john_amend_all

Most remiss of me not to get round to this until now, especially given the paucity of fic compared to previous years.

Stats:

List of Completed Fics (According to AO3)

Lest He Die In Battle (Steven / Ace; 1181 words)
Post Mortem (Mina Harker / Lucy Weston; 1462 words)
In the Picture (Lucie Miller, Karen Coltraine, Rani Chandra; 745 words)
Love in the Air (Tegan / Nyssa; 528 words)
Andromeda (Ace & Ray; 510 words)
Aedos (Eight & Lucie; 328 words)
Apate (Inspector Neele / Mary Dove; 516 words)
Achlys (Mina Harker / John Seward / Lucy Weston; 529 words)
Walking Work Of Code (Two, Jamie, Zoë; 353 words)
Recruit (Ulkesh, OFC; 1888 words)
Regrettable Day (Adam / Georgie, Simms; 595 words)
You'll Have Had Your Alternate Reality (Hamish & Dougal; 1000 words)
Ten More Sideways Glimpses (Five / Nyssa / Tegan, Adam / Georgie, Three & Jo, Zoë/Isobel; 3900 words)
Red for Danger (Adam, Georgie, Melanie Powers; 594 words)
Aposiopesis (Eight, Grace; 593 words)
The Tunnel (Ben, Polly; 1874 words)
Reunion (Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Weston; 831 words)
Oh, and a couple of untitled and unarchived ficlets (359 and 337 words)

Total number:: 19
Total word count:: 18123

I'm rather coming to JRR Tolkien's view about creative acts not being repeatable; The Rags of Time in 2016 seems to have burned out whatever part of my mind I use for writing, and I've done precious little since. On the plus side, that does make it a little easier to do this meme.

Ship/character breakdown:: This is mainly down to who asked for what, and I don't think there's any point in doing a long list of the characters and ships that resulted. No Jamie/Victoria or Jamie/Sam (or Jamie/anyone else) this year, which would doubtless disappoint him.

Specifics:

Best/worst title?

I like You'll Have Had Your Alternate Reality because it's a terrible pun. Regrettable Day is probably the weakest; it aims at the style of title used by AAL!, but doesn't quite hit the mark.

Best/worst summary?

I think Achlys, Regrettable Day and In the Picture share the wooden spoon; the former two just have a line from the fic, and the latter doesn't have a summary at all.

Best/worst first line?

I rather like the first line of Aedos, though it's a bit of a cheat because it only makes sense in the context of the prompt. Worst, or at least most undistinguished, is Achlys or maybe Apate.

Best/worst last line?

I think best is Nyssa's last line in Love in the Air. Worst is the end of the last drabble in Ten More Sideways Glimpses; it's one of those situations where the writing hits the 100-word limit, stops dead, and keels over.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Less than I'd hoped, certainly.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I certainly wasn't expecting to write Hamish and Dougal fic, or to give houseroom to the unquestionably nastiest character in the Green Knowe stories. Nor was I expecting to write Five / Tegan / Nyssa threesomes.

What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Lest He Die In Battle — I was pleasantly surprised by how well it all went together.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Love in the Air — Tegan and Nyssa experimenting with sex pollen. This can only end well.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

In The Picture — Lucie and Karen are very niche.

Story that could have been better?

There are a few of the alternate universe drabbles that could probably do with being allowed to grow. I wrote the answer to this question just after a walk in horizontal rain, and certainly felt I could do justice at some length to Isobel's feelings on the subject (Ten More Sideways Glimpses, Zoë/Isobel, school AU).

Sexiest story?

I don't think any of them are, really. Though the Five/Tegan/Nyssa drabble (Ten More Sideways Glimpses, Five/Tegan/Nyssa, regency AU) is probably the closest I came to raunchiness. Which is still an awfully long way away.

Saddest story?

Regrettable Day; Adam and Georgie may survive, but Simms and the rest of London get it in the neck rather.

Most fun?

From my point of view, Ten More Sideways Glimpses.

Story with single sweetest moment?

I think that's Ten More Sideways Glimpses too; the inevitable Zoë-fixit where Isobel comes to the Wheel for her.

Hardest story to write?

Since I don't record against each story how hard I found it to write, this is a somewhat tricky question. In one sense, of course, the hardest ones to write were the ones that didn't get written. By that measure, Reunion, probably; I had to restart it from scratch after the first attempt started looking awfully similar to Recruit.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

I think Recruit was easiest to write.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

I don't think so.

Most overdue story?

Apart from the ones I haven't done at all? Reunion was nearly a month late. Aedos, Apate and Achlys had an even greater delay after their prompts, but didn't miss their notional deadline.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Asking for prompts seems to be a risk at the moment, with the odds only about evens that I'll be inspired to fill them.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

I've got a stack of prompts that kind people have left for me. It would be nice to clear those decks.

Also I want to mark the 20th anniversary of This Time Round, which is on 23 January.

How did you do on last year's goals?

I didn't write the Mina/Lucy fic I was pondering then, but I did write them in other fic so I'm going to call that a pass.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

thisbluespirit

Well, I hope 2018 goes better for you! I've missed your fic, although I've very much enjoyed the things you have written anyway (and no slighting Aedos, Apate, or Achlys, I loved them all! ;-p)