Year in Fic Round-Up
Dec. 31st, 2008 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurora_novarumWow, I was quite prolific this year. Twenty stories all told (compared to 14 last year). Some of which is because I got the crazy idea in my head to write birthday fics for a lot of people on my flist. I failed at some and still owe people others, so...I don't think I'm going to try that again this year. My personal WIP list grew cobwebs (and got a bit bigger). It was very fun to use my writing powers for others.
(I'd planned to do twenty-one, but stupid muse is being too talky).
Most of my fic fit within ONE lj entry, so that was new and unusual. Overall--well, I was kind of middle of the road. I didn't have too many absolute clunkers, but not sure how many fics I'd consider my best ever, either. It was an interesting exploring/playing with writing as hobby year for me.
I also did two "dvd commentaries" on fanfic. I made a banner (two actually, but one's not ready for prime time reveal yet). I made some more icons (not that they're necessarily any better than my others, but it was fun).
The Fic:
Guard Duty My only fic that can fit into ONE comment! Go me! I had this fic idea for a long, long time, and redial's review of "Need" got me to finally write and post it. It's silly stuff, but a funny idea I've had about Melosha for a long time.
It's All in a Name was one of the birthday fics I wrote, done for two of my closest friends...one of who is a big slasher and both are big Stargate fans. It's a silly Jack and Daniel adventure where they end up looking like Smurfs.
The Lollipop Guild Crackfic done in celebration of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
redial_the_gate reaching 200 members (man, now we're close to 300!) It was a fun adventure to write and to read the other mods efforts.
Stargazing Written as a quasi-birthday fic for annerb, it's one of my Sam and Jack friendship fics. (And yes, I'm doing that ficathon in 2009!) Because I can't complain about the dearth of a genre of fic unless I make an effort to write some myself. I love this quiet connection with Sam and Jack...and I've noticed looking I've gotten into an astronomy kick in writing this year.
Pie Day written in homage to March 14th and for abyssis's birthday, it's actually a crossover with SGA characters (Set pre-The Rising).
Driving Lessons I had this fic in mind for a long time because of that scene in 1969 where he's working with Teal'c, and then the callback in Season Six. I'm not sure it came out as I hoped, but still...Daniel and Teal'c! And also was yet another birthday fic, for moonshayde (even though it's not the prezzie she asked for)
Y is for Yu and V is for Victory Two Daniel fics written in one of the alphabet soup challenges. (I really suck at those things). But they were cute character insights into Daniel. Actually, I really liked the friendship moment of V is for Victory between Daniel(Arrom) and Teal'c, even if it didn't come out quiet how I wanted.
Flights of Ingenuity done for Pepper's birthday and was my second attempt to really write Jack. It was meant to be his POV, but it wasn't working. I switched to Teal'c's perspective, and this was the result.
Be Prepared Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon and silly fluffiness. (Strange, when I *wrote* it, it wasn't meant to be Sam/Cam, but reading it again, I see why lots of people got that idea). It was a double duty birthday gift for fabrisse and belsum.
Target Practice Sam and Teal'c! In Baby SG-1 days! Done as a prompt for the friendathon.
V is for Vala My other attempt at an alphabet soup because...had to show Teal'c some love (but I'm really not good at these things. This was the shortest version, and I still have two plot bunnies from the concept).
...In the Ballroom, with a Rope Another birthday fic, this is post 200 just fluffy team having a game night. Partly inspired from a cracky chat with bean and abyssis.
Statements Unspoken birthday fic for fig. It's a missing scene for "Secrets" and character insight into Daniel and Teal'c's friendship. I was trying to keep a lot unspoken, but sometimes I wonder if I was too cryptic.
A Picture's Worth... (zats birthday) SG-teams get an unusual thank-you gift for saving a planet's people. Done because of zats many captions. It was fun to give an after the fact report of the mission, through pictures.
Revelation and Damnation (ultranos birthday). It's a darker character study set...post New-Order. And was a fun stream of consciousness story...and hopefully a mystery fic for the reader.
Hit a wall in November which unless you count the snippet done of Haunted Ship...no fic. Considering how I was really starting to hit the wall in reallife And I'm still kinda there), this doesn't surprise me.
But I sure made up for it in December. Because that's when I got the brilliant idea of The icon fics:
Bra'tac's Bomb Bra'tac is trying to do a mission, but it goes south, either because of running into some others, or because they saved him. Fun to play with Bra'tac, but he's an awnry one to get right.
DragonPony This was supposed to be a crack fic of a dream Jack was having. Along the way, Jack became Mitchell and then turned into an angsty Babylon-ep-tag. Yeah, I dunno. I think/hope it worked. :-)
Infirmary Notes I loved writing this fic, despite my utter flailing and medical ignorance. (I broke abyssis's brain and I don't think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crazed_turkey will ever speak to me again.) It was a neat to write in a different style and fun to explore all the SGC.
Constellation Serendipity Sam and Teal'c bonding over astronomy (see, I told you it was a theme).
And a final birthday fic, to aelfgyfu.
Al'kesh Answers Sam and Daniel friendship. As much as I love the two of them, I don't know why I find it hard to write them together. I was glad to have this quiet time of them working...but I'm still not sure if I was too heavy handed or too obscure on their backstory/angsty references.
As for the questions...
My Favorite Stories of the Year: Well, my favorite are also my best this year (it doesn't always happen like that), but otherwise, I also like "Infirmary Notes", "Al'kesh Answers", and "It's All in a Name"
My Best Stories This Year: Flights of Ingenuity is I think one of my overall best fics ever. "Pie Day" I think had a great rhythm for banter, humor, and characterization. "Target Practice" was definitely my most popular if you go by feedback, and was a great practice.
Stories most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: "V is for Victory" had some interesting insights on Daniel but wasn't picked up on (or maybe I wasn't too successful in portraying it). "Revelation and Damnation", but people may have wondered why the protagonist sounded so...odd.
Stories I Wrote That I Never Thought I'd Write: "Revelation and Damnation", "DragonPony"
Most Fun Stories: "In the Ballroom with a Rope", "Pie Day", "Lollipop Guild", and "Al'kesh Answers"
Sexiest Stories: Wait, does this questionnaire have an anti-gen bias? ;-) Well, for crack-sex-appeal, I did get half the guys painted up and half naked in "All in a Name".
Hardest Stories to Write: I'd say "Haunted Ship" since I STILL haven't finished it yet. But of the ones I've completed..."Lollipop Guild" (because I find it hard to stay cracky in crackfic. My canon instinct is strong), "Target Practice" (keeping tone right), and "Infirmary Notes"–so out of my element and trying to balance out the situations.
Easiest Stories to Write: Once I switched "Flights of Ingenuity" to Teal'c's POV rather than Jack's, it came very easily. "Pie Day" flowed very well. "Be Prepared" also went very smoothly.
Favorite...Sam Carter: Hmm, it's a toughie, but I'd say "Target Practice" (Although "Stargazing" is a close second). I really got into a mood writing Sam starting the end of 2007. I still suck at techobabbling her.
Daniel Jackson: "V is for Victory: The Validation" even though it's as much Arrom as Daniel.
Jack O'Neill: "Flights of Ingenuity", definitely. Even though he sucked as a POV character, writing him from Teal'c's POV was great. And while Pie Day is tempting, I'd have to go with "...In the Ballroom" as favorite other Jack.
Teal'c: Perversely, Teal'c is my easiest character to write. Ooh, either "Constellation Serendipity" or "Flights of Ingenuity" (I am so biased to that FoI)
Cameron Mitchell: "DragonPony" poor early Cam, still in transition from fanboy to true member/leader of SG-1 (Actually, I seem to have written more classic team this past year).
Vala Mal Doran: V is for Vala was cute, but I did love her in "Ballroom"
Jonas Quinn Well, I only wrote him once in "Ballroom with a Rope" but... he was fun.
Other: "Revelation and Damnation" That was really fun.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? More. Much more. And I think it broke my brain. Why I got the idea in the head I should try and write birthday fics for everyone, I have no idea. I mean, it was fun, and I definitely loved giving them to the recipients, but I partially failed in the goal (not that I like any of the rest of you any less). It did get me to try and focus on scenes without plotting things out and at least *try* to keep them shorter.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I tried a few new styles, like "Infirmary Notes" or "Statements Unspoken", but in writing for these self-imposed deadlines, I don't know if I stretched myself. I was writing a lot "for others". The challenge was picking things other people would like or going off others' prompts and trying to make something of them. I worry my writing style itself got into a bit of a rut though.
Biggest Disappointment "Statements Unspoken". I still wonder if I'd given a couple more passes to it, I'd have gotten the balance better between what Daniel and Teal'c were thinking versus what they were saying. I worry I overplayed the hand at some points and made it too...maudlin or something, and I love their interaction so much, I like it to be "right". "Y is for Yu" didn't come out as sharp in its dialogue as I would've liked either. :-(
Biggest Surprise Others liked "Flights of Ingenuity" as much as I did. "Al'kesh Answers" was quite enjoyed by a range of people (heck, it just got rec'ced today. Aw!) Yay to Sam and Daniel goodness!
Do you have any goals for the New Year? Oh lord, too many. I want to focus more on my list of WIPs and get a number of them finished. I signed up for "stargate summer", so working a novel should be a new (hopefully fun) experience...it is one of the WIPs. And I am determined to do my planned ficathon in 2009! (Hey, I already made the banner for it).
(I'd planned to do twenty-one, but stupid muse is being too talky).
Most of my fic fit within ONE lj entry, so that was new and unusual. Overall--well, I was kind of middle of the road. I didn't have too many absolute clunkers, but not sure how many fics I'd consider my best ever, either. It was an interesting exploring/playing with writing as hobby year for me.
I also did two "dvd commentaries" on fanfic. I made a banner (two actually, but one's not ready for prime time reveal yet). I made some more icons (not that they're necessarily any better than my others, but it was fun).
The Fic:
Guard Duty My only fic that can fit into ONE comment! Go me! I had this fic idea for a long, long time, and redial's review of "Need" got me to finally write and post it. It's silly stuff, but a funny idea I've had about Melosha for a long time.
It's All in a Name was one of the birthday fics I wrote, done for two of my closest friends...one of who is a big slasher and both are big Stargate fans. It's a silly Jack and Daniel adventure where they end up looking like Smurfs.
The Lollipop Guild Crackfic done in celebration of
redial_the_gate reaching 200 members (man, now we're close to 300!) It was a fun adventure to write and to read the other mods efforts.Stargazing Written as a quasi-birthday fic for annerb, it's one of my Sam and Jack friendship fics. (And yes, I'm doing that ficathon in 2009!) Because I can't complain about the dearth of a genre of fic unless I make an effort to write some myself. I love this quiet connection with Sam and Jack...and I've noticed looking I've gotten into an astronomy kick in writing this year.
Pie Day written in homage to March 14th and for abyssis's birthday, it's actually a crossover with SGA characters (Set pre-The Rising).
Driving Lessons I had this fic in mind for a long time because of that scene in 1969 where he's working with Teal'c, and then the callback in Season Six. I'm not sure it came out as I hoped, but still...Daniel and Teal'c! And also was yet another birthday fic, for moonshayde (even though it's not the prezzie she asked for)
Y is for Yu and V is for Victory Two Daniel fics written in one of the alphabet soup challenges. (I really suck at those things). But they were cute character insights into Daniel. Actually, I really liked the friendship moment of V is for Victory between Daniel(Arrom) and Teal'c, even if it didn't come out quiet how I wanted.
Flights of Ingenuity done for Pepper's birthday and was my second attempt to really write Jack. It was meant to be his POV, but it wasn't working. I switched to Teal'c's perspective, and this was the result.
Be Prepared Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon and silly fluffiness. (Strange, when I *wrote* it, it wasn't meant to be Sam/Cam, but reading it again, I see why lots of people got that idea). It was a double duty birthday gift for fabrisse and belsum.
Target Practice Sam and Teal'c! In Baby SG-1 days! Done as a prompt for the friendathon.
V is for Vala My other attempt at an alphabet soup because...had to show Teal'c some love (but I'm really not good at these things. This was the shortest version, and I still have two plot bunnies from the concept).
...In the Ballroom, with a Rope Another birthday fic, this is post 200 just fluffy team having a game night. Partly inspired from a cracky chat with bean and abyssis.
Statements Unspoken birthday fic for fig. It's a missing scene for "Secrets" and character insight into Daniel and Teal'c's friendship. I was trying to keep a lot unspoken, but sometimes I wonder if I was too cryptic.
A Picture's Worth... (zats birthday) SG-teams get an unusual thank-you gift for saving a planet's people. Done because of zats many captions. It was fun to give an after the fact report of the mission, through pictures.
Revelation and Damnation (ultranos birthday). It's a darker character study set...post New-Order. And was a fun stream of consciousness story...and hopefully a mystery fic for the reader.
Hit a wall in November which unless you count the snippet done of Haunted Ship...no fic. Considering how I was really starting to hit the wall in reallife And I'm still kinda there), this doesn't surprise me.
But I sure made up for it in December. Because that's when I got the brilliant idea of The icon fics:
Bra'tac's Bomb Bra'tac is trying to do a mission, but it goes south, either because of running into some others, or because they saved him. Fun to play with Bra'tac, but he's an awnry one to get right.
DragonPony This was supposed to be a crack fic of a dream Jack was having. Along the way, Jack became Mitchell and then turned into an angsty Babylon-ep-tag. Yeah, I dunno. I think/hope it worked. :-)
Infirmary Notes I loved writing this fic, despite my utter flailing and medical ignorance. (I broke abyssis's brain and I don't think
crazed_turkey will ever speak to me again.) It was a neat to write in a different style and fun to explore all the SGC.Constellation Serendipity Sam and Teal'c bonding over astronomy (see, I told you it was a theme).
And a final birthday fic, to aelfgyfu.
Al'kesh Answers Sam and Daniel friendship. As much as I love the two of them, I don't know why I find it hard to write them together. I was glad to have this quiet time of them working...but I'm still not sure if I was too heavy handed or too obscure on their backstory/angsty references.
As for the questions...
My Favorite Stories of the Year: Well, my favorite are also my best this year (it doesn't always happen like that), but otherwise, I also like "Infirmary Notes", "Al'kesh Answers", and "It's All in a Name"
My Best Stories This Year: Flights of Ingenuity is I think one of my overall best fics ever. "Pie Day" I think had a great rhythm for banter, humor, and characterization. "Target Practice" was definitely my most popular if you go by feedback, and was a great practice.
Stories most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: "V is for Victory" had some interesting insights on Daniel but wasn't picked up on (or maybe I wasn't too successful in portraying it). "Revelation and Damnation", but people may have wondered why the protagonist sounded so...odd.
Stories I Wrote That I Never Thought I'd Write: "Revelation and Damnation", "DragonPony"
Most Fun Stories: "In the Ballroom with a Rope", "Pie Day", "Lollipop Guild", and "Al'kesh Answers"
Sexiest Stories: Wait, does this questionnaire have an anti-gen bias? ;-) Well, for crack-sex-appeal, I did get half the guys painted up and half naked in "All in a Name".
Hardest Stories to Write: I'd say "Haunted Ship" since I STILL haven't finished it yet. But of the ones I've completed..."Lollipop Guild" (because I find it hard to stay cracky in crackfic. My canon instinct is strong), "Target Practice" (keeping tone right), and "Infirmary Notes"–so out of my element and trying to balance out the situations.
Easiest Stories to Write: Once I switched "Flights of Ingenuity" to Teal'c's POV rather than Jack's, it came very easily. "Pie Day" flowed very well. "Be Prepared" also went very smoothly.
Favorite...Sam Carter: Hmm, it's a toughie, but I'd say "Target Practice" (Although "Stargazing" is a close second). I really got into a mood writing Sam starting the end of 2007. I still suck at techobabbling her.
Daniel Jackson: "V is for Victory: The Validation" even though it's as much Arrom as Daniel.
Jack O'Neill: "Flights of Ingenuity", definitely. Even though he sucked as a POV character, writing him from Teal'c's POV was great. And while Pie Day is tempting, I'd have to go with "...In the Ballroom" as favorite other Jack.
Teal'c: Perversely, Teal'c is my easiest character to write. Ooh, either "Constellation Serendipity" or "Flights of Ingenuity" (I am so biased to that FoI)
Cameron Mitchell: "DragonPony" poor early Cam, still in transition from fanboy to true member/leader of SG-1 (Actually, I seem to have written more classic team this past year).
Vala Mal Doran: V is for Vala was cute, but I did love her in "Ballroom"
Jonas Quinn Well, I only wrote him once in "Ballroom with a Rope" but... he was fun.
Other: "Revelation and Damnation" That was really fun.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? More. Much more. And I think it broke my brain. Why I got the idea in the head I should try and write birthday fics for everyone, I have no idea. I mean, it was fun, and I definitely loved giving them to the recipients, but I partially failed in the goal (not that I like any of the rest of you any less). It did get me to try and focus on scenes without plotting things out and at least *try* to keep them shorter.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I tried a few new styles, like "Infirmary Notes" or "Statements Unspoken", but in writing for these self-imposed deadlines, I don't know if I stretched myself. I was writing a lot "for others". The challenge was picking things other people would like or going off others' prompts and trying to make something of them. I worry my writing style itself got into a bit of a rut though.
Biggest Disappointment "Statements Unspoken". I still wonder if I'd given a couple more passes to it, I'd have gotten the balance better between what Daniel and Teal'c were thinking versus what they were saying. I worry I overplayed the hand at some points and made it too...maudlin or something, and I love their interaction so much, I like it to be "right". "Y is for Yu" didn't come out as sharp in its dialogue as I would've liked either. :-(
Biggest Surprise Others liked "Flights of Ingenuity" as much as I did. "Al'kesh Answers" was quite enjoyed by a range of people (heck, it just got rec'ced today. Aw!) Yay to Sam and Daniel goodness!
Do you have any goals for the New Year? Oh lord, too many. I want to focus more on my list of WIPs and get a number of them finished. I signed up for "stargate summer", so working a novel should be a new (hopefully fun) experience...it is one of the WIPs. And I am determined to do my planned ficathon in 2009! (Hey, I already made the banner for it).