Year-end Fic Meme
Fic written in 2014
The Transitive Property (Twelve/ghost!River/Clara, adult)
Ancient History (Ian/Barbara/Martha, adult)
Hide and Seek (Ten/River, Donna; teen; co-authored with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nostalgia)
On the Banks of the Sararahelkos (Eleven/River, all ages)
Fairy Tales (Twelve/Clara, adult)
Old-Fashioned Love (Twelve/Missy, adult)
Riddles in the Dark (Two/Jamie, the Great Intelligence; all ages)
... plus two f'locked stories that will never see the light of day for various reasons.
Leitmotif of the year
Twelfth Doctor porn, apparently, which I didn't even realize until I looked at the compiled list.
Overall thoughts
I didn't write enough this year. 2014 sucked for a number of reasons I won't go into here, and they all took a toll on my creativity and willingness to do anything other than stare at Twitter, Tumblr, or the television. I did, however, write more than I thought I did, so that's a small comfort, anyway.
My best story of the year
If you believe the internet, it's my otter!fic, On the Banks of the Sararahelkos. I wrote this one really quickly, which is generally a sign that the first draft is in excellent shape, but I confess to being slightly mystified that people liked the story as much as they did. I guess maybe no one had written from otter POV before? It struck me as the obvious thing to try in terms of differentiating my otter!fic from other stories, and I guess it worked.
My favorite story of this year
Hide and Seek. Nos is one of my favorite authors, and I felt honored to take one of her unfinished fragments and complete it. I enjoyed mirroring her writing style, and feel like it's hard to tell, at least in some places, which one of us wrote which lines. (There are sections that feel very me, as well as ones that feel very her, but I do wonder whether others can distinguish them as clearly as I can -- after all, I know who wrote what!)
Also, from a pure narrative standpoint, I'm happy with how the plot finally worked itself out. The twist ending wasn't there in Nos' original fragment, and readers seemed to like it as much as I did, so I'm glad I came up with the idea.
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion
Ancient History. I figured it would be underappreciated because a) kinkmeme story, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sizeofthatthing is essentially dead now; b) Classic Who seems to have a much smaller fic-reading audience than New Who; and c) the same goes for Martha-fic within New Who fandom, sadly. But I just re-read the story now for the first time since I posted it, and damned if it isn't really good. It was my first time writing Ian and Barbara, and since I spent much of the early part of this year working my way through One's episodes, I feel like I got their voices just right. If you like Classic Who, haven't read this fic before, and enjoy adult-rated fic, I recommend this one, dammit, because it's my blog and I can do that.
Most fun story to write
On the Banks of the Sararahelkos. Writing from otter POV was a blast.
Story with the single sexiest moment
Fairy Tales, I think, the point where Twelve slowly takes his old fur coat off Clara and there is much sexual tension. I find the rest of the story sexy, too, but that moment in particular grabs me.
Most "holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story
It's in one of the locked stories, so sorry, no details other than that I was being a petty bitch, which is why it will never see the light of day.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters
None, really, unless you count the way I cringe slightly now at The Transitive Property's Twelve characterization. It was written before "Deep Breath" aired, so I didn't know quite how different Twelve was going to be from Eleven -- particularly in terms of how non-demonstrative he is about affection. I have no intention of going back and changing the story now, but it's always going to stick out slightly for me because I guessed wrong. I hate guessing wrong, even if I'd probably have had no way of guessing this character note in the first place.
Hardest story to write
Riddles in the Dark, which is my first real Second Doctor story and my second attempt to get a Two-era story done for this year's![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
who_at_50 ficathon. (The first, never completed, was a missing scene set at the end of "Fury From the Deep," and would have been a look at Victoria's thoughts about staying behind.)
Anyway, coming up with a premise for a story that would work better than the abandoned Victoria option was hard, but I wasn't willing to drop out of the ficathon. I remember hearing someone talk somewhere -- possibly on a blog, possibly on a Verity! podcast -- about how Moffat's plot resolutions often involved the power of love, and that made me think about applying the same resolution to a Two/Jamie story. From there I worked backwards to the riddle competition, and then I had to come up with the appropriately ridiculous questions. (Also, I had to research how the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem worked, and my last differential equations class was a good twenty-five years ago.)
So yeah, this one. It was a pain in the butt.
Biggest disappointment
... and also, I'm still not 100% happy with the story. I was happy enough with it to post it, but I don't think I'll ever be in love with it -- ironically enough, given its inspiration.
Biggest surprise
Discovering that my story Light Is a Particle and a Wave has over 14,000 hits on AO3. I don't know if this is due to a database bug, a hotlink somewhere I can't find, or something else, because I find it really hard to believe that a short, vaguely Eleven/TARDIS ficlet somehow became that wildly popular. Theories, or better yet, a concrete explanation, are welcome.
Most unintentionally telling story
OKAY, I ADMIT IT, I'M REALLY AN OTTER.
Story I haven't yet written, but intend to
I'm working on Ten/Jackie foronlyonebed, and it's coming along so quickly that I might try to grab a second prompt, too. Those of you who are fic writers who haven't yet considered writing for onlyonebed -- there's still plenty of time! Fic posting begins in February.
The Transitive Property (Twelve/ghost!River/Clara, adult)
Ancient History (Ian/Barbara/Martha, adult)
Hide and Seek (Ten/River, Donna; teen; co-authored with
nostalgia)On the Banks of the Sararahelkos (Eleven/River, all ages)
Fairy Tales (Twelve/Clara, adult)
Old-Fashioned Love (Twelve/Missy, adult)
Riddles in the Dark (Two/Jamie, the Great Intelligence; all ages)
... plus two f'locked stories that will never see the light of day for various reasons.
Leitmotif of the year
Twelfth Doctor porn, apparently, which I didn't even realize until I looked at the compiled list.
Overall thoughts
I didn't write enough this year. 2014 sucked for a number of reasons I won't go into here, and they all took a toll on my creativity and willingness to do anything other than stare at Twitter, Tumblr, or the television. I did, however, write more than I thought I did, so that's a small comfort, anyway.
My best story of the year
If you believe the internet, it's my otter!fic, On the Banks of the Sararahelkos. I wrote this one really quickly, which is generally a sign that the first draft is in excellent shape, but I confess to being slightly mystified that people liked the story as much as they did. I guess maybe no one had written from otter POV before? It struck me as the obvious thing to try in terms of differentiating my otter!fic from other stories, and I guess it worked.
My favorite story of this year
Hide and Seek. Nos is one of my favorite authors, and I felt honored to take one of her unfinished fragments and complete it. I enjoyed mirroring her writing style, and feel like it's hard to tell, at least in some places, which one of us wrote which lines. (There are sections that feel very me, as well as ones that feel very her, but I do wonder whether others can distinguish them as clearly as I can -- after all, I know who wrote what!)
Also, from a pure narrative standpoint, I'm happy with how the plot finally worked itself out. The twist ending wasn't there in Nos' original fragment, and readers seemed to like it as much as I did, so I'm glad I came up with the idea.
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion
Ancient History. I figured it would be underappreciated because a) kinkmeme story, and
sizeofthatthing is essentially dead now; b) Classic Who seems to have a much smaller fic-reading audience than New Who; and c) the same goes for Martha-fic within New Who fandom, sadly. But I just re-read the story now for the first time since I posted it, and damned if it isn't really good. It was my first time writing Ian and Barbara, and since I spent much of the early part of this year working my way through One's episodes, I feel like I got their voices just right. If you like Classic Who, haven't read this fic before, and enjoy adult-rated fic, I recommend this one, dammit, because it's my blog and I can do that.Most fun story to write
On the Banks of the Sararahelkos. Writing from otter POV was a blast.
Story with the single sexiest moment
Fairy Tales, I think, the point where Twelve slowly takes his old fur coat off Clara and there is much sexual tension. I find the rest of the story sexy, too, but that moment in particular grabs me.
Most "holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story
It's in one of the locked stories, so sorry, no details other than that I was being a petty bitch, which is why it will never see the light of day.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters
None, really, unless you count the way I cringe slightly now at The Transitive Property's Twelve characterization. It was written before "Deep Breath" aired, so I didn't know quite how different Twelve was going to be from Eleven -- particularly in terms of how non-demonstrative he is about affection. I have no intention of going back and changing the story now, but it's always going to stick out slightly for me because I guessed wrong. I hate guessing wrong, even if I'd probably have had no way of guessing this character note in the first place.
Hardest story to write
Riddles in the Dark, which is my first real Second Doctor story and my second attempt to get a Two-era story done for this year's
who_at_50 ficathon. (The first, never completed, was a missing scene set at the end of "Fury From the Deep," and would have been a look at Victoria's thoughts about staying behind.)Anyway, coming up with a premise for a story that would work better than the abandoned Victoria option was hard, but I wasn't willing to drop out of the ficathon. I remember hearing someone talk somewhere -- possibly on a blog, possibly on a Verity! podcast -- about how Moffat's plot resolutions often involved the power of love, and that made me think about applying the same resolution to a Two/Jamie story. From there I worked backwards to the riddle competition, and then I had to come up with the appropriately ridiculous questions. (Also, I had to research how the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem worked, and my last differential equations class was a good twenty-five years ago.)
So yeah, this one. It was a pain in the butt.
Biggest disappointment
... and also, I'm still not 100% happy with the story. I was happy enough with it to post it, but I don't think I'll ever be in love with it -- ironically enough, given its inspiration.
Biggest surprise
Discovering that my story Light Is a Particle and a Wave has over 14,000 hits on AO3. I don't know if this is due to a database bug, a hotlink somewhere I can't find, or something else, because I find it really hard to believe that a short, vaguely Eleven/TARDIS ficlet somehow became that wildly popular. Theories, or better yet, a concrete explanation, are welcome.
Most unintentionally telling story
OKAY, I ADMIT IT, I'M REALLY AN OTTER.
Story I haven't yet written, but intend to
I'm working on Ten/Jackie for
onlyonebed, and it's coming along so quickly that I might try to grab a second prompt, too. Those of you who are fic writers who haven't yet considered writing for onlyonebed -- there's still plenty of time! Fic posting begins in February.