Writing Roundup 2010
Jan. 6th, 2011 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
out_thereLast year's stats
February:
Days and Lists - Sports Night, Dan/Casey, 4,553 words.
Where Dan's sure it's the bad kind of day, Casey's an idiot (in Dana's opinion) and Sports Illustrated's list of 100 Most Influential People is leaked earlier than it should be.
March:
There's a First Time for Everything - White Collar, Neal/Peter/Elizabth, written for
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
picfor1000, 1,000 words.Neal swallows and Elizabeth realises he hasn't done this before.
Other-Ianto - Torchwood, Ianto/Jack, NC-17, 3,863 words.
The other version of him comes through looking exactly like him: neatly tailored suit over scrawny shoulders, hair a little long at the back (overdue for a trim), hands in his pocket. He gives Ianto a quick nod and then says, "Bit odd seeing yourself."
August:
How to Sin Successfully - Prison Break, Alex/Michael/Sara, post-series and Jason-verse (i.e. ignores the canonical ending), 4,200 words.
"You and Alex." Michael groans, and breathlessly adds, "Kissing."
September:
Stating the Obvious - Sherlock, John/Sherlock, post-The Great Game, 800 words.
They're in shock. Sherlock knows it.
Let You Kiss Me (So Sweet and So Soft) - Sherlock, John/Sherlock, 8,702 words. Now in audio-fic form.
The first time Sherlock kisses him, John keeps his eyes open, and so does Sherlock, and mostly, he wonders what Sherlock could possibly be up to. There'll be some logic to this. Some ridiculous experiment about body warmth or respiratory rates or testing a new way of picking pockets. Sherlock does the unimaginable for bizarre reasons, but behind it, there's always logic and curiosity. Sometimes, it just takes him a while to explain it to John.
Martyrs Never Last This Long - White Collar, Neal/Peter/Elizabeth, Mozzie POV, set vague in the future, 20,795 words.
The Suit stands for law, social control and all the things Mozzie fundamentally opposes, but he's married to someone Mozzie likes and he's sleeping with one of Mozzie's best friends, so he should probably know that Kate's in New York again.
November:
The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl - Sherlock, John/Sherlock, 33,038 words. Also on AO3. Now in audio-fic form too.
Sherlock walks into a room and takes all the space right out of it. He does the same inside John's head.
Balls of Steel - Sherlock/Generation Kill crossover, gen, 1,358 words. Also on AO3.
"Typical organisation bullshit. If you need to unfuck a situation, send in the Marines. Wounded convoy needed a guard and apparently we had nothing better to do than babysit a bunch of limey idiots too stupid to remember the 'don't get fucking shot' rule of enemy engagement."
Brad nods, adding, "That's how we met John. And we're friends because of his huge cock."
December:
Seventeen Letters - Sherlock, John/Sherlock, 2,357 words. Also on AO3.
"I love Sherlock," John says out loud, testing how the words feel in his mouth. It doesn't change anything. Sherlock's still the pillock who fiddled with his computer password.
Conclusion:
9 stories, which is the exact same number as last year. Huh.
Breakdown by fandom:
4 Sherlock - 46,255 words
2 White Collar - 21,795 words
1 Generation Kill (crossover with Sherlock - 1,358 words incl in Sherlock total)
1 Prison Break - 4,200 words
1 Sports Night - 4,553 words
1 Torchwood - 3,863 words
Total words written:
Just as well I checked my figures. I'd made a mistake back in the March tally and overinflated the word count by nearly 5k. Whoops.
Thoughts:
This year, I followed
isagel's lead and did a monthly tally. I'm not sure if it helped me write more productively, but it certainly helped me reach my stated goals.The goals this year were to:
1) Sort through the old wips
Successfully completed! All my wips are now either finished or officially nominated as dead wips. I'm a little sad that the PB Colonial AU will never get finished (I was so excited when first discussing that story), but I feel a sense of accomplishment that I set a goal and stuck to it. It felt like a big thing to assign the Heroes FBI AU to the dead wip pile (at 10k, it's definitely the longest thing I've ever abandoned), but I'm starting 2011 with nothing overdue hanging on my harddrive, with no misplaced guilt about stories I wanted to finish but never did.
2) Upload all of my stories to AO3.
That's about half completed. In terms of the numbers of fandoms on AO3, it's impressive but two of my most prolific fandoms (Torchwood and Sports Night) still aren't up there. But I've made definite progress and I'm proud of that. I think I'll get it finished in the next few months and not have to worry any longer.
In terms of wordcount, a total of 80k is nothing to sneeze at. Last year was 53k, the year before was 137k and the year before that was 82k, so it's not my highest year but it's certainly respectable.
The WIP folder is empty, and that feels encouraging. There's space to start new stories, if I want.
Fandom-wise, White Collar and Sherlock were the only fandoms that inspired brand-new stories (as opposed to wips started in previous years). It's strange because as much as I like White Collar (and all the characters in it), I don't feel like there are any more stories I want to write in that universe.
Sherlock, on the other hand, is shiny and new (there's an amnesiac fic that I'm still thinking about, and left to my own devices, I like imagining John and Sherlock in random situations more often than any other pairing). Sherlock, strangely enough, is *easy*. "Let Me Kiss You..." felt remarkably easy to write and I was stunned at the final wordcount (the effort to output ratio seemed remarkably generous). Then I worked on "The Whore of Babylon..." and it wasn't easy per se, but it wasn't a struggle, it wasn't the same feeling of forcing words out (like when picking up an old wip). It didn't necessarily go where I'd planned, but it was fun just to write and see where it took me, and it all worked out.
I love writing when it feels easy and organic. I loved that in Sports Night (for all characters, really), in the heyday of Matt/Mohinder Heroes fic, in the early days of ianto/Jack in Torchwood. It's being fascinated with a character and wanting to get inside their head in every conceivable way (in this case, more John Watson than Sherlock, although that's much like prefering caramel sauce to chocolate fudge -- they're both extremely good and it's only personal tastes that steer you one way or another). I don't know how long it will last but I'm enjoying it while I can.
Goals for 2011:
Finish uploading Torchwood and Sports Night stories to AO3. In terms of writing and actual wordcount, I don't actually have any defined goals. I do want to participate in the Taxfic and Picfor1000 challenge, but 2011's big goal is mostly finishing the CPA Program. We'll see how we go.
Audience Participate Time:
If you got all the way down to the end of this self-indulgent post, I'm opening up the floor. Any questions you want to ask about the 2010 stories? Or any questions in general? Feel free to ask.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 01:56 am (UTC)But fixed now! *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 02:38 am (UTC)