2009 Year in Writing

[edenfalling]

2005 version


January:
Cut Clean -- The Homeward Bounders, 2,400 words. Joris's family sells him into slavery.
Secrets 12: Into the Dark -- Harry Potter, 12,150 words. In which Ginny wrestles with moral dilemmas and fails to reach any satisfactory conclusions. Attempting to protect Harry and claim responsibility for what she unleashed, she recovers Tom's diary, but that proves a nearly fatal mistake.

February:
Harvest: Island Dreams -- original, Firsthome, 350 words. Denifar gets sent on a vision quest; Ekanu invites herself along. [15-minute]

March:
None Sing Hymns to Breath -- Chronicles of Narnia, 800 words. After Miraz's death and the Telmarines' surrender, Lucy finds herself at loose ends for a day. [15-minute]
Babel -- Chronicles of Narnia (Disney movie canon, blargh), 600 words. Susan and Edmund talk about linguistics, post-LWW. [15-minute]
Secrets 13: Shattering -- Harry Potter, 12,050 words. After Harry kills Tom and the basilisk, Ginny faces her complete failure to either solve her own problems or keep Harry safe. She does not cope well, but at least not everyone blames her for helping Tom. That's a good thing, right?
Body Memory -- Angel Sanctuary, 450 words. Setsuna never learned to use a sword. [15-minute]

April:
Getting to Know You -- original, Firsthome, 500 words. Ekanu and Ain Taylak decide to learn about each other without the boundaries of their journey to Pythas. [15-minute]
Defender of the Faith -- original, The Sum of Things, 600 words. Shemoni Kikalava fights a ritual duel with Jonoma Topio, the swordborn conqueror of the north, to determine the legal status of a new religion in Halo. [15-minute]
Endurance -- Chronicles of Narnia, 675 words. "The thing is," Susan tells Edmund once, "you have to live in the world you're given." [15-minute]
Baby Steps -- original, Firsthome, 425 words. Ekanu takes a step into half-adulthood by training her new dogs to join the annual caribou hunt. Or at least that's the plan. [15-minute]
Heart's Desire -- Chronicles of Narnia, 375 words. Jadis in the garden: separation from God is only a punishment if you believe in him. [15-minute]

May:
Sauce for the Goose -- Harry Potter, 825 words. Ginny right before the birth of the Hogwarts resistance. [15-minute]
Penelope, Weaving -- Star Trek: TOS/AOS, 700 words. Amanda and Sarek on Vulcan, shortly before their marriage. [15-minute]

June:
And in the Bottom of the Box -- Star Trek: AOS, 600 words. Spock compares his timeline to its original. [15-minute]
By the Sword -- Chronicles of Narnia, 900 words. When Jadis and Cynara were twelve, they killed their older brother. [15-minute]
Points of Division -- Harry Potter, 425 words. Magic runs in Dudley Dursley's family. [15-minute]

July:
Rationalization -- Harry Potter, 100 words. Lily is beautiful; Petunia is not. [15-minute]
For Want of a Nail -- original, Firsthome, 800 words. Two lovers flee south into the Kaitaru desert. Their departure spells the ruin of Ionniqué and the triumph of the Estarin Empire. [15-minute]
Cast a Long Shadow (We All Meet in the End) -- Harry Potter, 8,500 words. Lily left empty places behind her. Written for RemixRedux 7, based on Points Where All Shadows Meet by osmalic.

August:
That Which We Are, We Are Forever -- The Darkangel, 450 words. Irrylath spent nearly twenty years as an icarus. That cannot be totally erased. [Gift!fic for aishuu; 15-minute]
Harvest: Lullabies -- original, Firsthome, 375 words. Ekanu and Laefa talk about the city of Vinaeo. [15-minute]
Liminality -- Chronicles of Narnia, 1,850 words. Lucy adjusts to her new position as a queen of Narnia while coping with the lingering aftermath of the battle and the reality of death. [15-minute]
Children's Crusade -- Naruto, 200 words. The social and legal construction of childhood among ninja. [15-minute]
Barycenter -- original, Firsthome, 750 words. Ekanu and Denifar talk about legends and the possibility of interplanetary travel as they watch the moon from the clock tower roof. [15-minute]

September:
Harvest: The Comforts of Home -- original, Firsthome, 400 words. Ekanu sets up camp during Denifar's vision quest. [15-minute]
Form and Function -- Chronicles of Narnia, 600 words. Aslan is a lion, utterly and undeniably. Susan finds this hard to reconcile with an equally undeniable correspondence that Lucy points out. [15-minute]
The Fox and the Star -- original, Camia, 325 words. A rich merchant hires a thief-catcher to guard his house. Fragment.
Prayers to Broken Stone -- Chronicles of Narnia, 400 words. This is Charn, after Jadis and the children leave. This is the grave of a universe. [15-minute]
Undertow -- Naruto, 7,500 words. Chouryuukei Tsukimaru thinks he is playing a game with a helpless girl as his toy. He is very, very wrong. AU Team 7 fic, semi-sequel to Tides.

October:
Little Sister -- Chronicles of Narnia, 2,400 words. Charn is gone; nostalgia is useless. Jadis has new worlds to conquer, if she can only find the way. Written for Femgenficathon 2009.
Cold and Sweet -- Angel Sanctuary, 200 words. God knows everything; that is heaven's catechism. Lucifer denies it. [15-minute]
As Love from Lies, or Truth from Art -- Chronicles of Narnia, 600 words. One way Susan's life might go, after. [Request!fic for silverblade219]
A Certain Point of View -- Harry Potter, 550 words. Snape and the Carrows during DH. [Request!fic for alchymie]
Health Insurance -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 675 words. Xander deals with one minor practical detail of setting up shop in Cleveland. Now if he can only talk Buffy around... [Request!fic for yggidee]
Compatibility -- Naruto, 1,500 words. Team 8 in a quiet moment during the timeskip, with speculation about the Aburame clan's bond with their kikkai. [Request!fic for lynati_1]
Sons and Daughters -- Naruto, 150 words. Uchiha Mikoto, on children, pressure, and expectations. [Request!fic for theodosia21]

November:
13 questions about 10 characters -- not precisely fic, but it contains a lot of scenarios and rough-sketch outlines. Fandoms include Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Trek: AOS, Matthew Stover's The Acts of Caine series, Angel Sanctuary, Lucifer, Susan Cooper's Seaward, Naruto, and Andre Norton's The Crystal Gryphon trilogy (which is itself a subset of her Witch World series).

December:
Some Work of Noble Note -- Star Trek: AOS, 850 words. A string of bad luck has haunted the Gypsy Moth for months; a standoff with a fleet of Orion pirates is just icing on the cake. [Request!fic for valles_uf]
The Transient and the Eternal: Tattoo -- Angel Sanctuary, 850 words. Lucifer and Alexiel have tattoos. Jibril wonders if she should get one too.
11 ficlets about 10 characters -- in other words, hi, I am insane and I like crossovers. 2,300 words of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Lucifer, Angel Sanctuary, Star Trek: AOS, Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and The Darkangel.
The War of Secret Flames: The Two Secretive Princesses -- Avatar: TLA/Enchanted Forest Chronicles, 650 words. Toph knows Princess Mai has a secret.
The War of Secret Flames: The Enemy of My Enemy Is NOT My Friend -- Avatar: TLA/Enchanted Forest Chronicles, 650 words. Zuko and Sokka visit Morwen to ask for help.
The War of Secret Flames: What You Wish For -- Avatar: TLA/Enchanted Forest Chronicles, 1,400 words. Katara meets a fairy godmother.
Loving Bonds -- The Dark Is Rising, 2,800 words. There is a fierce long age between Arthur's reign and the final Rising. Any number of things could have broken a chain of descent and prevented the Light from having a Pendragon on their side. Why, then, did the Dark allow Bran to remain in the twentieth century? Written for rizny in Yuletide 2009.
The Geographic Cure -- American Gods, 2,100 words. Artemis and Apollo go to America. Written for Minnow in Yuletide 2009.
And Both Shall Row -- Seaward, 900 words. Cally and West meet again after several years. Written for Lesserstorm in Yuletide Madness 2009.
thy daughter in law, which loveth thee -- the Bible, Old Testament, Book of Ruth, 1,100 words. Naomi loves Ruth, but not quite as Ruth would wish. Written for Summercloud in Yuletide 2009.
whatever a sun will always sing is you -- The Darkangel, 150 words. Erin is always at Aeriel's side as they build their world and their lives. Written for fresne in Yuletide Madness 2009.
Princess no Go -- Enchanted Forest Chronicles/Hikaru no Go, 350 words. Cimorene and Mendanbar play Go. AU. Written for pentapus in Yuletide Madness 2009.


Total Posted Fanfic Wordcount: 72,000
Total Posted Original Fiction Wordcount: 4,500

Note: What you are not seeing in that wordcount is the roughly 30,000 words of unfinished fanfic and 5,000 words of unfinished original fiction I also wrote but did not post because, you know, it's unfinished. *sigh*

---------------

Analysis:

I began this year determined to finish some of my longstanding WIPs. This obviously did not happen, though I am at least somewhat further along with "Secrets." Instead I fell into several new fandoms (most notably Narnia), and wrote a lot of short one-shots, mostly inspired by 15_minute_fic -- which, annoyingly, seems to have gone defunct just as 15minuteficlets did several years ago. *sulks*

I participated in three fic challenges/exchanges -- RemixRedux, Femgenficathon, and Yuletide -- and enjoyed them exceedingly, despite headaches. Said headaches were mostly my own fault for being bad with deadlines, but I had a lot of trouble with follow-through in general this year. I seem to stall out about halfway through longer stories, which is probably another reason I kept writing short one-shots.

On a brighter note, I wrote more original fic this year than last year (though you will not see at least half of it on this list, because most of it remains unfinished). I have also tidied up a lot of the world-building for various stories.

Did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
---About the same absolute amount of words, but they were not at all where I expected to write them. I wanted to finish "Secrets" and then maybe "Ephemera," but at the end of 2009 I still have all my old WIPs hanging over me, with the single exception of "Undertow."

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in 2008?
---Chronicles of Narnia. I had done verbal meta analysis on the series to my friends and family, but I avoided thinking of it as a fic source, because I knew the second I did, I would get sucked in and never escape. It is the combination of childhood love, extensive world-building possibilities, and theological exasperation, you see.

Also Star Trek: AOS (I had no idea the new movie would inspire fic from me); The Darkangel (because I actually like the unconventional ending); Avatar: The Last Airbender (which I had been determinedly avoiding for years), The Dark Is Rising (because I was basically satisfied with canon), American Gods (which never grabbed me), and the Bible. I am especially boggled by the last one.

I am not surprised to have written Seaward fanfic, since I saw lesserstorm request it for Yuletide -- I was keeping an eye out in case I had time to write a Yuletide treat, which I did, so yay!

Did you take any writing risks this year?
---No structural game-playing as I have sometimes done in the past, though I suppose telling "Undertow" entirely from the POV of a rapist OC and making Team 7 use pseudonyms and play roles until the very end was a little strange for fanfiction.

Do you have any fanfic or original fic goals for the New Year?
---Finish "Secrets," or else! Also finish "Ephemera" and "The Transient and the Eternal," and write at least two chapters of "The Guardian in Spite of Herself." For original fic, I want to finish "Harvest," "Small Mysteries," and my vastly-delayed story for snaegl.

Favorite story -- not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest
---"Undertow," because I am so happy to have finished it. I like the atmospherics, I like the way the plot pulled together, and I really like that I made Team 7 competent and efficient and terrifying, the way ninjas ought to be to civilians.

I am also pleased with my Jadis-centric Chronicles of Narnia fics. Her POV is wonderful for world-building and for criticizing Lewis's theology and patriarchal attitudes. "Heart's Desire" and "Prayers to Broken Stone" are my favorites, because the first encapsulates an argument I have with Lewis's theology but doesn't belabor the issue (and is also a good character study), while the second is a tacit rebuke of The Last Battle -- it says, "No, you cannot make the end of a world into a happy occasion. The death of a universe is a tragedy, no matter what may or may not happen afterwards." Also, I like the way the words and imagery in both ficlets worked out.

Best story
---"Undertow," especially after I tweaked it in response to Jade Rozes's ff.net review! I think "Cast a Long Shadow (We All Meet in the End)" is also pretty well written, and again, "Heart's Desire" is very good.

Most underappreciated by the universe
---"Secrets," though that is my own fault for being so slow and inconsistent with updates.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story
---Well, there are disturbing scenes and/or implications in several stories, especially "By the Sword," "A Certain Point of View," and "Liminality," but they were organic to the stories. "Undertow" is fucked up from beginning to end, but the story is structured to condemn Tsukimaru's thoughts and actions, and he gets killed by way of asserting the moral justice of the universe. Then again, it's a story about assassination for money, and Tsukimaru is a serial rapist and murderer, so... yeah. The story was not written for shock effect, which is what I interpret this question to mean, but the subject matter is still ugly.

Also, while "Compatibility" is adorable fluff, it could easily squick people with insect phobias, and even people who are just mildly uneasy/uncomfortable about insects.

Sexiest story
---Insofar as anything I write can be termed sexy... the Belial/Uhura mini-ficlet from the December meme. Maybe "The Transient and the Eternal: Tattoo," though that is much more about emotional hurt/comfort than about three hot naked people in one bed (though it does, you know, include three hot naked people in one bed). And there is a lot of sensuality in "Undertow," though it is all twisted and skeevy because Tsukimaru is a freaking rapist, so while I would call that story sensuous, I would not call it sexy, precisely. YMMV.

Most fun to write
---The question and ficlet memes from November and December. Also "The Geographic Cure," which sort of happened through me and I still have no idea where it came from, though I did do some research to tidy up its roughest edges.

Most disappointing
---I am annoyed at "Babel" for turning out to be movie canon -- or rather, I am annoyed at myself for grabbing an assumption from other people's movie-based fic instead of checking the books for myself. I am left with a fascinating idea that will not fit into my own headcanon, which is frustrating, but I don't quite have the motivation and energy to rewrite the ficlet.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters
---"Loving Bonds," because I had not thought much about Blodwen Rowlands until I reread The Grey King and Silver on the Tree, and then I desperately wanted to know why she spent so long as a farmwife in Wales, and how much of her human self was true and how much was an act.

Also "whatever a sun will always sing is you," because it had not occurred to me that the Darkangel trilogy can be read as leading to an Aeriel/Erin happy ending. So I am glad that fresne's prompt made me see canon from a new angle.

Story with the single sweetest moment
---"Compatibility," of course! Team 8 is made of puppies and rainbows and squee; you cannot convince me otherwise. (The mini ficlet with Kurai and Kazul from the December ficlet meme is also adorable.)

Hardest story to write
---Definitely "Secrets." Chapter 14 has been such a frustrating and emotionally draining slog that I keep abandoning it for months at a time. "Undertow" took me years to write, but that was because I needed to be in a highly particular headspace to work on it. When I was in that mental place, the writing went relatively smoothly. "Cast a Long Shadow (We All Meet in the End)" drove me nuts during the outline phase, but again, the actual writing was fairly smooth... aside from my computer crashing. *headdesk*

Easiest story to write
---The whole point of 15-minute fics is to sit down and write something -- anything! -- so they went pretty easily, all twenty-five of them.

Biggest surprise
---Bible fic. I mean, seriously, WTF?

Most revealing story
---"Secrets" continues to be a weird combination of meta, character study, and therapy writing. I suspect one reason I am so bogged down is that while it was easy to write Ginny sinking into depressive isolation and guilt, it's a lot harder to write her out of that spiral, just as it was hard for me to climb out of my own depression. Chapters 13 and 14 are, to an embarrassing degree, me trying to work out a coherent theory of guilt with Ginny as a case study. *headdesk* She's still at the stage where she doesn't think she deserves to be happy -- hell, she still thinks happiness is something that should be/must be earned -- which tells me that she's not anywhere near over the damage Tom did to her.

---------------

So yeah. A moderately productive year, if I go by wordcount and number of stories... but an extremely unproductive year in terms of what I meant to write. Still, I had fun and I thought a lot, and I am more inclined to be pleased at writing anything rather than annoyed at not writing what I was supposed to be writing.

Comments

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Holy crap, I missed Some Work of Noble Note the first time around.

Oops.

*reads*

...yes and yes. I approve entirely, thank you!

[edenfalling]

I'm glad you like it! I felt the plague story was getting so far away from your prompt (though it will include a tiny ship vs. a pirate fleet eventually), and it was so far from being finished, that it made sense to go back and try again without getting sidetracked.