2012 - The Year in Fan Works

[elrhiarhodan]

I know most people post these reviews during the last weeks of December, but I don’t like to jinx the muse. I’m usually chock full of writing commitments to dare sum up the year. But it’s now the start of the second week in January, and I’m pretty confident that my writing for 2012 is all but done (just three more fics to write for my Fic-Can-Ukah meme).

2012 – The Year in Fanworks:

Stories: 112
Words: 359,450
Monthly Average: 29,954
Daily Average: 985
Longest: 51,000 (Love is as Rich As The Sea)
Shortest: 200 (The New Girl)

To compare, my 2011 Review | 2010 Review

Total number of words since 2010: 1,017,435

The rest of this exercise in navel-gazing is under the cuts. There's a bonus Bomer awaiting anyone who finishes.

List of Stories

January (9)
On the Eve of the Wedding
Leather, No Lace
Travelling by Starlight
Time, Immobile
At The Point Where Dying Begins
The Sun and Moon Are Ours
For Any Given Amount, Forgiveness
Love Is As Rich As the Sea
Through This Storm (What Fortune Love May Bring)

February (7)
The Good and Bad in Everyone (This Is Mine To Remember)
I Have Borne the Burden of Myself
Love Loss Hope (repeat)
What It Feels To Be Complete
Here Comes That Sinking Feeling
The World in Us
All Star

March (6)
Pulling Strings
Another Country
Of Great Worth
Quiet Days
The New Girl
The Wonder(ful) Years

April (11)
Tea and Soldiers
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
The Special Parts
Betrayal (The Lunchmeat Edition)
So They Can All Move Forward
Cheekbone City
Apres - Cheekbone City II
Keeping Vigil
Sex on The Beach
I'll Continue to Continue (and pretend no longer)
Loneliness, A Place That I Know Well (The Annie Lennox Remix)

May (35)
Regrets on an Alien Shore
Such Very Good Friends
No Solace
Delicious Soup
A Wool-Silk Blend
Smallclothes
Shame is Over Rated
Magnetic North
Pressing Insight
Reveling in the Persistent Darkness
A Sticky Situation
Relearning
Morning Has Broken
A Highly Inappropriate Distraction
Tender is the Night
A Simple Gold Band
Hungry Like the Wolf
In His Arms
Happy Birthday, Sara Ellis
Money Shot
It's All Fun and Games
These Are the Ways of Holding On
Just Bring Me Something Real
In These Hard Times
Secrets and Lovers
All Out
Betrayal and Sacrifice
Exposure
Heaven Sent
Hush (RPS)
Adrenaline Junkies
Love How You Want (And Love Who You Please)
Fevered Dreams
Just the Sound Of Your Voice
Stay By Me (And Make the Moment Last)

June (7)
Outrageous Soup
More, Please
It Really Is a Pity
For The Ends of Being and Ideal Grace
An Enviable Distraction
Paradise, Lost
What Doesn't Bend, Breaks
July (8)
What Time Would It Be (if we were on Mars)
Bright Lights and Promises
Dripping With Evilness
Old Words from Far Away
Six Hours To Freedom
Time It Was and What a Time It Was
The Eternal Optimism of Two Men in a Single Hotel Room with One Bed
Something In Me, Dark and Sticky

August (3)
Friend or Foe, There's Only Us
The Next Six Days
Career Advice

September (2)
Close Your Eyes and Think of Me (call out my name)
Picking Up the Pieces Left Behind (here I go again)

October (4)
Love Is Never Wrong
Thrust
Five Times Tim DeKay Touched Matt Bomer's Ass
Kneel Before the King

November (4)
While the Stars are in the Sky
A Familiar Command
Thanksgiving at the Burkes
In Your Sweet Arms (the touch of your hands)

December (15)
Something We Never Dreamt We Could Have
A Life Less Ordinary
Past Midnight, Drunk on Stolen Wine
Someone To Watch Over
Even if the Stars Have Made Us Blind
The Stars are Singing
In the Stillness of Remembering
We've Been Here Before
The Pavement Cracks
Against the Wind
The Gift
(I Need To Be) Right By Your Side
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
The Best Medicine
Flame the Color of Air
Chasing Lions


Overview …

For 2012, I have included stories published on my journal from January 1, 2012 until December 31, 2012 (well, duh!). It includes stories that were works in progress/unpublished in 2011 and published in 2012, and doesn’t include any Promptfest stories that were not published as standalones, or any works in progress, or any completed but unpublished works.

2012, from a writing perspective, was a good year, even though my word count was down, marginally (30k less than 2011). This past year, I focused my energy on longer stories, not writing/publishing too many drabbles and ficlets. And of course, there was real life, particularly the move. Moving out of a house I lived in for 16 years meant hours spent packing and organizing and doing things other than writing. It also meant spending a lot of time unpacking and organizing and generally being distracted by the ooh, new shiny house. Add into the mix an inability to settle into writing at my desk in the new office and a bad case of writer’s block. All told, the relocation is reflected in my story count for August, September and October.


Some general observations about 2012…

2012 was the year of the A/U.

I started off with the first of my Polyamory Big Bang fics, Love is as Rich as the Sea, which followed the arc of the first half of Season 3, but Neal was an immortal selkie who lost his skin and Peter was gifted with psychometric talents. I didn’t plan on continuing this trend animal transformation trend, since 2011 had another serious transformation A/U - We Shall Come Home (the one where Peter and Neal are transformed into Irish Wolfhounds), but I couldn’t help myself. I wrote two fics where Peter’s turned into a cat (Here Comes That Sinking Feeling and The World in Us), plus a pair of wing!fics - Through This Storm (what fortune love may bring) and Against The Wind.

But A/Us are more than just transformation stories. Approximately one-third of my word count this year was dedicated to the Wonder(ful) Years ‘verse, an alternative universe that starts when Peter and Neal meet at a playground in the early 1970s. Neal’s just about to start kindergarten and Peter’s going into first grade. The story was something of a fallback for me. I had signed up for the whitecollarhc Kid Fic fest, but my planned story fell flat. I had this sort of five-times idea (five times that Peter saved Neal and one time that Neal saved Peter), but set as a school-age a/u. I actually could have stopped the story after the first chapter, but it really kept me going. I knew I wanted to take them from elementary school through middle school and all the way to their senior year in high school. I never expected the story to become so compelling – I mean, kid fic’s supposed to be either fluff or heart-wrenching, right?

I also hadn't planned on it becoming a ‘verse. I hadn’t planned on writing timestamps or follow-ons, but the best intentions lead right to hell. It’s now my most favorite thing to write, and I’ve got a half-dozen stories planned for the coming months, including the casestory big bang.

2012 Was the Year of Finishing Stories

Some of the longest stories were either started in 2011 or in early 2012 and then dropped for several months: the aforementioned Love is as Rich as the Sea began in October, 2011; I started writing A Life Less Ordinary in early December, 2011 and let it languish for nearly a year; and I wrote about 1000 words on Close Your Eyes and Think of Me (Call Out My Name) during the first week in January, and didn’t touch it again for five months. And then it sat for another two months.

Ironically, all of these stories ended up getting finished because they were Big Bang committed.

There is one story that I finished in 2012 that wasn’t started in that year, or even in 2011. It had been a WIP since 2010, and may actually have been one of the first dozen stories I had ever started – the original document file is dated for April, 2010. I started drafting it from a cracky idea I had, and then set it aside because the timing for publication wasn’t right. I’m speaking of Thanksgiving at the Burkes. And again, this was only finished because I had promised my friend, doctor_fangeek a story about P/E/N and how they cope with the family on holidays.

There were other fics that languished for a while – the Wonder(ful) Years story, Something We Never Dreamt We Could Have took up residence in my WIP folder for a few months before I finished it, and I am sure there are a few others.

But right now, my WIP folder is nearly empty. That scares me a bit.

2012 was the Year of the Long Fic

Last year, I sort of marveled at how many stories I wrote that were north of the magical 10k threshold (10). I matched that this year, but the word count per story is almost double from 2011. These ten fics represent just about two-thirds of my word count for the year. Since I rarely work on multiple stories at once, when I am concentrating on a longer fic, it’s unlikely that I’ll write a bunch of shorter fics at the same time.

This is another reason why the word count in the third quarter was down – I was focusing on the White Collar Big Bang story, Close Your Eyes and Think of Me (Call Out My Name), plus the sequel to the Most Wanted episode tag, The Next Six Days. The Polyamory Big Bang story, A Life Less Ordinary consumed the weeks in November that the Wonder(ful) Years ‘verse story, Something We Never Dreamt We Could Have didn’t.

I don’t see this changing much in 2013 – I definitely liked putting my energy towards longer stories, but I’m also rediscovering the joys of getting out the shorter fics, too. I’m still working on the last three prompts for the 2012 Fic-Can-Ukah meme and I can say that the fifteen fics already published had been, by and large, a tremendous amount of fun to write.

The Year End Meme Questions…

1. Favorite. Can I say, the entire Wonder(ful) Years ‘Verse? If not, then I’m going to pick something completely opposite of that ‘verse – it’s a ficlet written for the WC100 challenge - Pulling Strings. As I said in the summary, there’s a reason why Vincent Adler turned out to be such an ineffective villain, he really wasn’t the man behind the curtain.

2. Best. Love is as Rich as the Sea. This was the first Big Bang I wrote (and the first of three for 2013), it’s also the second-longest story I’ve written. But why I think it’s the best is because it really mirrors canon – in the large and the small details. There’s not a lot of handwaving going on – even though it’s a fantasy A/U. And the art is awesome.

3. Most Fun. The Eternal Optimism of Two Men in a Single Hotel Room with One Bed. I wrote this for daria234 for the wcpairings exchange. It didn’t start out being fun – I had been working on a completely different story and had to abandon it half-way, when I realized that my recipient didn’t want H/C – serious injury (that was the story I was writing). Since one of the prompts was “winter”, my dear friend coffeethyme4me suggested I use the “One Bed” trope. It took a little doing, but in the end, I had a ball writing the push-me/pull-you relationship between Peter and Neal.

4. Most Underappreciated. Love is as Rich as the Sea. It’s not that this didn’t get read, it just didn’t seem to get the same traction as other things I’ve written. I’m not surprised – it’s a long story and most readers don’t leave feedback for long stories, particularly those that get published all at once.

5. Sexiest. 2013 was not a year for the smexy writing for me. I did do MMOM – all 31 days, but I didn’t write a lot of PWP otherwise. At coffeethyme4me’s prompting, I wrote angry sex in What Time Would it Be (if we were on Mars) (Peter’s jealousy knows no bounds). And then there was the “reverse remix” challenge, where I rewrote lionessvalenti’s infidelity story, Forbidden as It’s All Fun and Games. And then there’s the two Cheekbone City fics (in the Vinegar Hill continuum), that I haven’t characterized as porn, per se. Neal’s in a dress and Peter’s in a kilt and neither one of them can control their reactions: Cheekbone City and Cheekbone City II: Après

6. Holy Crap, That’s Wrong Even for You. No equivocation here, the White Collar/Magic Mike crossover, Thrust wins this category, hands down.

7. Hardest to Write. My second Poly Big Bang fic, A Life Less Ordinary. I started this in late 2011, worked on it for a few weeks in January, 2012, then dropped it for months. I just got stuck – I couldn’t see a way out of the story with the plot I had in my head. I had originally planned to writing it for the A/U Big Bang, but ended up dropping out, and signed up for the Poly Big Bang out of a desperate desire to finish it. In fact, it was only when I was faced with a due date that I found a way to complete the story. In the end, I think I was much happier with this fic as it was written than I would have been if it had gone on as originally planned.

8. Biggest Disappointment. Hmm, that’s difficult – I usually like what I write, but I’d have to say Picking Up the Pieces Left Behind would probably qualify. I had wanted to write a tag to 4.09, fixing Neal and Peter’s relationship. I hated that Neal accused Peter of being responsible for Ellen’s murder, but the story ended up being a tag to 4.10 and the discover of exactly who Sam Phelps really was. The issue of Ellen’s death got pushed to the back and never handled satisfactorily.

Also, I didn’t do any pic spam comics… The visual muse wasn’t really cooperating. Damn.

9. Biggest Surprise. My OCs and how much I love them. Something tells me that this is a sign that I should start considering pro-fic. Maybe. Probably not.

10. Riskiest. Time, Immobile. This was a short fic, a mere 600 words, but it left the reader with so many questions. I didn’t write it as an experiment – more as a response to my own horror at the criminal justice system’s use and abuse of solitary confinement. It may end up being the core of a longer story – one that will provide the answers to those questions.


Looking Forward…

Any Story You’d Like to Rewrite: Other than Vampire World – The Blood of Helios, I don’t think I have any story I’d like to rewrite, but there a quite a few I’d love to re-title. Particularly the two Cat!Peter stories - Here Comes That Sinking Feeling and The World in Us - there’s nothing about those titles that suggests anything about the story.

How Will New Canon Change Your Writing: It won’t – I’ll keep on writing what I like to write, making the necessary course corrections for canon revelations, writing episode tags to fix the problems that canon creates. Just a normal day for the White Collar fic writer.

Goals for 2013: I’ve got four big stories I know I want to write:

1 – White Collar/Pern Crossover (for dmk0064)
2 – Complete the SPQR ‘verse (for leonie_alastair)
3 – Complete Vampire World – Blood of Helios
4 – Write the music box/George Devore and the boiler room case stories (from Something We Never Dreamt We Could Have) in the Wonder(ful) Years ‘verse, for the casestory Big Bang.

I have to give up on bingos. I get the cards, get terrific prompts, and rarely do anything with them. My H/C and Kink Bingo cards are just a scattering of randomly filled squares, same with the Cotton Candy bingo. The only bingo I managed to fill this year was the Angst Bingo card. Now, I say that – and I just signed up for Trope Bingo.

And that’s the 2012 Year in Review.

Actually, one final thought – none of this writing would have happened without the unconditional love and endless patience of my dearest friends, coffeethyme4me, jrosemary, rabidchild67, ivorysilk, doctor_fangeek, hoosierbitch, dmk0064 and all of my readers who have let me know how much they enjoy my writing.

Thank you, thank you and thank you again – my appreciation for you is boundless.

For those of you who made it all the way through, a laughing Bomer:

Comments

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

WOW that is truly impressive !

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

[theatregirl7299]

Wow. I am so impressed. Bravo.

I'm going to enjoy coming back to this post as my to read list.

Can't wait to see what you do in 2013. :D

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so much.

I hope 2013 is as good for the writing as 2012 was.

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

Amazingly impressive! I'm very happy to see you plan to finish Vampire World – Blood of Helios, I think that's my favorite verse of yours, beside Wonder(ful) Years and Vinegar Hill, and I wish you a lot of motivation and inspiration and time for writing in 2013! :)

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

I've put all of Vampire World into a single file and will start the editing process. I had thought about signing up for a BB as motivation to complete it, but the rules for WIPs are so draconian - I'd have to write twice the amount required for the big bang (half of the current word count) to qualify.

So, rather than put myself through that wringer, I'll polish and edit and add to it as needed.

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

Whheeee I will be really happy to see a continuation even a chapter a month ;)

[florastuart.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's a lot of words. :)

(Also, I just finished reading the Cat!Peter stories and they're adorable. ♥)

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

Yeah, it is a lot of words - I hadn't even though about the million word milestone until I added everything up. Sort of blew my mind.

And thank you - I do love the cat!Peter stories - there may be a third one eventually. He has to become human again, right?

[florastuart.livejournal.com]

I'm still amazed I managed to reach over 100K last year! (This show is amazing for plotbunnies!)

And I would love to see Neal and human!Peter talk about Peter's experience of being a cat. :) (And I love that Neal turning into a kitten is such an everyday thing! hee!)

[elrhiarhodan]

I can't wait for your next 100k and the 100k after that.

You're right, this is an amazing show for feeding the bunnehs.

[sinfulslasher]

Them's some big-ass number of words! And here I am, freaking at the mere idea of having to meet my pledged 150K words count at getyourwordsout this year! LOL!

I can't wait to read all those stories, especially the long epics. You're hands-down one of the bestest WC writers, so I'm thrilled I joined the fandom late. I have still tons of "new" stories waiting to be explored. \o/

Also? *smishes laughing!Matty*

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you! Your kind words are such an encouragement.

This year, I kept a spreadsheet running and added in my fics as they were published, so the wordcount wasn't such a surprise, but the total over the three years of writing was. A million words is, I have to admit, an achievement.

[frith_in_thorns]

Congratulations on all the WORDS! I am behind in my fic-reading at the moment, but it does mean I have many wonderful stories to look forward to :)

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

I hope you enjoy all the words.

[damietta.livejournal.com]

And every single consonate and vowel is appreciated (spaces, too!)

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

I've enjoyed writing all those words, too.

And btw - your Fic-Can-Ukah extra day fic has been posted: All Roads Lead Home.

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

HOLY SHIT BALLS!

You are amazing!

For serious!

♥