elrhiarhodan

By the Numbers
(2018 numbers in parentheses)

Stories: 28 (16)
Words: 328,631 (220,774)
Monthly Average: 27,386 (18,398)
Daily Average: 900 (605)
Longest: 52,000 - Shooting Star, for the Kingsman Reverse Bang
Shortest: 1000 - In the Hands of Angels

To compare, my 2016 Review | 2015 Review | 2014 Review | 2013 Review | 2012 Review | 2011 Review | 2010 Review

There were no reviews for 2017 and 2018, although writing did occur.

Total number of words since 2010: 3,252,665

The Stories:

If You Can’t Be Good Be Lucky
(Top-Secret) Santa - Written for Kingsman Secret Santa
The Summer Folly - Written for

poetry_fiction
Life’s a Long Song - Written for

chocolatebox
Incomplete White Collar Works For Evil Author Day
A Random Selection of Bad Habits
He Called You By Your Real Name
What’s Past Is Present
Every Night We Save Ourselves
See Me Once, See The Way I Feel - Written for Age Gap Exchange
Each Day I Learn Just a Little Bit More
A Chance To Try Again - Written for

smutswap
Joy of My Heart
Take Me To the River
Lives on the Ground
Lord of the Isles
Take Me To the River
Joy of My Heart
Booked and Bespoked - Written for

kingsmanreversebang
Shooting Star - Written for

kingsmanreversebang
Ten Minutes Ago (I Met You) - Written for Just Married Exchange
He is the Cat (that walks by himself) - Written for Pining Exhange
In the Valley of the Kings
In the Hands of Angels
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Sunne in Splendour - Written for Fandom Trumps Hate
A Moment’s Courage or a Lifetime of Regret - Written for Morse’verse Secret Santa Exchange
A Secret Chord - Written for Kingsman Secret Santa

Ruminations

Rather than repeat my overall thoughts, please take a look at this post, where I summed up my 2019 writing experience at length.

But of course, I have to go into a bit of granularity and numbers.

Out of the 328k I wrote in 2019, 245k were in eleven (11) stories written for public challenges. Almost all of the rest of the stories were written for prompts and/or pairings given to me by friends (mostly

anarchycox and

kyele). What’s Past is Present, a crossover between White Collar and Kingsman that I’d started in 2017, was the only long story written for my own pleasure.

I honestly love all of the stories I wrote in 2019, even the ones I’d struggled with (The Sunne in Splendour), and while some of the challenges were not as well-run as they could have been, I was happy with the assignments (although I’d balked a bit on my initial read for Smut Swap).

Regrets

Not a lot.

I probably should not have signed up for Fandom Trumps Hate. I’ve participated in fan works auctions before and they never really work out for me. I’ve fulfilled my obligations but I don’t enjoy the process. I don’t know why, but perhaps because I need something more out of a challenge - better structure, more concrete prompts, a firmer end date. I don’t exactly know, but I won’t do it again.

In retrospect, I probably should not have signed up for both the Pining and Just Married exchanges when they were due about ten days apart. At the time, the schedule for the Kingsman Reverse Bang had been a lot tighter and I think I thought I’d have a lot more time to write the exchange stories. The KRB ended up going into the middle of July, Pining was due in the first week of August and Just Married about a week later. Since I have a hard time focusing on multiple stories at once, I really couldn’t start either Pining or Just Married before finishing the two KRB fics. I ended up writing Just Married in about seven days, start to finish. It’s a fun story but an unedited mess.

I do regret not being able to fill my commitment to

slashorific. That was due at the same time as the Pining and Just Married stories and I completely whiffed on it. I could even manage a thousand words of fluff, and that bums me out, as I think 2019 was the last year of the event.

The Year In Review Meme Questions

And now to answer the questions that everyone asks themselves:

1. Favorite. I have a lot of favorites this year. Lives on the Ground for being a seriously weird AU that worked really well. Booked and Bespoked and Life’s a Long Song for being two of the oldest plot bunnies I’d had for Kingsman. Shooting Star for being an accidental Rocketman fusion (I started writing it a month before the movie came out). Joy of My Heart for being a story that easily could have been 50k but I kept a tight rein on it (it was a mere 3300 words).

2. Best. Best is not favorite, and this one’s a bit easier. Without question, it’s Life’s a Long Song. A lot of thought and time went into this one, and it was based on an idea I’d been bunnied by in 2017. It’s also one story that I really want to continue.

3. Most Fun. A Chance To Try Again, for Smut Swap. This was my one work of original picture (and my second-ever original fic). I just had a blast writing it and building my own universe to support the characters. Since it was for Smut Swap, it really wasn’t supposed to have plot, but it has a lot of plot (and porn) and maybe I will revisit it.

4. Most Under-appreciated. Right now, it has to be The Sunne in Splendour, and I get why. It’s a historic-based fantasy AU without a real power pairing. It saddens me that it isn’t getting a lot of love.

5. Sexiest. A Chance To Try Again, which makes sense, since it was written for Smut Swap.

6. Holy Crap, That’s Wrong Even for You. I don’t think I have one of those for this year. I’m not writing a lot of smut these days, and what I do write is pretty vanilla.

7. Hardest to Write. I said it elsewhere, and my answer hasn’t changed, The Sunne in Splendour just seemed impossible to write - took me almost three months to spit it out and I hated it for a large part of that time, but now I do love it.

8. Biggest Disappointment. None. I’m pretty chuffed about everything I wrote this year.

9. Biggest Surprise. I’d have to say, the fandom’s love for Take Me To the River, which is a pretty old-fashioned Hartwin romance. And at 3k, it’s a quick and easy read.

10. Riskiest. The Endeavour fic I wrote for the Morse’verse exchange, A Moment’s Courage or a Lifetime of Regret. While I’d written a few fics for the Lewis fandom (all Robbie/James), I’d never written Morse, either young (Endeavour) or old (Inspector Morse), and I wasn’t sure I would be able to capture his voice. I am pleased with the result, and more importantly, so is my recipient.

Looking Forward…

2020 is going to be the Year of Being Selfish. The only challenge I’m writing for is

poetry_fiction, and that is such a low-key challenge that it doesn’t even count. I am going to finish as many of my works in progress as possible; it’s only January 2 and one of the oldest Kingsman WIPs is just about done.

Other than that? I don’t know. As my friend

anarchycox says, I’ll go where the fic gods take me.