Fanfic wrap-up meme 2020

[elen_nare]

Borrowed from thisbluespirit as always :)

Stats

List of Completed Fic

The Queen and the Piper - Flower Fairies, Cicely Mary Barker (367 words, G, Ragged Robin and Queen of the Meadow)
Shockwave - High Rollers Aerois (1332 words, G, Fayeth)
Four times Lucius stole a kiss (And one time he didn't have to) - High Rollers Aerois (3970 words, G, Quill/Lucius)
Coming Home - High Rollers Aerois (4607 words, G, Quill/Lucius)
Worlds Enough and Time - High Rollers Aerois (1440 words, G, Aila/Nova)
Tears - Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome (500 words, G, Susan/Peggy)
Sentry’s Painting - High Rollers Aerois (1735 words, G, Quill & Sentry & Lucius)
Ease One Life the Aching - High Rollers Aerois (2254 words, G, Quill/Lucius)
I’ve Got You - High Rollers Aerois (896 words, G, Quill/Lucius)
Perchance to Dream - High Rollers Aerois (1491 words, G, Nova & Aila)
Studying, Selfies, and Hot Chocolate - High Rollers Aerois (2701 words, G, Quill & Sentry, Quill/&Lucius)
Beyond the Cradle - High Rollers Aerois (1986 words, G, Quill/&Lucius)
(If I Could) Fly - High Rollers Aerois (2451 words, G, Quill)
First Acts - Little Women Series, Louisa May Alcott (2139 words, G, Josie/Nan)
Moonlight becomes you (it goes with your hair) - Chalet School, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (865 words, G, Nell/Hilda)
Lingerie - High Rollers Aerois (1607 words, M, Quill/Lucius)
After The Storm - High Rollers Aerois (4866 words, G, Quill/Lucius)
Into the Warmth (the Amazing and Interesting remix) - Malory Towers, Enid Blyton (1408 words, G, Bill/Clarissa)
In the Mad Mage’s Mansion - High Rollers Curse of Strahd (2694 words, E, Yesper/Xiros)
Feelings in my Headspace Rearranged - High Rollers Aerois (3619 words, G, Quill/Lucius)
Pillars of the House - Chalet School, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (791 words, G, Nell/Hilda)
Nightmares and Dreams - High Rollers Curse of Strahd (830 words, G, Xiiki & Xiros)
Breathe, breathe in the air (Don't be afraid to care) - High Rollers Aerois (2061 words, G, Quill/&Lucius)
The Call of the Running Tide - Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome (1864 words, G, John & Nancy)

Total number: 24

Total word count: 48474, which means nearly 2020 words per fic(2019.75 to be precise) - which is both fitting and more than I expected!

Ship/character breakdown:

According to AO3:

Qillek "Quill" Ad Khollar/Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto (11)
Hilda Annersley/Nell Wilson (2)

Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto (12)
Qillek "Quill" Ad Khollar (12)
Nova V'Ger (7)
Aila (High Rollers) (7)

What can I say, I love squishy magic boys Quill and Lucius very very much <3

Specifics:

Best/worst title?

I think my favourites are “Ease One Life the Aching”, “Moonlight becomes you (it goes with your hair)”, and “The Call of the Running Tide” - all quotes, naturally! “Ease One Life the Aching” is from Emily Dickinson’s “If I can stop one heart from breaking”, “Moonlight becomes you (it goes with your hair)”, from the song “Moonlight becomes you”, and “The Call of the Running Tide” from “Sea-fever” by John Masefield. I was especially pleased with myself over that one because it involved a lot less angsting over titles than my Yuletide fics usually give me.

As for worst, possibly “Tears” (literally the prompt) and “Nightmares and Dreams” (the prompt was nightmare)? I wasn’t happy with “Coming Home” either, it’s a bit bland.

Best summary?

I’m not terribly thrilled with any of them, really…

As the first pale light of dawn touches the marshy meadow, the music changes, and the dancing fairies take their leave. - The Queen and the Piper (also a quote from the fic).

The morning after a storm (after lightning, an interrupted drive, and a first kiss) - Sentry worries, Aila... helps, and Quill and Lucius finally make it to the camp. - After the Storm.

Best first line?

People keep asking Lucius if he's looking forward to going home, and it bothers him in a way he can't explain. - Coming Home

As he runs up the uneven stairs, Quill's also desperately running through options in his head. - (If I Could) Fly

Best last line?

As they do, the first rays of the rising sun catch Ragged Robin’s tousled locks and Meadowsweet’s fluffy hair, turning them both to shining gold. - The Queen and the Piper

This summer might be nearly over - and what a summer it had been! - but there was always another summer to come. - The Call of the Running Tide

“We both will,” she answers, and hopes it’s a promise, not a lie. - Nightmares and Dreams

Or if I may have two lines:
Lucius waves one hand to encompass Nova, Sentry, and Aila, and reaches up with the other to take Quill’s where it rests on his shoulder. “This is home.” - Coming Home


General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

When I tallied it all up, it was definitely more than I’d expected! Comparing to what I intended to do, I did do some fan_flashworks prompts, and one of the 50x500 Swallows and Amazons… No progress on 100fandoms though.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I wasn’t expecting to write Josie/Nan, but such are the wonders of fanfic exchanges! And I had fun working it out :) Since High Rollers only started their Curse of Strahd game this year I couldn’t very well have predicted that - and I definitely wasn’t expecting to write Yesper/Xiros! (I blame Chris Trott entirely for that one, more on that later.)

What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Hmmm… "After The Storm" was a self-birthday present (a sequel to last year’s, and equally self-indulgent fluff) so that one’s up there. I also love "Coming Home" (I have a lot of feelings about the concept of home in general and what it means to Lucius specifically, I discovered), "(If I Could) Fly" (I love Quill very much and those two castings of the Fly spell had so many parallels, they were begging to be ficced) and "Ease One Life the Aching" (Lucius deserves comfort and if canon won’t give it to him I will!).

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Either "The Call of the Running Tide" with 6 comment threads, or "I’ve Got You" with 33 kudos (it was also second by comment threads with 5). Yuletide is one of the keys to popularity, as always! And fluffy Quill/Lucius love confessions is another apparently, as the runner-up by kudos is "Four times Lucius stole a kiss (And one time he didn't have to)".

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

“Breathe, breathe in the air (Don't be afraid to care)” by comment threads - only one with no comments. Or a tie between “The Queen and the Piper” and “Moonlight becomes you (it goes with your hair)” both with 6 kudos - “The Queen and the Piper” has more comments though. “Breathe, breathe in the air (Don't be afraid to care)” definitely felt less appreciated, though it does have a fair amount of kudos (and got some nice tag-comments on tumblr)... I think it’s probably because I was quite pleased with the concept (tying in a D&D-mechanics idea into the substructure of it, while still keeping it a story) and hoped to get more feedback on it? Ah well, such is life!

Story that could have been better?

Yes. :P I don’t think I have any standouts, or “wanted to add more but it didn’t work”, really.

Sexiest story?

Stop the press, I wrote an E-rated story this year! “In the Mad Mage's Mansion”, and I 100% blame Chris Trott (Yesper’s player - I suppose I should also apportion some blame to Tom Hazell, who plays Xiros, but it was mainly Trott) for it. Yesper and Xiros had been arguing and sniping at each other for a few sessions after Xiros made some… questionable choices; and after one of those snarky exchanges, Trott just out of absolutely nowhere went, and I quote, “it’s going to be a hot-ass sex scene at the end of this” (and entirely broke half his fellow players who fell about laughing, lol). I remembered that one day, started wondering when they’d even had any privacy, remembered they’d spent a night in the titular mad mage’s mansion… and a fic premise was born and refused to leave my head until I wrote the damn thing. Here, have an extremely low-effort meme I made for a friend in the fandom to explain myself :P



Honourable mention to "Lingerie" - someone drew a pin-up of Lucius, and it inspired me to fic it (mainly for the fun of writing a very awkward shopping trip for poor Lucius, I admit). It’s a fade-to-black, but another writer wrote an “unfade” sequel!

Saddest story?

Hmm, either "Tears" or "Ease One Life the Aching" - in "Tears" I gave Susan Walker a dead-in-WWII husband, in "Ease One Life the Aching" Lucius actually talks about his canonical childhood bullies. They do both have their partners (Peggy Blackett and Quill respectively) there to comfort them, though.

Most fun?

"Studying, Selfies, and Hot Chocolate", perhaps? That one’s got a fair few funny moments. Or "Lingerie", with Lucius thinking he’s very smooth and deceptive when he’s really, really not.

Story with single sweetest moment?

*Looks at the absurd amounts of fluff and hurt/comfort I have written this year* "Into the Warmth", maybe? "Moonlight becomes you (it goes with your hair)"? "Four times Lucius stole a kiss (And one time he didn't have to)"? I will take votes if you have any favourites!

Hardest story to write?

"Call of The Running Tide", because I set the first draft at the wrong point in the timeline - poor bluealoe , who beta’d it, had to suffer through a very long rambling email where I tried to explain what I wanted it to do that it wasn’t doing, and in the process worked out how to fix it! (And also a second draft titled “version two electric boogaloo (I am very sorry blue)” :P).

Honourable mentions to "Into the Warmth" and "First Acts", because I get very canon-obsessive (or original-fic-obsessive) for exchange and remix fics; and "In the Mad Mage’s Mansion" because how does smut work help pls why am I doing this.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

"I’ve Got You" and "Studying, Selfies, and Hot Chocolate" were both pretty easy, as far as I recall… writing the chaotic group text exchanges in "Studying, Selfies, and Hot Chocolate" and "After the Storm" was a lot of fun, as was Lucius's shopping trip in "Lingerie".

Most overdue story?

"The Queen and the Piper" - I hadn’t touched it since 2016, found it when someone asked me a question along the lines of “oldest WIP” on another meme, and decided it was worth finishing and posting.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Honestly, the most terrifying thing was probably writing "In the Mad Mage's Mansion"… I learned that, um, I can in fact write smut, I guess? It got nice comments at least? I was very careful to make sure no one would have needed three arms or the ability to rotate their head 360 degrees or suchlike, lol.

This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

Hmm… the word that came to mind was “caring” - friends/partners/found family looking out for each other, worrying about each other, comforting and helping each other through things? And for that, I’m going with “Coming Home”.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

I’d like to manage a similar output to this year (or slightly more, it would be fun to average 2021 words :P). And once again, trying to do more of the 50x500 prompts / fan_flashworks  / 100fandoms  challenges.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

As they do, the first rays of the rising sun catch Ragged Robin’s tousled locks and Meadowsweet’s fluffy hair, turning them both to shining gold.

I love that one!

And E-rated! Gosh. 0_o Congratulations!

[elen_nare]

Thank you! I haven't written much for Flower Fairies, but it's one where I think I let myself be a bit more, well, flowery (sorry :P) with the prose, which can be a lot of fun to do.

Gosh. 0_o
My sentiments exactly, lol! The plotbunnies want what the plotbunnies want, and the little bastards are insistent sometimes.

[bluealoe]

Wow, you wrote a lot this year! And I can see a few trends in the fandoms you wrote for. :)

No worries on rewriting the Yuletide story! I hadn't started editing the first version, so it wasn't extra work for me.

Looking forward to seeing what you write this year!

[elen_nare]

It was definitely more than I thought I'd written! Lots of High Rollers (the benefits of an ongoing canon, maybe? There's always new fic inspiration!), and the usual suspects for fic exchanges :)

I felt a bit guilty about that very long and very rambly email mostly :P

[bluealoe]

You vastly overestimate the length and rambly-ness of your email. :) I've read much longer and more incoherent emails than yours!

By the way, I could have sworn a saw a 2020 wrap-up post from you (general, not writing), but now I don't see it on your journal. Am I imagining things?

[elen_nare]

Fair enough - maybe some of the rambling stayed in my head ;)

The post is here: https://elen-nare.dreamwidth.org/103665.html , you should be able to access it unless I broke something! If I did tell me and I'll poke at it :)