2005: the Year of Ficlets, Drabbles and Crossovers

[jedibuttercup]

I haven't had much time on lately; I'm writing a second spacesanta fic, and my brother doesn't go back to the Air Force until January 2nd, so I'm spending nearly every evening at my parents' house. I'll get to responses (and personal news) soon, I promise. For now? A quick fandom update.

Firstly: happy birthday wishes for iulia_linnea!

and secondly, a meme I'm sure you've seen going around lately...

the fic year in review

I wrote a ton of stories this year, but they were all ficlet-sized, between 200 and 2000 words in length. Also, they were mostly crossovers-- and most of those were challenge answers.

I didn't manage anything like last year's B:tVS/A:tS fixit novella The Five Stages of Grief, my best work of 2004; I did start a Firefly novella (Book's Legacy) that's going to be at least 40K words when I finish it, but it's still a WIP.


stories i wrote this year:

In reverse chronological order (completed, or standalone series fragments):

1. Being Inside Joy, a 500-word Buffy/Kirk ficlet on the theme "Heaven"


2. Special Delivery, an 800-word Illyria-encounters-Death Eaters ficlet


3. Do You Know What Your Sin Is?, a 200-word Spike vs. The Operative drabble


4. Dear Ms. Summers, a 700-word Nick Stokes as Buffy's penpal ficlet


5. Mr. Pointy, a 300-word Jayne compares weapons with Buffy ficlet


6. Childe of Dracula, a 300-word ficlet in the same 'verse as Complicating the Process


7. Third Life's the Charm, a 500-word cross-ficlet speculating on Sheppard's true identity


8. Ugly Black Dress, a series of 7 double drabbles with a Buffy/Daniel theme


9. Pain Halved, a 500-word ficlet on the friendship of Joyce Summers and Sara O'Neill


10. The Road More Travelled, a 300-word Joyce Summers/Gil Grissom ficlet


11. Goddess of Prophecy, a 1750-word Buffy meets Jacob Carter fic-- possible series fodder.


12. Incompatible, a 400-word Buffy meets David Dunn (Unbreakable) ficlet


13. Model Girl, a 500-word Buffy cross with the Ice Princess movie


14. A Real Wizard, an 850-word crossover ficlet in which Wesley p3wns Cyvus Vail


15. Factored In, a 450-word ficlet taking the Buffyverse on Fear Factor


16. Uncle John, a short ficlet series in which Sheppard is Buffy's uncle


17. Smoke and Fire, a short ficlet series setting up a Buffy/SG-1 novella (coming in 2006!)


18. Sideshow, a 400-word ficlet in which Angel meets John Constantine


19. The Courage of Men, a 400-word Illyria-in-Arda ficlet


20. Lost and Found, a 700-word Willow-in-HPverse ficlet


21. Blessed Interference, an 1100-word Buffy cross-ficlet starring the McManus brothers


22. Earth, a 200-word Buffy/Dr. Alan Grant drabble


23. Complicating the Process, an 800-word B:tVS/Dracula 2000 cross-ficlet


24. Paper Legacy, a 500-word B:tVS/Pride and Prejudice cross-ficlet


25. Return to Lake Placid, a 650-word B:tVS/Lake Placid cross-ficlet


26. Scroll of the Ultimate, a 500-word B:tVS/Bulletproof Monk cross-ficlet


27. Daughter of Sekhmet, a 1600-word ficlet in which Xander encounters the Medjai


28. Offensive Driving, a 500-word ficlet in which Buffy encounters the General Lee


29. Diverted Destiny, a 1500-word ficlet in which Luke Skywalker crashlands in Ohio-- series fodder


30. Unexpected Connections, a 750-word ficlet in which Neville acquires a new guardian...


31. Instinctual, a 600-word sequel to the Buffy/Riddick ficlet Beautiful


32. Inherited Business, an 800-word ficlet in which Bruce Wayne observes the Scoobies


33. No Victory Dance, a 1000-word B:tVS/ID4 cross-ficlet


34. Theft Report, a 750-word ficlet in which Anya encounters the rogue NID


35. Grave Survivors, a 1000-word ficlet in which Buffy calls Nick Stokes


36. Moebius Man, a 2000-word time-trippy SG-1/Highlander cross-ficlet


37. Objects in Space, a 1000-word B:tVS/Star Trek:TNG cross-ficlet


38. and Ten Visitors Arda Never Had, a collection of ten B:tVS/LotR and B:tVS/Silmarillion drabbles.

My new WIP's were:

1. Book's Legacy, my post-Serenity fic which stands at 7 chapters and about 15K words


2. and Hok Tauri, a B:tVS/SG-1 Sam-as-Slayer fic that's only (shame!) one chapter in.

my favourite story this year (of my own):

Instinctual. Only 600-words, but... it's Buffy/Riddick, slightly experimental in style, and it still sucks me in every time I reread it. I so want to write more of this but I'm scared to, lest I fail to do it justice.


my best story this year:

Oh, this is hard. Such a list to choose from! I think three of my ficlets this year (aside from my favorite, above) stuck up above all the rest, both in fan-opinion and in my own. In order of amazing-ness:

1. Grave Survivors (Buffy/Nick, post CSI season 5, 1000 words),


2. Goddess of Prophecy (Buffy becomes Tok'ra, 1750 words),


3. and Diverted Destiny (Buffy finds Luke Skywalker, post-ROTJ, 1500 words).

story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Probably Paper Legacy. Sure, it's tiny, but come on ... a Pride and Prejudice crossover! I felt so clever when I finished it, but it didn't get very many reviews.


most fun story:

A toss-up between Factored In and Ten Visitors Arda Never Had-- I giggled to myself constantly while writing them both.


sexiest story:

Probably the 1400-words-total Ugly Black Dress drabble series. I don't think there's any actual sexual situations in it, but then most of my fics are either gen or gentle 'ship; this is one of my few romantic storylines. I had fun with Buffy and Daniel as a couple.


story with single sexiest moment:

Mr. Pointy, I think. Which is pretty darned sad.


hardest story to write:

Not counting WIPs? Probably Instinctual. Which is why it isn't longer. I didn't think I could sustain the mood; I could see (can still see) that 'verse/cross clear as crystal in my mind's eye, but I have a great deal of trouble finding the words to express it properly. The results were worth it, though.


most unintentionally telling story:

Telling? Probably A Real Wizard or Blessed Interference. Most of my fics find their roots in challenges, or "Wow, what if..." bursts of inspiration; those two were written purely in reaction to the unfairness of certain events in Buffy Season 7 and Angel Season 5, which still burn at me all this time later. If you mean more personal self-exposure, well, my fics are all over the map; I'd have a hard time putting a finger on any one of them.


most "OHMIGOD HEY *I* WROTE THAT" fanon-turned-canon moment:

Errr. Except for my spacesanta fics (which can't be posted until after the turn of the year) my fics were all crossovers, and more than half of the fandoms involved are dead or non-TV.


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

In terms of total stories? Far, far more. 38 completed, according to the list above; the mind boggles.

In terms of total wordcount? Far, far less. Only 32,350 words completed-- as nothing I finished was over 2,000 words long-- and about 16,000 words in WIP's.

Compare those totals to the roughly 75,000 words of completed stories I ground out in 2002, or the roughly 48,000 words of completed stories in 2003. It was slightly better than last year, though; in 2004 I only wrote 22,000 words of completed stories, leaving about 50,000 words tied up in still-unfinished, not-touched-this-year WIP's.

Speaking of which. This is the year in which I meant to tie up my Lesser Men series of Buffyverse novels, or at least my Angel Season 4 AU novel-in-the-making The New Seer, and I pretty much failed to write anything on them at all. I suppose that'll be my goal for 2006.


what pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in january 2005?

Easy answer? Buffy/Alan Grant. That was a fun drabble to write. Serious answer? Buffy/Nick Stokes. The pairing smote me out of the blue during the final episode of CSI Season 5, and continues to nag at me to this day; I'll be watching the rest of CSI Season 6 pretty closely for more inspiration.


what's your favorite story of the year?

Not mine? Oooh, that's a tough one. On LJ, probably honorh's very recent fic The Queen's Return, a Susan Pevensie fic set after the Narnia book series. Absolute perfection.

On the wide web in general, I probably bookmarked over a hundred "favorite" stories this year in a wide variety of fandoms, but one that stuck with me (and was actually posted, not just found by me, this year) was Captain Doctor, a Firefly-verse gen AU novella set six years after the Browncoats didn't lose Serenity Valley.


did you take any writing risks this year?

I tried to keep up with the August Ficlet-a-Day challenge on twistedshorts; ended up with 23 out of 31 written. Not great, but not bad, either. Aside from that? Not so much.

Next year'll be different, with Book's Legacy to finish up, Eclipse to complete for the multific finish-athon, and the Lesser Men series hanging over me. I have a tendency to slow down or stop writing fics for fear of disappointing fans when I know the story's going in a direction they may not expect or approve of, and I really need to kick that habit.


do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year?

See previous question for an answer. *grin* I'd also like to pick up several of my series-fodder ficlets and run with them (see the ones under the "best fic" question for likely candidates).

All told, 2005 was a pretty mixed year for me as an authoress. Plenty of tiny stories, a great deal of refinement of style, ability, and range, and a rapid expansion of my fanbase, all of which I appreciate... but very little in the way of met goals. It'll be interesting to see what 2006 brings.