elrhiarhodan

Taps mic, hears crickets... anybody here? Anybody care?

1. Favorite fic you wrote this year
2. Least favorite fic you wrote this year
3. Favorite line/scene you wrote this year
4. Total number of words you wrote this year
5. Most popular fic this year
6. Least popular fic this year
7. Longest completed fic you wrote this year
8. Shortest completed fic you wrote this year
9. Longest WIP of the year
10. Shortest WIP of the year
11. Fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year
12. Favorite character to write about this year
13. Favorite writing song/artist/album of this year
14. A fic you didn’t expect to write
15. Something you learned this year
16. Fic(s) you completed this year
17. Fics you’ll continue next year
18. Current number of WIPs
19. Any new fics to start next year
20. Number of comments you haven’t read
21. Most memorable comment/review
22. Events you participated in this year
23. Fics you wanted to write but didn’t
24. Favorite fic you read this year
25. A fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read
26. Number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year
27. Favorite fanfic author of the year
28. Longest fic you read this year
29. Shortest fic you read this year
30. Favorite fandom/ship to read fic from this year

*feel free to specify fandoms or a fic depending on the question.

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 )

( Thoughts )

( The Year In Review Meme Questions )

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.

2019 really seems to be the year that most of my writing is for challenges of one sort or another.

To date, I've completed fics for Chocolate Box Exchange (32K), Age Gap Exchange (35K), and Smut Swap (12k). There have been a few fics in between for my own personal challenge, but those are short stories written in a matter of hours, for the most part. I like the results, but they aren't "heart and soul" stories for me.

The schedule for the rest of the year is thus:

Kingsman Reverse Bang:

Story for MMmouse15 Artwork - Due by July 1 (starts posting June 18) - 14k Currently
Story for AnarchyCox Artwork - Due by July 1 (starts posting June 18) - 19k Currently

"Achievement Unlocked Round" Story for AnarchyCox Artwork - Due by October 1 (starts posting July 2) - 0 Words Currently

Kingsman Fairy Tales: Retelling of The Golem - Due by July 7 - 0 Words Currently

Just Married Exchange: Just assigned, idea in development - Due by July 28 - 0 Words Currently

Slashorific I completely forgot I signed up for this! Prompt: "I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane" - Peter, Paul and Mary - Hartwin - 0 Words Currently

Pining Exchange: Not yet assigned - Due by August 8 - 0 Words Currently

Fandom Trumps Hate: Hartwin with supernatural elements - No official due date, but to be completed by November 1 - 0 Words Currently

And of course, there are the (fucking) bingos I've signed up for and the random ideas I want to pursue.

Yes, I need my head examined.

This year wasn't the greatest for me in writing, what with the Big Sick and all, so I'm going to include all of my stories in my answers, not just what I've written for 2018.

Ask me up to three questions, and I'll pick a fourth all on my own.

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?
B. Who’s your favorite side-character from something you wrote?
C. Get any good comments on your stuff this year? 
D. Any drawings or pictures that had a big influence on your writing?
E.  Who’s your favorite main character you’ve written?
F. What stories are you planning for the future?
G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?
H.  How do you write? Paper, pen, computer? Music, no music?
I.  What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why?
J.  What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa? 
K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die? 
L.  Which character did you most write about this year, and why do you like ‘em?
M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there?
N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written?
O. Do you believe in outlines? Show us one! 
P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?
Q. Quote three bits of writing you read his year. Can be your writing, or not. 
R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it?
S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year?
T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they?
U. Any stories that took a abrupt u-turn from where you thought they were going?
V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks. 
W.  Who are your favorite writers?
X.  What’s your least favorite work of this year?
Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim? 
Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it?

Ganked from nomette on Tumblr (by way of a million other people).

If you want to play, here's the text:

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why? B. Who’s your favorite side-character from something you wrote? C. Get any good comments on your stuff this year? D. Any drawings or pictures that had a big influence on your writing? E. Who’s your favorite main character you’ve written? F. What stories are you planning for the future? G. Where do you think you grew the most this year? H. How do you write? Paper, pen, computer? Music, no music? I. What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why? J. What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa? K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die? L. Which character did you most write about this year, and why do you like ‘em? M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there? N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written? O. Do you believe in outlines? Show us one! P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work? Q. Quote three bits of writing you read his year. Can be your writing, or not. R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it? S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year? T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they? U. Any stories that took a abrupt u-turn from where you thought they were going? V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks. W. Who are your favorite writers? X. What’s your least favorite work of this year? Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim? Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it? Ganked from nomette on Tumblr (by way of a million other people, including <user name=elrhiarhodan>).

Just wait until you read some of the purple prose put out by a New York Times best selling author (Wilbur Smith), a previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature (Michael Cunningham), this year's winner of the Man Booker Prize (Richard Flanagan), and a previous Man Booker winner (Ben Okri), all nominated for the annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award, 2014 Edition.

However, most of these (except for the scene from Richard Flanagan's Man Booker prize winner, which had coitus interrupted by a big dog about to chomp down on a dying penguin) are tame in comparison to prior years' nominees.

Bibliodaze, a book and writing blog I follow, has compiled a list of the most truly awful "literary" sex scenes and I wanted to share the worst of them with you.

( Bad sex ahoy )

Borrowed from angelita26 who got it from my dear friend, sinfulslasher.

Here's what I've got on my writing plate for the rest of the foreseeable future. There's an especially appropriate and extremely pretty bonus Bomer under the cut if you make it to the end.

( I may be insane, but at least it’s a productive insanity )

Like MS Word wants to write your stories for you?

Damn program keeps insisting that I should use "scars" instead of "scabs".

WTF?

Also, under attack by brain weasels.

2013 – The Year in Fanworks:

By the Numbers

Stories: 101
Words: 409,400
Monthly Average: 34,117
Daily Average: 1,122
Longest: 70,000 (Red Velvet)
Shortest: 100 (Bruised Roses)

To compare, my 2012 Review | 2011 Review | 2010 Review

Total number of words since 2010: 1,424,235

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

( The List of 2013 Stories  )

( Overview… )

( Some general observations about 2013… )

( The Year End Meme Questions… )
( Looking Forward… )

Okay, last week, I posted this poll about having a second White Collar community rewatch. The response was generally positive, but not overwhelmingly so.

Around the same time, I started posting notices about Word Warring*, and frankly, I was shocked at the interest, participation and overall enthusiasm. I think, since last Wednesday night, there hasn't been an evening where there wasn't at least one thirty-minute battle.

In discussion with some of the participants - many of whom take part in the community rewatch - I suggested that instead of adding a second night of White Collar, we just continue the Word Wars. Because I realized that what I value and anticipate is the interaction with fellow fans and writer, not turning on an episode of White Collar and ogling Tim's legs or Matt's hair (which I can do at any time, TBH).

So, we continue with the Tuesday night rewatches (we just started Season 2 and had a blast with Withdrawal, next week is Need to Know, another favorite), and get together in the WCWU chat room whenever we can.

While we are enjoying the ad hoc evenings in chat, don't forget about the two scheduled "Writers' Chats" - one on Friday evening at 10 PM Eastern and another on Sunday, at 2 PM Eastern. These are on-going, there may be Word War battles, there may be prompt-specific exercises.

______________________________

*A note about the Word Wars. This is an exercise to get your words out, you can write whatever you want, it doesn't have to be White Collar fan fic. It doesn't have to be fan fic at all. It's amazing how productive a thirty-minute highly focused writing session can be. Whether your a cheetah or a sloth, your words get out.

(To give you an idea of how productive I've found Word Warring, I've added between 1400 and 2100 words each night to my current project, in addition to everything I've written in a not-battle setting.

Because people are working on WIPs and other projects, no one is sharing their output, post-Battle. Just the word counts.

For the second night in a row, you're all invited to join me and jrosemary and theatregirl7299 at the wcwu chat room for another round of Word War. We'll be starting at 8:30 tonight, so show up a little early for some trash talkin'. When the clock starts ticking, everyone will have exactly 30 minutes to write as many words as possible.

As before, she who writes the most words will be anointed the Word War queen, and a crown, similar to this one:



Will be placed on her head (with great reverence).

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.

( The List of Stories… )
( Overview… )
( Some general observations about 2012… )
( The Year End Meme Questions… )
( Looking Forward… )

The Messy Merry Month of Masturbation is over, and I'm not quite sure it was a rousing (or arousing) success for me. I don't think I'll be doing this challenge again - I just don't have another 31 days of wank!fic in me.

( And now for the very last bit of wankery under the cut. And a bonus Tatt DeBomer. )

1. I hope everyone has seen the set pics that Matt Negrete has taken, and Jeff Eastin's posted on Twitter. If you haven't, I'm happy to share them with you. Under a cut for two reasons. First, they are slightly spoilery. Two, they are highly, highly distracting.

( Matt Bomer, Bearded and Beautiful )

2. I haven't so much fallen off the face of the earth as much as fallen deep into a new story. It's my entry for rabidchild67’s KidFic Fest on the White Collar Hurt/Comfort comm. I had gone into this assignment expecting to write some deaged angst, but abandoned the idea fairly quickly. Then I thought I'd write something silly, like White Collar meets Our Gang. What I ended up with is something completely different and utterly unexpected. It's pushing 14k right now and I'm sort of proud to say that it may be one of the best things I've ever written. It will be done soon, it has to be - I've got to post it on the 30th of this month.

3. And when I haven't been writing, I've been working on a new beading project, which I finished on Sunday night. This one, unlike the Rainbow bracelet, is actually wearable.

( Heliotrope Dreams )

4. The Fan Fic Fest on White Collar Fixation is still going on, and I still need your recs for kink stories and pairings/romance stories. You can find my post on that subject here

What else, what else? I'd comment on the weather, but that's obvious. So, I'll leave it at that. Let me know what's going on in your life.

In case you’re interested:

2011: 191 stories consuming 384,325 words, which is a monthly total of 32,027 and a daily word count of 1053. All in one fandom.

To compare, my 2010 Review.

( In which I flog myself close to death in the most tealish of deers. )

Hi there, friends!

Haven't really posted anything personal in the last few weeks. I've been bitten by the writing bug (as you've undoubtedly seen) and every time I sit down to do one of these updates, I get distracted. Since this has gotten to be rather long and teal deerish, everything of note is under its own separate cut.

( Why I Am Freezing My Ass Off At Work )

( Stuff I Owe )

( Vacation Plans Have Been Made )

( The 2012 Fandom Meetup - Collaring in Chicago )

( Fandom News )

( Writing... )

( Things to Alert You About )

And in conclusion: GEORGE.

This is sort of a variation on a post I made about a year ago, commenting on the frequency in which I used certain phrases in my fic, specifically "obscene circus ponies."  I also realize that there are certain story elements that I repeat in unrelated fics, e.g., Neal going to work for Stuart Gless at Atlantic Partners (Neal had rescued Gless' daughter in [Poll #1796717]

I want you to be honest, brutally so.   I am worried that readers will perceive this as a sign of writerly laziness or worse, a lack of imagination.

Ganked from lionessvalenti and others.

"If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach." Alfred Hitchcock

When you read a story that I have written, what do you immediately look for (or expect to find)?

( And under the cut, a gratuitous bit of beauty... )

Ganked from my dearest hoosierbitch (who's become the Princess of the Memes), who got it from the ever fabulous rubynye .

If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
— Alfred Hitchcock

When I post a story, what do you immediately look for?

This meme started with hoosierbitch , was picked up by coffeethyme4me, rabidchild67, photoash, daria234, tj_teejay, attackfish, slashfanatic  and many others on my flist.  Many others.

I have promised to play - because I luuuuurve these things.

The rules, as posted:


The thing is, I'mma changing the rules a little bit.  You see, I have signed up for ficlets on many of my flist's postings, and so I feel obliged to give them ficlets too.  That being said, I will not include those peeps in the five that sign up (unless they don't want ficlets from me).  I'mma also changing the rules in another respect - I will be filling with 300 words.  That's my sweet spot for ficlets.  It's a nice number, not too short, not to long, and I have a lot of experience writing to that amount (Danger'verse, the Merry Month of Masturbation) and I enjoy the discipline.   ETA - I am not doing the 300 word thing - that works best with one-word prompts, I just realized (d'oh).  As my friend RC67 says, I'm just going to freeball it. 

I am writing White Collar only and I will write het and gen and fluff and angst and smut and rps/rpf. 

So give me a pairing and a prompt and I'll write you a story! 

27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

I do some writing in my office - lunch hour, after hours. I also write at home, too. But I think I do some of my best work at my local Starbucks. I think it’s the sunlight. My home office is in the basement and while the space is lovely, it’s also artificially lit - not a speck of sunshine.

I can write odes to my Starbucks. It used to be a Wendy’s - so it’s big and bright and clean. There are plenty of outlets and tables large enough to spread out on. My favorite table is the one in the corner, behind the entrance. I don’t really care if people are looking over my shoulder at what I write, and if they get an eyeful of Peter and Neal going at it like a pair of horny goats, that’s their problem. But I like the corner because it’s quiet and out of the traffic flow.

I rarely write long hand - which is a huge change in the why I used to write, because I loved the feel of lead and pencil across the paper. I have some physical problems with my neck and shoulder, so my right hand isn’t very strong and begins to ache if I hold a pen or pencil too long.

Besides, I have an embarrassment of technology at my fingertips - if I’m ever struck with a random thought or fic, I can pull out an iDevice and go at it.

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable writing experiences was the creation of the round robin fic, Easier Things, that I wrote with afiawri, rabidchild67 and hoosierbitch during the Great Chicago White Collar Meet Up in January, 2011. We had always planned to do a round robin writing exercise, and the night before, we went to see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”. We had also just watched the Pilot episode of White Collar and wondered just how Neal got his hands on the Warden’s wife’s credit cards.

I am also collaborating with the awesome jrosemary on an original fic (she has been after me to own up to my minor contributions).

I have wanted artwork for some of my longer fics - I had contracted with an artist for Between the Darkness and the Dawn but unfortunately, my artist went AWOL. Which is a pity, because her work was HOT.

29 – What is your current project or projects?

I have too many WIPs languishing to enumerate, but I am proud to say that my “magnum opus” is in beta (rabidchild67 has done a masterful job, and I’m just waiting for elainasaunt to get back to me with her comments, and I’ll be ready to start posting. I should think about cover art...any artists out there interested in a commission?

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

I have a couple of favorite fics - stories that I’m most proud of for various reasons. The top of the list has to be Minutes and Hours. It’s about the actions Peter took to keep Neal safe after the airplane exploded. There were two very specific triggers for that fic - hoosierbitch’s awesome story, Shelter and a very misleading tweet from the White Collar show runner, Jeff Eastin. He said that Season Two would be all about Peter and Neal adjusting to Neal’s work with OPR. Which was a total lie, of course. But it did make for some very interesting plot bunnies.

If I have to pick a favorite piece of porn, it would have to be Take a Seat, Mr. Caffrey. It’s still some of the hottest smut I’ve ever committed to the bitstream.

And then there is Between the Darkness and the Dawn, which rolls up all of the angst I love to write in a nice and tidy package. It’s the story that captures so much of the fanon mythology I’ve created for White Collar, and projects a lot of my hopes and dreams for Neal’s future. It also sets a precedent - it made me realize how much I prefer writing future fic - where I don’t have to worry about my stories being jossed by canon.

There are other tales I love - certain chapters from Danger’verse, ficlets that resonate for reasons I find hard to name.

Well - this meme is done. I’m happy I’ve done it, but I don’t think I’m ever going to commit to another one of these thirty-day things. Just because I can’t be counted on to remember to post them each and every day.

Thank you for reading and commenting and being patient. You are the best flist on LJ.

These next three questions are best answered in a single day, for me, the are all interrelated.

18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

When I started writing, my bunnies came from canon – whether to plug a hole, to correct a fact, or to expand on a story. But since canon didn’t accommodate the romantic threesome I wanted to read and write about, I began to go elsewhere. Mostly into my head, sometimes onto the kinkmeme. At first, writing to other people’s prompts seemed rather daunting, and there is still an element of trepidation when I try to fill a fellow fan’s prompt – am I giving her what she wanted or am I just writing what I want to read, although I have become so comfortable with filling prompts that I host my own promptfests on a regular basis – just so I can get prompts and plot bunnehs. There’s one going on right now, in case anyone’s interested: Promptfest VI – Summertime Madness.

Sometimes I am inspired by my fellow fans’ writings. Probably the best example of this was the wonderful, post Out of the Box fic Shelter, which inspired me to write Minutes and Hours (which remains one of my all time favorite stories).

I love single word prompts – they seem to bring out a lot of creativity in me. I attribute that to two wonderful friends – photoash, who taught me all about exchanging prompts and <ladygray99, who jumped feet-first into my very first promptfest (she had never written anything for White Collar before), had so much fun, she decided to create the drabble/ficlet community whitecollar100.

Bunnehs can come from songs – someday I am going to write a complete cycle for both Mumford’s Sigh No More and the Eurythmic’s Peace. I’ve also been inspired by poetry, by history, by art.

In fact, just about everything inspires me. I keep a small notebook with me just for the purpose of jotting down story ideas. Hopefully, I‘ll have the time to write them all, some day.

I can't believe I am actually posting this meme two days in a row. Maybe I'm back on schedule. Doubt it.
17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

I used to struggle over titles. Tried to be cute, tried to be clever. And I usually fell flat on my face. Then I discovered something that my fellow writers had know for a long, long time. Song lyrics can solve your problems.

Actually, it was my friend gyzym who pointed me in the right direction. I had been dabbling with song titles for a while, but not seriously. I was struggling with one for a long, angsty fic and she suggested lyrics. It didn’t take me ten seconds to hone in on Art Garfunkel’s “All I Know” for the title to Between the Darkness and the Dawn..

I haven’t looked back since. Mumford and Sons has provided a few titles, most notably Love Will Not Break Your Heart (it will dismiss your fears), Live Unbruised (we are friends).

Oysterband, Ani DiFranco, Annie Lennox are my go-tos for titles, but I’ve also branched out. REM has been generous and so has Dead Can Dance.

The oddest place I’ve gotten titles from is the Preamble Redux series - where I was inspired to take each of the clause of the Preable of the U.S. Constitution and write a fic for it. It was one of the rare cases where I have been inspired to write from a title, rather than searching for a title for a story that’s already begun.

With longer fics, I usually just start writing, get a few thousand words down and then look for a title. A current project “Close Your Eyes and Think of Me (call out my name)” got a title almost before I started writing. I was humming the James Taylor song for no good reason (and even odder - I had been listening to Ravel’s Bolero just before that), and it came to me as the perfect title for the story I was about to tell.

I’ve also had the embarrassing situation of using the same title for two completely different fics. Not once, but twice. Luckily, one time I caught it as a WIP and changed titles, but the other time it was a ficlet that never got cateloged onto my Masterlist. Only caught it when I was looking for something else.

As for chapters - the only time I’ve titled chapters in a complete fic (not a regularly published WIP like Danger’verse or Vampire World) was for the aforementioned Between the Darkness and the Dawn - where I used parts of the lyrics for each chapter. It worked marvelously well until I ran out of lyrics.

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

Warnings are essential and a responsible author must always warn for trigger issues. There is a short list of absolutes: Death, Rape, Non-Con, Dub-Con, Sexual Congress with a Minor.

That being said, the “warning” line on my header is not strictly for triggers – in fact, I call it the “W/E/T” line – “Warnings / Enticements / Triggers” because frankly, what some readers find triggery, others actively seek out and enjoy.

I’ve also used/abused this line on occasion. I’ve “warned” for some pretty odd things:

“The Incredible Miss Peggy Lee” in In Joy and Celebration, and Latin in Behold, Thou Art Fair.

What I don’t warn for is slash, because a same-sex pairing is not, in and of itself, something that should be considered triggery, and I will always note a relationship in the proper place – the “Character/Pairing” line.


16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

My summaries generally suck. With really short fics, I worry that the summaries give too much away, and with long fics, I worry that I’ll scare away readers. I hate coming up with them – there’s a burden to be clever, witty – and I find I usually can’t display that skill in a summary.