2018 In Review (Memes)
I completely stole these two memes from
sineala, but they are great memes! First up, the writing meme...
Fic posted this year
January
1. Cabin Fever. For Trope Bingo Round 10. X-Force, Rictor/Shatterstar, 7961 words.
February
Nothing.
March
2. Exit Music. For Trope Bingo Round 10. X-Men, Rictor/Shatterstar, 9472 words.
3. Instructions for a Bad Day. For Trope Bingo Round 10. X-Force, Rictor/Shatterstar, 4186 words.
April
4. The Obvious Approach. For Smutswap. X-Factor, Rictor/Shatterstar, 5450 words.
5. Different and Beautiful. For Trope Bingo Round 10. X-Factor, Rictor/Shatterstar, 1429 words.
6. Cage. For Trope Bingo Round 10. X-Force, Rictor/Shatterstar, 15166 words.
May
7. Runaway Child. X-Men, Rictor/Shatterstar, 11766 words.
June
8. The Demon Lord's Bodyguard. X-Men, Rictor/Shatterstar, 5400 words.
9. By The Water. X-Force, Rictor/Shatterstar, 2113 words.
10. The Slowing of Time. For Fandom 5k. Star Trek: Discovery, Burnham/Tilly, 5278 words.
July
Nothing.
August
11. Silver Lake. For Rare Male Slash Exchange. X-Men: The Animated Series, Wolverine/Gambit, 4415 words.
September
Nothing.
October
12. Anchor. For Marvel Big Bang. X-Men, Rictor/Shatterstar, 58423 words.
November
13. And Our Souls They Play. For Slither and for Trope Bingo Round 11. X-Men, Rictor/Shatterstar, 39821 words.
December
14. Four Door Sedan. For XXX-change. X-Men: The Animated Series, Wolverine&Jubilee, 1611 words.
15. On the Hudson. For XXX-change. X-Factor, Original Five X-Men, 1461 words.
16. A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. For Yuletide. X-Factor, Rictor/Shatterstar & M/Siryn, 5022 words.
This year I wrote and posted:
16 stories.
Total wordcount: 178,974 words.
Overall Thoughts: Um, wtg self? You have amazed me. I'm going to be 100% honest. I thought I was done. With fandom, with writing, everything. I burned out bad in popslash (in 2005) then kinda meandered around until 2013, when I just admitted to myself that there was nothing left. Then, in late September 2017, I spent two weeks in Iceland and Sweden, and it was like... I woke up. I came back to Canada enthusiastic and inspired and fannish, and well... 178,974 words in a year. My most productive one since 2003 (where I wrote almost 400k).
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
This is probably a tie between Star Trek: Discovery (!) and X-Men: The Animated Series. I don't process auditory shit very well, so Western media fandoms with all their speaking parts have always sort of baffled me, but Burnham/Tilly! I needed to offer more fandoms for fandom 5k! And X-Men: The Animated Series mostly because, hey, that was my gateway to fannish behaviour in the early 90s, and I didn't think, in 2018, I would be writing fic for it, but I keep matching to the same person in various fic exchanges. The show has aged remarkably well imo.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Julio is suffering. Cage, I guess? I don't know. I made that poor guy suffer a lot.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Anchor! Almost 60k of smutty established relationship fluff. 100% self-indulgent. They're on a boat. They are together, on a boat, in bathing suits. There are a million sex scenes.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
No. Not yet anyway. I can feel myself gearing up for it, but I'm still not in risk-taking mode yet.
My best story of this year:
Cage. I think I got the feelings exactly where I wanted them.
My most popular story of this year:
Exit Music. I think it's my second best story of this year.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Ehhhh, this is hard to answer. It will probably be the two gen stories from XXX-change, but it's still early. But I'm not really known for gen stuff.
My least favorite story this year:
By the Water. I finished it mostly because it needed, like, another paragraph, but 90% of it is me from a decade ago, so. Eh, I have no strong feelings about it.
Most fun story to write:
And Our Souls They Play. Or The Demon Lord's Bodyguard. I was really into demons this year? Julio suffering and demons. Oh, I totally loved writing Instructions for a Bad Day, which I also think is my best title.
Story with the sweetest moment:
Anchor. For reasons.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
And Our Souls They Play. Having built up the sex scene over a month for that one, and had 36k words leading to it, I liked how it turned out? Also, in the Obvious Approach, Star kissing Julio on the butt cheeks while he's hanging over the bed, laughing. looking for lube. Actually, maybe that is sweetest.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Eeeeeeh. Depends on how you feel about tail fucking, which is probably the most risque thing I wrote this year, thank you, Demon Lord's Bodyguard.
Most overdue:
Probably all of the ricstar stuff. I've been writing these guys since 1998. I had 20 years to be this productive. I never was.
Most eye roll-worthy title:
A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. I always pick my titles first then write, but I didn't with Yuletide and XXX-change, and I don't like any of them. I had the same problem last year.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Silver Lake. I have mixed feelings about Wolverine, but writing him actually helped. A lot.
Hardest story to write:
By The Water wins because it took me a decade to finish.
Biggest Disappointment:
You know what... none. I have managed my expectations, and I'm perfectly content. For someone who does almost zero self-promotion (I post at DW, but I've never linked to my stories anywhere else), I get a nice reception. I'm lucky.
Biggest Surprise:
I wrote 60k words of smutty established relationship fluff? Like, wtf, self, where did that come from?
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Exit Music and Runaway Child. Oh, god, there's so much of me in those stories. D:
Favorite opening line:
He hits rock bottom around Bobby's going-away party, shows up drunk and ends up drunker. -- Exit Music
Favorite closing line:
"Rictor," he said. -- Cage (which, trust me, makes more sense in the context of the story).
In conclusion: Good year? Seriously, I thought I was never getting my fannish mojo back. And for someone who has spent decades being fannish, that alarmed me. But I re-wrote the rules for myself, and found a niche I like, and it all came back, like an old friend. So it is possible, for anyone who might be in similar state.
Fic-writing goals for the coming year: Finish another bingo! Do more exchanges! Do Marvel Big Bang again! Write more Iceman/Angel because nobody is going to do it for me!
1. Your main fandom of the year?
X-Men (Comicverse)
2. Your favorite film you watched this year?
Crazy Rich Asians. I really enjoyed that movie.
3. Your favorite book read this year?
All the books in the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater.
4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
Oh, god, too many to name. This has been a really expensive year, for buying music. I probably got the most use out of Wild Alee by Talos.
5. Your favorite TV show of the year?
Tie between Star Trek: Discovery and The Gifted.
6. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
The Professionals. I realize I am literal decades behind on this discovery, but oh well! I love it!
7. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
Just... almost everything having to do with Shatterstar. Deadpool 2 and, to a lesser extent, Shatterstar's Limited Series. I learned my lesson in managing expectations.
8. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?
Longshot. How did this happen?
9. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?
Jean Grey. I have just loved every moment of her return to life.
10. Your biggest squee moment of the year?
The "Wow" kiss in the Shatterstar Limited Series. Or, oh, that time Ric and Star had brunch with Rahne and Tabs, and I ended up buying the original art from the artist because I loved those two pages so much? Yes, that is something I did.
11. The most missed of your old fandoms?
Probably popslash. Between running into some people at Escapade from that time and NSYNC reuniting for their Hollyword Walk of Fame star, there was some nostalgia.
12. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
Ehhh, I honestly can't think of any. Maybe write a more variety of X-Men.
13. Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
The X-Force ongoing has me excited. And oh, there's a new Lisa Kleypas novel coming out, with Sebastian and Evie's daughter, which I am also excited about. Oh, and the all new series springing from Age of X-Man. I mean, I keep my bar pretty low for Marvel X-titles, so. You know.
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