Writing Roundup 2017

[out_there]

Last year's stats.


Fannish works posted this year:

March

The Habits of a Lifetime (54237 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Characters: Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes, Eurus Holmes, Violet Holmes, Siger Holmes, Lady Smallwood (Sherlock), John Watson, Rosamund Mary "Rosie" Watson
Additional Tags: Mycroft-centric, mystrade, Holmes Family, POV Mycroft Holmes, Post-Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem, Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem, Minor Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary:

The idea of Sherlock and Eurus connecting over music, over anything, is terrifying. Mycroft has spent decades watching over Sherlock, talking about their fictional family dog and the myth of the east wind, trying to protect Sherlock from the things he doesn’t remember. He’s worried about Sherlock and stood guard over Eurus, and been worse than useless in the end. He was complicit. While he thought he was juggling both threats, maintaining enough control over the situation to keep everyone safe (mostly Sherlock, but the rest of the world as well), he had allowed the threat to escalate. 

In which Mycroft is not an easy man to know and an even harder one to look after. Fortunately, Lestrade is diligent and determined, and knows how to pay attention to people. Where family comes with obligations, but it also cares, even when you don't want them around. Where life mostly goes as expected, but sometimes has unanticipated joys.

Reflections
This was the story I had to write after seeing s4 of Sherlock. S4 tied up the Sherlock/John relationship in a way that's happy enough that I don't want to mess with it, but it also spent a lot of time with Mycroft and gave some interesting things to think about. I'd read Mycroft/Lestrade stories before and enjoyed them, but hadn't been head over heels for them as a pair until I wrote this story. From there, they became one of my OTPs this year. And that resulted in a lot of output.


April

Pet Owner of the Year (4402 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson
Characters: Clint Barton, Phil Coulson, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Lucky (Hawkeye)
Additional Tags: Meet-Cute, Alternate Universe - No Powers
Summary:

When Natasha says she’s found a job for them in Antwerp, five weeks max, Clint can’t refuse it because his dog needs tablets twice a day. Technically, Lucky isn’t even his dog. (Pet shelter AU)

Reflections
Reading the Hawkeye comics made me fall for Clint a lot more (I mean, the MCU is great for Coulson characterisation but there's not a lot of Clint actually in there). Reading the comics gives such a clear idea of who Clint is -- big hearted, bit of a failboat, likely to get the big things right and forget where he put his keys -- and it got me interested in Clint/Coulson again.

And Clint as a loving pet-owner definitely appealed to me.


May

Exes and Ohs (10335 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Characters: Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Additional Tags: Ex Sex
Summary:

Calling up an ex isn’t smart. Calling again... It’s exponential levels of stupid. But Greg does it and Mycroft answers, so the blame lies with both of them.

Reflections
Back to the Mystrade. I'd been listening to a lot of country music, a lot of getting back together with old flames and that's a trope I don't write usually. I tend to believe that a breakup happened for a reason so getting back together isn't going to work any better than the first time. So it was a bit of a challenge to see how I could write that, and this turned out to be a smutty story that suddenly developed the edge of a plot. There's a lot I like about this -- the sharper/harder edges of Mycroft, the way that the truly scary, secret stuff happens offscreen and Lestrade never gets to know the actual details, and I think the smut's hot.

July
Finding the Shore (8274 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Characters: Steve McGarrett, Danny "Danno" Williams, Grace Williams, Kono Kalakaua
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Medical, Harlequin, Romance, Alternate Universe
Summary:

Dr Steve McGarrett is one of the best in the nation, and certainly amongst the top twenty cardiothoracic surgeons in the world. Danny has had to uproot his life, his career, his everything and move across the country on this one last-shot hope that he’ll operate on Grace.

But what sort of doctor walks around wards in shorts and a t-shirt? No scrubs, no lanyard, no white coat to make it easy to identify him. What sort of doctor does that?

McGarrett shrugs. “The kind that lives in Hawai’i?”

Reflections
Many, many years ago I saw the fake Mills and Boon cover for this idea and loved it. I always wanted to write the story that should go with it, so since I had some momentum going it was great to get into this. It was a story that required a bit of weird editing -- moving scenes around to get the narrative to work -- but I like the end result. And Danny is always a fun POV to write.


August
The Bad Bridesmaid (11611 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Characters: Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade
Additional Tags: Weddings, Minor Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, POV Mycroft Holmes, Community: unconventionalcourtship, Unconventional Courtship Generator
Summary:

"My wedding is ruined and my marriage is going to fail. And it’s all your fault!"

As a Geneva-based political consultant, Mycroft Holmes has it all: influence, money, success, a sleek and toned body and a string of sexy lovers. He's almost forgotten his previous self: Mikey Holmes, a plain and pudgy boy, later an awkward and clumsy teenager. Until a wedding invitation arrives requesting (demanding!) his presence as chief bridesmaid at his younger brother Sherlock's upcoming nuptials.

Mycroft's barely been back in England before he's accidentally injured the groom and been caught in a compromising position with his future brother-in-law's best man!

With the wedding of the year about to be doomed, Mycroft has no time to waste – especially with sexy detective and best man Greg Lestrade on hand to help...

Reflections
The Unconventional Courtship challenge was ridiculous amounts of fun. I've always loved seeing what people do with the prompts (it leads to some great not-too-dire AUs that I love reading) and I had a lot of fun writing this. It's all about meeting a hot guy when you're not at your best and family that you love dearly even if you don't always understand them and how messing up isn't a big deal if you put the effort into fixing it. The big emotional notes weren't hit hard in this story, so it's a very gentle, silly read but I liked it.

Clint Barton's Wedding Rules (5113 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson
Characters: Clint Barton, Phil Coulson, Natasha Romanova
Additional Tags: Avoid being Fury's limbo bitch, Weddings, Community: unconventionalcourtship
Summary:

Clint Barton's one rule is: not to sleep with Phil Coulson. Yes, he's hot, but falling into bed with him after every wedding must stop!

(Summary based on Amy Andrews' "In Room 732: Bridesmaid with Benefits".)

Reflections
The second entry for the Unconventional Courtship challenge, because the first story came together much quicker than I expected. Again, it's low stakes and lots of fun, little missed shenanigans, but these are the stories I love reading.


November

The Sad Divorced Bastards Club (19987 words) by out_there
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Characters: Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Additional Tags: mystrade, Divorced Lestrade
Summary:

"Don't know if you're doing anything right now, but there's a few of us at Walker's on Craig's Court. Thought you might want to come down for a drink."

"Why would you think that?" Mycroft says disbelievingly.

"Because you qualify as a member of the sad divorced bastards club," Greg says as Anderson returns from the bar, and sets two glasses on the table. Greg knows how it feels to find yourself living alone again. How empty a flat can feel, and how hard it can be to remember who you are without that other person. He knows how loneliness can creep in. "Might as well attend a meeting."

Reflections
This was the surprise hit. I mean, I enjoyed writing it. It came from a little idea I had driving home about "what if divorce was something they had in common" but... it wasn't a hard story to write. There wasn't the Eurus creepiness of Habits of a Lifetime, it wasn't a *hard* story to write. In most ways, it felt like another Unconventional Courtship story -- low stakes, everyday romance, getting to know someone and falling for them -- and yet it's been received really well. I mean, I'm thrilled about that but it didn't feel like a big story when I wrote it.



Conclusion

7 stories in three fandoms, but a vast increase in wordcount, The last fewyears, I've averaged 20K a year, and this year was 114K. Goes to show the motivating factor of a new OTP and a fun fannish writing challenge.

Breakdown by fandom:
4 Sherlock - 96,170 words
2 MCU - 9,515 words
1 Hawaii 5-O - 8,274 words

Total Word Count: 113,959









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

Probably "The Habits of a Lifetime". I feel like that's the better story, the one that has multiple plot threads and an extended universe of characters and a genuine narrative arc. I feel like it's the better story.

Now your most popular:
By bookmarks and hits, it's The Habits of a Lifetime. By Kudos and comments, it's The Sad Divorced Bastards Club.

The other top 4?
Finding the Shore (Hawaii Five-0 (2010)) (8274 words)
Clint Barton's Wedding Rules (Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)) (5113 words)
Pet Owner of the Year (Marvel Cinematic Universe) (4402 words)
Exes and Ohs (Sherlock (TV)) (10335 words)

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

By that list, it has to be The Bad Bridesmaid, which I think it's a lovely fun little story but it's the least popular.

Easiest story to write:

Given the wordcount, Habits of a Lifetime came together amazingly easily. I was motivated to write, couldn't wait to carve out more time to work on the next scene, and it took about 6 weeks to write 50k. Having said that, The Sad Divorced Bastards Club was a lot of fun to write and easier -- in that plot-wise I didn't get stuck, and then ending was fine once I realised I'd accidentally written it in the middle of the story.

Most fun story to write:
Pet Owner of the Year, I think. Writing from a Clint POV is fun and surprisingly easy.

Hardest story to write:
Probably Finding the Shore, because I haven't been in H50 fandom for a long while and it was a little rusty. But I got there.

Fic writing goals for 2018?:
I've got a pirates AU Mystrade wip that I want to finish (based on an Unconventional Courtship summary that I couldn't resist -- even though it means plot and now I have to write action scenes, eurgh).

I've signed up for picfor1000 and I want to do the Unconventional Courtship challenge again because it was a lot of fun.

I don't expect my output to stay as high as it has this year, but it was nice to have the writing bug again.

Favourite opening line
"My wedding is ruined," Sherlock yells, throwing an arm wide and gesturing at the unmistakable chaos behind them, "and my marriage is going to fail. And it’s all your fault!" -- The Bad Bridesmaid

Interestingly, that's the only story that starts with dialogue. There was a time when every story I wrote started with speech -- blame Sports Night -- but now I tend to start with short, practical, setting + POV sentences. But they're not as much fun as starting in the middle of a conversation.



Favourite closing line
The kiss is earnest and sweet, if a little uncoordinated; it’s only made better when Lestrade mutters, “I love you, too,” against Mycroft’s mouth, and laughs when Mycroft replies, “I had assumed as much.” -- The Habits of a Lifetime

Again, I love the dialogue but I also like that we end on the emotional declarations, and yet they're still not the romantic ideal. It's a little uncoordinated, and Mycroft already knew the answer so he wasn't charmed/overwhelmed by the declaration, but Lestrade also accepts that about Mycroft (you can't fall in love with Mycroft and then be annoyed that he knows 95% of what's going on before you do). And earnest and sweet, honest and amused, those are traits that I love about Lestrade. (Yes, this clearly was my favourite story of the year.)


Favourite line from anywhere
I could not tell you that without re-reading every story, and that's not going to happen right now. ;)


Favourite title
Probably "The Sad Divorced Bastards Club" but I'm happy enough with all of the titles. I used to have such trouble with titles but that didn't feel like such a hardship this year.