2021 Writing - Original Fiction Edition
Jan. 3rd, 2022 09:08 pm Since some folks replied to my previous post expressing interest in a similar post about my original works*, I decided to go ahead and do a post about those! The questions from the other list didn't really fit this though, so I dug through some old Tumblr ask memes and found some questions (meant to be about fanfic) that I thought could work for this. Feel free to borrow these to talk about your own writing stuff (original or fanfic or whatever!)
*Note that I'm going to include the two stories I wrote for the Jukebox exchange in here - although they're technically fanfic of songs, they are more or less original fiction in terms of the worlds and characters present, so I think they count.
4. Most popular story this year
Operation Boyfriend, by a landslide. Not only is it my most popular story of 2021, it's my most popular story of all time by every metric except hits (its competitor there is a Yuri! On Ice fic that was posted during the fandom's heyday, and that is only winning by 76 hits so I imagine this one will surpass it by next year). That is absolutely wild for an original story, and I can only assume it's through a combination of subject matter (m/m superhero/supervillain fake boyfriends) and luck (getting a reblog from a Tumblr writer who has a significant following who enjoy original m/m romance) and strategically only posting the first part to Tumblr so everyone had to go to AO3 to read the rest.
I mean, I DO think it's a good story, and I love it very much, but it's fascinating to see that it has 10x as many kudos as most of the stories I posted last year have hits.
5. Longest completed story you wrote this year
If we're sticking with original works it's Bread and Oranges at 8213 words, but if we include fanfic it's Great was their loaf and greatly did it sustain them, the Costis/Kamet modern AU bakery/road trip AU I finally finished this year. That one clocks 15,345 words. (I'm very proud to have finished this one so it gets to be included, I worked on this on and off for years.)
*Note that I'm going to include the two stories I wrote for the Jukebox exchange in here - although they're technically fanfic of songs, they are more or less original fiction in terms of the worlds and characters present, so I think they count.
1. Favorite story you wrote this year
It's a tough call - I wrote a lot of stories I'm super proud of! But I think Bread and Oranges is my favorite piece of storytelling this year. Even though it didn't get as much attention as some of the other ones, I feel like the writing is really strong and it captures a lot of what 2021 was about for me: resilience, enduring and maintaining hope in the face of bad shit, finding courage even when we have everything to lose. I really fell in love with the characters, too, and I still like to imagine nice post-canon scenes for them.
It's a tough call - I wrote a lot of stories I'm super proud of! But I think Bread and Oranges is my favorite piece of storytelling this year. Even though it didn't get as much attention as some of the other ones, I feel like the writing is really strong and it captures a lot of what 2021 was about for me: resilience, enduring and maintaining hope in the face of bad shit, finding courage even when we have everything to lose. I really fell in love with the characters, too, and I still like to imagine nice post-canon scenes for them.
2. Favorite line/scene you wrote this year
Oh I have MANY, but I will give you one silly one and one serious one:
3. Total number of words you wrote this year
I'm not sure what the total word count is if we include WIPs, but on AO3 my count for 2021 is 40,001 words. That's a lot more than I thought! That also includes fanfic in addition to original works but I know at least one of my unposted wips clocks in at about 15k words, plus some stuff on Tumblr which hasn't been cross-posted to AO3 (oops, I should probably do that) which should balance things out.
Oh I have MANY, but I will give you one silly one and one serious one:
From Operation Boyfriend, in which some henchpeople visit a hospital room. This scene sparked a joke that influenced the entire story and a spinoff story that I may one day finish.
Thankfully, a knock on the door saved Cyber Punk from having to respond. His relief lasted approximately five seconds, at which point the door opened to reveal Henchperson One and Henchperson Two standing awkwardly in the hallway.
“Hey Boss,” One said, rubbing the back of his neck. “We uh, came to check on the uh...the patient.”
“Hello Charlie,” Two said, not actually looking at anyone in the room. Cyber Punk was pretty sure they were casing the space for potential bugs, or places they could leave a few if there weren’t any they could tap into. “Hello Sasha.”
Well, at least one of them remembered the cover story. “Hello, uh, friends,” Cyber Punk said. “How...kind of you to visit.” He shot One a look that promised they would be discussing this later.
“You’ve been here all day, Boss—I mean, uh Sasha. We wanted to see if you needed anything.” Oblivious to Cyber Punk’s glare, One came into the room and walked over to the bed. “So you’re the boyfriend, huh?”
Charlie offered a confused smile and his left hand to shake. “Yeah, that’s me, I’m Charlie. Sorry if I should already know this, but...who are you two? Friends of Sasha’s?”
“Coworkers,” Cyber Punk said, at the same time as One said,
“Bowling league.”
And from Bread and Oranges, for something more serious.Why shouldn’t we find a way to stop him?
I shook my head, scarcely believing my eyes. Because he’ll kill you? People have tried to unseat him before and they couldn’t. Your life is worth more than whatever you could get from pursuing this. Do you want to die?
What I meant was, I don’t want you to die, but I was too angry to sign it.
Of course not, Oriol said, but I want something better than this. Don’t you?
There it was again, the conversation we kept having and never resolving. Wanting something won’t change the way things are, Oriol.
And that’s why I want to change it! His movements grew rough, betraying his agitation. I want to live in a world where you don't have to hide how brilliant you are. I want a world where I don’t have to spend all day transcribing books because an old man says I have to. I want to live somewhere we can just...be. Where we can be safe, and be ourselves.
Nowhere is safe from him, I signed, not quite restraining my exasperation. Not for us, not for anyone. That’s not the world we live in.
But what if it was? Oriol’s hands slowed. If that world existed, would you go there?
I…I don’t... A pause. I couldn’t imagine a world like that. Couldn’t imagine leaving these walls behind. I guess. If you were going.
Oriol slumped back in his chair. Every second of the long day showed on his face. Then why won’t you let me fight for it?
3. Total number of words you wrote this year
I'm not sure what the total word count is if we include WIPs, but on AO3 my count for 2021 is 40,001 words. That's a lot more than I thought! That also includes fanfic in addition to original works but I know at least one of my unposted wips clocks in at about 15k words, plus some stuff on Tumblr which hasn't been cross-posted to AO3 (oops, I should probably do that) which should balance things out.
4. Most popular story this year
Operation Boyfriend, by a landslide. Not only is it my most popular story of 2021, it's my most popular story of all time by every metric except hits (its competitor there is a Yuri! On Ice fic that was posted during the fandom's heyday, and that is only winning by 76 hits so I imagine this one will surpass it by next year). That is absolutely wild for an original story, and I can only assume it's through a combination of subject matter (m/m superhero/supervillain fake boyfriends) and luck (getting a reblog from a Tumblr writer who has a significant following who enjoy original m/m romance) and strategically only posting the first part to Tumblr so everyone had to go to AO3 to read the rest.
I mean, I DO think it's a good story, and I love it very much, but it's fascinating to see that it has 10x as many kudos as most of the stories I posted last year have hits.
5. Longest completed story you wrote this year
If we're sticking with original works it's Bread and Oranges at 8213 words, but if we include fanfic it's Great was their loaf and greatly did it sustain them, the Costis/Kamet modern AU bakery/road trip AU I finally finished this year. That one clocks 15,345 words. (I'm very proud to have finished this one so it gets to be included, I worked on this on and off for years.)
6. Shortest completed story you wrote this year
According to AO3 it's File under: BF1444-1486, at 143 words, but I think it's actually this sonnet I wrote on Tumblr which google docs tells me has 108 words. They're both actually poems but eh, they count.
According to AO3 it's File under: BF1444-1486, at 143 words, but I think it's actually this sonnet I wrote on Tumblr which google docs tells me has 108 words. They're both actually poems but eh, they count.
7. Longest wip of the year
I'm working on a story called Dual Citizenship that google docs tells me has 20,807 words right now. 4397 of those words are deleted scenes or notes from the friend I had beta read part of it for me, but it's still pretty heckin' long. I answered an ask about it a while ago if anyone is curious to know more about it - and in general I'm always happy to answer questions about wips! I have a really good feeling about where this story will go when I can get myself to pick it up again.
I'm working on a story called Dual Citizenship that google docs tells me has 20,807 words right now. 4397 of those words are deleted scenes or notes from the friend I had beta read part of it for me, but it's still pretty heckin' long. I answered an ask about it a while ago if anyone is curious to know more about it - and in general I'm always happy to answer questions about wips! I have a really good feeling about where this story will go when I can get myself to pick it up again.
8. Shortest wip of the year
I got an idea for a story that combines elements of a song (The Inventor's Daughter by Branches) with the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, but Make It Gay. The little bit I've written is only 723 words long, because I slapped them down on the page when I was seized by the idea but also busy as hell with other stuff. The working title is The Beggar and the Beast-Bride's Brother which is an alliterative mouthful; I think this story may be very cool when I have the brain space to give it the attention it deserves.
9. Favorite character to write about this year
This is more of a fanfic-centric question, so I will answer it about character types instead - when I look at my favorite protagonists from my stories or wips this year, they all tend to have prickly, unapproachable exteriors (Tevin from Dual Citizenship) or see themselves as tough and intimidating (Sasha from Operation Boyfriend) or otherwise divided from the people around them (Blai from Bread and Oranges, Motya from Baba Yaga's Bequest). But underneath they're all deeply caring people who want to make things better, they just haven't figured out how to own that part of themselves. They also tend to have love interests who are much more optimistic/outwardly caring, which I feel probably says something about my general shipping tendencies.
I got an idea for a story that combines elements of a song (The Inventor's Daughter by Branches) with the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, but Make It Gay. The little bit I've written is only 723 words long, because I slapped them down on the page when I was seized by the idea but also busy as hell with other stuff. The working title is The Beggar and the Beast-Bride's Brother which is an alliterative mouthful; I think this story may be very cool when I have the brain space to give it the attention it deserves.
9. Favorite character to write about this year
This is more of a fanfic-centric question, so I will answer it about character types instead - when I look at my favorite protagonists from my stories or wips this year, they all tend to have prickly, unapproachable exteriors (Tevin from Dual Citizenship) or see themselves as tough and intimidating (Sasha from Operation Boyfriend) or otherwise divided from the people around them (Blai from Bread and Oranges, Motya from Baba Yaga's Bequest). But underneath they're all deeply caring people who want to make things better, they just haven't figured out how to own that part of themselves. They also tend to have love interests who are much more optimistic/outwardly caring, which I feel probably says something about my general shipping tendencies.
10. Story you're most excited to finish in the coming year
I would love to finish Dual Citizenship but I included this question specifically so I could talk about A Stitch in Time, which is more or less finished but is badly in need of editing. Basically it's time travel shenanigans with a protagonist who's very confused to discover there are other time travelers, with lots of sewing metaphors and family shenanigans. I also have a story in the works about someone who inherits a magic house and has to figure out what to do with it, called Baba Yaga's Bequest, which will hopefully be finished soon.
I would love to finish Dual Citizenship but I included this question specifically so I could talk about A Stitch in Time, which is more or less finished but is badly in need of editing. Basically it's time travel shenanigans with a protagonist who's very confused to discover there are other time travelers, with lots of sewing metaphors and family shenanigans. I also have a story in the works about someone who inherits a magic house and has to figure out what to do with it, called Baba Yaga's Bequest, which will hopefully be finished soon.
11. A fic you didn’t expect to write
A lof of these happened pretty spontaneously, but one sticks out in particular. I wrote Sorrow Knocks in about two days after my friend![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
minutia_r went out as a pinch hit in the Jukebox Exchange. I initially offered to pinch hit only if no one else offered (because I had family visiting and wasn't sure I'd have time) but someone else covered that so I just wrote it as a treat. I'm really happy with how it turned out though! I like reading it out loud to myself sometimes, all of the characters have very specific voices in my head which does not usually happen to me.
A lof of these happened pretty spontaneously, but one sticks out in particular. I wrote Sorrow Knocks in about two days after my friend
minutia_r went out as a pinch hit in the Jukebox Exchange. I initially offered to pinch hit only if no one else offered (because I had family visiting and wasn't sure I'd have time) but someone else covered that so I just wrote it as a treat. I'm really happy with how it turned out though! I like reading it out loud to myself sometimes, all of the characters have very specific voices in my head which does not usually happen to me.12. Something you learned this year
Sometimes I can care so much about a story and really want it to be written, but that won't make it happen, especially if I'm under a lot of external stress. I'm trying to be better about letting myself go for lower-hanging fruit (shorter stories that are easier to finish) when the longer, closer-to-my-heart stories need more time to germinate. The words that are written already won't go anywhere, after all, and some stories are a marathon rather than a sprint.
Sometimes I can care so much about a story and really want it to be written, but that won't make it happen, especially if I'm under a lot of external stress. I'm trying to be better about letting myself go for lower-hanging fruit (shorter stories that are easier to finish) when the longer, closer-to-my-heart stories need more time to germinate. The words that are written already won't go anywhere, after all, and some stories are a marathon rather than a sprint.
