Stories, stories everywhere

[jadesfire]

I'm still umming over making any actual nominations for this (how do I choose between you!?!) but it made me smile and figured it might do the same for you:




The idea is to nominate people rather than their works, and is a lovely idea. I hope to have time for it soon!

On to the ficly stuff!

#1. I've had the grand total of two recs to take with me to Morocco. Now, I know you folks read more than that, so if you've seen anything at tardis_bigbang, sgabigbang or sga_santa that you loved, I'd appreciate the pointer! Audiofic recs would also be appreciated.

#2. My 2008 fic list is here. It's backdated* because it turned into a ridiculously long trundle through the year, with snippets and thoughts that I couldn't resist putting in there. So just a few stats for you instead:

*ETA: And updated, since I discovered that I'd missed 2 SGA fics!

Total number of stories: 48
Longest story: Resonance (45,916; SGA)
Shortest story: Research (100; SGA)
Total number of words: ~207,730
Average (mean) story length: 4348 words (the median is somewhere around 1700)
Numbers by Fandom: 21 Stargate: Atlantis, 12 Torchwood, 8 Jack Harkness, 4 Doctor Who, 3 others and a partidge in a pear tree

#3. The New Year Fic Meme

My best story(ies) of this year:
Moonrise, Bibula Harena, The Broken Places
My favourite story of this year:
Choosing nearly killed me, but I'm going to go for Five Times McKay and Sheppard Arrived Back In Atlantis Without Their Clothes, although I'd like the podfic version by rustydog, please.
Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
I've been overwhelmed by comments this year - people are astonishingly kind, thoughtful and generous. But I'll pick Resonance - long gen is always hard to get people to read, and this is seriously long gen.
Most fun story to write:
Board Wars, no contest there.
Sexiest story:
I don't have many to choose from in this category, but I guess Feels Like Home would have to be the winner.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
Genus: Wraith (The Who Are You Remix), which sounds like an odd choice, but I liked the 'overheard' moments that Teyla gets.
Hardest story to write:
Difficulties in Mathematics, because I so much wanted to get it right.
Biggest Disappointment:
Not managing to make my tardis_bigbang story into a Discworld crossover like I wanted to. I love the story I got, but the other would have been so much fun!
Biggest Surprise:
What Not To Buy. It's a fluffy little story, really, but has had a surprising level of interest.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Things Unsaid, where Z and I pretty much laid out our views on Jack/Ianto.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Definitely more. This was the year of the Challenges, not something I intend to repeat in 2009, for the sake of my sanity!
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008?
AU. I always thought it was something I couldn't do, then becky_h gave me the prompt that became Port Call and I had a whale of a time.
Did you take any writing risks this year?
Yes and no. I signed up to write in a lot of areas that I'd never tackled before, which was good for me. But although I've written everything from silly crack to deep character study, I've managed to find my own writing voice through doing it, so in retrospect, it doesn't sound like much of a risk at all.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
I'm going to do 3 challenges - tardis_bigbang, sgabigbang and sga_genficathon. Apart from that, I plan to work my way through my outstanding fic-ideas list and attempt some original stuff as well. I'd also like to write more collaborations, since I've found this year that I really, really like working with someone else on a story.
I'd like to thank the academy...
I have incredible beta-support. My abiding memory will be of rustydog and donutsweeper chatting happily in the middle of one of my stories in googledocs while I wrote around them. mad_jaks, stackcats, perspi bironic and most of my flist have also been there when I needed them, for which I can't thank them enough, and it's been a joy to work with some awesome artists, particularly in_the_bottle, who has the patience of a saint and genius graphic skillz.

But I must must must tell everyone how wonderful crystalshard and miss_zedem are. They hold my hand, turn around fics in less time than I would have thought physically possible and are always willing to listen to me wail and rant when stories go badly (which is most of the time). I couldn't write without them and have no intention of trying.


#4. My WiP/fic agenda for 2009:

Challenges/stories I'm committed/committing to:
lostcityfound [deadline: Friday. I need to decide whether I'm going AU or going to make time to watch the last 2 episodes. *eyes 'to do before holiday' list* I'm thinking the former.]
sga_genficathon [March/April, from whatever prompt I get]
tardis_bigbang [April-ish probably, and I know what I'm going to write]
sgabigbang [Summer]
Drabble prompts from the flist [for Morocco]
Something for bironic for spotting me at sga_santa

Works in Progress:
SGA fic with perspi
5 AUs I'm not writing
SGA Crackier than usual
SGA Top sekkrit fic
SGA vid-inspired AU
Torchwood Jack/Suzie

Planned stories:
More in the 'Port Call' universe
Travelers backstory
The Watching Years (I think I found my macguffin for this at last...)

Anything else that I've talked about? I occasionally post mad-cap ideas or mention things in passing. If anyone actually remembers any of them, please let me know. Do I owe anyone anything? I'm sure I've forgotten something...

One of my resolutions for 2009 is to participate in fewer challenges. I've just got so much of my own that keeps getting pushed onto the back-burner by things I sign up for. If 2008 was about discovering my own voice, 2009 is about exploring it. I want to write more drabbles, take more flist prompts and generally dig a little deeper. My first LJ fic was posted 18th July 2006, and I feel like I spent the first year learning the mechanics of writing, the second year learning how to write like me, and I'm spending the third settling into it and just writing. It's a good feeling.

#5. bironic!!! I owe you a fic! Leave me a prompt (or, you know, request a WiP ;)) and I'll get right on it.

#6. I just had a dig through very, very old posts and stumbled across 2 original fics that I remember liking at the time. Both are what I think of as 'life sideways' stories, in that they're not quite fantasy, but there's no way they're the real world either. They're definitely candidates for polishing and doing something with - I'm so very much better at editing than the putting words on a blank page part of writing, that this is an easy way in.

*looks round* I think that's everything.

*pause*

I'd better get writing then, hadn't I?

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ETA: Unrelated to fic in any way, I have my first Slimming World group of the new year tonight. Before Christmas, there were rumours of a new eating plan, and I've just looked it up on the website. It's called "Extra Easy" and...well. It does look it. Potentially much less confusing than the whole Original/Green split that experienced members do on instinct and utterly baffles newcomers, and much more of a plain and simple "these foods are healthy" eating plan. Should be interesting to see what happens later...