the deep moans round with many voices

Found via rthstewart

So, first of all, I am not entirely sure what is meant by "fandoms" in this context. Ones I write fic for? Ones I read fic for? Ones I read fic for without ever consuming the canon? Ones where I consume the canon and have no further interest? Interpretation is hard.

But anyway, I will give it a shot!

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If fandoms were lovers...

The one who seduced you and screwed you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it. ...I don't think I actually have a fandom this applies to. I mean, yeah, there are things I've started reading or watching and then fallen out of love with, but I can't think of anything that's broken my heart by turning to shit. Unless you're talking about out-of-canon stuff, such as revelations about authors' real-life behavior? In which case I do find it somewhat awkward to reread Marion Zimmer Bradley's books at this point, or Orson Scott Card's work, even if I still find the books themselves valuable.

If we're just talking straight-up stories that I love passionately and which broke my heart, I think the champion is still The Lions of Al-Rassan. But I'm sure that story wasn't laughing at me.

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets. Harry Potter.

The mysterious dark gothy one whom you used to sit up with talking until 3a.m. at weird coffeehouses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized they really were fucking crazy. I mean, the Black Jewels series is legit fucking crazy, but that's why I like it in the first place, so... *hands* This goes for Angel Sanctuary as well.

The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to get together with again although you're relieved they don't actually live in town. ...Saiyuki, maybe? For which I wrote four stories once upon a time to exorcise some meta that got stuck in my head, and which I do mean to go back and read more of someday. Or maybe Gormenghast. I wrote one Gormenghast fic ages ago, and have always vaguely regretted not doing more to play around with that canon's absolutely batshit worldbuilding.

The Steady. The Chronicles of Narnia, which I have been having productive discussions and arguments with since I was eight years old. *wry*

The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never got really serious with. Possibly Leverage. I keep meaning to try watching that series, but never actually getting around to it.

The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good friends because the friendship is there but the chemistry isn't. Most of the MCU, to be honest. (Except Daredevil, because reasons. *shifty eyes*)

The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems really cool except it's never really gone anywhere. I dunno, really. You could probably fill in any audiovisual media thing here and be relatively accurate. Oh! Wait, no, I know: Fullmetal Alchemist. Which is a wonderful manga series and I keep just not clicking with it, which annoys me because I want to love it and can't quite get there and so am stuck with admiration instead.

The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at them and thinking, "How did they land all these utterly fabulous people?" See the audiovisual media part of the previous answer. But I guess more specifically Game of Thrones. Which from the first season has sounded kind of unpleasant to me, what with the sexposition and so on, but hey. De gustibus non est disputandum. *wry*

The one who gave you the best damned summer of your life and who you measure all other potential partners against. Homestuck! ;)

The one you recently met at a party and would like to get to know better and who you think you might have a crush on. Annoyingly, the canons I've been into most recently have been book series that are all Yuletide-eligible, so. Not lots of opportunity there. (To name names: Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series, Martha Wells's Raksura series and Murderbot series, and N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy and Dreamblood duology.)

The old flame that you wouldn't totally object to hooking up with again for a one night romp if only they cleaned themselves up a bit. Naruto. (Except we never exactly broke up. It's just a long-distance relationship and I am ignoring vast swathes of canon Because Reasons and also there is no sequel or weird anime movies, okay. Got it? Good.)

Your hot new flame. Alas, I don't have one. It is very frustrating. :(

The one who stole your people's hearts. I am interpreting this as a fandom that has swept many of my internet acquaintances off their feet, rather than something I wrote that everyone inexplicably likes best. At the moment this seems to be Good Omens, but I'm okay with that. I'm not in love myself, but it's nice to sort of vicariously experience other people's infatuation, and I am well-enough in like that I don't particularly mind not being deeply involved in this tangent.

And a bonus courtesy of syrena_of_the_lake: The one you’re embarrassed to admit you like, because your friends will all say you're too good for them. Oh, don't even get me started. The list of fandoms for which I read amazingly terrible fic is longer than both my legs put together -- and this is quite deliberate, since there are some power-kink tropes I find excruciating if I know the canon well enough to see how OOC they are, but find hot like burning if they're applied to characters with whom I'm only vaguely familiar via internet osmosis. *wry*

Also I found the Gor novels weirdly sexy when I was in high school. This is probably because the first one I read is the one where the main character gets caught and turned into a slave himself, and I do have both a power-kink and a torture-kink, so. :p

It's that time of year again. (Well, about a week and a half late, but pssh, details.)

Here are the results from 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012, for comparison purposes.

I currently have 539 stories posted on AO3, which is 34 more than last year. I think almost all of the new fics were genuinely written during the past year, though I might also have crossposted a few backdated things; I honestly don't remember.

Anyway, here are my top ten works on AO3, by hit count:

1. What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed) - 29,687 [Naruto, remix]
2. The Way of the Apartment Manager - 7,872 [Naruto, chaptered]
3. Definitions of Romance - 6,914 [Harry Potter]
4. With a Vengeance - 6,588 [Naruto]
5. I Must Increase My Bust - 6,289 [Homestuck]
6. More Sins than Condemnation - 6,079 [Naruto]
7. Trollstuck: Make Her Pay - 5,883 [Homestuck, chaptered, WIP]
8. Problems and Solutions (All Things in Time) - 5,867 [Chronicles of Narnia/Stargate: SG-1, remix]
9. Four by Four - 5,096 [Homestuck, chaptered, WIP]
10. The Guardian in Spite of Herself - 4,369 [Naruto, chaptered, WIP]

As in previous years, this list is slow to change. There's been a bit of internal rearrangement, "Definitions of Romance" jumped from #11 (and thus not on last year's list) to #3, and "Guardian" appeared at #10 -- probably because I added a new chapter in early 2019 -- but that's about it. :)

Moving on!

( Here are my top ten stories by number of kudos )

A more general trend is my Naruto fics sliding back up the rankings relative to my Homestuck fics. This is probably because, as mentioned above, I posted a new chapter of "Guardian" in early 2019 and there's been some spillover to my other work in that fandom; also, Homestuck fandom in general was slowing down until the epilogues dropped just a couple weeks ago.

And now I'm going to go read a book. :)

minutia_r tagged me in the 10 characters meme: List ten of your favorite characters in ten different fandoms and then tag ten people

In no particular order:

1. Chronicles of Narnia - Still Edmund, I think, though he has never been ahead by a very large margin and it's grown smaller over the years. I am awfully fond of almost all the characters. (Jadis is my second-favorite in general, and probably my most favorite for writing.)

2. Homestuck - This is tricky! Uh. Can I say Rose, Jade, Dave, Terezi, Karkat, Aradia, Roxy, Jane, Kanaya, Meenah, and Damara all together? It is really hard to make distinctions any more finely graded than that, and anyway which one of that set I like best shifts from day to day.

3. Harry Potter - Probably Harry, giant unobservant doofus that he is. Secondarily Hermione and Ginny. I love Ron lots in canon, but find him fannishly uninteresting.

4. Naruto - Team 7. (By which I mean Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke.) You can't make me subdivide further. *resolve face*

5. Star Trek: AOS - Spock, Kirk, and Uhura.

6. Angel Sanctuary - Kira Sakuya. (Yes, this includes all incarnations.) Secondarily Setsuna and Sara.

7. Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Morwen, obviously! :DDD

8. Darkangel Trilogy - Aeriel, I think. It is her story, and I so desperately want her to be happy.

9. Daredevil (MCU) - Matt. Secondarily Karen and Elektra. (I may find a reckless disregard for one's personal safety, a possibly unhealthy level of determination, and a willingness to deal violence more attractive than I really ought to. Also, someone should write me that threesome...)

10. Dark Is Rising sequence - Blodwen Rowlands! *evil grin* For reasons that are spoilers. But after her, Will, Jane, and Bran in no particular order.

In conclusion, I am kind of terrible at having favorite characters. This is not surprising -- I am terrible at having a favorite anything in any category. I like too many things and I don't want to rank them. *hands*

Secondary conclusion: I do tend to like main characters, insofar as any given canon even has a main character rather than an ensemble. They aren't always in my top tier, but if I don't like them at all, I tend to stop reading.

I am, as always, terrible at tagging so please consider yourself tagged if you want to play! :)

For jjunter, for the Fic DVD Commentary Meme (which is still open, fyi!)

The Guardian in Spite of Herself: Ayakawa Yukiko retired from being a ninja, and she's come to terms with that. Then the Third Hokage summons her for an assignment that will change her life. AU story, set six years pre-manga. (72,000 words)

Chapter 16: Chapter the Sixteenth, in which Naga and Suisen demonstrate how not to dance with a partner, Yukiko and Seichi discuss assassination and dead relatives, and, to the author's relief, Kakashi's interrogation skills end up irrelevant to the plot. (4,450 words)

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As reading your latest DVD commentary (chapter 11 of the Way of the Apartment Manager) led me to reread the whole series again (with pleasure!), I'd love a commentary on chapter 16 of the Guardian in Spite of Herself.

In the former fic, it's basically all from Yukiko's POV; in the latter, you've got multiple POVs you switch between, and in the latter chapters you're often switching between them 2-3 times within any given chapter. What are some of the challenges and opportunities having so many POVs and subgroups of people in various locations to keep moving simultaneously? Describing it like this sounds like it shouldn't work, but the effect as a reader is this sense of escalating tension, wondering if every group including a POV character will ultimately end up in the same location (and if yes, what will happen next).

To answer quickly: the main challenge is timing/pacing. I want to use each POV at least every other chapter, so they don't feel like they've fallen out of the story (this is slightly less urgent for Yukiko and Sasuke, since they're currently in the same place and thus appear in each other's POV sections), but I also don't want to drag the story out. That means I have to make sure stuff happens in every POV thread, because I can't just drop one of them for extended periods while someone else has exciting adventures.

This is why Iruka is not a POV character, incidentally, though my first tentative outline -- created way back when this story was three tiny scenelets and a vague idea -- did include a plot thread about him and a Yamanaka OC investigating the Uchiha massacre back in the village. I still think that could have interesting thematic resonance with the current plot threads, but he wound up spending a lot of time sitting and waiting (or reading archives) which was not conducive to maintaining momentum. So I cut him, though I still kind of want to write a sidefic about what he's up to during the main story.

Anyway, the advantage to multiple POVs is that I can show more events and therefore create a more intricate story, and also show different perspectives on the same events and issues -- because even though Sasuke and Yukiko are currently sharing a plot strand, the things they notice and care about are radically different, and their emotional arcs are likewise dissimilar. This is also useful for creating thematic resonance. The main theme of "Guardian" is the cost in lives and in other factors (political, economic, psychological, ethical, etc.) that the hidden village/ninja clan system imposes on the people of the Elemental Countries, as seen by both civilians and shinobi, so the more perspectives I can bring to bear, the more rounded the picture.

(The other advantage to multiple POVs, of course, is that it's easier to do cliffhangers. *wry*)

( The Guardian in Spite of Herself - Chapter 16, with commentary )

And that is that. :)

For bluejayfic, for the Fic DVD Commentary Meme (which is still open, fyi!)

The Courting Dance: Marriage is a bit more complicated than quarreling and making it up again, especially for the crown prince of Archenland and an exiled Calormene Tarkheena. (21,000 words)

Chapter 7 - The Beating of Our Hearts: Running from your problems is rarely a good long-term solution, but sometimes the change in environment can be helpful -- especially now that Aravis and Cor are on the same page. (1,600 words)

As bluejayfic's ask mentioned, this chapter is the one with the wedding scene. What was I thinking, putting the wedding halfway through the story? Well, I was thinking that the plot is as much about politics and worldbuilding as it is about romance, and the wedding is a major symbol of Aravis and Cor deciding to commit to each other despite various obstacles. Also, while it resolves their interpersonal problems, it doesn't resolve their external problems at all -- in fact, it makes some of them worse. So I figured it would make a good central turning point, where we switch from Aravis and Cor being pissed off at each other to standing back-to-back against the world.

( Chapter 7 - The Beating of Our Hearts, with commentary )

And that is pretty much that. :)