other (longer, more complete, more complex) stuff I wrote, the enthusiastic reception kind of surprised me.

9. most fun story:

Easily Engineers Wear Red Shirts, Too, my Oz in the new Star Trek Universe fic.

Though I think both of the Leverage/Jurassic World crossovers earn an honorable mention, here. :)

10. story with the sexiest moment:

There was some involved kissing, both heated and tender, in several of my stories this year, both long and short: Ben and Mike, Abbie and Ichabod, and Buffy and Luke Hobbs, to name a few of the couples.

But no real R-rated activity, except for a couple scenes of John and Tom in Now That the Dawn Has Come, my 100k epic. (The whole story is basically the pair of them working to save the world fuelled by their chemistry rather than trying to kill each other and making it worse as per canon, after all.)

11. story with the sweetest moment:

There are some pretty cute SG-1 plus kids moments in B is for Back to Basics, and similarly Dawn and Spike have a high adorability factor in spoonfuls of sugar need not apply.

But I think the ultimate winner is Hold On to Me As We Go, the very supportive concluding chapter of "Can I Keep You?", my Sam Carter as Buffy's Mom fic.

12. most friendshippy story:

Probably a tossup between Russ & Milt in that Battle Creek story I mentioned in question #7, and Eliot & Hardison & Parker in The Dinosaur Job.

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

Maybe the Mayhem fic from question #1? Overall, though, while I wrote a lot of objectively odd things this year, none of it was especially out there for me. Unless you maybe count the two stories I wrote to play with the soulmark tropes, the trio-fic for Olympus Has Fallen and the Fast and Furious teenyfic?

14. the story that made me cry:

I was, again, pretty conservative in my ficcing this year-- I wrote a lot of fixits, several cheery crossovers, much wittiness and learning to love and banter and very little sadness.

My cof_remix story did tap both a canon death and some pretty sad moments in the original story, though, that tapped into my personal experience of grief to write around: Some Reassembly Required (The Found in the Ashes Remix)

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

Probably Some Reassembly Required (The Found in the Ashes Remix), again. Mal/Kaylee is not a pairing I naturally see; I did a lot of thinking about Kaylee's character development for that one.

16. most unintentionally telling story:

I would say B is for Back to Basics or N is for Not Your Grandfather's Paradox, but both of those were intentionally written to deal with issues that bugged the shit out of me in two separate episodes/movies of Stargate SG-1.

I could probably say the same about my het big bang, and my Falling Skies epic; but again, intentional. So, I think I'll go with when all other lights go out, my 3,500 word Abbie/Ichabod fic for Not Primetime 2016. I didn't realize just how angry I was with the way Season 3 of Sleepy Hollow ended until I reread this fic after I finished it.

17. hardest story to write:

Now That the Dawn Has Come, for many and varied reasons; no question about that, this year.

18. worst story:

Probably Ladies' Night Out in Battle Creek, a treat I wrote for Yuletide 2015. It's not bad exactly, but there's really not much there, there.

19. biggest surprise:

In terms of fic? The extremely warm reception for His Greatest Gift, my Ben/Mike Olympus Has Fallen big bang story, for one; and the way that Oz on the nu!Enterprise fic took off like a rocket, for another.

In terms of me? That I actually got that extreme_bigbang done. The day I posted it felt like a love-letter to my author-self reading, "SELF? YOU GOT THIS."

20. story I wish I'd finished:

backagainharry, of course. *sigh*


Past analysis posts: 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010| 2009 | 2008 | 2007: Part I & Part II | 2006