2012 in Review; Goals for 2013
Tuesday, 1 January 2013 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarasa_cat- 188,000 words in the fiction manuscript section (most DA, some Cinders mixed in too)
- 68,500 words the character notes section
- 187,000 words in the meta section (which also includes misplaced character notes such as the 30 Day Alistair Meme, 30 Day WardenChallenge, and my Cullen meta)
As for what I posted? Not all of those words...
Meta: a lot
- Tens of thousands of words for the 30 Day Dragon Age meme last January/February, all posted under f-lock on DW
- 25,000ish words for the 30 Day Alistair Meme
- Gobs of words (some 5 digit sum) of Ser Cullen meta, plus many words on other aspects about thedas, with only some of those wordsavailable off of this page and more recent Ser Cullen meta over here
- Random story bits from the Cullen/Mari Hawke arc in "A History of Lies"
- Necessary Arrangement (Cullen/Hawke, kinkmeme prompt in progress)
- This Bird Has Flown (Alistair/Surana, Surana/Cullen, in progress) - 1.1, 1.2. 1.3
- Countless ficbits that were part of meta entries or silly responses to things on tumblr (most of my fic on tumblr can be found here)
- No Land In Sight (Aveline/Wesley)
- What Would You Have of Me (Cullen/Hawke, for a kinkmeme prompt)
- A Selfish Act (Alistair/Amell/Cullen, for a kinkmeme prompt -- draft is done, I just need to post the rest of it. orz)
- Peaches and Gin (Mari Hawke, family memories)
- Dear Sophia (Cinders, sisterly relationships)
- Tyrants and the Tyranny of Appearances (Cullen/Hawke, a prompt story)
- Close (Fenris/fem!mage!Hawke)
...
Here's some questions, ganked from owlmoose:
- Questions and Answers -
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Never expected DA fandom to suck me in so hard.
Never expected to write a story for Cinders fandom; I want to finish writing a few unloved Cinders WIPs in 2013, but I need to replay Cinders again.
Never in a million years suspect that I would plot out a giant Fenders arc. I almost feel this needs an explanation given their canonical relationship. One minute I was all, Fenders, ffffeh. And then when I started looking for the relationship that Anders had to have in my Hawke/Cullen "History of Lies" universe, everything that the Anders arc needed was provided in a messy Fenders relationship.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Hard to say. I enjoy all of the stories I've written for different reasons. A toss up between my Hawke/Cullen series in "A History of Lies" and Alistair's version of the Blight in "This Bird Has Flown (1.1, 1.2. 1.3)."
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
1. Posting draft WIPs to tumblr. Nice to get early feedback and to push ideas out before they are ready for archiving. Very motivating. I'll continue doing this in 2013.
2. My early attempts in writing a Murakami-inspired Dragon Age pastiche from Alistair's POV. Difficult. Challenging. Slow moving project. Much to be seen where this goes...
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? Yes -- posted to tumblr here. Mostly, it's all about finishing kinkmeme stories that I started in 2012 and making serious (archival-quality) progress on my two epics, "This Bird Has Flown" and "A History of Lies." It also includes some art and illustrated stories, writing meta, and a few new small projects: Greagoir's journal and Mari Hawke's alphabet. Gobs of librarianship (tagging, archiving) is also on my plate.
From my past year of writing, what was...
My best story of this year: Toss up between "Peaches and Gin" and my early efforts at "This Bird Has Flown (1.1, 1.2. 1.3)," which is in an ephemeral late draft form at the moment.
My most popular story of this year: As I wrote above, anything with Cullen/Hawke.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Peaches and Gin. Mari Hawke's memories of being with her family in Lothering -- it's good. GO READ IT!
Close is also under-appreciated (Fenris/fem!mage!Hawke) but my take on them is not something that most Fenris/Hawke fans are looking for. I think the story somehow needs to be advertised to people who aren't fans of of Fen/Hawke.
Most fun story to write: Hands down, first chapter of "A Necessary Arrangement", written from Meredith's POV. My love for writing Meredith's POV bloomed during this. (Upcoming chapters are from other unexpected minor POVs)
Story with the single sexiest moment: Fandom would probably vote for the Cullen/Hawke frottage story, written for the kinkmeme. I would (strange enough) vote for this Cullen/Hawke scene which has a brief sexy moment in it.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: A Necessary Arrangement -- mostly because I'm writing the POVs of minor characters. Getting into Meredith's headspace for chapter one helped me sympathize with what drives her and how her inner logic works. Much enjoyment while doing this!
Hardest story to write: "A History of Lies" -- massive epic, very political and psychological, so many ideas, so much stuff. ARG! 60,000 words of messy draft in my Scrivener file. Heeeeellllp.
Biggest Disappointment: In general, my style felt in flux in 2012. There were beautiful things I've written in past years and 2012 was frustrating. I think my relationship with words, sentences, rhythm, etc., is in the process of shifting into its own thing--a shift that is on the verge of happening…
Biggest Surprise: The random people who PM'ed me out of the blue and asked for more Cullen/Hawke.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: …None? Perhaps the politically arranged marriage prompt (A Necessary Arrangement", for dakinkmeme) and the arranged partnership undertones in Tyrants and the Tyranny of Appearances both come close since I enjoy melding real life perspectives on arranged marriage in a fandom culture that is generally less aware about the range of ways in which arranged marriage work/happen/occur. Or, perhaps the political undertones in my Cullen/Hawke series in "A History of Lies."
In conclusion: I posted very little fiction despite writing a lot. I posted LOTS OF META. This sort of makes sense.
1. DA fandom frightened me when I first dipped my big toe into the edge of the Thedas ocean. SO. MUCH. CANON. And so much fanon, in-fighting, etc. I needed a lot of time to figure out what I thought about the world before I could write in it. Thus, meta meta meta.
2. After years of doing style-driven writing exercises, I think my writing voice(s) just needed a little time off to gel. There was some fic in which I love the voice (Peaches and Gin) and fic where the voice makes me cringe. I'm okay with this, but it means that I've withheld all of the sketchy stuff that wasn't ready for posting. 188,000 words of fic written in one year but only a fraction of it posted.
And, looking forward: In 2013, I want to return to where I started in 2006: writing epic novels. While I plan on writing a bit of meta in 2013 and doing art, I want to pick up my pace in cranking out chapter-based fiction. January will mostly be spent finishing a couple of shorter WIPs and planning out big projects. February, onward, will hopefully be devoted mostly to epic-fic.
---
Specific Goals for January 2013:
~~ JANUARY 2013 GOALS ~~
- ART — Make 2 or more pieces of visual art for my assigned story in DABB Wave 2
- FIC — For the love of the Maker, just finish that ancient draft of “A Selfish Act” and post it to the meme and to AO3 (*facepalm*) orz
- FIC — Write & archive 2 entries for Mari Hawke’s alphabet
- FIC — Continue snowflaking and 90-Daying “This Bird Has Flown” during at least six writing sessions of at least 2-3 hours each (evenings or weekends).
- MEME — Finish the 30 Day Warden Challenge for Neria Surana
- MEME — Revise/rewrite/re-answer for at least 8 of the 30 Days of DA Challenge (my answers are long and complex, so this is really a three to four month project for me.)
- ORG — Clean tumblr tags and reorganize sidebar links
- ORG — Find a better way for tracking my writing progress (create a spreadsheet and make it so...)
And anything else accomplished in January is gravy.
