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Fanfic Year in Review Meme
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pedanther, using template linked to.
Stats:
List of Completed Fics:
"All the Rules Rearranged" (completed, not typed/uploaded: length circa 24,000 words?)
Fandom: Love Never Dies
Characters: Christine, Raoul, Erik, Gustave, Meg
Summary: as yet unwritten! Basically, Christine tries to leave with Raoul before her 'aria' but is confronted by Erik, and all the secrets the various characters have been keeping from each other spill out messily.
"Blue Remembered Hills" (completed, not typed/uploaded: length circa 60,000 words?)
Fandom: Crossover between Phantom of the Opera (Leroux AU)/Blake's 7 (first series)
Characters: Raoul, Christine, Erik, Daroga, Blake, Gan, Avon, Jenna, Vila, Carlotta
Summary (B7-centric): Blake and Gan find themselves trapped in an unfolding space opera when they seek help from the mysterious masked leader of the resistance on Newparis.
"Count Philippe Takes a Hand" (9,475 words)
Fandom: Phantom of the Opera (Leroux)
Characters: Raoul, Christine, Philippe, plus mentions of Meg Giry and Erik, and a major original character, Eustacie, as Philippe's wife.
Summary: If the Viscount isn't prepared to set his relationship with Christine Daaé on a more appropriate footing, then the Count will just have to do it for him... Much embarrassment ensues.
"The Paths of the Living" (2,232 words)
Fandom: Gone With the Wind (novel)
Characters: Scarlett O'Hara, Charles Hamilton
Summary: Struggling to survive after the fall of Atlanta, Scarlett saw Charles Hamilton again. But he wasn't the one she wanted to see...
"Teach Me to Live" (7,145 words)
Fandom: Love Never Dies
Characters: Raoul, Gustave, Erik... and a cameo from a spoiler character :-)
Summary: Tormented by grief and lost chances, Raoul de Chagny makes the weary journey homewards with his wife's body to the final legacy of their life together.
"Lost and Found" (1,349)
Fandom: Les Misérables (musical)
Characters: Éponine, discussion of Marius
Summary: She was a stray on the street who gave him her whole heart. It was in his nature to be kind. And now that will have to be enough... Éponine returns to the barricade in the knowledge that Marius does not love her: stage canon.
"A Year in Shorthand" (9,285)
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Characters: Gwen, Anna, Daisy, William... and I did a bit of exploration of the character of Patrick Crawley, as well, who is dead before the start of the canon.
Summary: "You too can learn shorthand in a year" was the promise: but for a girl in Gwen Dawson's position, it wasn't that easy... Vignettes from before the start of Series 1 up to Episode 3, as Gwen tries to keep her secret and realise her ambitions against the odds.
"To Ease Your Troubled Mind" (9,035)
Fandom: Love Never Dies
Characters: Christine, Raoul, Gustave, and a couple of significant OCs in the final chapter.
Summary: "I've got a mind to pack and go - never you mind the debts we owe!" What if Christine and Raoul really had taken up his angry suggestion that first night, and walked out of the hotel to go back to Paris without the money? Their marriage still has its problems...
Total number: 8
Total word count: circa 120,000, probably a few thousand more
Ship/character breakdown:
Raoul/Christine, five (although in two of these, they are separated via death or divorce)
And three 'ships' unrequited in accordance with canon:
William/Daisy, Éponine/Marius and Charles/Scarlett
Specifics:
Best/worst title?
"Lost and Found" is probably the worst, only vaguely related to the subject matter and distantly related to various lyrics in the musical. "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" is perhaps the neatest on those criteria, being a direct quote from the scene which prompted the story idea but also being applicable in various senses to all three chapters; "Teach Me to Live" is very apt to its subject, but is actually quoted from a lyric referring to a different character in a different musical!
Best/worst summary?
I rather like the summary for "Lost and Found", actually (She was a stray on the street who gave him her whole heart. It was in his nature to be kind) — effectively put, and a little more poetic than my general attempts in that line.
Assuming we discount "All the Rules Rearranged", which doesn't really have a summary owing to only getting finished a couple of days ago(!), I suspect "Blue Remembered Hills" probably comes next: it has two summaries, one B7-centric and one POTO-centric, and neither is very wonderful.
Best/worst first line?
Hmm, resonant first lines don't seem to be my strong point...
Probably "Lost and Found": So here I am again, in the alleys where I belong: a stray on the street.
The worst, simply by reason of its fragmentary nature, may be "Teach Me to Live": "Father dear—"
Best/worst last line?
Now, last lines I do put conscious effort into (perhaps I ought to apply this more to first lines?)
Some strong competition here, but the one that stands best in isolation is probably from "A Year in Shorthand": Gwen Dawson sat among the rest of them with her head held high, looking neither to left nor to right, and let herself dream of a road ahead that led out of Downton Abbey. Though I have a soft spot for yes — a hundred times yes from "Count Philippe"!
The worst, again simply because it happens to be fragmentary out of context, would be Except, of course, Maman from "Teach Me to Live".
General questions:
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
Looking back, I'm astonished at how much I seem to have written — admittedly, "Blue Remembered Hills" was started in late 2013, so had several 'extra months' while accounting for about half the total output in wordcount, but even so I didn't realise I had completed so many stories in so many different fandoms in the course of this last year.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
I would never have predicted writing a "Raoul and Christine split up" story: the other two 'odd ones out' were also challenge responses, "A Year in Shorthand" being part of a fanfic exchange where I had only one fandom in common with my exchange partner (Downton Abbey, not a fandom I'd ever anticipated writing fiction for), and "The Paths of the Living" being a challenge to write a Hallowe'en-themed story, which meant it more or less had to be an American one! I happened to acquire an old copy of "Gone with the Wind" at the relevant moment...
What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
Probably "Count Philippe Takes a Hand" — happy ending, lots of R/C romance, humour, sex (well, as close as I get!), and a strong OC in the form of Eustacie, who thrust herself into more of a role than I'd intended. Though I'm also fond of "Teach Me to Live", which is oozing with angst, has an adorable flashback interlude in the middle, and features a twist in the tail that I spent quite some time getting right and which appears to successfully have caught out all the readers who provided feedback :-)
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
In terms of review count, "A Year in Shorthand": large number of chapters, high-volume fandom, and a gift-recipient who loyally reviewed every chapter in addition to the actual 'fans' :-)
In terms of enduring page-views, apparently "Count Philippe": though the reviews at the time were confused and iffy, this story continues to get more traffic (in terms of page-hits per chapter) than the others published this year.
In terms of glowing reviews: "Teach Me to Live", which had two reviewers who absolutely loved every chapter (plus some 'casuals').
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
"Blue Remembered Hills": one reason why it is still largely unpublished after a year's lapse is that nobody to date seems to be very interested in the concept or characters, despite the enormous amount of work I put into it and how pleased I was at the way I had managed to write the Blake's 7 universe again after so long a lapse :-(
Story that could have been better?
Hmm. I'm quite pleased with the way they all came out, really. Just maybe "The Paths of the Living", which suffered from a change of emphasis midway through and didn't get across the original idea ("'Scarlett is forced to be nice to Charles so that he can depart in peace') quite as I'd hoped.
Sexiest story?
Definitely "Count Philippe", which is the one where I had to get a second opinion as to whether I had gone beyond the 'teenage' rating for fanfiction.net! (I have wondered if this accounts for its popularity :-p)
However, since "Teach Me to Live" is the only other story in which any sexual activity is even implied to take place 'on-screen', the competition isn't exactly fierce...
Saddest story?
"Teach Me to Live", in which Raoul spends most of the story going out of his mind with grief.
Most fun?
Probably "Count Philippe", where I immensely enjoyed writing the first chapter, was very pleased with the way I managed to get the improbable events of the second chapter in accordance with canon and with the characters, and enjoyed developing the backstory of a twenty-year liaison in the final chapters — writing middle-aged Raoul and Christine is fun :-)
Story with single sweetest moment?
The ending of "Teach Me to Live" where Raoul finally weeps — but the final chapter of "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" has a lot of sweet moments overall...
Hardest story to write?
"Blue Remembered Hills" — simply keeping up momentum over that length of time/number of chapters without abandoning the effort altogether.
Easiest/most fun story to write?
"Teach Me to Live" (ironically): the whole thing was written in less than a week, and the first and last chapters simply poured themselves onto the page.
Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?
I don't really think so; though I explored the concept of Raoul and Christine grown old in two stories, "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" and "Count Philippe Takes a Hand".
Most overdue story?
"Blue Remembered Hills"!
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I tried two new fandoms I had no intention at the outset of writing for (Downton Abbey and Gone with the Wind). From a technical point of view I took the conscious decision to stretch myself by writing "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" in the first person, an exercise I don't think I've tried since I was at school, and not often then. Oddly enough "Lost and Found" then came out of its own accord in the first person without any effort on my part, save the struggle to get Éponine's dialect right (it varies even in canon...) It's still not something I would normally seek to do.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Get the rest of "Blue Remembered Hills" published!
It would be nice finally to 'empty' my 'queue' of Raoul/Christine plot ideas which have been waiting around ever since I was writing "The Choices of Raoul" in the first half of 2013 — the 'Breton story' (in which Raoul is not a Viscount, and assumes erroneously that if only he were, life would be so much easier... has been constantly deferred by more urgent ideas ever since then, and the "Double Agents de Chagny" keeps getting pushed back as well.
pedanther, using template linked to.Stats:
List of Completed Fics:
"All the Rules Rearranged" (completed, not typed/uploaded: length circa 24,000 words?)
Fandom: Love Never Dies
Characters: Christine, Raoul, Erik, Gustave, Meg
Summary: as yet unwritten! Basically, Christine tries to leave with Raoul before her 'aria' but is confronted by Erik, and all the secrets the various characters have been keeping from each other spill out messily.
"Blue Remembered Hills" (completed, not typed/uploaded: length circa 60,000 words?)
Fandom: Crossover between Phantom of the Opera (Leroux AU)/Blake's 7 (first series)
Characters: Raoul, Christine, Erik, Daroga, Blake, Gan, Avon, Jenna, Vila, Carlotta
Summary (B7-centric): Blake and Gan find themselves trapped in an unfolding space opera when they seek help from the mysterious masked leader of the resistance on Newparis.
"Count Philippe Takes a Hand" (9,475 words)
Fandom: Phantom of the Opera (Leroux)
Characters: Raoul, Christine, Philippe, plus mentions of Meg Giry and Erik, and a major original character, Eustacie, as Philippe's wife.
Summary: If the Viscount isn't prepared to set his relationship with Christine Daaé on a more appropriate footing, then the Count will just have to do it for him... Much embarrassment ensues.
"The Paths of the Living" (2,232 words)
Fandom: Gone With the Wind (novel)
Characters: Scarlett O'Hara, Charles Hamilton
Summary: Struggling to survive after the fall of Atlanta, Scarlett saw Charles Hamilton again. But he wasn't the one she wanted to see...
"Teach Me to Live" (7,145 words)
Fandom: Love Never Dies
Characters: Raoul, Gustave, Erik... and a cameo from a spoiler character :-)
Summary: Tormented by grief and lost chances, Raoul de Chagny makes the weary journey homewards with his wife's body to the final legacy of their life together.
"Lost and Found" (1,349)
Fandom: Les Misérables (musical)
Characters: Éponine, discussion of Marius
Summary: She was a stray on the street who gave him her whole heart. It was in his nature to be kind. And now that will have to be enough... Éponine returns to the barricade in the knowledge that Marius does not love her: stage canon.
"A Year in Shorthand" (9,285)
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Characters: Gwen, Anna, Daisy, William... and I did a bit of exploration of the character of Patrick Crawley, as well, who is dead before the start of the canon.
Summary: "You too can learn shorthand in a year" was the promise: but for a girl in Gwen Dawson's position, it wasn't that easy... Vignettes from before the start of Series 1 up to Episode 3, as Gwen tries to keep her secret and realise her ambitions against the odds.
"To Ease Your Troubled Mind" (9,035)
Fandom: Love Never Dies
Characters: Christine, Raoul, Gustave, and a couple of significant OCs in the final chapter.
Summary: "I've got a mind to pack and go - never you mind the debts we owe!" What if Christine and Raoul really had taken up his angry suggestion that first night, and walked out of the hotel to go back to Paris without the money? Their marriage still has its problems...
Total number: 8
Total word count: circa 120,000, probably a few thousand more
Ship/character breakdown:
Raoul/Christine, five (although in two of these, they are separated via death or divorce)
And three 'ships' unrequited in accordance with canon:
William/Daisy, Éponine/Marius and Charles/Scarlett
Specifics:
Best/worst title?
"Lost and Found" is probably the worst, only vaguely related to the subject matter and distantly related to various lyrics in the musical. "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" is perhaps the neatest on those criteria, being a direct quote from the scene which prompted the story idea but also being applicable in various senses to all three chapters; "Teach Me to Live" is very apt to its subject, but is actually quoted from a lyric referring to a different character in a different musical!
Best/worst summary?
I rather like the summary for "Lost and Found", actually (She was a stray on the street who gave him her whole heart. It was in his nature to be kind) — effectively put, and a little more poetic than my general attempts in that line.
Assuming we discount "All the Rules Rearranged", which doesn't really have a summary owing to only getting finished a couple of days ago(!), I suspect "Blue Remembered Hills" probably comes next: it has two summaries, one B7-centric and one POTO-centric, and neither is very wonderful.
Best/worst first line?
Hmm, resonant first lines don't seem to be my strong point...
Probably "Lost and Found": So here I am again, in the alleys where I belong: a stray on the street.
The worst, simply by reason of its fragmentary nature, may be "Teach Me to Live": "Father dear—"
Best/worst last line?
Now, last lines I do put conscious effort into (perhaps I ought to apply this more to first lines?)
Some strong competition here, but the one that stands best in isolation is probably from "A Year in Shorthand": Gwen Dawson sat among the rest of them with her head held high, looking neither to left nor to right, and let herself dream of a road ahead that led out of Downton Abbey. Though I have a soft spot for yes — a hundred times yes from "Count Philippe"!
The worst, again simply because it happens to be fragmentary out of context, would be Except, of course, Maman from "Teach Me to Live".
General questions:
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
Looking back, I'm astonished at how much I seem to have written — admittedly, "Blue Remembered Hills" was started in late 2013, so had several 'extra months' while accounting for about half the total output in wordcount, but even so I didn't realise I had completed so many stories in so many different fandoms in the course of this last year.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
I would never have predicted writing a "Raoul and Christine split up" story: the other two 'odd ones out' were also challenge responses, "A Year in Shorthand" being part of a fanfic exchange where I had only one fandom in common with my exchange partner (Downton Abbey, not a fandom I'd ever anticipated writing fiction for), and "The Paths of the Living" being a challenge to write a Hallowe'en-themed story, which meant it more or less had to be an American one! I happened to acquire an old copy of "Gone with the Wind" at the relevant moment...
What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
Probably "Count Philippe Takes a Hand" — happy ending, lots of R/C romance, humour, sex (well, as close as I get!), and a strong OC in the form of Eustacie, who thrust herself into more of a role than I'd intended. Though I'm also fond of "Teach Me to Live", which is oozing with angst, has an adorable flashback interlude in the middle, and features a twist in the tail that I spent quite some time getting right and which appears to successfully have caught out all the readers who provided feedback :-)
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
In terms of review count, "A Year in Shorthand": large number of chapters, high-volume fandom, and a gift-recipient who loyally reviewed every chapter in addition to the actual 'fans' :-)
In terms of enduring page-views, apparently "Count Philippe": though the reviews at the time were confused and iffy, this story continues to get more traffic (in terms of page-hits per chapter) than the others published this year.
In terms of glowing reviews: "Teach Me to Live", which had two reviewers who absolutely loved every chapter (plus some 'casuals').
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
"Blue Remembered Hills": one reason why it is still largely unpublished after a year's lapse is that nobody to date seems to be very interested in the concept or characters, despite the enormous amount of work I put into it and how pleased I was at the way I had managed to write the Blake's 7 universe again after so long a lapse :-(
Story that could have been better?
Hmm. I'm quite pleased with the way they all came out, really. Just maybe "The Paths of the Living", which suffered from a change of emphasis midway through and didn't get across the original idea ("'Scarlett is forced to be nice to Charles so that he can depart in peace') quite as I'd hoped.
Sexiest story?
Definitely "Count Philippe", which is the one where I had to get a second opinion as to whether I had gone beyond the 'teenage' rating for fanfiction.net! (I have wondered if this accounts for its popularity :-p)
However, since "Teach Me to Live" is the only other story in which any sexual activity is even implied to take place 'on-screen', the competition isn't exactly fierce...
Saddest story?
"Teach Me to Live", in which Raoul spends most of the story going out of his mind with grief.
Most fun?
Probably "Count Philippe", where I immensely enjoyed writing the first chapter, was very pleased with the way I managed to get the improbable events of the second chapter in accordance with canon and with the characters, and enjoyed developing the backstory of a twenty-year liaison in the final chapters — writing middle-aged Raoul and Christine is fun :-)
Story with single sweetest moment?
The ending of "Teach Me to Live" where Raoul finally weeps — but the final chapter of "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" has a lot of sweet moments overall...
Hardest story to write?
"Blue Remembered Hills" — simply keeping up momentum over that length of time/number of chapters without abandoning the effort altogether.
Easiest/most fun story to write?
"Teach Me to Live" (ironically): the whole thing was written in less than a week, and the first and last chapters simply poured themselves onto the page.
Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?
I don't really think so; though I explored the concept of Raoul and Christine grown old in two stories, "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" and "Count Philippe Takes a Hand".
Most overdue story?
"Blue Remembered Hills"!
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I tried two new fandoms I had no intention at the outset of writing for (Downton Abbey and Gone with the Wind). From a technical point of view I took the conscious decision to stretch myself by writing "To Ease Your Troubled Mind" in the first person, an exercise I don't think I've tried since I was at school, and not often then. Oddly enough "Lost and Found" then came out of its own accord in the first person without any effort on my part, save the struggle to get Éponine's dialect right (it varies even in canon...) It's still not something I would normally seek to do.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Get the rest of "Blue Remembered Hills" published!
It would be nice finally to 'empty' my 'queue' of Raoul/Christine plot ideas which have been waiting around ever since I was writing "The Choices of Raoul" in the first half of 2013 — the 'Breton story' (in which Raoul is not a Viscount, and assumes erroneously that if only he were, life would be so much easier... has been constantly deferred by more urgent ideas ever since then, and the "Double Agents de Chagny" keeps getting pushed back as well.