Meme: Fanfic Year in Review

[john_amend_all]

Shouldn't take long to do this time...

Stats:

List of Completed Fics (According to AO3)

• The Heart Does Not Grieve Over (Three, Jo, Delgado Master, Tasha Lem; 494 words)
• A Chance Encounter in the Plantation (Ace, Bill, Adam Adamant; 1113 words)
• A Quiet Night In (Twelve, Nardole, One, Polly, Ben, Thirteen, Francois, Wesley Crusher; 2413 words)
• Once Bitten (Adam Adamant, Georgie, Simms; 485 words)
• Exchange Students (Jamie/Samantha, Zoe, Victoria, Isobel, Gwendoline Lacey; 8029 words)
• Out of Place (Eight, Shou Yuing; 8506 words)
• In at the Top End (Five/Tegan, Peri; 1076 words)
• Off the Bed (Eight, Lucie, Clara-Fragment; 1257 words)
• Crime Scene (Five, Tegan, Nyssa; 621 words)
• Ten AUs: Clyde / Rani (Clyde/Rani; 1000 words)

Total number:

10

Total word count:

24994

I wish I'd put another 6 words in one of the fics now :-)

Ship/character breakdown:

Well, basically the only ships are Five/Tegan and Jamie/Sam, and the characters are as listed above.

Specifics:

Best/worst title?

A Chance Encounter in the Plantation is an AAL! title that I like quite a lot, and I'm also partial to the double meaning in Exchange Students. For worst, I remember having a lot of trouble with what I'd call the fic that ended up as In at the Top End.

Best/worst summary?

I think they're all fairly pedestrian. Except perhaps Exchange Students which tries to tease rather than reveal. Worst are The Heart Does Not Grieve Over which takes the easy way out and quotes a line from the fic; and Ten AUs: Clyde / Rani which is just boilerplate.

Best/worst first line?

Having reread them all, I think there's not a lot in it, but probably Once Bitten:

"Miss Jones!" Adam gave the vase another look, as if to confirm that what he had seen had not been the product of a momentary hallucination.

A Quiet Night In is, I think, the least appealing.

Best/worst last line?

I think the best is Off the Bed:

"One of these days," she said, unsure whether she was addressing the Doctor, Ozzie, the nomadic duvet or the Universe in general, "you're really going to regret mucking me around like this."

Worst? I think maybe one of the Clyde / Rani ficlets, but I'm not sure which.

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?

Looking at the stats, I've actually surprised myself by writing more words than last year (though in fewer fics). Still about a fifth of what I used to do at my peak, though.

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

Sadly, I think they're all ones I've done before.

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

I think Exchange Students has the edge over Out of Place.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Somewhat to my surprise, A Quiet Night In — given the obscurity of This Time Round, it seems to have attracted the highest number of hits and kudos. I suspect tagging it for the then-current Doctor(s) might have played a part in this.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Even A Chance Encounter in the Plantation picked up five whole kudos points, so I don't think any of the ten can be considered unappreciated.

Story that could have been better?

Crime Scene had to undergo something of a heavy rewrite. I'm not sure it helped.

Sexiest story?

There's sex in my stories? I mean, Jamie and Sam smooch a bit in Exchange Students, but that's as far as it goes.

Saddest story?

I think they're all more toward the fluffy end of the spectrum. Maybe Ten AUs: Clyde and Rani for meta reasons, as on current showing it looks like my last ever fanfic.

Most fun?

Eight psychically stealing Lucie's bedclothes in Off the Bed, I think.

Story with single sweetest moment?

Maybe the Clyde/Rani sorcerer's apprentice AU?

Hardest story to write?

In general it seems to have got harder to write as time passed, so most likely one of the last few.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Exchange Students (which may explain why it's the one that makes me happiest).

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Out of Place was my first attempt to write Shou Yuing without Ace, which gave me a chance to bring out aspects of her character I hadn't previously considered. Of course Exchange Students gave me a lot of fun creating mirrorverse versions of all the characters, but that's not quite the same thing.

Most overdue story?

I think Out of Place was the only one with anything resembling a formal deadline, and it went up to the wire, but it did get there in the end.

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

Even on such a restricted dataset, I did — in A Quiet Night In I wrote Thirteen before any of her episodes had been broadcast. I've seen people come a cropper with this in the past (one example that springs to mind was an attempt to write Nine and Rose before they'd appeared on screen; it came off as Generic Classic Doctor and Generic Classic Companion). But I couldn't avoid it. And, on rereading... I might try to recast some of her lines, but there's only one that I really can't imagine Jodie Whittaker delivering.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

I'm not setting any, because I have no confidence that I'd achieve them.

How did you do on last year's goals?

No luck on writing overdue prompts, so those are just festering in my inbox; I've even accumulated a few more prompts to ignore. But, somewhat to my surprise, I did manage to get A Quiet Night In done on time.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Well, congrats on what you did write, and I very much hope that 2019 see you get your mojo back! (Not solely for selfish reasons!!)

"Miss Jones!" Adam gave the vase another look, as if to confirm that what he had seen had not been the product of a momentary hallucination.

A good one, yes.

"One of these days," she said, unsure whether she was addressing the Doctor, Ozzie, the nomadic duvet or the Universe in general, "you're really going to regret mucking me around like this."

You always do such a great Lucie!