Top fics / favorite fics
Oct. 13th, 2019 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstar[ETA: Ironically, the note that opens this post (about how I'm posting this thing months later than everyone else) was written two weeks ago; since then I've been dealing with a family emergency, so I'm now posting this even later than I thought I was. ...Life. You just never know what you're going to get thrown at you. So, here, have a fluffy post about fic that I wrote two weeks ago in an entirely different frame of mind!]
Also, in the way of everything in my life lately, here's a meme that other people were doing months ago, but apparently I am doing...now.
The idea is: "List your top fanworks on AO3 for every year, sorted by kudos." I saw this viatrobadora, who included the idea of picking my own favorite, in addition to the official "top" one. And that kind of intrigued me: which stories have gotten the most response, but also, how does that compare to which I think are best?
This is super self-indulgent, of course, but then I suppose so is everything? ;-) So, off we go!
(FYI inevitably everything here is Harry Potter, unless noted otherwise.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2011 (though not posted to AO3 until I joined in 2013)
TOP FIC: Ginny, Harry, Teddy, Family – It's fine, I guess, but it's definitely "early stage" writing from me, a little rougher than I'd like. It did inspire me to write the longer, Ginny-centric story Chambers, though!
MY FAVORITE: In the Wrong House – Eleven-year-old Remus, desperately trying not to allow himself to make friends at Hogwarts, but inexorably falling in with the Marauders anyway. Written equally long ago, but to my surprise I actually think it holds up well!
2012 (though not posted to AO3 until I joined in 2013)
TOP FIC: Chambers – This would be my top pick, too! I'm still rather proud of this quiet little fic about Ginny reclaiming her life and her agency in the wake of the war.
2013
TOP FIC: Two Brothers Down a Dark Alley Sometime in 1979 – Wouldn't have expected this to be the sleeper hit of that year, but I guess the Black brothers are catnip to some people...including me! I went on to write Sirius and Regulus' fraught brotherly relationship into a bunch of fics, but this was the first.
MY FAVORITE: Hm, probably Saying Yes? – The longest, most ambitious multi-chapter fic I'd written up to that point, and still the core of my writings about Andromeda. Though I'm also partial to Yahrzeit (a Remus/Tonks one-shot that weaves together two of the different traumas in their lives, and how they work on them together) and the La Ronde Noire series as a whole (follows a "la ronde" format of the various Black cousins interacting).
2014
This is the year my writing took off in terms of scale – 29 fics this year!
TOP FIC:
(out of all fandoms) Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Father Christmas – First BBC Sherlock fic (first time I branched out from Harry Potter at all) and it got such a warm, kind, encouraging welcome. Still makes me warm and fuzzy to think about. :-)
(out of Harry Potter fics) On a Windswept Cliff – My first Remus/Sirius, first AU, first a lot of things, always dear to me.
MY FAVORITE: I'd probably agree with On a Windswept Cliff, which was the first time I created a complex AU setting that I'm still quite proud of, or possibly A New World Bursting into Bloom, about teenage Andromeda growing up and figuring out where she stands on the pureblood ethos she's always taken for granted.
2015
28 fics this year, including one massive, multi-chapter one!
TOP FIC: Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (co-written with stereolightning) – Yup, I'd probably also agree on this one for my favorite. Possibly Be the Light in My Lantern, because I poured all of myself into writing that fic over the course of years, and learned so much in the process, both about writing and about how I saw the HP canon. But realistically, yes, it's probably Fantastic Beasts – co-writing always brought out both our strengths, and I have to admit I honestly think we did a great job here of melding the Beauty and the Beast tale with the canon backstory of Remus, Sirius and the Marauders.
2016
TOP FIC: Raise Your Lantern High – Only posted a few fics this year (because I'd spent so long revising this behemoth!) but it's indeed also my favorite, no question. Still one of the works I'm proudest of: novel-length, complex in plot, and a richly developed group of OCs that even readers who don't like OCs seem to like. :-)
2017
TOP FIC: The Fall of the House of Black – I got on a kick of Remus/Sirius AUs/fusions: using some other 'verse (like Beauty and the Beast above) to explore the canonical dynamics and backstory of Remus and Sirius... This is a fusion with the plot of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," and the very thought of that concept still makes me happy. The House of Black and the House of Usher, it turns out, meld very well!
MY FAVORITE: If You've Got a Lantern Hold It High – It's genfic and mainly about OCs (a coda to Raise Your Lantern High), so of course hardly anyone's read it, but it's actually one of the stories I'm most proud of, looking at some of the lives Remus touched, through four different POVs. (Or I'd also go with The Fall of the House of Black. Writing stories dripping with gothic-ness turns out to be super fun!)
2018
TOP FIC:
(out of all fandoms) My Heart Shall Not Reproach Me – A BBC Sherlock fic that's a remix of an author I really admire (ancientreader) and was a joy to write.
(out of Harry Potter fics) The Snow Wolf – Top Harry Potter fic, but only out of the very few I wrote this year!
MY FAVORITE: This is actually hard, because even though I didn't write much this year (because grad school), it's also the year I really branched out into new fandoms, so there's a lot I'm excited about here! The Snow Wolf is indeed one of the stories I'm most proud of, out of anything I've ever written, fic or original (and it feels almost like original fiction, since so much of the world and characters are original). And I do also really like My Heart Shall Not Reproach Me. But I'm also very proud of Do You Observe? (221B Baker Towers, a fandom I didn't think I'd ever be able to write, and I'm still so thrilled that I found a way to do it after all) and Further Negotiations Amongst the Penguins (John Finnemore's Double Acts; and it was both challenging and wonderful to try to follow the act of such a skilled writer).
2019 (so far)
TOP FIC:
(out of all fandoms) Go to the Limits of Your Longing – My first Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries fic, and it seemed to go over really well! ...I should probably write more in this fandom. :-)
Have I learned anything interesting from this?
The largest number of these "top" fics are Remus/Sirius, totally unsurprisingly, since that's the only big ship I write! (Everything else is genfic or rarepairs.) Also, a couple of Ginny or Ginny/Harry fics, which makes sense for Harry Potter fandom in general. And a few Remus/Tonks stories did come in as top, but mostly sort of by accident in years when I only posted a few fics in total... Remus/Tonks wasn't always considered a rarepair, but these days it really is. And the one about the Black brothers I guess is the only genfic that made it in. (Though my Ginny-centric story is mostly gen.) For Sherlock, of course the top ones were either Johnlock or little-kid-Sherlock-being-cute, no surprises there. And Miss Fisher! I really ought to circle back and write more Miss Fisher. :-)
.
Also, in the way of everything in my life lately, here's a meme that other people were doing months ago, but apparently I am doing...now.
The idea is: "List your top fanworks on AO3 for every year, sorted by kudos." I saw this via
trobadora, who included the idea of picking my own favorite, in addition to the official "top" one. And that kind of intrigued me: which stories have gotten the most response, but also, how does that compare to which I think are best? This is super self-indulgent, of course, but then I suppose so is everything? ;-) So, off we go!
(FYI inevitably everything here is Harry Potter, unless noted otherwise.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2011 (though not posted to AO3 until I joined in 2013)
TOP FIC: Ginny, Harry, Teddy, Family – It's fine, I guess, but it's definitely "early stage" writing from me, a little rougher than I'd like. It did inspire me to write the longer, Ginny-centric story Chambers, though!
MY FAVORITE: In the Wrong House – Eleven-year-old Remus, desperately trying not to allow himself to make friends at Hogwarts, but inexorably falling in with the Marauders anyway. Written equally long ago, but to my surprise I actually think it holds up well!
2012 (though not posted to AO3 until I joined in 2013)
TOP FIC: Chambers – This would be my top pick, too! I'm still rather proud of this quiet little fic about Ginny reclaiming her life and her agency in the wake of the war.
2013
TOP FIC: Two Brothers Down a Dark Alley Sometime in 1979 – Wouldn't have expected this to be the sleeper hit of that year, but I guess the Black brothers are catnip to some people...including me! I went on to write Sirius and Regulus' fraught brotherly relationship into a bunch of fics, but this was the first.
MY FAVORITE: Hm, probably Saying Yes? – The longest, most ambitious multi-chapter fic I'd written up to that point, and still the core of my writings about Andromeda. Though I'm also partial to Yahrzeit (a Remus/Tonks one-shot that weaves together two of the different traumas in their lives, and how they work on them together) and the La Ronde Noire series as a whole (follows a "la ronde" format of the various Black cousins interacting).
2014
This is the year my writing took off in terms of scale – 29 fics this year!
TOP FIC:
(out of all fandoms) Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Father Christmas – First BBC Sherlock fic (first time I branched out from Harry Potter at all) and it got such a warm, kind, encouraging welcome. Still makes me warm and fuzzy to think about. :-)
(out of Harry Potter fics) On a Windswept Cliff – My first Remus/Sirius, first AU, first a lot of things, always dear to me.
MY FAVORITE: I'd probably agree with On a Windswept Cliff, which was the first time I created a complex AU setting that I'm still quite proud of, or possibly A New World Bursting into Bloom, about teenage Andromeda growing up and figuring out where she stands on the pureblood ethos she's always taken for granted.
2015
28 fics this year, including one massive, multi-chapter one!
TOP FIC: Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (co-written with stereolightning) – Yup, I'd probably also agree on this one for my favorite. Possibly Be the Light in My Lantern, because I poured all of myself into writing that fic over the course of years, and learned so much in the process, both about writing and about how I saw the HP canon. But realistically, yes, it's probably Fantastic Beasts – co-writing always brought out both our strengths, and I have to admit I honestly think we did a great job here of melding the Beauty and the Beast tale with the canon backstory of Remus, Sirius and the Marauders.
2016
TOP FIC: Raise Your Lantern High – Only posted a few fics this year (because I'd spent so long revising this behemoth!) but it's indeed also my favorite, no question. Still one of the works I'm proudest of: novel-length, complex in plot, and a richly developed group of OCs that even readers who don't like OCs seem to like. :-)
2017
TOP FIC: The Fall of the House of Black – I got on a kick of Remus/Sirius AUs/fusions: using some other 'verse (like Beauty and the Beast above) to explore the canonical dynamics and backstory of Remus and Sirius... This is a fusion with the plot of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," and the very thought of that concept still makes me happy. The House of Black and the House of Usher, it turns out, meld very well!
MY FAVORITE: If You've Got a Lantern Hold It High – It's genfic and mainly about OCs (a coda to Raise Your Lantern High), so of course hardly anyone's read it, but it's actually one of the stories I'm most proud of, looking at some of the lives Remus touched, through four different POVs. (Or I'd also go with The Fall of the House of Black. Writing stories dripping with gothic-ness turns out to be super fun!)
2018
TOP FIC:
(out of all fandoms) My Heart Shall Not Reproach Me – A BBC Sherlock fic that's a remix of an author I really admire (
ancientreader) and was a joy to write.(out of Harry Potter fics) The Snow Wolf – Top Harry Potter fic, but only out of the very few I wrote this year!
MY FAVORITE: This is actually hard, because even though I didn't write much this year (because grad school), it's also the year I really branched out into new fandoms, so there's a lot I'm excited about here! The Snow Wolf is indeed one of the stories I'm most proud of, out of anything I've ever written, fic or original (and it feels almost like original fiction, since so much of the world and characters are original). And I do also really like My Heart Shall Not Reproach Me. But I'm also very proud of Do You Observe? (221B Baker Towers, a fandom I didn't think I'd ever be able to write, and I'm still so thrilled that I found a way to do it after all) and Further Negotiations Amongst the Penguins (John Finnemore's Double Acts; and it was both challenging and wonderful to try to follow the act of such a skilled writer).
2019 (so far)
TOP FIC:
(out of all fandoms) Go to the Limits of Your Longing – My first Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries fic, and it seemed to go over really well! ...I should probably write more in this fandom. :-)
Have I learned anything interesting from this?
The largest number of these "top" fics are Remus/Sirius, totally unsurprisingly, since that's the only big ship I write! (Everything else is genfic or rarepairs.) Also, a couple of Ginny or Ginny/Harry fics, which makes sense for Harry Potter fandom in general. And a few Remus/Tonks stories did come in as top, but mostly sort of by accident in years when I only posted a few fics in total... Remus/Tonks wasn't always considered a rarepair, but these days it really is. And the one about the Black brothers I guess is the only genfic that made it in. (Though my Ginny-centric story is mostly gen.) For Sherlock, of course the top ones were either Johnlock or little-kid-Sherlock-being-cute, no surprises there. And Miss Fisher! I really ought to circle back and write more Miss Fisher. :-)
.
