starfishstar

A bit belatedly, here's that summing-up-the-year-in-fic meme I also did last year... It's fun to look back at a whole year's worth of writing at once!

FIC/FANDOM MEME

What I wrote this past year:

JANUARY
• Sharp and Bright against a Golden Sky (Dumbledore/Grindelwald fic, because huldrejenta wished there were more about these characters – this idea ended up spawning a whole series)
• Be the Light in My Lantern (my Remus/Tonks epic; posting completed in Jan 2015)
• It's Not Just About Who You're Sleeping With (my second Sherlock fic ever!)
• Ripe as Summer Quinces (second in the Dumbledore/Grindelwald series)
• Scents of Sorrow, Scents of Joy (Crookshanks fic, inspired by stereolightning and gilpin25!)

FEBRUARY
• Shelter at Your Door (my rarest of rarepairs, Remus and Andromeda)
• The Rotten Core (third in the Dumbledore/Grindelwald series)

MARCH
• Belladonna Blue (fic for The Mentalist! continuing to branch out)
• Step Right Up (Lee Jordan and Kingsley Shacklebolt)

APRIL
• Very 21st Century (my first Torchwood fic! continuing even more to branch out!)

MAY
• The Truth Will Break Your Heart (another Sherlock fic!)
• Some Things Can't Wait (Torchwood)
• Foreign Languages (Torchwood)
• Neville Longbottom and the Year That Was (imposing strict word limits seems to do good things for me)

JUNE
• Sharp Lightning Against a Dangerous Sky (the final Dumbledore/Grindelwald fic – the duel)
• Unfamiliar Times (Torchwood)
• Space Cowboys in a Space Bar (silly Torchwood crossover)

JULY
• Brothers (beginning my fascination with Sirius and Regulus as brothers)
• First Kiss (ficlet for huldrejenta)

AUGUST
• Shadow and Shade (continuing my fascination with Mycroft and Sherlock as brothers)
• Relentless Sunshine (another gen ficlet about finding light in dark times)

SEPTEMBER
[nothing posted; my attention was devoted to writing my RS Games fic – pushing myself to write something built around a plot arc, rather than just character studies and interactions]

OCTOBER
• Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (co-written with stereolightning, by far our longest and most complex co-written project)

NOVEMBER
• Sirius Black and the Case of the Missing Dirigible Plums (birthday fic for shimotsuki)
• A Constellation's Just a Picture in the Sky (rs_games fic)
• Buds and Bells and Stars without a Name (Sherlock fic for holmestice – this was many firsts for me, including first multi-chapter fic in a fandom other than HP, first stab at a fantasy AU, first stab at a romance in the Sherlock fandom... Also continuing my push to learn how to write stories with a plot arc.)

DECEMBER
• Holly to the Ivy (the concluding fic in my Mycroft-and-Sherlock series)
• Raise Your Lantern High (at long last, started posting the sequel to Be the Light in My Lantern!)
• Waiting for the Snow (a Teddy fic for rt_morelove)
• Ain't Misbehavin' (for rt_morelove)

Things I did:
•rs_games
•birthday fics for friends, which was a new kind of fun challenge, writing specifically to what I thought a person might like
•the Sirius Black Birthday Spectacle at sirius_black
•holmestice! scary and new and exciting
•rt_morelove's Twelfth Night Tales

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
More, I think. I'm pretty sure I had this idea I was going to start transitioning from fic to original fiction, and that didn't happen at all. Which I struggled with for a while (what am I doing, why am I indulging in this fun but silly stuff instead of grappling with Real Fiction?) but at this point I feel fine about it. I'm still learning a LOT through writing fic, I'm still using fic to challenge myself to do new, different and difficult things, and I'm having a ton of fun!

Looking back, was your fandom involvement (modding, cheerleading, fest participation, etc.) more, less or about what you'd predicted?
Somewhat less, maybe? Slightly fewer fests, or maybe it was the same fests but at a less frenetic level of involvement. Though I did do something TOTALLY NEW for me, by participating in Holmestice!

What's your favorite story of the year?
•Oh, gosh. Maybe the Dumbledore/Grindelwald ones, because that was a new challenge – especially writing the dramatic duel in "Sharp Lightning Against a Dangerous Sky."
•Or "A Constellation's Just a Picture in the Sky" because I was so relieved to find I was able to write a story with an actual plot arc – I outlined the whole thing in classic three-act style before I started writing, and it was a revelation. Oh, this is why writers do this! Because it's really helpful! Ditto on "Buds and Bells and Stars without a Name" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" – it's been invigorating to find out I can take my abilities at character and dialogue and apply them to stories that have plot and action, too.
•Also "Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts," because what a fun project, and of course "Raise Your Lantern High"! I've been working on that for so long, I can't quite believe it's finally out there in the world.

Least favorite story?
Dunno, I guess the ones that are just me doing my same old thing: brief, dialogue-based, reflective one-shots that are good character studies but have no plot. I'm so tired of that! Not that I won't do those at all anymore, just that I want to know I'm able to do other things, too.

What's your favorite fandom fest/project of the year?
Favorite project: Completing "Be the Light in My Lantern" and editing the sequel "Raise Your Lantern High," together a story 5+ years in the making.
Favorite fest: rs_games and holmestice, because in both cases I took them as a challenge to do something new, and rt_morelove because that's so dear to my heart – and I challenged myself there, too.

Least favorite fandom project?
Uh…do I have to have a least favorite? I really don't.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Yes! Especially these last couple months, I've been really, really pushing myself to learn how to write plot as well as character, and I'm so pleased about that.

In editing the second half of my Remus/Tonks "Lantern" series, I also pushed myself (with the help of stereolightning's invaluable feedback) to improve some of my bad writer habits, to be tighter, more active, more descriptive, to add conflict and not just let the characters be polite and vague. I think the second half of the "Lantern" series is so much better than the first half, for those reasons, that I almost want to pull the first half entirely and just tell people to read the second half!

In general, I kept challenging myself to do new things – for example, the Dumbledore/Grindelwald stories were more sensuously descriptive as well as more romantic/angsty than most things I've done; or, in "Step Right Up," I pushed myself to do my usual dialogue-driven character-focused thing but also include rich background detail and action.

I wrote in new fandoms, explored new characters, and wrote AUs/magical/fantastical things I'd never expected to write, having always been such a canon stickler!

And writing a longer, plottier co-written story with stereolightning was great, because I really do think we both encourage each other to be even better in combination.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year?
Complete "Be the Light in My Lantern"/"Raise Your Lantern High"! Get that project totally done.

Write longer, plot-driven fics, in whatever fandom. Use my interest in character as part of creating a longer story with a plot arc, rather than letting character study be the whole thing.

Maybe use that as a springboard back into original fiction at some point, once I've learned how to create a plot arc and then drape the character development over it.

My best story of the year:
"Raise Your Lantern High" – so much work and love went into this story, so much dedication and attention to detail! I certainly hope it's good!
• Maybe my Dumbledore/Grindelwald stories (the "Golden, Ripe and Rotten" series, plus "Sharp Lightning Against a Dangerous Sky")
•Maybe "Shelter at Your Door" – I feel like I created a thoughtful alternate world here
•"Step Right Up," for combining character/dialogue with worldbuilding/descriptive detail
•in general my Sherlock-and-Mycroft stories…I've discovered quite a Thing for writing Mycroft POV
• "Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast"

Story most under-appreciated by the universe in my opinion:
• "Shelter at Your Door" – I'm quite proud of what I created in this one, but it's a super rare pair, so it doesn't really get noticed
• "Sharp Lightning Against a Dangerous Sky" – this one got much less attention that the rest of my series of Dumbledore/Grindelwald stories – which is too bad, because I put by far the most work into this one!
•and maybe "Unfamiliar Times" (a Torchwood fic, of Jack's backstory) – because again, I think I did some cool weaving of backstory here, but it doesn't get read much because it's not about a specific pairing

Most fun story:
•"Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts," "Buds and Bells and Stars without a Name," "Ain't Misbehavin'"
•and probably all or most of my Torchwood fics – that world is so much fun to play around in! "Foreign Languages" maybe most of all.

Most sexy story:
the whole "Golden, Ripe and Rotten" series (Dumbledore/Grindelwald)

Story with the single sexiest moment:
• Yeah, probably also "Ripe as Summer Quinces" from the "Golden, Ripe and Rotten" series…apparently I didn't write much else that was straight-up sexy this year!

"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Jack Harkness from Torchwood simultaneously hitting on Han Solo from Star Wars and Mal Reynolds from Firefly? Yeah, probably that. ;-)

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
•"Golden, Ripe and Rotten" series – oh, yes, I had an entirely different set of feelings about Dumbledore after that.
•as a whole, the "Lantern" series, over these last 5+ years…I probably never would have even thought much about Tonks, if I hadn't started writing that story.
•"It's Not Just About Who You're Sleeping With" – god I love Molly, from BBC Sherlock. I should get inside her head more often.
•"Step Right Up" – I'd never thought much about Lee, or all that much about Kingsley for his own sake! Now I want to!
•"Very 21st Century," "Unfamiliar Times," etc. – I gain more sympathy for Jack Harkness the more I think about him.
•"The Truth Will Break Your Heart," "Shadow and Shade," "Holly to the Ivy," etc. – I could write Mycroft endlessly. Why does he fascinate me so much? I am nothing like him.
•"Neville Longbottom and the Year That Was" – I knew I loved Neville, but now I love him more! More Neville, please!
•"Brothers"; "A Constellation's Just a Picture in the Sky" – and now I want to write about Regulus all the time.

Hardest story to write:
• "Sharp Lightning Against a Dangerous Sky" – that duel, man. I am not an action writer, definitively not. I worked on this story for like four months.
•"Buds and Bells and Stars without a Name" – this one gave me trouble, but was really rewarding in the end! A fandom I'm less accustomed to writing, a character I'd never written before, a fantasy bent which I hadn't tried out before (I'd only written super-realistic, canon-compliant Sherlock stories), plus trying to write a plot-driven fic PLUS worrying about writing something that would be tailored to the interests of my recipient, since it's a gift exchange, my first ever gift exchange fest. Good lord!
•"Raise Your Lantern High" – so, so much time went into this fic. It boggles the mind.

Biggest surprise:
•"Fantastic Beasts and How to Win Their Hearts" totally taking off – that was lovely! And in general, my Remus/Sirius stories getting more recs than I would ever have expected.
•My Mycroft-and-Sherlock stories (the "Brothers, Bitter and Sweet" series) getting the enthusiastic support of someone who runs a collection of canon-compliant BBC Sherlock stories.
•While we're at it, the warm reception when I first dared to delve into Torchwood stories.
•Also, huldrejenta asking me to co-mod a fest. :-) I never expected to mod anything!

List of WIPs:
"Raise Your Lantern High," apparently forever and always…