End of Year Writing Review: 2013
Part 1: Statistics can be found here.
Kinks, themes and other content I wouldn't have expected to write?
I wrote so much gen! (incl. (The) Only Star in the Night, EXO RPF, This is the Waiting Room, Once Upon a Time/Twin Peaks, and Mother Knows Best, Once Upon a Time) I wrote literal heart petting! (Touch My Heart, Once Upon a Time) I wrote hand amputation/serial murder! (Warning: Do Not Touch, EXO/Welcome to Night Vale)
I didn't expect so much Baekhyun! I only wrote his POV once in 2012. I didn't realise I'd written this much Baekhyun POV in 2013 until I started crunching the numbers in the spreadsheet. There's more Baekhyun POV than Kame POV, and Kame was my POV for the one story over 10k. How did that happen? (I also didn't expect to write this much Suho POV, or Kai POV, but those responsible know who they are.)
Other kinks, themes, content you'd like to mention?
I wrote LOVECRAFT AU with ambiguously gendered uke tentacle monster sex! (Cold and Intimate, JE RPF) I wrote Chanyeol in dresses twice! I wrote Kai into two different prostitution AUs! I wrote Baekhyun choking and gagging and having his tummy petted so many more times than I would have ever imagined *letting* myself a year ago! (every 2nd story in which he appears...)
Favourite story? Not "best", but the one that makes you the happiest?
It's a Small World After All, EXO RPF
Kristine and her Chanyeol are so dear to me in so many ways. So is Disneyland. So is all the meta underpinning all of this. I want to write so much more about them.
(Runners up: Warning: Do Not Touch, EXO/Night Vale; Thirsty, EXO; Don't Rock the Boat, EXO; Only Star in the Night, EXO)
Most Popular work?
Hydrophilia, Free!, if I base it on bookmarks and kudos on AO3 (with Touch My Heart, Once Upon a Time, a close second). Playtime, EXO, if I base it on hits. Noona, EXO, based on comments.
Easiest Story to Write?
Hydrophilia, Free! That was one afternoon. I was talking about my shipping feels and thoughts about the sexualities of fictional characters and ... it just seemed like a good idea, and later there was the fic. Warning: Do No Touch was also so easy to write, again, all in one afternoon. That was just hilarious to write because everything about it was silly, so I could kill off any character I wanted, because it was just a joke between friends.
Hardest story to write?
Learning on the Job, EXO. I adore that one shot of Chanyeol kneeling with Kris using him like a table so Kris can write on his own poster, but wow, did I not ever have a story to go with how much that picture means so much to me as a marker of my krisyeol fannishness. I gave up on this story so many times.
Most overdue WIP?
There's #fml, which I've been writing for 16 months. There's also He Screams for Mercy, for Vagrant Story, that I still want to finish some day, and I started that in 2000. So 16 months is not much, right?
Creative risks?
Hmm. Cold and Intimate was long and borrowed from a vocabulary and tone and viewpoint that's not much like my usual one. I don't know how successful that was, and I think it probably needed more plot on the page than it got. Then there's all the stories that I *made* myself rush to finish because there was a deadline for a particular bingo challenge. Sure, some of them are light, and some could have been improved with more time and editing, but the flipside is that I didn't agonise over the hypothetical perfection of far fewer stories and post much less. And I have more bingo cards to play with.
I wrote more guro this year, including bestiality (Silk and Champagne, Beauty and the Beast) and so much vomiting (incl. This is the Waiting Room, Once Upon a Time/Twin Peaks, Thirsty, EXO, Don't Rock the Boat, EXO). I'm not surprised that Waiting Room wasn't popular, because it's a niche crossover, but the popularity of the other two is both inexplicable to me and immensely cheering.
I feel like I've started writing more kink fic without orgasms (cf. all the Puppy Café fics, even Strong Enough, which is orgasm-less flogging instead of orgasm-less puppy play like the other two: Puppy Love Café, and Stay) - which feels like a risk, because that feels contrary to audience expectations of what a story with kink in will do. I wrote explicitly asexual characters and kink (Hydrophilia, Free!), but most of the characters I wrote were ones I saw as sexual - just not at the moment(s) framed by the story. I also had a few stories that swerve late in the story away from the usual romantic tropes for their set-ups, and I don't know if that makes them more interesting or just frustrating for readers who thought they were reading a story that would end up somewhere else. (e.g. Stay, EXO and To Have and to Hold, EXO)
Overall, with writing, what worked/what didn't work?
I haven't kept records about it, but most of my stories are either pieces I sat down and wrote in a day or they're the work of several months, possibly of most of the year, as I ran into walls and put the story aside and picked it up again, weeks, months later. I also seem to get ideas in two main varieties - 1) the ones that come with the quick, neat punchline, whether that's a literal punchline or a scenario with a particular ending and 2) the ones where what I have is world-building that has no particular place to go, which can be an image or some meta/thoughts. I do end up finishing stories of both types, but the second type don't get written nearly as quickly.
Going for long walks plotting out the next part of the story works. Writing out a shaky outline in bad prose/notes and editing that into something better as a second pass works. Writing something every day (or attempting to) works. Telling one of my betas that I can't get anywhere on a draft-- that, weirdly, has often worked to get a story going again, sometimes because they give me great feedback about what's missing or not working, but sometimes just because I'm contrary. (Praise works, but given that I don't have control over that, it's not really a technique one can apply. Having good betas is not a technique, either, it's a blessing. Though, writing something down and trying to make it good so I can show off - that's something I can do.)
Hopes and predictions.
Well. I expect more bingo squares, mostly from
kink_bingo, but from
trope_bingo and "bloody" bingo as well. I'd really like to get a 2nd
trope_bingo card during the scoring period this round. I don't think exchanges will happen for me in 2014, but who knows. I'll keep an eye out.
I'd like to keep up a mix of one big fandom and occasional pieces in other fandoms, probably fandoms I haven't even heard of yet.
I'd like to hit 75K, but I hope I'll be ok with my work if I don't. I hope I'll finish more outstanding WIPs, in particular #fml and the #kristineyeol sequels I've plotted out. That will definitely involve getting even more familiar with writing longer pieces of work, which terrifies me, but finishing #fml will take out 1/3 of that 75k and I know I can get a
trope_bingo square out of it.
Maybe I will write another prostitution AU where Kai is paid for his companionship, Chanyeol wears dresses and Baekhyun drinks too much and has an oral fixation? Maybe Kyungsoo or Sehun POV, since they're the only EXO members I haven't written about yet. Who knows?
Indulge me, I want to know out of everything I posted in 2013, what is your favourite story/stories?
This entry is mirrored at Dreamwidth with
comments. You can comment here or there.
Kinks, themes and other content I wouldn't have expected to write?
I wrote so much gen! (incl. (The) Only Star in the Night, EXO RPF, This is the Waiting Room, Once Upon a Time/Twin Peaks, and Mother Knows Best, Once Upon a Time) I wrote literal heart petting! (Touch My Heart, Once Upon a Time) I wrote hand amputation/serial murder! (Warning: Do Not Touch, EXO/Welcome to Night Vale)
I didn't expect so much Baekhyun! I only wrote his POV once in 2012. I didn't realise I'd written this much Baekhyun POV in 2013 until I started crunching the numbers in the spreadsheet. There's more Baekhyun POV than Kame POV, and Kame was my POV for the one story over 10k. How did that happen? (I also didn't expect to write this much Suho POV, or Kai POV, but those responsible know who they are.)
Other kinks, themes, content you'd like to mention?
I wrote LOVECRAFT AU with ambiguously gendered uke tentacle monster sex! (Cold and Intimate, JE RPF) I wrote Chanyeol in dresses twice! I wrote Kai into two different prostitution AUs! I wrote Baekhyun choking and gagging and having his tummy petted so many more times than I would have ever imagined *letting* myself a year ago! (every 2nd story in which he appears...)
Favourite story? Not "best", but the one that makes you the happiest?
It's a Small World After All, EXO RPF
Kristine and her Chanyeol are so dear to me in so many ways. So is Disneyland. So is all the meta underpinning all of this. I want to write so much more about them.
(Runners up: Warning: Do Not Touch, EXO/Night Vale; Thirsty, EXO; Don't Rock the Boat, EXO; Only Star in the Night, EXO)
Most Popular work?
Hydrophilia, Free!, if I base it on bookmarks and kudos on AO3 (with Touch My Heart, Once Upon a Time, a close second). Playtime, EXO, if I base it on hits. Noona, EXO, based on comments.
Easiest Story to Write?
Hydrophilia, Free! That was one afternoon. I was talking about my shipping feels and thoughts about the sexualities of fictional characters and ... it just seemed like a good idea, and later there was the fic. Warning: Do No Touch was also so easy to write, again, all in one afternoon. That was just hilarious to write because everything about it was silly, so I could kill off any character I wanted, because it was just a joke between friends.
Hardest story to write?
Learning on the Job, EXO. I adore that one shot of Chanyeol kneeling with Kris using him like a table so Kris can write on his own poster, but wow, did I not ever have a story to go with how much that picture means so much to me as a marker of my krisyeol fannishness. I gave up on this story so many times.
Most overdue WIP?
There's #fml, which I've been writing for 16 months. There's also He Screams for Mercy, for Vagrant Story, that I still want to finish some day, and I started that in 2000. So 16 months is not much, right?
Creative risks?
Hmm. Cold and Intimate was long and borrowed from a vocabulary and tone and viewpoint that's not much like my usual one. I don't know how successful that was, and I think it probably needed more plot on the page than it got. Then there's all the stories that I *made* myself rush to finish because there was a deadline for a particular bingo challenge. Sure, some of them are light, and some could have been improved with more time and editing, but the flipside is that I didn't agonise over the hypothetical perfection of far fewer stories and post much less. And I have more bingo cards to play with.
I wrote more guro this year, including bestiality (Silk and Champagne, Beauty and the Beast) and so much vomiting (incl. This is the Waiting Room, Once Upon a Time/Twin Peaks, Thirsty, EXO, Don't Rock the Boat, EXO). I'm not surprised that Waiting Room wasn't popular, because it's a niche crossover, but the popularity of the other two is both inexplicable to me and immensely cheering.
I feel like I've started writing more kink fic without orgasms (cf. all the Puppy Café fics, even Strong Enough, which is orgasm-less flogging instead of orgasm-less puppy play like the other two: Puppy Love Café, and Stay) - which feels like a risk, because that feels contrary to audience expectations of what a story with kink in will do. I wrote explicitly asexual characters and kink (Hydrophilia, Free!), but most of the characters I wrote were ones I saw as sexual - just not at the moment(s) framed by the story. I also had a few stories that swerve late in the story away from the usual romantic tropes for their set-ups, and I don't know if that makes them more interesting or just frustrating for readers who thought they were reading a story that would end up somewhere else. (e.g. Stay, EXO and To Have and to Hold, EXO)
Overall, with writing, what worked/what didn't work?
I haven't kept records about it, but most of my stories are either pieces I sat down and wrote in a day or they're the work of several months, possibly of most of the year, as I ran into walls and put the story aside and picked it up again, weeks, months later. I also seem to get ideas in two main varieties - 1) the ones that come with the quick, neat punchline, whether that's a literal punchline or a scenario with a particular ending and 2) the ones where what I have is world-building that has no particular place to go, which can be an image or some meta/thoughts. I do end up finishing stories of both types, but the second type don't get written nearly as quickly.
Going for long walks plotting out the next part of the story works. Writing out a shaky outline in bad prose/notes and editing that into something better as a second pass works. Writing something every day (or attempting to) works. Telling one of my betas that I can't get anywhere on a draft-- that, weirdly, has often worked to get a story going again, sometimes because they give me great feedback about what's missing or not working, but sometimes just because I'm contrary. (Praise works, but given that I don't have control over that, it's not really a technique one can apply. Having good betas is not a technique, either, it's a blessing. Though, writing something down and trying to make it good so I can show off - that's something I can do.)
Hopes and predictions.
Well. I expect more bingo squares, mostly from
kink_bingo, but from
trope_bingo and "bloody" bingo as well. I'd really like to get a 2nd
trope_bingo card during the scoring period this round. I don't think exchanges will happen for me in 2014, but who knows. I'll keep an eye out.
I'd like to keep up a mix of one big fandom and occasional pieces in other fandoms, probably fandoms I haven't even heard of yet.
I'd like to hit 75K, but I hope I'll be ok with my work if I don't. I hope I'll finish more outstanding WIPs, in particular #fml and the #kristineyeol sequels I've plotted out. That will definitely involve getting even more familiar with writing longer pieces of work, which terrifies me, but finishing #fml will take out 1/3 of that 75k and I know I can get a
trope_bingo square out of it.
Maybe I will write another prostitution AU where Kai is paid for his companionship, Chanyeol wears dresses and Baekhyun drinks too much and has an oral fixation? Maybe Kyungsoo or Sehun POV, since they're the only EXO members I haven't written about yet. Who knows?
Indulge me, I want to know out of everything I posted in 2013, what is your favourite story/stories?
This entry is mirrored at Dreamwidth with
comments. You can comment here or there.