slippery_fish

After writing very little in 2022, I made a comeback this year thanks to my writing challenge. I ended up writing various fandoms, tropes, genres, and ships and I did some new stuff.

But I didn't write much outside of the challenge. I hope that changing the rules will change this as well.

I also got more kudos spread out over new and old fics. Maybe being more prolific is the reason for that, I saw a few people liking stuff all over the board.

Despite some hiccups, I'd say that this was a successful writing year!

So here comes the yearly meme and word count.

I'm counting everything over 500 words as a fic, everything with a lower word count went into the fic snippet category.

The fics marked with * were written outside of MMPMT.

FPF Fic: 32852 words (28 fics)
FPF fic snippets: 9100 words

*Avengers - Natasha & Tony Tides
CSI:Miami/CSI: New York - Alexa/Henry They Found Your Fingerprints All on Me
Bourne - Jason & Dewey Somewhere There’s a Fly in the Spiderweb
Buffy - Buffy & Dawn Creating Lies in the Waiting Room
*Gridlocked - David/Brody Spotlight on Me and I'm Ready to Break
Hunger Games - Seneca & Katniss Ignite Like a Signal Flare
Hunger Games - Katniss/Cato Screaming Birds Sound an Awful Lot Like Singing
Legacies - Kai & Josie Whilst I’m in My Sunday Best
M3GAN - Gemma & M3GAN, Gemma & Cady They Say in Time It Fades
Ready or Not - Alex/Grace To the Devil That I Love in You
Ready or Not - Daniel/Charity Curse Thе Haunted Heart in My Chest
Teen Wolf - Allison/Scott Dream a River Back
These Fleeting Shadows - Kate Alice Marshall - Helen & Rachel An Apple Is Just an Allegory
Top Gun - Bradley/Jake Feel it in Your Bones
Top Gun - Bradley/Jake Your Princess is in Another Castle
Top Gun - Bradley/Jake A Little Tragic, a Little Bold
Top Gun - Bradley/Jake Let My Old Ways Fall
Top Gun - Maverick/Iceman Drink to All That We Have Lost
*Top Gun - Maverick/Iceman There Is a Shore and People Are Waiting
*TSN - Eduardo/Mark And the Old Gods, and the Old Loves
TSN - Eduardo/Mark If I Were to Find a One True Love
TSN - Eduardo/Mark Love Me Now or Love Me Later
TSN - Eduardo/Sean Coming Out of All of the Darkness
TSN/BSG - Eduardo/Mark The Secrets That Live in Fire
TSN/MCU - Eduardo/Tony Don’t You Wanna Love beyond Your Means
Scream - Sidney/Kirby Rabbits (Maybe We Don’t Want to Be Found)
Scream - Sidney & Roman It’s Always Blood Then Rust
Vampire Diaries - Kathrine/Elena Let's Just Empty Out the Penny Jar


RPF Fic: 0 words (0 fics)
RPF fic snippets: 0 words


Total fic count: 28 fics (32852 words) / Last Year: 7 fics (7778 words)
Total word count: 41952 words / Last year: 8378 words


Best of the batch:I'm not sure I can decide. :D I think the Top Gun and the TSN stuff is pretty decent in general.
Most underappreciated by the universe: Don’t You Wanna Love beyond Your Means Tony and Eduardo being fun together? Everybody should love this. ;)
Most fun to write: I got back into TSN via And the Old Gods, and the Old Loves and I'm pretty happy about that. It was also relatively easy to write.
Sexiest fic: I wrote a/b/o for the first time with Feel it in Your Bones. I think it ended up pretty hot.
Fluffiest fic: And the Old Gods, and the Old Loves has some nostalgia in it but I think it's mostly lighthearted and it ends on an optimistic note.
Most canon: Probably Tides because this is something I could really see happening in canon.
Least canon: The Secrets That Live in Fire because I'm pretty sure that Eduardo is not a Cylon. ;)
Hardest fic to do: I had a hard time finding the vibe and rhythm of Spotlight on Me and I'm Ready to Break.
Biggest disappointment: None, really.
Biggest surprise: Feel it in Your Bones because of the trope, Don’t You Wanna Love beyond Your Means & The Secrets That Live in Fire for the crossovers. No idea where those came from.
Best Title: Your Princess is in Another Castle / There Is a Shore and People Are Waiting / And the Old Gods, and the Old Loves
Popular themes: Oh, I don't think I really had reoccurring themes as much as usual. Probably some kind of grief and nostalgia and dealing with it.
Unfinished fic carried over into the new year: There are the fics I started before the challenge started to take over my life but those were started in 2022. And there are two projects I started for the challenge that might turn into full-blown fics unconnected from the challenge.


2022 - A Year in Fics / 2021 - A Year in Fics / 2020 - A Year in Fics / 2019 - A Year in Fics / 2018 - A Year in Fics / 2017 - A Year in Fics / 2016 - A Year in Fics / 2014 - A Year in Fics / 2013 - A Year in Fics / 2012 - A Year in Fics / 2011 - A Year in Fics / 2010 - A Year in Fics / 2009 - A Year in Fics / 2008 - A Year in Fics / 2007 - A Year in Fics / 2006 - A Year in Fics

Some nice support for the writers among us who like to plan shit out (so not me): book writing - templates by Reedsy. Templates for characters, outlining and different story structures, for example, the Save the Cat beats...

Reedsy has some fun and free mail courses for writers, anyway.

My decision to work on my writing also means reading books on writing. I tried that years ago and bounced off it, mainly because the book I tried felt rather dogmatic and pushing formulas instead of ideas. And while I want to improve my structure and plot, I despise formulas in writing when they trump the story and/or leave you no wiggle room.

Fortunately "Save the Cat! writes a novel" doesn't push formula. Instead, it uses an arc, sections that follow each other, using both story and plot, with the characters being the connection between them. It also isn't very dogmatic and leaves you to change the order of the sections or leave things out. So there is structure, but structure you can change. Which is basically what I was looking for. I want to try my hand on plottier fics but I doubt I could pull this off without structure.

I also liked how Brody used a shitload of story examples to explain not only the structure but also genres. And the genres she used weren't the usual ones like crime or romance. Instead, she had things like "Buddy Love" that could be stories about friends, about lovers, about the protagonist and his pet. The unifying thing here is that the protagonist needs the other person to change, to work through the theme of the story.

I think it's the examples that really make the book and the explanations work. Because it really helps to see that sections and story arcs and genres don't have to be formulas because all these stories written with the same underlying arc or genre are very different.

Obviously, I have no idea yet how this will fit with my own writing and if it will work for fanfic, but the book gave me a lot to think about without...repelling me. Because a dogmatic approach to writing and structure really gives me the urge to stamp my feet and scream "Don't want to!".