2012: What I wrote

[beer_good_foamy]

So, the roundup of what I did, fannish-wise, in 2012:

Buffyverse fic:

That There Is Not Me (Willow/Faith, BtVS7)

67 Characters In Search Of A Memory (Buffy/Faith...ish, post-series)

Ride With Me Sometime (Willow/Tara, BtVS4/5)

Drive It Like You Stole It (Faith/Lilah, AtS1)

Strawberries (Willow/Fred, AtS5)

Cloudbusting (Willow/Illyria, post-series)

Do Not Disturb Or Hold Up The Penguin (Penguin!Buffy/Penguin!Spike)

Hitting Things And A Whole Lotta Jack D (Among Other Things) (Ripper!Giles/Faith, BtVS3)

Spike And Giles Are The Village Green Preservation Society (Spike, Giles, post-series)

Dawn Summers Solves Things With SCIENCE! (Dawn/Faith...ish, post-series)

The Gift That Keeps On Giving (Willow, Xander, post-series)

Development Hell (Buffy, WIP, post-series)


Buffyverse drabbles:

Postscript (Wesley, post-series)

The Buoyancy Principle (Spike/Giles...ish, BtVS4)

Enemy Of Every Enemy (Buffy, AtS4)

Wings In Water (Giles, Willow, BtVS6/7)

Somebody To Shove (Angel, Riley, post-series)


Buffyverse crossovers:

I Took A Single Bound And There Conclusions Were (BtVS/Superman)

All You Get (BtVS/Sandman)

Four People Who Failed Their Watcher Training (And One Who Didn't) (BtVS/Farscape/Top Gear/Scrubs/HIMYM/Dexter)

In Disctrict 12, They Still Run Windows 3.1 (Hunger Games/BtVS)

Disneyland Law (Angel/Disney's Robin Hood)


Other:

Bernard's Rules (Dr Who/Black Books)

Upside Down And Back To Front (Dr Who)

Like Master, Like Dog (Game of Thrones)


Meta:

Scattered thoughts on redemption

The story cracks from side to side

Quick thought on OMWF

Poll on Buffy, Darla, and sacrifice

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer vs Buffy The Vampire Slayer

And the meme:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, fewer than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Honestly, looking at the list above, I'm surprised at how much there is.


What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2012?

Let's see, Ripper/Faith was a surprise. And Willow/Illyria. I could say I've always wanted to write Disney fic, but it would be a dirty shameful lie.


What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest?

I don't think I'm 100% perfectly soul-losin' happy with any one fic, but "Bernard's Rules" was tons of fun. I was really pleasantly surprised by "Cloudbusting" and have half a mind to continue it somehow. "Four People Who Failed Their Watcher Training (And One Who Didn't)" still makes me grin too. And "67 Characters In Search Of A Memory" is one of those plotbunnies I've wanted to do something with for years, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out.


Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Going by LJ + DW comments, looks like a tie between "Bernard's Rules" and "Cloudbusting".


Story most under appreciated by the universe?

Crossovers, especially crossovers with less obvious or well-known fandoms, and especially drabbles, are always going to shut out a lot of readers, so I'm not entirely surprised that relatively few people commented on "All You Get". (Of course, it's also quite possible that it just doesn't work very well.) But I do enjoy the image of Death and Tara dancing, "Family"-style. But hey, nothing I wrote got zero replies, so I'm grateful.


Story that could have been better?

Definitely "Drive It Like You Stole It". Faith/Lilah is a pretty bleak pairing, and I don't think I quite managed to sell the how and the why and the where to next in this story - it's one of those fics that really needs to be a bit longer to work completely. Probably a case of overthinking the backstory and not putting enough of it into the actual story, and having written another Faith/Lilah story just before that I didn't want to repeat. There's one or two drabbles that probably deserved to be longer, "Enemy Of Every Enemy" in particular, which tries to explain one hell of an AU in just 100 words. Also, "Spike And Giles Are The Village Green Preservation Society" should have been called "Erne Your Happy Ending", and it really bugs me that I didn't think of that.


Sexiest story?

I'm not sure I wrote anything this year that went for sexiness in a big way. "That There Is Not Me" has Willow impersonating VampWillow, which, y'know. It's pretty G-rated, though. Same goes for Willow impersonating Sandra Dee in "Ride With Me Sometime" (anyone notice a theme here?) I do like Faith taking charge of Ripper in "Hitting Things...", even with all the consent issues in that one.


Most fun story?

Definitely "Bernard's Rules". That one really surprised me in a good way - I went for crack, and then suddenly wham, there's Bernard Black, misanthrope #1, being a resistance hero out of sheer bloodymindedness. I kind of love him for that. (Though it's probably worth pointing out that he'd have no problems whatsoever with the Daleks destroying London, as long as they left his bookshop alone.)


Story with single sweetest moment?

There's surprisingly many. I like Willow and Xander joking at the end of "The Gift That Keeps On Giving", though I wish I'd made the stakes a little higher. Buffy and Faith having something resembling a heart-to-heart in "67 Characters...". Giles offering Spike a nightcap. Willow and Illyria trying to help each other transition into whatever it is they're both becoming in "Cloudbusting". Yeah, probably that one. I like to think it goes well with the song, too, which is pretty bittersweet.


Hardest story to write?

Again, "Drive It Like You Stole It", I guess. Sorry, that was for a fic exchange, and I wish I could have done better with it.


Easiest story to write?

"Spike And Giles Are The Village Green Preservation Society" pretty much fell fully-formed onto paper after seeing the picture that inspired it. I think it took something like an hour. "Hitting Things..." was pretty quick too.


New Year Fic Resolutions?

Well, for starters, let's get "Development Hell" finished before the title becomes meta commentary on itself. Try and write some more genfic. Possibly expand a few drabbles into full-length ficlets. Get the nerve up to write this really fucked-up plotbunny I have somewhere, and finally get the goatherder AU started. (You know there has to be a goatherder AU, right?)

Comments

[rebcake]

Go you! Standouts for me were "The Village Green Preservation Society" and "Four People Who Failed" because I like to laugh and those paid out in yucks galore. I'm all on tenterhooks for "Development Hell", too. Also I adore ALL the meta, though I find with meta I sometimes end up not commenting if I don't have a counterpoint, for whatever reason. Silly, I know. The thinky thoughts are so much fun, and every bit of them gets incorporated, in some way or another.

My fandom experience if better for having you in it, is what I'm trying to say. Happy New Year!

[beer_good_foamy]

Thanks so much - and the same to you! :)