2023 Writing (Year in Review)
Dec. 31st, 2023 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yelpThis year, I posted 74k words on AO3. This is again about 15k words short of what I posted last year (which was 15k words short of the year before that), and again more than I had planned!
I only posted 14 works this year, for an average of 5.3k words per work (compared to 27 last year, for an average of 3.3k per work). In some ways my fics were more homogenous than usual: 100% M/M or Gen, and 100% M or T rating. This has always been my most comfortable zone, so it might just be a consequence of fewer works posted resulting in fewer outliers.
One of my goals for this year was to finish my WIPs, but I ended the year with one more WIP than what I started with. I’m happy I was able to add two chapters to one of my pre-existing WIPs, but my third remains untouched since 2021, yikes! Perhaps 2024 will be the year.
I participated in fewer exchanges this year than before: only 5 distinct exchanges, and FFFX and HA are from the previous round of Triple Crown, so I almost don't count them as new exchanges I decided to participate in, but a continuation of previous momentum. I don't plan to join again in 2024; looking back on what I've produced for exchanges, I'm least happy with my longer fic. I think it's just too much investment for a single exchange work, when my level of satisfaction in my work is very hit and miss - both in terms of how well I managed to create the story I was envisioning, and how well I managed to live up to my recipient's requests. I think a better strategy is to write several shorter things, rather than invest into one super long thing - eggs and baskets and all that. Looking at the results from this year, the 10k+ ones definitely fell into the too-long category. The 6.8k one I felt reasonably good about. But I think a good goal would be to keep my future exchange work to the 2-5k range.
The rest of this post is just several roundup posts in a trenchcoat, so I'll put it behind cuts...
Stats
Zines
The two zine stories were written a while ago, but this June I finally got the go-ahead to post them on AO3, so they’re included in this year’s stats. I meant to do a post about the zine experience but never got around to it, so I guess this is that post!
Overall, it was super fun to get on a server with a bunch of other fans of your ship/fandom, and create things with them. Seeing the whole thing come together, from ideation to WIPs to the final product, was really cool - especially the part where you get to hold the physical zine in your hands!
I didn’t keep in touch with the other contributors afterwards, which kind of added to that feeling of this ephemeral coincidence where we all came together briefly, made a thing, and then silently disengaged. Each zine had about ~3 writers and like 20 artists/merch artists, so I felt like a bit of an outlier there. There was also a big difference in how the two zines were run. Quick comparison:
ZX zine:
End of Year Exchanges
Such a large percentage of my wordcount this year came in the last 1-2 months. In particular, I wrote two works for Yuletide and one for the ES21 Winter Gift Exchange, all during international travel, holidays, and more.
In particular, I'm happy I finally did Yuletide on this account. During my decade-plus hiatus from writing, Yuletide was just about the only thing I wrote for, off and on, so I consider it the gradual start of my foray back into writing and fandom. Now that I live on this account, where I've done honestly too many exchanges for the past several years but never touched the big ones, I'm glad I got to participate in it again.
My main motivation was the revised fandom eligibility rules, which meant that ES21 was back on the menu! As you can imagine, I was really thrilled, and had these grand visions that people would be reminded of how great this fandom is and come running back :D (pun... intended...?). Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out super well for me. I can imagine an alternate universe where I was able to participate to the full extent I wanted (both in terms of writing and commenting), but I'm still glad I was able to create a few things I've been wanting to create for people I've been wanting to create for. If ES21 remains eligible next year, I’ll certainly be back again!
Since the Q&A below belabors so much the titles, I'll mention here that both of my Yuletide works took titles from random lines in the story, a strategy I liked and may try again. (My ES21 fic was very nearly called "Deals on Wheels", but I think that was the jetlag speaking.)
Meme questions
Best title: "Sand and Chalk, Root and Stalk", I just picked some thematic words that sounded nice together, and I like how it turned out. (The other title I had in this category was "The Keen Edge of the Soul", which I also kind of liked.) The titles I picked this year fall into the following categories:
Worst title: "For Services Rendered". I'm pretty sure I'm the thousandth person on this site to use this title, alas. This and the other title from the Misc category are my least liked ones this year, so I guess I've picked not only the best and worst titles, but the best and worst categories.
Longest title: "Four times Hiruma didn't blackmail Musashi (and one time he did)" (64 characters). I'm sorry to the layout mod of the zine.
Shortest title: "Makeshift" (9 characters)
Best first line: "Tobias opened his eyes to a sea of black umbrellas, bumping and shifting quietly like moody waves, slick and shining from the rain." Idk, it's kind of over the top and melodramatic, but that fits the rest of the story.
Worst first line: "Patricide. Matricide." I debated putting just "parricide"?? I did like that the words were basically the same inFrench Fontainian, which helped my immersion :D
Best last line: "In this paper, we propose…" Writing paper snippets just made me happy.
Worst last line: "Yeah, our vacation… It was great!" Hmm, that's nice Sena. But seriously, this line was meant to reflect Sena coming to a new realization about the events of the story, but I think it fell a bit flat.
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? I wrote down my prediction for this year (40k), but I exceeded that. I see an actual pattern for the past few years though, of decreasing by 15k per year? So let me guess 60k for next year, with "data" behind my guess.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? This question is not very good for multifandom exchange participants, since I feel like it will always be some new fandom I never heard of until this year. This time it's Kamisama no Iutoori Ni - I sawkaiosea promo it during FIAB, but didn't manage to finish reading and write for it until Yuletide!
What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. For the second year in a row, I'm putting my ongoing WIP, You Are Pain Pinned to Muscle. I keep coming back to chip away at it, a few chapters at a time, and when I'm in the flush of actively working on it, it makes me very happy to idly daydream about.
For a runner up, I'll put Like a Pair of Hunting Birds. Like the above, this is something I've requested in exchanges before, and was pleased to have the opportunity to write myself. I enjoyed exploring Xiao and Shenhe's interactions, and I feel like it resonated with a very different audience than my normal work.
Okay, NOW your most popular story. Now this is a surprise. Looks like my most popular by stats is Only a Change of Time, which (at the time, as it were) I had distinctly felt like was not well received. Like last year, the story that wins this category is the story that was posted earliest in the year. I suppose the moral here is that when I'm in the anxiously-refreshing-for-validation stage right after exchange reveals, I should keep in mind that it takes time for stories to reach people. That it only takes a change of time-- okay, too many puns XD.
I will also note that going through the stats this year, there is an extremely strong correlation between how early in the year a story was posted and how much "stats" it's accumulated. The main standout exception I can see is The Keen Edge of the Soul, so my other conclusion is that my Original Works do better than my other works (which makes sense, since I mostly wrote for smaller fandoms, especially later in the year).
Story most underappreciated by the universe? I don't really have anything to put here this year... Everything got a reasonable (or beyond reasonable tbh) amount of appreciation for what it was. Perhaps I've better learned what to expect for different fandoms and other factors?
Story that could have been better? My Yuletide works, which I've already discussed above. If only Yuletide didn't take place at Christmas :P
Saddest story? stood beneath the burning tree (and hoped to rescue leaves) is the only story I wrote without a happy ending.
Most fun? Makeshift. I try to match the tone of canon, and Discworld is a very fun canon.
Most fucked-up story? [Difficulty: A♡] Smackjack. I try to match the tone of canon, and Alice in Borderland is a very fucked-up canon. (Not really. There are worse canons and worse stories, but people's heads lopping off is the worst I did this year.)
Hardest story to write? Only a Change of Time. Like last year, I'll put the one that I feel I put the most work into but was least satisfied with the results. Wait, it's my FFFX work again, haha. (Maybe my earlier reflections about 10k+ works should include a time component - 10k written for FFFX has a quite different time/effort commitment compared to 10k for Heart Attack, which is over in a few weeks.)
Easiest/most fun story to write? Four times Hiruma didn't blackmail Musashi (and one time he did). The zine experience was good, I got to revisit some parts of canon I enjoyed, and it came together smoothly.
Top five scenes you would like to see illustrated: Will keep at this question since I've been blessed with some amazing illustrations from auctions this year (maybe I should do another round-up post for that, but this particular trench coat is getting too full). Drumknott with a sharp object to Vetinari's throat in Makeshift. Xiao untying Shenhe's ropes and simultaneously assessing her in Like a Pair of Hunting Birds. My OCs in The Keen Edge of the Soul - especially doing their soulweapons stuff. Tsukasa and Senkuu facing off over a contract in You Are Pain Pinned to Muscle. And Kid and Hiruma just chilling together side by side in A Winner When I See One.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I don't think I've written an Original Work in a modern setting before, and I wasn't the biggest fan. I also tried writing a trope I'm not that fond of (jealousy) in a fandom I'm rusty on (Discworld) but surprisingly I felt it turned out well.
What are your fic writing goals for next year? I kind of discussed this already at various points (and made the same goals in previous years), so I'll just summarize. Fewer exchanges and shorter exchange works. Finish WIPs. Work on my own projects!!
I only posted 14 works this year, for an average of 5.3k words per work (compared to 27 last year, for an average of 3.3k per work). In some ways my fics were more homogenous than usual: 100% M/M or Gen, and 100% M or T rating. This has always been my most comfortable zone, so it might just be a consequence of fewer works posted resulting in fewer outliers.
One of my goals for this year was to finish my WIPs, but I ended the year with one more WIP than what I started with. I’m happy I was able to add two chapters to one of my pre-existing WIPs, but my third remains untouched since 2021, yikes! Perhaps 2024 will be the year.
I participated in fewer exchanges this year than before: only 5 distinct exchanges, and FFFX and HA are from the previous round of Triple Crown, so I almost don't count them as new exchanges I decided to participate in, but a continuation of previous momentum. I don't plan to join again in 2024; looking back on what I've produced for exchanges, I'm least happy with my longer fic. I think it's just too much investment for a single exchange work, when my level of satisfaction in my work is very hit and miss - both in terms of how well I managed to create the story I was envisioning, and how well I managed to live up to my recipient's requests. I think a better strategy is to write several shorter things, rather than invest into one super long thing - eggs and baskets and all that. Looking at the results from this year, the 10k+ ones definitely fell into the too-long category. The 6.8k one I felt reasonably good about. But I think a good goal would be to keep my future exchange work to the 2-5k range.
The rest of this post is just several roundup posts in a trenchcoat, so I'll put it behind cuts...
Stats
Zines
The two zine stories were written a while ago, but this June I finally got the go-ahead to post them on AO3, so they’re included in this year’s stats. I meant to do a post about the zine experience but never got around to it, so I guess this is that post!
Overall, it was super fun to get on a server with a bunch of other fans of your ship/fandom, and create things with them. Seeing the whole thing come together, from ideation to WIPs to the final product, was really cool - especially the part where you get to hold the physical zine in your hands!
I didn’t keep in touch with the other contributors afterwards, which kind of added to that feeling of this ephemeral coincidence where we all came together briefly, made a thing, and then silently disengaged. Each zine had about ~3 writers and like 20 artists/merch artists, so I felt like a bit of an outlier there. There was also a big difference in how the two zines were run. Quick comparison:
ZX zine:
- I applied in June 2021 and wrote the story in February 2022.
- There were some issues with fulfillment and distribution. Zines were finally shipped around April 2023, and we got the go-ahead to post our works to AO3 in June 2023. Leftover sales happened afterwards.
- It was intended to be a for-profit zine, but there was some mismanagement and drama I won’t go into here. In the end, my share from the profits was $10.80, haha.
- I applied in October 2021 and wrote the story in April 2022.
- Zines were shipped around January 2023, followed by a round of leftover sales, after which we also got the go-ahead to post in June 2023.
- From the start, the profits were intended to go to charity (a sports-related one, appropriately). The mods shared a super clear accounting of finances, and we ended up donating over $4k!
End of Year Exchanges
Such a large percentage of my wordcount this year came in the last 1-2 months. In particular, I wrote two works for Yuletide and one for the ES21 Winter Gift Exchange, all during international travel, holidays, and more.
In particular, I'm happy I finally did Yuletide on this account. During my decade-plus hiatus from writing, Yuletide was just about the only thing I wrote for, off and on, so I consider it the gradual start of my foray back into writing and fandom. Now that I live on this account, where I've done honestly too many exchanges for the past several years but never touched the big ones, I'm glad I got to participate in it again.
My main motivation was the revised fandom eligibility rules, which meant that ES21 was back on the menu! As you can imagine, I was really thrilled, and had these grand visions that people would be reminded of how great this fandom is and come running back :D (pun... intended...?). Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out super well for me. I can imagine an alternate universe where I was able to participate to the full extent I wanted (both in terms of writing and commenting), but I'm still glad I was able to create a few things I've been wanting to create for people I've been wanting to create for. If ES21 remains eligible next year, I’ll certainly be back again!
Since the Q&A below belabors so much the titles, I'll mention here that both of my Yuletide works took titles from random lines in the story, a strategy I liked and may try again. (My ES21 fic was very nearly called "Deals on Wheels", but I think that was the jetlag speaking.)
Meme questions
Best title: "Sand and Chalk, Root and Stalk", I just picked some thematic words that sounded nice together, and I like how it turned out. (The other title I had in this category was "The Keen Edge of the Soul", which I also kind of liked.) The titles I picked this year fall into the following categories:
Worst title: "For Services Rendered". I'm pretty sure I'm the thousandth person on this site to use this title, alas. This and the other title from the Misc category are my least liked ones this year, so I guess I've picked not only the best and worst titles, but the best and worst categories.
Longest title: "Four times Hiruma didn't blackmail Musashi (and one time he did)" (64 characters). I'm sorry to the layout mod of the zine.
Shortest title: "Makeshift" (9 characters)
Best first line: "Tobias opened his eyes to a sea of black umbrellas, bumping and shifting quietly like moody waves, slick and shining from the rain." Idk, it's kind of over the top and melodramatic, but that fits the rest of the story.
Worst first line: "Patricide. Matricide." I debated putting just "parricide"?? I did like that the words were basically the same in
Best last line: "In this paper, we propose…" Writing paper snippets just made me happy.
Worst last line: "Yeah, our vacation… It was great!" Hmm, that's nice Sena. But seriously, this line was meant to reflect Sena coming to a new realization about the events of the story, but I think it fell a bit flat.
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? I wrote down my prediction for this year (40k), but I exceeded that. I see an actual pattern for the past few years though, of decreasing by 15k per year? So let me guess 60k for next year, with "data" behind my guess.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? This question is not very good for multifandom exchange participants, since I feel like it will always be some new fandom I never heard of until this year. This time it's Kamisama no Iutoori Ni - I saw
kaiosea promo it during FIAB, but didn't manage to finish reading and write for it until Yuletide!What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. For the second year in a row, I'm putting my ongoing WIP, You Are Pain Pinned to Muscle. I keep coming back to chip away at it, a few chapters at a time, and when I'm in the flush of actively working on it, it makes me very happy to idly daydream about.
For a runner up, I'll put Like a Pair of Hunting Birds. Like the above, this is something I've requested in exchanges before, and was pleased to have the opportunity to write myself. I enjoyed exploring Xiao and Shenhe's interactions, and I feel like it resonated with a very different audience than my normal work.
Okay, NOW your most popular story. Now this is a surprise. Looks like my most popular by stats is Only a Change of Time, which (at the time, as it were) I had distinctly felt like was not well received. Like last year, the story that wins this category is the story that was posted earliest in the year. I suppose the moral here is that when I'm in the anxiously-refreshing-for-validation stage right after exchange reveals, I should keep in mind that it takes time for stories to reach people. That it only takes a change of time-- okay, too many puns XD.
I will also note that going through the stats this year, there is an extremely strong correlation between how early in the year a story was posted and how much "stats" it's accumulated. The main standout exception I can see is The Keen Edge of the Soul, so my other conclusion is that my Original Works do better than my other works (which makes sense, since I mostly wrote for smaller fandoms, especially later in the year).
Story most underappreciated by the universe? I don't really have anything to put here this year... Everything got a reasonable (or beyond reasonable tbh) amount of appreciation for what it was. Perhaps I've better learned what to expect for different fandoms and other factors?
Story that could have been better? My Yuletide works, which I've already discussed above. If only Yuletide didn't take place at Christmas :P
Saddest story? stood beneath the burning tree (and hoped to rescue leaves) is the only story I wrote without a happy ending.
Most fun? Makeshift. I try to match the tone of canon, and Discworld is a very fun canon.
Most fucked-up story? [Difficulty: A♡] Smackjack. I try to match the tone of canon, and Alice in Borderland is a very fucked-up canon. (Not really. There are worse canons and worse stories, but people's heads lopping off is the worst I did this year.)
Hardest story to write? Only a Change of Time. Like last year, I'll put the one that I feel I put the most work into but was least satisfied with the results. Wait, it's my FFFX work again, haha. (Maybe my earlier reflections about 10k+ works should include a time component - 10k written for FFFX has a quite different time/effort commitment compared to 10k for Heart Attack, which is over in a few weeks.)
Easiest/most fun story to write? Four times Hiruma didn't blackmail Musashi (and one time he did). The zine experience was good, I got to revisit some parts of canon I enjoyed, and it came together smoothly.
Top five scenes you would like to see illustrated: Will keep at this question since I've been blessed with some amazing illustrations from auctions this year (maybe I should do another round-up post for that, but this particular trench coat is getting too full). Drumknott with a sharp object to Vetinari's throat in Makeshift. Xiao untying Shenhe's ropes and simultaneously assessing her in Like a Pair of Hunting Birds. My OCs in The Keen Edge of the Soul - especially doing their soulweapons stuff. Tsukasa and Senkuu facing off over a contract in You Are Pain Pinned to Muscle. And Kid and Hiruma just chilling together side by side in A Winner When I See One.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I don't think I've written an Original Work in a modern setting before, and I wasn't the biggest fan. I also tried writing a trope I'm not that fond of (jealousy) in a fandom I'm rusty on (Discworld) but surprisingly I felt it turned out well.
What are your fic writing goals for next year? I kind of discussed this already at various points (and made the same goals in previous years), so I'll just summarize. Fewer exchanges and shorter exchange works. Finish WIPs. Work on my own projects!!
no subject
Date: 2024-01-01 03:55 pm (UTC)Wishing you luck and cheering you on with finishing WIPS and working on your own projects! It's definitely something I'm going to work on in 2024 too :D
no subject
Date: 2024-01-02 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-01 05:55 pm (UTC)How does it always end up this way 🤣 Hell yeah to updating existing long-going WIPs though, that's really cool :D
Very interesting to hear about your zine experience. I don't want to make my fandom hobby into a for-profit thing either, as much as possible, so I hear what you're saying. I joined a free zine and I'm waiting for the experience to end before going Full Reflecting :D
no subject
Date: 2024-01-02 04:48 am (UTC)Looking forward to seeing your Full Reflecting on your zine as well :D Hope the experience is a good one!
no subject
Date: 2024-01-02 06:26 pm (UTC)100% feel what you mentioned re: working on personal projects. I often sideline my personal WIPs for exchanges, haha. Good luck sticking to it!! I feel like I did too much FIAB last year (I was late to your round-up post for that so I didn't comment, but it was so interesting to see how the number of works made such a big difference to you!) so hoping to cut back a little bit this year too.
Really interesting getting a glimpse into the zine experiences too - they're something I avoid since bringing money into fandom also doesn't work for me. I was pretty surprised at the timeline and how long the first dragged on, but I guess it makes sense, especially depending on the mod team involved. It seems like the kind of thing that could tip over from fun to stressful quickly.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-02 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-03 06:40 am (UTC)Yeah, it was pretty eye-opening for me too! I was curious how these things worked so I'm glad I got to see it in action.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-03 08:15 pm (UTC)Do you think you'll do another zine again?
we ended up donating over $4k!
<3 That sounds wonderful!
Your reflections were a lot of fun to read (and I think Deals on Wheels is a great title, but that may be the non-jetlag exhaustion speaking ;D) -- it's so interesting to see what works for you ,and the way some of the themes from last year are continuing! ;D
The top 5 scenes all sound like they would be lovely illustrated. ;D
Good luck with the fic writing goals for this year! ;D
no subject
Date: 2024-01-06 03:36 am (UTC)Hehehe Deals on Wheels almost evolved into Wheeling and Dealing before I thought enough was enough.
Good luck to you in 2024 as well! :D
no subject
Date: 2024-01-06 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-06 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-08 02:22 am (UTC)