2020 ANNUAL FIC REVIEW

[tanyart]

Small Destiny batch!

• discount offering (1193 words) - s/d
• Kiss Prompts: January 2020 (3447 words) - s/d
• third wheel (1179 words) - s/d + Aunor
• Trial and Error(s) (1321 words) - s/d
• the game you like (1758 words) - Eramis/Olu
• anchor (1780 words) - Praedyth/Pahanin
• Two in the folk who keep the Dead down (2176 words) - s/d, Abhorsen AU
• forfeit (1060 words) - s/d
• zero-sum game (737 words) - s/d
• LFG: HUGE Russian Exo And Warlock Zaddy Looking For That Special Someone To Fill Out Fireteam [CLICK HERE] (2991 words) - Osiris/Saint 14 + Drifter suffering.

Total number of completed stories: 9 + a bunch of small prompts

Total word count: AO3 stats say 17,642. I’m gonna around up to 20,000 to include some unposted stuff.


Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?

Oh, less. Last year I wrote… 22 fics? HAH! This year was a little disappointing but also... (waves hand vaguely) … I’m not going to beat myself up about it. A lot of this year was less about writing new fics, but trying to finish old ones left from 2019. I don’t think I came up with… like, new ideas? Again, not something I’m too upset about. Between my new job and The Plague, I’m surprised I even wrote anything at all.


What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

I remained comfortably In My Niche, though I watched Tenet earlier this week and was very nearly close to writing something WAY complicated. Would I have predicted shipping a character played by Robert Patterson? Never.


What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

I enjoyed writing all of the small s/d kiss prompts. :3c Especially with how busy things got, it was nice to just brain spit some quick stuff. But, uh, THAT WAS BACK IN JANUARY, LOL.


Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

NO RISKS. I WROTE WHEN I COULD.


Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

Maybe start on my original fic which is still very much in the… planning stage. But I do enjoy, you know, thinking a lot about it, LOL.


My best story of this year

LFG: HUGE Russian Exo And Warlock Zaddy Looking For That Special Someone To Fill Out Fireteam [CLICK HERE]

Is it because of the title? The slap stick comedy? The fact Drifter gets comically killed every paragraph? Maybe!

Admittedly, I had all the jokes I wanted to write but godDAMN, trying to string the plot was so arduous when all I wanted was to write the comedy of Drifter being dragged around by Osiris and Saint in Trials. There was one other huge joke that I left out which was the initial invitation to do Trials and Drifter thinks Saint and Osiris were asking him for a threesome but that was truly stretching it, I feel.

That fic idea started in APRIL (document creation date) and did not get finished until November during the Thanksgiving break. It was definitely my last frustrated hurrah before the year end, knowing I would not have the mental capacity to write much, if at all, in December.


My most popular story

Same as above! Most popular by a long shot, ahaha. It’s got the most kudos AND it was the last thing I wrote.


Story of mine most under-appreciated, in my opinion

Oh, not so much underappreciated but more like I only posted it to twitter, but I wrote this Ares/Aphrodite + Achilles -> Patroclus drabble. It's on DW now. 


Most fun story to write

Third Wheel was truly fun to write. Just… Drifter being a clown. Shin being tired idiot knowingly in love with a clown. Aunor being a clown. Three clowns. So many jokes.


Most Sexy Story

Discount offering, which is pretty much one of the few stories I had deliberately written to be… sexy. LOL. Basically I could not decide which way I wanted to write Tribute Hall Simulation!Drifter/Shin/Drifter; the first pass was more in-character then I was like FUCK IT, I’M GONNA WRITE THEM ALL MAKING OUT. I’m glad I did, I totally forgot about this whole thing and I’m rereading it now and it’s good stuff. Definitely food I cooked for myself. It’s… more wistful than I remember it being???? Wrow.

Also Blind Offering (the first pass) was one of the HARDEST fics I tried to finish in 2019, precisely because I was so torn up about which direction I wanted it to go, lol.


Story with the single sexiest moment

From forfeit:

When Drifter puts his hand at Shin’s chest, Shin feels the weight of centuries of machinations behind it. There’s some kind of power behind Drifter’s hand, buzzing with Light and Darkness and another Shin doesn’t recognize. The Nine. Fate. Destiny, maybe. Drifter probably doesn’t realize it. In fact, with the way Drifter smirks and starts undoing the clasps of Shin’s armor, Shin is sure Drifter doesn’t know just how much sway he has in everything.

Shin’s long stopped believing in things like Chosen Ones, but he’s always had a weakness for romanticism. It puts him in a complicated spot. He looks at Drifter and thinks — harbinger.


Very sexy to have a man -- whom you have both an idyllic and realist relationship with -- make you feel insignificant and small.


Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story

Nah.


Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters

THIS QUESTION I KEEP, LIKE, TELLING MYSELF TO DELETE IT BECAUSE I KINDA JUST DON’T LIKE ANSWERING IT, because.. Idk. I more or less use writing as a vehicle for character exploration and I don’t quite think it’s accurate to say that something I wrote shifted my own perceptions of some characters that.. Like.. I already think a lot about? LOL.

But, anyway, forfeit is like… THE fic I wanted to really nail down from Shin’s POV and how he sees Drifter and all the emotions that might come from it. Drifter makes him feel… like a small nothing-person, but not even on purpose. And maybe that’s romance, baby.


Hardest story to write

WELL, THEY AIN’T ONLINE I CAN TELL YOU THAT, LMAO.


Most disappointing

The game you like - that Eramis/Olu fic which I wanted it to be some kinda regency romance romp but I lost steam for it, especially when BL came out and pretty much threw any hope of finishing out the window. I’m just sad I didn’t get more out of it, ahah.


Easiest story to write

Zero-Sum Game really blindsided me. I wrote that DURING work, on my phone, during a huge unmotivated writing slump. I mean… Drifter… getting choked… it’s SO easy, you know?


Biggest surprise

Nothing surprised me in 2020.


Most unintentionally telling story

I think that wacky o14+Drifter fic really set the tone of my current mindset. Idiocy and foolishness.


Story I’d like to revise

No.


Story I didn’t write but will at some point, I swear

REALLY WANNA DIVE FULL INTO PROTAGONIST/NEIL. I’LL WRITE IT. I WILL WRITE WHAT I WANT.
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Okie, I guess that's all I have to say. Optimistic that 2021 will be a bit better!