end-of-year fanfic meme
Jan. 1st, 2021 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenluathe correct time to do your end-of-year memes is while hung over on new year's day
also: i wrote enough fic this year to actually do this meme! how novel! how fun!
without further ado:
Total number of completed stories: 9
(I'm counting "Diplomacy" since i finished it for a zine, like... last August... and just wasn't allowed to post it to AO3 until today, lol)
Total word count: 52,499
Fandoms written in: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan)
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Quite a bit more!
What’s your own favorite story of the year? Tough call; I liked a lot of my stuff this year. But probably "The Signet of His Lords."
Did you take any writing risks this year? first book fandom fic, first kinkmeme fill / E-rated fic, first modern AU... yeah I tried some new stuff
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? sure but they're secret
My best story of this year: Oh, gosh, tough call. Despite its popularity (or maybe because of its popularity, heh), parts of "Deer Among Cattle" feel too pat/tidy to me now. Similar story with "Where the River Meets the Sea." Maybe "summer is miles and miles away" or "The Signet of His Lords"? Probably the latter, really; I think a lot of my fondness of the former is wrapped up in my fondness toward the subject matter, heh.
My most popular story of this year: "Deer Among Cattle," by a pretty wide margin! Turns out the people love Claude von Riegan backstory, who knew
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: With the caveat of, literally ANY attention my fics get feels like an absurdly flattering mistake, and Three Houses is such a popular fandom that even my niche stuff is finding an audience and that heckin rules... Given that caveat, I like "How to Rule the World" a lot, and it's probably my least popular Three Houses fic, so, that one :P
Most fun story to write: Oh, gosh, kind of a toss-up? "Where the River Meets the Sea" was a blast because it was my first fanfic after such a long break, and it was satisfying to feel it coming together, in an "aw yeah I've still got it!" sort of way. "summer is miles and miles away" was great because it was so gleefully self-indulgent. "To Take, To Hold" was fun just for the sheer novelty of writing something totally different.
Story with the single sexiest moment: "To Take, To Hold" is all sex, sooo, that one
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Writing "summer is miles and miles away" is what convinced me that Lorenz is actually interesting, lol
Hardest story to write: I think "Fourth Sunrise." Straying from Fire Emblem fandoms is hard; writing book fandoms is even harder (it invites comparison with the source material's prose! and the source material's prose is really good! ahhh!); I forgot that the Teixcalaan universe basically obligates you to write some poetry and oh my god I haven't written any poetry since high school. It was worth it, though, I think! My Yuletide recipient seemed to like it, and I loved the Yuletide fic I got in return :)
Most Unintentionally Telling: I mean. "summer is miles and miles away" doesn't count, I think, that was like... intentionally telling, lmao. Maybe "The Signet of His Lords"?
Biggest Disappointment: This is hard because I'm actually pretty pleased with my output this year! Like, sure, there's always room for improvement, but most of my fics were fun to write & I accomplished basically what I set out to do & they found their audience; that's all a girl can ask for. I guess I'll say that giftfic (I wrote three this year!) is surprisingly hard for me—unless I luck out and the prompt gels unusually well, it just takes a while for me to find the "spark" to make the thing work, and I worry that it makes them a bit less shiny when compared to my other fanfic.
Biggest Surprise: The sheer popularity of Three Houses fandom in general, probably. Like, I'll always be happy tilling the fields in teeny fandom land, but it WAS kinda interesting/cool/mystifying to get, like, hundreds of kudos? and dozens of comments? on multiple fics??? (gen fics, even??? wow, amaze, etc)
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Claude/Lorenz was definitely a thing that never occurred to me while playing Three Houses, but the combination of "reading some excellent Claurenz fics" + "writing Lorenz initially as a joke but then for reals" talked me into it, and yeah, dope ship would recommend.
Choice Lines: chosen at semi-random
from "How to Rule the World":
from "The Signet of His Lords":
from "summer is miles and miles away":
from "To Take, To Hold":
(also, tbh, all the Lorenz lines in that fic? Lorenz is such a high-maintenance fussy dude and it's a DELIGHT)
also: i wrote enough fic this year to actually do this meme! how novel! how fun!
without further ado:
Total number of completed stories: 9
(I'm counting "Diplomacy" since i finished it for a zine, like... last August... and just wasn't allowed to post it to AO3 until today, lol)
Total word count: 52,499
Fandoms written in: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan)
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Quite a bit more!
What’s your own favorite story of the year? Tough call; I liked a lot of my stuff this year. But probably "The Signet of His Lords."
Did you take any writing risks this year? first book fandom fic, first kinkmeme fill / E-rated fic, first modern AU... yeah I tried some new stuff
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? sure but they're secret
My best story of this year: Oh, gosh, tough call. Despite its popularity (or maybe because of its popularity, heh), parts of "Deer Among Cattle" feel too pat/tidy to me now. Similar story with "Where the River Meets the Sea." Maybe "summer is miles and miles away" or "The Signet of His Lords"? Probably the latter, really; I think a lot of my fondness of the former is wrapped up in my fondness toward the subject matter, heh.
My most popular story of this year: "Deer Among Cattle," by a pretty wide margin! Turns out the people love Claude von Riegan backstory, who knew
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: With the caveat of, literally ANY attention my fics get feels like an absurdly flattering mistake, and Three Houses is such a popular fandom that even my niche stuff is finding an audience and that heckin rules... Given that caveat, I like "How to Rule the World" a lot, and it's probably my least popular Three Houses fic, so, that one :P
Most fun story to write: Oh, gosh, kind of a toss-up? "Where the River Meets the Sea" was a blast because it was my first fanfic after such a long break, and it was satisfying to feel it coming together, in an "aw yeah I've still got it!" sort of way. "summer is miles and miles away" was great because it was so gleefully self-indulgent. "To Take, To Hold" was fun just for the sheer novelty of writing something totally different.
Story with the single sexiest moment: "To Take, To Hold" is all sex, sooo, that one
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Writing "summer is miles and miles away" is what convinced me that Lorenz is actually interesting, lol
Hardest story to write: I think "Fourth Sunrise." Straying from Fire Emblem fandoms is hard; writing book fandoms is even harder (it invites comparison with the source material's prose! and the source material's prose is really good! ahhh!); I forgot that the Teixcalaan universe basically obligates you to write some poetry and oh my god I haven't written any poetry since high school. It was worth it, though, I think! My Yuletide recipient seemed to like it, and I loved the Yuletide fic I got in return :)
Most Unintentionally Telling: I mean. "summer is miles and miles away" doesn't count, I think, that was like... intentionally telling, lmao. Maybe "The Signet of His Lords"?
Biggest Disappointment: This is hard because I'm actually pretty pleased with my output this year! Like, sure, there's always room for improvement, but most of my fics were fun to write & I accomplished basically what I set out to do & they found their audience; that's all a girl can ask for. I guess I'll say that giftfic (I wrote three this year!) is surprisingly hard for me—unless I luck out and the prompt gels unusually well, it just takes a while for me to find the "spark" to make the thing work, and I worry that it makes them a bit less shiny when compared to my other fanfic.
Biggest Surprise: The sheer popularity of Three Houses fandom in general, probably. Like, I'll always be happy tilling the fields in teeny fandom land, but it WAS kinda interesting/cool/mystifying to get, like, hundreds of kudos? and dozens of comments? on multiple fics??? (gen fics, even??? wow, amaze, etc)
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Claude/Lorenz was definitely a thing that never occurred to me while playing Three Houses, but the combination of "reading some excellent Claurenz fics" + "writing Lorenz initially as a joke but then for reals" talked me into it, and yeah, dope ship would recommend.
Choice Lines: chosen at semi-random
from "How to Rule the World":
“It won’t stop with your friend,” Rhea said. Her face had softened but her voice was hard. “Even with the best of intentions, these things never stop with any one person.”
“But, Rhea,” Claude said—and his voice sounded petulant, he could hear it, and he hated it, because he wasn’t a student anymore and she wasn’t a ruler. “In Almyra we use that stuff to waterproof our boats, and to light our homes. You can’t hold back all of science, just because some people may do something bad with it. At some point you’ve got to trust them, right?”
“I did trust them, Claude.”
Her voice was calm, free of rancor or old pain. But her meaning was clear.
from "The Signet of His Lords":
For a very long moment Tiana is silent: the silence before a storm. The only kind of silence there ever is between them.
from "summer is miles and miles away":
“Oh. I ruined it, didn’t I?” Claude scratched his head. “Sorry. But hey, give me a shout if you’re ever in San Francisco, yeah?”
San Francisco, Lorenz thought miserably. Three time zones away. Three thousand miles away. He watched Claude open the car door. Watched Claude close the car door, watched as Claude strode three steps away, a chain-link fence away, a yard away. And Lorenz thought, as Claude was just about to enter the house, if he could say the right thing, if he could find a way to explain, maybe he could stay, maybe they could just sit in this car just a little while longer—
But the moment passed and Lorenz was still mute. A latch clicked. A door creaked open, then closed, and Lorenz was alone.
from "To Take, To Hold":
“Why not?” Lorenz managed at last. “I’ve done it for you.”
Claude wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I don’t want to make things complicated.”
“So long as you are fucking me,” Lorenz huffed, “I am sorry to say, I will continue to make things complicated.”
(also, tbh, all the Lorenz lines in that fic? Lorenz is such a high-maintenance fussy dude and it's a DELIGHT)
no subject
Date: 2021-01-02 01:59 am (UTC)and i lol @ the whole 'and then for reals' bit with lorenz. why is it that the funniest/best moments come out of that 'ahahahaha... but what if?' sort of switch. : P
no subject
Date: 2021-01-02 04:48 am (UTC)it's SO true lmao. every time it happens i'm like "damn i sure did just play myself" but it's also DELIGHTFUL every time :D
no subject
Date: 2021-01-02 05:37 am (UTC)This is a fun meme. Your fic titles are amazing! I read Where River Meets the Sea and To Take, To Hold earlier this year. Definitely need to check out more of your FE:3H fics. I love how you write Claude and what you explore about his character (we didn't get enough of him in the game imo).
no subject
Date: 2021-01-02 06:17 am (UTC)I'm so delighted when folks read any of my fanfics; thank you! Hopefully gonna get to write quite a bit more about my favorite dude this year, too, so keep an eye out ;P
no subject
Date: 2021-01-03 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-03 12:33 pm (UTC)they'll be here whenever you're done! and I'm hoping maybe you'll end up scribbling some 3h fics yourself, who knows :o