Round ups!
Jan. 1st, 2018 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireIt turns out that 2017 was the year I came back to writing and podficcing. I'm not sure yet whether I've come back to fandom. Tumblr still baffles me, and that seems to be where people hang out now, so that's sort of a work in progress.
But in terms of what I finished in 2017:
107,807 words of fic across 18 stories
14 hours, 2 minutes and 19 seconds (roughly) of recording across 23* podfics
*some are still to be revealed!
For context, I posted about 7 stories in 2016, and NOTHING in 2015. So that's something of a comeback. I also added my voice to two collaborative podfics, and re-uploaded A World Called Catastrophe, with improved audio. Two stories represent nearly half of my word total, and Yuletide added another 15k. Six of them were for Pod Together, which really reminded me how much I love working collaboratively, and it's something I'll be doing again.
I failed to finish my NaNo story, and won't be attempting this one again, although the fic is still gnawing at the inside of my brain. If anyone fancies helping me write a Daredevil/Guardians of the Galaxy fusion in 2018, the assistance would be greatly appreciated!
I dug back into Podfic, found a recording and, more importantly, an editing set up that works for me, and lets me get through things much more quickly. In my Google Drive, I now have a spreadsheet of things I want to record, which is not only colour-coded, but has the approximate finished length of the work. It feels very organised! I've gained a lot of technical confidence, adding music, making my own covers, and creating my own audiobooks, which has been good for me. I might dig out my back catalogue for AO3 and create a proper, complete record of what I've done. There's a lot lurking that I'd forgotten about, but I'm still proud of.
For next year, my podficcing priorities are three epics that I've got my sights on, each of which will be over three hours, and therefore longer than anything else I've ever done. There are also conclusions to series that I'd like to get done.
Thanks to various amnesties, I was able to take part in Yuletide, and thanks to Tumblr, I wrote for the Daredevil Secret Santa. Now that reveals are up...
The Same Roof (Jessica Jones,but for the Daredevil Secret Santa)
Christmas is always Christmas. It's always the same, and it's always different.
Sometimes, fics fight back. This was one of those times. I had about nineteen drafts, of many, many Christmases between Jessica and Trish, as well as intervening times. The problem was, they didn't work. They were boring, or perfunctory, and I didn't feel they had much of an emotional impact.
In the end, while this is short, it felt more whole and complete than the others, and caught the emotional mood I was going for.
And for Yuletide:
Life's Greatest Happiness (Sense8)
The cluster has plans to meet for Christmas, but Lito starts to suspect that's not the only planning that's going on.
This one was interestingly tricky. My recipient and I had exactly matching ideas when it came to Sense8. The things that we loved were the same, and our favourite characters were the same. But I couldn't find a strong enough macguffin to structure a story around. Vague impressions do not a story make (see above comment about Plot, the Hating of). After wailing totopaz_eyes for a while, I talked myself into one, using my favourite trope of an alternating time structure to make it come together. Overall, I felt I managed to wrap up the warm fuzzies that are Sense8 at its best inside a rough story outline, and I ended up surprisingly pleased with it.
~
You've Got Mail (Doctor Strange)
"Did you have my mail forwarded?"
"I did." On the other end of the line, he could hear the hospital in the background as Christine walked through the corridors. "I thought that now you were back in the city, you should at least attempt to rejoin the rest of us."
"Great. So I can continue to be invited to donate to every fundraiser in the city, and," he paused, holding up a particularly lurid sheet, "order from Harold's Hungry Hoards. He's spelt 'hordes' wrong, by the way."
"Well, now you have an address again, you should write to him and let him know."
I enjoyed the film just fine, although I think I enjoyed the idea more than the execution, and the Cloak of Levitation was by far my favourite character (which is why my own Yuletide gift, Weave, is so awesome!). This was a Pinch Hit, and I confess that I had picked up the idea from a throwaway comment in someone else's prompt. I love worlds clashing, and had great fun working out just how Stephen Strange would receive mail again, after being reassured bydonutsweeper that the Post Office is an international experience :)
~
Pride of London (Rivers of London)
"Not exactly a welcome committee," Nightingale muttered under his breath.
As we got closer, I could see across the drawbridge to the floodlight walls.
"I think they might be a bit distracted," I said. "By the elephant."
Having written two RoL fics for Pod Together, I felt I had my ear in for the character voices, but even so, I struggled for a plot (some things don't change - I hate plot!). So I did what I always do when I'm stuck, which is to noodle around Wikipedia until the idea for what I want to write jumps out at me. In this case, it was the statues of animals honouring the menagerie at the Tower of London. While I'm pleased enough with the outcome, I'm sort of itching to get back in and flesh it out a little. As a Pinch Hit, I sort of ran out of time for everything I wanted to do, so this one might get revisted, maybe in February!
On the other hand, I won't be changing the title, which I am exceedingly proud of, it being a Pune (or Play on Words), which are the highest form of wit.
~
Take Out (The Defenders)
Five times Danny brought take out to the Defenders (and one time they took it with them)
I have a deep and abiding weakness for 'Five times' fics, so when I needed to get this done quickly, it seemed like the best approach. It's not surprising that this is the least-read of my Yuletide fics. Danny Rand is pretty universally disliked, so not many people are going to give it - or him - a chance. Which is fair enough. While Danny isn't my favourite character, and I thought Iron Fist was pretty poor as a piece of television, I could see the point of him in the group, and the likeable character that sort of got buried under a bunch of plot-mess. Which is good, because it would be hard to write a fic like this if I didn't like him! In this, I tried to write the Danny they were going for, rather than the one they ended up with, and was pretty satisfied that it worked.
But in terms of what I finished in 2017:
14 hours, 2 minutes and 19 seconds (roughly) of recording across 23* podfics
*some are still to be revealed!
For context, I posted about 7 stories in 2016, and NOTHING in 2015. So that's something of a comeback. I also added my voice to two collaborative podfics, and re-uploaded A World Called Catastrophe, with improved audio. Two stories represent nearly half of my word total, and Yuletide added another 15k. Six of them were for Pod Together, which really reminded me how much I love working collaboratively, and it's something I'll be doing again.
I failed to finish my NaNo story, and won't be attempting this one again, although the fic is still gnawing at the inside of my brain. If anyone fancies helping me write a Daredevil/Guardians of the Galaxy fusion in 2018, the assistance would be greatly appreciated!
I dug back into Podfic, found a recording and, more importantly, an editing set up that works for me, and lets me get through things much more quickly. In my Google Drive, I now have a spreadsheet of things I want to record, which is not only colour-coded, but has the approximate finished length of the work. It feels very organised! I've gained a lot of technical confidence, adding music, making my own covers, and creating my own audiobooks, which has been good for me. I might dig out my back catalogue for AO3 and create a proper, complete record of what I've done. There's a lot lurking that I'd forgotten about, but I'm still proud of.
For next year, my podficcing priorities are three epics that I've got my sights on, each of which will be over three hours, and therefore longer than anything else I've ever done. There are also conclusions to series that I'd like to get done.
Thanks to various amnesties, I was able to take part in Yuletide, and thanks to Tumblr, I wrote for the Daredevil Secret Santa. Now that reveals are up...
Christmas is always Christmas. It's always the same, and it's always different.
Sometimes, fics fight back. This was one of those times. I had about nineteen drafts, of many, many Christmases between Jessica and Trish, as well as intervening times. The problem was, they didn't work. They were boring, or perfunctory, and I didn't feel they had much of an emotional impact.
In the end, while this is short, it felt more whole and complete than the others, and caught the emotional mood I was going for.
And for Yuletide:
The cluster has plans to meet for Christmas, but Lito starts to suspect that's not the only planning that's going on.
This one was interestingly tricky. My recipient and I had exactly matching ideas when it came to Sense8. The things that we loved were the same, and our favourite characters were the same. But I couldn't find a strong enough macguffin to structure a story around. Vague impressions do not a story make (see above comment about Plot, the Hating of). After wailing to
topaz_eyes for a while, I talked myself into one, using my favourite trope of an alternating time structure to make it come together. Overall, I felt I managed to wrap up the warm fuzzies that are Sense8 at its best inside a rough story outline, and I ended up surprisingly pleased with it."Did you have my mail forwarded?"
"I did." On the other end of the line, he could hear the hospital in the background as Christine walked through the corridors. "I thought that now you were back in the city, you should at least attempt to rejoin the rest of us."
"Great. So I can continue to be invited to donate to every fundraiser in the city, and," he paused, holding up a particularly lurid sheet, "order from Harold's Hungry Hoards. He's spelt 'hordes' wrong, by the way."
"Well, now you have an address again, you should write to him and let him know."
I enjoyed the film just fine, although I think I enjoyed the idea more than the execution, and the Cloak of Levitation was by far my favourite character (which is why my own Yuletide gift, Weave, is so awesome!). This was a Pinch Hit, and I confess that I had picked up the idea from a throwaway comment in someone else's prompt. I love worlds clashing, and had great fun working out just how Stephen Strange would receive mail again, after being reassured by
donutsweeper that the Post Office is an international experience :)"Not exactly a welcome committee," Nightingale muttered under his breath.
As we got closer, I could see across the drawbridge to the floodlight walls.
"I think they might be a bit distracted," I said. "By the elephant."
Having written two RoL fics for Pod Together, I felt I had my ear in for the character voices, but even so, I struggled for a plot (some things don't change - I hate plot!). So I did what I always do when I'm stuck, which is to noodle around Wikipedia until the idea for what I want to write jumps out at me. In this case, it was the statues of animals honouring the menagerie at the Tower of London. While I'm pleased enough with the outcome, I'm sort of itching to get back in and flesh it out a little. As a Pinch Hit, I sort of ran out of time for everything I wanted to do, so this one might get revisted, maybe in February!
On the other hand, I won't be changing the title, which I am exceedingly proud of, it being a Pune (or Play on Words), which are the highest form of wit.
Five times Danny brought take out to the Defenders (and one time they took it with them)
I have a deep and abiding weakness for 'Five times' fics, so when I needed to get this done quickly, it seemed like the best approach. It's not surprising that this is the least-read of my Yuletide fics. Danny Rand is pretty universally disliked, so not many people are going to give it - or him - a chance. Which is fair enough. While Danny isn't my favourite character, and I thought Iron Fist was pretty poor as a piece of television, I could see the point of him in the group, and the likeable character that sort of got buried under a bunch of plot-mess. Which is good, because it would be hard to write a fic like this if I didn't like him! In this, I tried to write the Danny they were going for, rather than the one they ended up with, and was pretty satisfied that it worked.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 06:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 06:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 12:30 am (UTC)It indeed looks like you came back to writing! That's awe-inspiring! \0/
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 09:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 08:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 09:23 am (UTC)Here's hoping to keep some momentum, but maybe with less pressure on myself, in 2018 :)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 08:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 08:54 pm (UTC)And if it at least gets me back here a bit more, it has to be a good thing <3
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 08:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 04:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 05:00 pm (UTC)Not sure I'll match that this year, but at least I feel my writing brain is up and running again!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 05:03 pm (UTC)I'm kind of tentatively dipping my toe back into writing too, after having had an incredibly busy year that saw me without even the brainpower to role-play let alone write fic. But my RP game finished and in the lull after Christmas I found myself looking at my old fics again and thinking how nice it would be to actually get some of them finished and posted...
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 03:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 03:21 pm (UTC)