fannish year in review, 2012, aka FML

[kaydeefalls]

Oh, god, I don't even know why I'm doing this except that I do this meme every year and I'm just OCD enough to not want to lapse, even for years during which I create roughly FUCK ALL.

There are a couple of WIP snippets at the end, if anyone's interested in that sort of thing.


Fics: 6
Vids: 6
Fandoms: 7
Word count: 68,500 :(

By fandom:
X-Men First Class: 4
Doctor Who: 2
Avengers: 2
Snow White & the Huntsman: 1
History Boys: 1
Big Fish: 1
Avatar: the Last Airbender: 1


Fics:
Queen's Gambit, WIP, XMFC/Inception fusion, ensemble (2 chapters added, roughly 20k words)
I hold with those who favor fire, Snow White & the Huntsman, Snow White/Huntsman
it's like one of us woke up, XMFC, Charles/Erik
Trigger Discipline, XMFC, Raven gen
The Opposite of People, XMFC, Charles/Erik
you can't explain away the poetry, History Boys, Scripps/Posner

Vids:
a message for you, Big Fish, gen
isobel, A:tLA, Azula & Toph
Another World, Doctor Who, boyfriends
Suspension, Avengers, Tony & Steve & Thor
So What, Avengers, kickass ladies
One Mississippi, Doctor Who, ensemble

Leitmotif of the year:
Nothing stands out to me at all. A few dealt with coming of age narratives, growing into oneself -- most obviously my Snow White and Raven fics, but that's a theme through several of the vids as well. I guess that's the biggest common thread.

What's the fanwork that makes you happiest?
So What, hands down. FUCK YEAH KICKASS AVENGER LADIES.

My favorite fanworks this year:
Oof. This was not a good year for me. I mean, I'm not embarrassed by anything I created this year, but none of them stand out even in my head as being my favorite anythings. So What is up there, again. And, fuck it, I really like what I did with I hold with those who favor fire.

My best fanworks this year:
Probably I hold with those who favor fire, again. I don't know, this is something I can't ever judge. I think isobel accomplished its purpose really well, which was to draw out parallels between two outwardly quite disparate characters (Azula and Toph, who have an awful lot more in common than you might think).

Most popular fanwork:
According to AO3 stats, it's like one of us woke up has the most kudos of anything I've ever posted, which surprises me QUITE A LOT. Writing that fic felt like pulling teeth the whole way through, and I never quite felt satisfied with it. God only knows why it became so popular. So What got the most response of any of my vids this year by a long shot, which makes me happy, because kickass ladies should always win popularity contests. And oddly enough, my second most "popular" fic the year by hits or kudos was actually I hold with those who favor fire -- and if those AO3 stats are how "popularity" is judged (ugh, I hate that word), then that's the most "popular" overall fic in the entire Snow White & the Huntsman fandom on AO3. Huh. I am kind of pleased that it got such a great response, for being in such a small fandom (and explicit het at that).

Fanwork most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Eh, I feel like things that get less response generally deserve it. I do have a fondness for Suspension, which nobody paid much notice to. And I continued to be unsurprised at the relative low response for Trigger Discipline -- Raven gen is never going to be a popular topic; one commenter spent a good paragraph or so explaining to me why Raven is a terrible person, which is an interesting thing to post on a Raven-centric fic. WHAT CAN YOU DO.

Most fun fanwork:
So What, yet again. That's my only unabashedly HAPPY vid this year. And The Opposite of People is basically a rom-com, which was a nice change of pace for me to write.

Sexiest fanwork:
I hold with those who favor fire has my only explicit sex scene this year, so I guess that wins! The porn is only a small part of the fic, though.

Fanwork with single sexiest moment:
See above. There was originally planned to be a sex scene between Snow White and one of her handmaidens in that fic, as well, but it didn't quite fit in with the overarching theme, so I cut it. Alas. I also do have a fondness for Charles and Erik's sex in the alley in it's like one of us woke up.

Fanwork with single sweetest moment:
Um. The Opposite of People is fairly saccharine?

Hardest fanwork to make:
Well, I only managed a whopping two new chapters of Queen's Gambit this year, so yeah, that kinda takes the cake. *facepalm* In terms of work actually COMPLETED this year, it's like one of us woke up was pretty rough going, and Another World had been sitting on my hard drive for more than a year before I finally managed to finish it.

Easiest fanwork to make:
Ever single vid this year EXCEPT Another World had kind of ridiculously quick turn-around times. I think Suspension may have been the quickest -- I made that fucker in like two days, WHILE MOVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY. But that may also be the shortest of my vids, so. Fic-wise, nothing was easy this year. Fucking NOTHING. Once I actually sat down and got started, all but the last scene of you can't explain away the poetry was written in the space of a single day.
--Oh, right, and I hold with those who favor fire came out of nowhere and wrote itself fairly quickly, over a few days. I'd forgotten about that.

Fanwork that made you cry:
a message for you. Can we talk about how Big Fish is one of only three movies that is guaranteed to make me cry every single time I watch it? Actually, I think this was in my response from last year's fannish round-up. There are three movies that always make me sob, and as of this year, I have vidded every single one of them for Festivids. (So, Big Fish, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and this year's as-yet-anonymous-and-not-yet-live Festivid source.)

"Holy crap, that's wrong even for you" fanwork:
I had to go to kind of an unpleasant place in my head to write it's like one of us woke up, which may be part of why that fic was so difficult for me. Imagining Charles's mental torture/isolation was not a fun space to exist in. And there are some things I'm toying with in Queen's Gambit that are also a bit twisted, though I'm trying not to be explicit about exactly how brutal Stryker's training regime was, exactly what life with the Hellfire Club entails, or exactly what Cain did to Raven when they were kids. My headcanon is much darker than what I actually spell out explicitly in that fic, as a general FYI. I don't enjoy writing torture porn at ALL, so I tend to leave most of the trauma in the backs of my characters' heads, not front and center onscreen. (I will say that I'm not looking forward to where I'm taking one character in particular in an upcoming chapter, because I'm not sure quite how to write it or how explicitly dark to be.)

Fanwork that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
it's like one of us woke up made me further explore Charles's perception of the world in ways I don't normally specifically consider. He just experiences reality in a very, very different manner than any other character. And I hadn't ever given canon!Raven as much thought as I needed to for Trigger Discipline -- Raven is one of my primary POV characters in the Inception crossover 'verse, but she's obviously a different person in that AU than in XMFC canon. And isobel changed my perceptions of both Toph and Azula quite a bit -- I hadn't realized just how closely their characters parallel one another until I started working on that vid.

Biggest disappointment:
That I didn't write/vid more this year. This was a SHITTY year for me overall in terms of creative energy, ugh. Depression and self-loathing in Washington followed by moving across the country twice in the space of three months (and then moving twice more in the following month), dealing with the Worst Show Ever, starting a new job -- many of the life events this year were good ones, in the end, but they didn't leave me with much energy for creativity. I missed it badly. The past month and change have been pushing me back into fandom, and it's SUCH a relief, but I need to get back into the habit of writing/vidding regularly again.

Biggest surprise:
I hold with those who favor fire came out of nowhere. The film Snow White & the Huntsman just begged for a proper ending, so I gave it one. I know I don't have anything further to say in that fandom, so it was a true one-off. I am content with it, though.

Most telling fanwork:
Have I mention that The Opposite of People is the 100% accurate and true story of my professional life? Because, yeah, that one there.

Favorite opening:
So What, because the Lady Sif is perfection incarnate.
None of my fics this year have particularly memorable opening lines.

Favorite closing:
Crap, So What wins agin. Natasha totally nonchalantly spraying mace into that dude's face is just kind of amazing. Though I like the sharp cut to black on the cackle of laughter at the end of Another World, too.
Fics -- oh, it's nothing ground-breaking, but I think the last line of I hold with those who favor fire fits the overall theme of the fic very well: "Come, my captain," she says. "There is much yet to be done."

Favorite moment anywhere:
Charles and Erik's e-mail banter in The Opposite of People makes me giggle, as does Wade Wilson's cameo in Queen's Gambit ("What was his nickname in your squad?" Charles asks.

"He didn't have one," Alex says. "We mostly just called him 'Fucking Wade.' Or 'Jesus Fucking Christ, Would You Shut The Fuck Up For Five Goddamn Minutes.'"

"'Seriously, Wilson, If You Don't Shut Your Mouth I Swear To God I Will Shut It For You,'" Sean volunteers.)

I also really, really like a lot of my lyric/clip matchings in One Mississippi.

Favorite title:
From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.
And, honestly, you can't explain away the poetry (which is one of Scripps's lines in the play/film) fit very well with the theme of Scripps trying to articulate what his faith means to him.

Looking back, did you create more fanworks than you thought you would this year, fewer than you thought, or about what you predicted?
FEWER. Especially coming off of 2011, which was a fucking fannish RENAISSANCE for me. Ugh, I'm really disappointed in myself.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you create for that you would never have predicted in January 2012?
I couldn't really have predicted Snow White & the Huntsman. Beyond that, though, nothing stands out.

What's next for 2013:
Fucking finish Queen's Gambit, goddamnit. I've also finished my Festivid, which will go live soon, and have a solid idea for the white_lotus Lunar New Year exchange. Beyond that, there's a Ponds fic and a Ponds vid that both need finishing (or properly starting, in the case of the vid), and, um, I've been chipping away at a Skyfall Bond/Q fic, shut up don't judge me. I don't have any other WIPs in the works at the moment, though there's a Hunger Games vid I've been meaning to make, and another A:tLA vid I started ages ago and need an excuse to finish. We'll see. I'd also very much like to sign up for and complete a Big Bang this year -- not sure what fandom, I don't have any pressing XMFC bunnies at the moment and that's my only primary fandom for fic right now, so who knows?

Here, have some WIP snippets for sticking with this!

Post-S7 Pond fic, involving five people who have never heard of the Ponds (but might have met them anyway):

Sure enough, Rory arrives to find his wife holding court with a circle of admiring officers, each at least a decade her junior. It's a sight he wouldn't miss for the world. Rory left jealousy behind years ago; he trusts Amy completely. He loves seeing her like this, vibrant and beautiful as she was when they first married lord knows how many years ago (or ahead), laughing and flirting outrageously. She catches his eye across the smoky room and her lips curve into a crooked, heated smile that's all for him, only ever for him. God, he loves this woman.

Most of the men are scared off by the approach of the husband, more fools they; one handsome fellow braves it out, shifting easily to include Rory into the conversation. "I usually hate to hear that a beautiful woman is spoken for," he says, in a too-charming American accent, "but in this case, hell, who could blame her?"

Rory rolls his eyes and ignores the heat rising to his face. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

"On the contrary," the officer says with a wink. "I'm an easily acquired taste."

"He does grow on you," Amy agrees, linking her arm with Rory's. "Not unlike a fungus."

The officer laughs full-throatedly. Rory can't help but be charmed by his open enjoyment of their company. There's something strangely familiar about the man, itching at a dark, closed-off corner of Rory's mind. "Sorry," Rory says. "I didn't quite catch your name."

"Well, if it wasn't love at first sight, I'm always happy to walk by again." The officer extends a hand, flashing a blindingly white smile. "Captain Jack Harkness."

Q/007 fic, which will probably require a lot more porn than I'm entirely comfortable writing, but mostly deals with my own personal headcanon for all James Bond films:

"In the cemetery where my parents are buried, there's a gravestone for an Andrew and Monique Bond," 007 remarks, apropos of nothing whatsoever. He rolls over onto his back, staring up at the blank darkness of the ceiling. "Been there as long as I can remember. Never knew them. But still, it makes me laugh."

He isn't laughing.

MI-6 strips all its best and brightest of their identities; at least for the Qs and Ms of its history, there's open acknowledgement of the artifice. For the double-ohs, the subterfuge is layered in more deeply.

Silva had hoped the former M would remember his real name. Q wonders if there's anyone left alive who still knows Bond's.

"The original Agent 007 was Scottish," Q offers. "You never know."

007 snorts. "You've done your research."

"And you haven't?"

"Not interested, thanks," 007 says breezily. Q's fairly good at reading people, but even if he weren't, he'd have heard the lie. Not that he can blame the man. Double-ohs don't tend to retire out of the service, and the -seven line is particularly volatile. One managed to maintain his double-oh status well into his fifties before being gently persuaded to turn in his spurs; he's the only 007 on record who lived long enough to cash in on the Crown's generous retirement package. Perhaps he received his own name back at the end in recognition of such extraordinary service. That issue rarely comes up with the double-ohs.

The ones who die in the line of duty all have exquisite obituaries under identical names.

Aaaand, the next chapter of Queen's Gambit, damn it all to hell:

Right from the start, the dreamscape in Cain Marko's head is crawling with projections.

Okay, Alex corrects himself, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But they're in this enormous fucking mansion, and he'd actually been in the real deal when it had been Hellfire's primary base of operations, and he knew it had never been this heavily manned. Hell, they'd never have been able to break Charles out of the damn building if there'd been half this many guards roaming the halls. He already knew Cain's paranoia bordered on the pathological -- though frankly, that isn't anywhere near the most alarming issue on the man's psych profile -- but it's one thing to know a guy has trust issues, and another thing entirely to have the evidence swarming all over the dream-mansion like it's a fucking army base.

For a mark with no formal dream training, this is by far the most militant un-militarized subconscious Alex has ever encountered. It's making him twitchy.

Comments

[analise010]

MORE QUEEN'S GAMBIT!!!!! \O/

[kaydeefalls]

SOMEDAY! :D

[secondsilk]

Rory/Amy/Jack is totally brilliant.
I think I have not read the Snow White/Huntsman fic because I saw the film while I was without regular internet.

And, you still had enough work to do a meme! 6 vids + 6 fics means an average of 1 thing a much, which is pretty good given everything else you had to do last year. Last year I wrote only my remix fic. :-)

[kaydeefalls]

Hee, thanks! And, yeah, I know it's not nothing, it just FELT like a lot less than I should've done, or something. :/

[such_heights]

He loves seeing her like this, vibrant and beautiful as she was when they first married lord knows how many years ago (or ahead), laughing and flirting outrageously. She catches his eye across the smoky room and her lips curve into a crooked, heated smile that's all for him, only ever for him. God, he loves this woman.

YESSSSSS *grabby hands*

I mean. It would be very nice to read some Ponds fic from you at some point.

*flaaaail*

[kaydeefalls]

I'm halfway done with it! It will probably be finished at some point! :D