End-of-year Meme: Writing

[luzula]

Fraser/Kowalski stories:
Letters: Fraser, I'm putting this where you're gonna find it tomorrow morning, or maybe tonight after I leave. Letters exchanged between Ray K, Fraser and Ray V, written for j_s_cavalcante in the 2012 C6DVD challenge. 1200 words, G
To Strive, To Seek, To Find: A story where Fraser is asexual, Fraser and Kowalski do a lot of relationship negotiation, and they also fall into Lake Michigan while in pursuit of miscreants. Written for the due South/C6D 2012 Big Bang. 22,200 words, R

Stories about the Fraser family and Fraser's early years:
Lay Me Down: It wasn't easy to go out and get drunk in a town where you represented the law. Written for the fan_flashworks "lost hour" challenge. Bob/Caroline, hints of Bob/Buck, 1000 words, PG
One Time Caroline Fraser Was Rescued By a Mountie (and Four Times She Rescued One) Written for the fan_flashworks "five things" challenge. Bob/Caroline, Bob/Buck/Caroline, PG-13, 500 words (five drabbles)

Fraser/Victoria and Victoria-centric stories:
Relief: She read the words in the paper: Legendary Mountie dead in hunting accident. Written for a dS/C6D tag game. 700 words, PG
Turns of Tempest: In the end, she couldn't do it. All that planning, all the nights Victoria had spent in prison daydreaming about how she'd bring him down--when she was faced with the reality of betraying Benton Fraser, she couldn't do it. Even though he'd betrayed her, all those years ago. Written for mountie_rider in the 2012 dSSS exchange. 7,100 words, NC-17

Other stories:
A Name of One's Own: Maggie confronts her mother about her parentage. Written for the fan_flashworks "secrets" challenge. Maggie MacKenzie and Ellen Stern, 1300 words, PG
Mutual Interests: Fraser babysits for Frannie, and then they eat ice cream and talk about skin care products. Fraser and Frannie gen, with background F/K. 500 words, G
Staying Warm on a Cold Night: Mark comes to visit Fraser and Ray up in Inuvik. Fraser/Kowalski/Smithbauer, 5,000 words, NC-17
Working Late: Ray comes by Stella's office to see if she's done working yet. PWP. Stella/Ray K, 1200 words, NC-17
You Find It When You're Least Looking For It: Janet was so used to having to work hard for what she and the kids needed, having to play the vulnerable woman or the tough bounty-hunter by turns, that Fraser caught her off-balance. Benton Fraser/Janet Morse, 3,250 words, NC-17

Snippets about the Fraser family:
Admiration: Flirting. So much flirting. Bob/Buck/Caroline, PG
Conflicts: A discussion of ethics. Bob and Benton gen, background Bob/Buck, G
Disclosures: Benton speaks up to his father about his relationship to Ray. F/K, Bob/Buck/Caroline, G
Trio: "Hey, your Mounties are here again!" Bob/Buck/Caroline, G

Femslash snippets:
Gifts: Ray wants advice. Ray V, Elaine (implied Frannie/Elaine), PG-13
Real: Frannie had always thought love was like an arrow from that weird little baby love god. Sudden, and starry-eyed, and overwhelming. Frannie/Elaine, G

Other snippets:
Comfort: Stella gets a phone call after "Strange Bedfellows." Stella and Barbara gen, G
Divide: Ray sees Victoria in Vegas. Ray V and Victoria gen, PG-13
Nyárë yondo atacárala: The due South pilot told in the style of Tolkien's Silmarillion and in Quenya. Gen, PG.
Past: Had he really been that person? Fraser/Kowalski, Kowalski/OFC, Fraser/OFC, G
Snow: "Is it snowing out?" Fraser/Victoria, PG-13

Stories in other fandoms:
One Defends and the Other Conquers: The sight of Stan uncovering those ridiculous needles all in a row, so obviously planted, made it all come together in Buddy's mind. Mostly Buddy gen, but also Buddy/Carol, and Duck is in there, too. 6,400 words, PG-13
Building the Castle of Roses: Sleeping Beauty in space. Written for LostWendy1 in Yuletide 2012. 6,200 words, PG-13
Under berget, a Swedish translation of Under the Mountain: There was something under the mountain. A post-apocalyptic fairy tale. Mostly original fic, 3400 words, PG.

Workshops:
Podficcing: Beyond the Basics. Written for generation_kill.

First off, some statistics (yeah, I love statistics):

• Total writing output: 62,566 words (25 stories). This is slightly less than last year's wordcount of around 69,900 (30 stories).


• Of the wordcount, 45% is slash, 28% is gen, 25% is het, 1% is femslash (but if you look at the stories, 6 are slash, 10.5 are gen, 5.5 are het, and 2 are femslash). Twelve different pairings are represented.


• Of the wordcount in the due South stories, 50% is written in Fraser POV (4.5 stories), 17% in Victoria POV (3 stories), 12% in Ray K POV (2 stories), 7% in Janet Morse POV (one story), leaving 14% and 12 stories for other people (Caroline, Stella, Bob, Ray V, Frannie, Elaine).


• 26% of the wordcount (3 of the stories) are in fandoms that are not due South.


• 40% of the wordcount (14 of the stories) is written from the POV of a female character. 19% of the wordcount is in stories that pass the Bechdel test (6 stories).


• Five of the stories are long-term WIP:s that I worked on systematically to finish, the rest were written fairly quickly and spontaneously.

Still going strong with due South, obviously, with a smattering of other fandoms. New pairing for this year was Fraser/Janet Morse. The advent of fan_flashworks this year made me write some spontaneous short stories this year (as well as some podfics) and I really enjoyed that, but I kept having to focus on challenge commitments. Next year I want to do more flashworks.

My best story(ies) of this year: I don't know, honestly? You tell me? My Big Bang story To Strive, To Seek, To Find is the most popular by hitcount, but I'm still a bit too close to it to see it objectively. And in general I feel like it's hard to tell which of my own writing is the best.

My favourite story of this year: I'll go with two of my shorter stories, Lay Me Down, which is Bob and Buck grieving over Caroline, and A Name of One's Own, about Maggie and her mom. Both of these were flashworks.

Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I don't know? I don't feel underappreciated, and I'm happy about the feedback that I get.

Most fun story to write: One Time Caroline Fraser Was Rescued By a Mountie (and Four Times She Rescued One) and Admiration! Bob/Buck/Caroline is my happy place, and those stories were fun to write (although there's a bit of whiplash to sadness in the last part of the first one).

Sexiest story: I do like the het sex in both Working Late and You Find It When You're Least Looking For It.

Story with the single sexiest moment: Some of the Ray POV bits in To Strive, To Seek, To Find are pretty hot to me.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: Possibly my Quenya translation? But hey, it was so much fun...

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Definitely One Defends and the Other Conquers! I'd never written such a long Wilby Wonderful story before, and I hadn't thought much about Buddy's character, either.

Hardest story to write: Well, the Big Bang story was hard on account of the length, but aside from that, I also struggled with One Defends and the Other Conquers, and with Turns of Tempest. exeterlinden was so much help with both of those! RL beta discussions are the best. I also had some problems with my Yuldetide story Building the Castle of Roses.

Biggest Disappointment: I'm not particularly disappointed in any of the fics this year, so I'll go with one from last year that I still keep meaning to rewrite, though I wonder if I'll ever get around to it: Push and Pull. I love it in some ways, and it makes me cringe in others.

Biggest Surprise: Maybe that I finally managed to finish some WIP:s that I'd had lying around for years? This was the Fraser/Kowalski/Smithbauer story Staying Warm on a Cold Night, and my Yuletide story Building the Castle of Roses.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Probably You Find It When You're Least Looking For It. La la la.

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

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2011? I dunno, not much is new? Possibly the Wilby story One Defends and the Other Conquers.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I definitely felt like Midsummer Santa was a risk! I'd never written long fic in any of the C6D fandoms before.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? Yes! First I'd like to clear out my WIP folder a bit, and then I want to tackle some other stories. I want to finish my long Victoria WIP (and wow, I had that beta-read a while ago, and I haven't even been able to bring myself to read the beta yet. *facepalm* Sorry, sage! I'm invested in that story while simultaneously being convinced that it sucks, which is an awkward combination.) Anyway, I also want to write a due South sedoredu story, a due South Temeraire AU, and a due South science fiction AU, all of which are pretty clearly plotted out in my head. I would also like to write a long Bob/Buck/Caroline story, but I don't have a clear handle on what the plot would be--they just come out in short snippets for me so far. Sure, I've written one 10,000-word fic about them, but that wasn't an OT3 fic...

I'd like to thank the academy... I'm very grateful to all the smart and generous people who beta-read the stories I finished this year (in no particular order, and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone): malnpudl, springwoof, primroseburrows, podfic_lover, desireearmfeldt, andeincascade, keerawa, waltzforanight, miss_zedem, china_shop, vsee, bghost, isis, spuffyduds, mergatrude, innocentsmith, exeterlinden, wintercreek, sage, my sister, and my mom. Wow, that's a lot of people. Also, a huge thanks to everyone who has given me comments and feedback and encouragement. ♥