End-of-year meme (fic edition)

[luzula]

Fraser/Victoria and Victoria-centric stories:
Strings of Hair, Pegs of Bone: Fraser tells stories in the night. Fraser, Vecchio (implied Fraser/Victoria), 400 words, PG-13
Tying-off: After thirty years, Victoria wants closure. Fraser, Victoria, 300 words, G
Your Fading Fire Fraser gets on the train. It's Victoria who has second thoughts. Written for Deputychairman in the 2013 dSSS. 2,500 words, NC-17

Fraser/Thatcher and Thatcher-centric stories:
Status Report: Meg checks in during an undercover mission. Written for sage in the 2013 C6DVD challenge. 300 words, PG
Coming Back: Meg comes back from an undercover assignment. Science fiction AU, sequel to Status Report and written for the fan_flashworks The Other Side challenge. 1,300 words, NC-17

Gen stories
Anachronism: "Wait, they have feathers?" Ray said, his voice low. "They didn't have feathers in the movie." Jurassic Park crossover, Fraser and Kowalski and velociraptors, gen, 300 words, G
Bones: He didn't know what he'd thought he'd find here. Peace of mind, perhaps. Fraser gen, 300 words, G
Partners In Exile: A retelling of the due South pilot as a Temeraire fusion: When Benton Fraser's father dies, he teams up with his father's dragon partner Diefenbaker and together they chase his father's killers to Chicago. Fraser & Diefenbaker, ensemble. 20,200 words, PG

Other stories:
American Women: Frannie and Mackenzie go on a date. Frannie Vecchio/Mackenzie King, Maria Vecchio, Ray Vecchio. 1000 words, PG
Collapse of the Wave Function: Principles from physics do not generally carry over to human relationships. Teenage Benton Fraser/Mark Smithbauer, 1200 words, R
In the Same River: Meeting Eric again stirs up old feelings. Benton Fraser/Eric Kitikmeot, 1,450 words, R
Puzzle Pieces: Sedoretu AU. Glimpses from the marriage of Fraser, Ray K, Maggie, and Frannie. Fraser/Ray K, Maggie/Frannie, Maggie/Ray K, Fraser/Frannie, Fraser & Maggie, Ray K & Frannie, Bob/Buck, Bob/Caroline, Caroline/OFC, Buck/OFC. 7,600 words, NC-17
Pattern: He was interested in hockey, Fraser reminded himself. He didn't usually need to concentrate to remember the score. 300 words, R

Stories about the Fraser family:
Bonds: Bob had fallen asleep, but Ellen lay awake, listening to the snowstorm outside that had made Bob seek shelter with her. Bob/Ellen, Ellen gen, 300 words, PG
Tentacles: 1950's style sci-fi with a woman abducted in the arms of a tentacled alien! Except not. Bob/Buck/Caroline, 250 words, PG

Stories in other fandoms:
Linger: Sometimes it's too late for change. And sometimes it isn't. Carol and Dan gen, 300 words, PG
Someday We May See: Hers was the kingdom, and the toil, and the children, for ever and ever. Fic for the song Woman King with Iron and Wine, 700 words, PG-13
White Flowers in Spring: After many years, Artos receives a message. Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset, Artos/Bedwyr/Guenhumara, 2150 words, PG
Blodröd: Hon följer stigen, tills det är dags att kliva av. A Swedish translation of my Little Red Riding Hood story Sanguine. 2600 words, PG-13.
Down Among the Weeds: Janet brings Tam Lin out of the wild woods. Written for Snow in Yuletide 2013. Janet/Tam Lin, the traditional Tam Lin ballad, 3,900, R
A Crack In the Wall: Eurydice, in the Underground. Written for Snow in Yuletide 2013. Persephone/Eurydice, Hadestown, R, 6,800 words.

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

• Total writing output: 53,714 words (22 stories). This is less than last year's wordcount of around 62,566 (25 stories) and the year before that, when I wrote 69,900 words (30 stories).


• Of the wordcount, 57% is gen, 21% is het, 12% is femslash, and 10% is slash (and looking at the stories, 9.25 are gen, 6.25 are het, 1.75 are femslash, and 3.25 are slash). *blinks* Wow, I did not expect that. I mean, last year 45% of what I wrote was slash, and this year it's coming in last. Sixteen different pairings are represented.


• Of the wordcount in the due South stories, 73% is written in Fraser POV, 8% in Victoria POV, 7% in Frannie POV, 7% in Ray K POV, 5% in Maggie POV, and the rest are from the POV of Thatcher, Mackenzie King, Ellen Stern, Caroline, and Eric Kitikmeot.


• 30% of the wordcount (6 of the stories) are in fandoms that are not due South.


• 41% of the wordcount (11.5 of the stories) is written from the POV of a female character. 34% of the wordcount is in stories that pass the Bechdel test (4 stories).

Still writing in due South, but I think I'm running dry on F/K--I wrote very little of it this year, and I don't have many ideas left for them. I think this is why slash comes in last among all the categories this year. But there's plenty of other stuff to write. I also wrote five stories in other fandoms (all very rare ones), and I'm happy with that!

My best story(ies) of this year: I'm not sure? Nothing leaps out at me as being obviously the best one. But if I have to pick something, I think the Wilby snippet Linger is pretty good, and also Someday We May See, which is fic for the song "Woman King" with Iron and Wine.

My favourite story of this year: I guess I'll pick the one which I put the most work into: the dS/Temeraire cross-over Partners In Exile, which was my Big Bang for the year. I'm quite fond of it--it was fun to write a story where the Dief-Fraser partnership was in focus, and obviously Dief as a dragon was a lot of fun.

Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I kind of wanted more feedback on both my Yuletide fics? But then, I've been spoiled with Yuletide feedback the two previous years, so I probably have unrealistic expectations now.

Most fun story to write: Probably my C6DVD contribution, the Fraser/Thatcher snippet Status Report. Writing them in space was so much fun! I have a whole backstory for them in that verse; I hope I'll write it down some day.

Sexiest story: The Fraser/Thatcher story Coming Back is quite hot, I think. I'd almost never written het from the male POV, and I wrote it as sort of a challenge to myself, but I liked how it turned out.

Story with the single sexiest moment: I like the little bit of F/K sex in Puzzle Pieces.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: ...nothing? I mean, I wrote tentacles, but not like that. Hmm, someday I want to write xeno fic.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I'd been mulling over the character motivations in the Tam Lin ballad for a while, trying to make sense of them, and when I wrote my Yuletide story the characters finally settled into place for me.

Hardest story to write: My dSSS story, alas. I'd written Fraser/Victoria in the previous year's dSSS, and I felt like my inspiration for it had run dry, especially as my recipient wanted a scene similar to one I'd already written.

Biggest Disappointment: Again, my dSSS story.

Biggest Surprise: The Fraser/Frannie in Puzzle Pieces. They don't ordinarily work for me, but with the differences in this 'verse (Fraser having grown up with a mother and a sister, and Frannie having a different model for relationships), I feel they really do work!

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Probably Puzzle Pieces. It's a happy poly story, written when I was in a working poly relationship. I probably could not have written it now, heh.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? Less, due to unforseen life upheavals.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2011? I was surprised to write Sutcliff fic, in a lightning burst of inspiration! I never expected that.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Writing two Yuletide fics (as well as a dSSS fic), maybe? I am proud that I managed it.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? I checked out what I wrote here last year, and then I wanted to 1) finish my Victoria WIP, 2) write a dS sedoredu story, 3) write a dS Temeraire AU, 4) write a dS science fiction AU, 5) write a long Bob/Buck/Caroline story. I have managed two out of five, which is not bad, really. So I guess the other three are still on my list, along with the Bob-dies-instead-of-Caroline AU which I wrote a teaser for, and also the long Fraser/Thatcher-in-space story. I have no immediate plans for stories in other fandoms, but I have no doubt I'll write some.

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): exeterlinden, keerawa, moetushie, noracharles, raspberryhunter, jjhunter, seascribe, darlas_mom, sage, mergatrude, Sproid, desireearmfeldt, spuffyduds, and bunn. Wow, that's a lot of people. Also, a huge thanks to everyone who has given me comments and feedback and encouragement. ♥

Comments

[seascribble]

Oh, I want the rest of the Fraser/Thatcher in spaaaaaace story.

I hope running dry on F/K doesn't mean we'll be seeing less of you in the fandom; you are a mainstay! :) I'm a bit jealous of you guys who can write so many different pairings--I ship and read pretty wildly, but what I can actually pull off myself is pretty limited.

[luzula]

I hope not? I mean, I still have fic ideas that I want to write. : )

I dunno, I think my feelings towards F/K are influenced in a weird way by falling in love IRL. Like, obviously I loved my boyfriend before, but we'd been together really long and it was a long-term-relationship kind of love. But now RL-being-in-love is taking up some of the brainspace of fannish shipping feelings, I think.

[espresso_addict]

I loved your Hadestown story, though I don't know the specific canon at all. I tend to read through the entire database (still on S) before I start to write comments on the ones I really adored.

[luzula]

Oh hey, thanks! So glad to hear that. : )

Yeah, we all have our reading systems for Yuletide. My way is to start in the middle (on O, say) and then read upwards alphabetically, just to even it out a little so everyone doesn't start on A. And then I start on P and go downwards. Also, I save everything longer than 5000 words to my ereader for later.

[espresso_addict]

That's a good idea. I tend to alternate years when I read forwards from A & backwards from Z. But then I often don't finish till towards the end of the following year -- I try to get my recs done before sign-ups re-open but even that doesn't always happen.

[garonne.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love statistics! Interesting to see how things compare to last year.

Also, the useful thing about this post is that it reminds me of stories of yours I had bookmarked to read :) Particularly the Temereire AU.

The amount of variety there is in your fic is really pretty impressive. It makes me want to try my hand at something new too, particularly as regards female characters. (I'm ashamed to say that now I think about it, lots of my stories don't even have any speaking female characters, never mind coming close to passing the Bechdel test. Maybe in 2014 I can do something about that.)

I remember thinking Fraser/Frannie in your poly fic worked particularly and surprisingly well, too!

[luzula]

Yeah, statistics are so fascinating! I was really kind of floored by how little slash I'd written this year.

And the female character thing is interesting. When I write in fandoms other than due South, I tend to write about female characters, and the closer I get to it being original fic, the stronger that tendency gets.