2025 fic roundup
Jan. 1st, 2026 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaydeefalls
I say this every year, but seriously, may 2026 be better. Just better. (My wife is home from the hospital, as of last week, so that's something. But she's got a long road to recovery ahead of her.)
Anyway, time for the annual gazing of the navel! I do like being able to look back at these over the years, so. I managed to write and post over 150k words of fic this year, which is my highest since 2021! ...in only 4 total fics, of course, including one WIP that's SO close to done but is indeed carrying over (by only two chapters!) into the new year.
This year I wrote and posted: 4 fics.
In order of posting:
no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that) - The Old Guard, Quynh character study (+Andy/Quynh)
find a way to make it make sense again - Heartstopper post-canon, Nick/Charlie
ready to dive - Heartstopper uni AU, Nick/Charlie
The Subjunctive Mood - Heartstopper canon divergence AU, Nick/Charlie + Nick&Elle friendship (WIP)
Total wordcount: 151,594 words.
Overall Thoughts:
I have planted myself pretty solidly in the Heartstopper fandom for the moment, because I badly need to believe in queer joy right now. It's been a while since I've been so invested in a canon centering teen characters, but there's something hopeful in it - a sense that progress is being made, that the world really is getting better in a lot of ways for queer kids than it was when I was their age. And when I'm struggling with a lot of really hard, adult, unsolvable issues in my real life, being able to focus on characters with real but still manageable problems is...hopeful, in a way I badly need. Like yeah, things can be hard and suck for a while, but you can make them better. I really want to believe that right now. Hence, fic.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Definitely more in terms of word count! I've been setting myself an annual goal of 100k words, and mostly meeting it (or getting close), but this year I really blew past it. Mostly in that WIP, which is officially the longest single fic I've ever written - and not quite done yet! Which is wild to me.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Nothing unpredictable this year! Well, the Quynh fic was a bit darker and weirder than my usual, but I've written fics like it before, it didn't come out of nowhere. And while I didn't realize The Subjunctive Mood would get THIS long, I did always know it would be a longfic - the idea began brewing over a year ago, and I put off starting it properly for months because I knew in my bones that it would be a long one. So. Called it, I guess.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Repeating myself a bit from last year, because it's very much the theme of Heartstopper overall for me - the way these characters just keep trying and trying to get it right, even when it's hard, even when they mess up along the way. Doing your best with kindness. It runs through all my HS fics this year, but yeah, particularly The Subjunctive Mood.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Favorite is a hard call - I love them all in their own ways. But the one that makes me happiest this year is ready to dive. It's definitely the most joyful, and the lightest in tone. Pretty straightforward meet cute romcom-ness. It pleases me.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Risk is a strong word, but as a cis white woman, I was definitely a bit nervous centering a canon trans woman of color in a story that starts before she's out as trans. I definitely hit up several of my RL trans friends to discuss how best to approach that, and I did my best to handle it with sensitivity, but yeah, I was worried about writing that. But trans stories very much need to be told, so very much worth the risk. If I mess up, I can listen and learn and improve.
My best story of this year:
Probably The Subjunctive Mood. But I'm always biased toward my longer fics, just because I put SO much time and thought and energy into them.
My most popular story of this year:
find a way to make it make sense again, which I'm quite happy with as well. There are a lot of post-canon uni fics for Nick&Charlie, and I had to try my hand at it at least once, but I do think I took a slightly different approach to it, and I think it works. (Popular fanon is that Nick plays rugby professionally as an adult; Word of God does say he goes semi-pro for a while. My personal headcanon is that would deliberately NOT make that choice, though, so this fic is my thesis statement there.)
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Completely unsurprisingly, no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that). TOG fandom is very much waning, and a Quynh-centric fic was never gonna be popular. I'm not mad about it. But I do really like what I did with this weird little fic, so, yeah.
My least favorite story this year:
Nah. There are only four of them, and they all accomplish what I'd set out to do with them. I don't have beef here.
Most fun story to write:
ready to dive was basically written over the course of a long weekend, in one manic stretch, and I got to lean into a lot of silly fun with it. Easy answer to this question.
Story with the sweetest moment:
Nick and Charlie continue to just be an incredibly sweet, loving couple, in any iteration. Um. Probably their first kiss in ready to dive, which is just light and accidental and silly. I've had to lean into the sap hard for this fandom, because that's just who the characters are; I'm teaching myself to just embrace the cringe and enjoy it.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
ready to dive has the closest thing to an explicit sex scene in my fics this year; that and the uni fic are both M-rated. Both fics also feature scenes where dancing together in a club leads directly to running home to have sex, oddly enough. But I think it's gotta be this one - the focus is much stronger on the act of sex itself than I usually write.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Not THAT wrong, but no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that). Quynh's brain is a very fucked up place in the wake of 500 years in the iron maiden. It gets dark.
Most overdue:
Somehow, I have never written anything centering a trans character before, so I definitely needed to write The Subjunctive Mood. Though it feels like cheating, a bit, since it's still Nick POV, not Elle. But still. She's definitely the secondary lead in this one, as well she should be.
Favorite title:
find a way to make it make sense again just fits. It's from a song featured in the Heartstopper S3 soundtrack, and it very much suits the vibe/theme of the story there.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
The Subjunctive Mood - for Elle, but also for Nick and Charlie as well. In a lot of ways, this fic explores bullying and the impact it has both on the victims and the bystanders, and I feel like I've done a deep dive into how these three characters, in particular, were shaped by the culture of bullying at their school (and at home, for Nick). I didn't like writing those scenes in more depth, but I learned a lot from it. (Shoutout to my wife here as well - she is professional a bullying prevention expert, and was a fantastic sounding board for me throughout writing this one, as well as probably the reason I was so interested in exploring the concept in the first place.)
Hardest story to write:
Longer fics always take a few stops and starts along the way, for me. But I think ultimately find a way to make it make sense again was probably harder, for some damn reason - it just took a while for the actual point of it to coalesce properly in my head. It started as just a vague oneshot idea about Charlie and Nick at uni, and people misjudging their relationship, and struggling through a bout of insecurity together; it took me a while to figure out the actual source of Nick's stress in particular, though, which was frustrating to me.
Biggest Disappointment:
Nope. All good here.
Biggest Surprise:
That a simple canon divergence where Nick & Elle become friends first would turn into the longest fic I've ever written. Why. How. Like, before Heartstopper, all my other longfics are action-packed plotty epics, and then this simple little show has me spitting out 100k meditations on friendship or whatever. What the hell.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Hmmm. I don't know that I have an answer for this one this year. Nothing is really coming to mind. I guess my wife's fingerprints are all over Miss Singh's lecture about bullying in The Subjunctive Mood - like, literally, she freestyled it for me while I took frantic notes and then basically just transcribed it into the character's voice as best I could. That's the closest I can think of.
Favorite opening line:
"The first time she met Andromache in the flesh, Quỳnh slit her throat." (no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that)) - definitely sets the tone for that piece.
Favorite closing line:
"And Andromache extends her hand." (no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that)) - no, but seriously, this is a very tight fic with a lot of deliberate rhythm and repetition, so purely aesthetically, I think a lot of my favorite lines this year would come from this one fic.
In conclusion:
I survived the year. Huzzah.
Fic-writing goals for 2026:
Finish The Subjunctive Mood, obviously! I'm so goddamn close. But also, as every year, I do want to hit 100k words total again. Wouldn't mind if that were in a higher quantity of total individual fics for once instead of mostly being contained in a single longfic, but hey, whatever works. I imagine this year will continue to be Heartstopper-focused for me in terms of writing, especially since canon is coming to an end in 2026 (both the comics and the show/movie) - I'd like to enjoy the fandom while it lasts. But who knows?
Anyway, time for the annual gazing of the navel! I do like being able to look back at these over the years, so. I managed to write and post over 150k words of fic this year, which is my highest since 2021! ...in only 4 total fics, of course, including one WIP that's SO close to done but is indeed carrying over (by only two chapters!) into the new year.
This year I wrote and posted: 4 fics.
In order of posting:
no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that) - The Old Guard, Quynh character study (+Andy/Quynh)
find a way to make it make sense again - Heartstopper post-canon, Nick/Charlie
ready to dive - Heartstopper uni AU, Nick/Charlie
The Subjunctive Mood - Heartstopper canon divergence AU, Nick/Charlie + Nick&Elle friendship (WIP)
Total wordcount: 151,594 words.
Overall Thoughts:
I have planted myself pretty solidly in the Heartstopper fandom for the moment, because I badly need to believe in queer joy right now. It's been a while since I've been so invested in a canon centering teen characters, but there's something hopeful in it - a sense that progress is being made, that the world really is getting better in a lot of ways for queer kids than it was when I was their age. And when I'm struggling with a lot of really hard, adult, unsolvable issues in my real life, being able to focus on characters with real but still manageable problems is...hopeful, in a way I badly need. Like yeah, things can be hard and suck for a while, but you can make them better. I really want to believe that right now. Hence, fic.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Definitely more in terms of word count! I've been setting myself an annual goal of 100k words, and mostly meeting it (or getting close), but this year I really blew past it. Mostly in that WIP, which is officially the longest single fic I've ever written - and not quite done yet! Which is wild to me.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Nothing unpredictable this year! Well, the Quynh fic was a bit darker and weirder than my usual, but I've written fics like it before, it didn't come out of nowhere. And while I didn't realize The Subjunctive Mood would get THIS long, I did always know it would be a longfic - the idea began brewing over a year ago, and I put off starting it properly for months because I knew in my bones that it would be a long one. So. Called it, I guess.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Repeating myself a bit from last year, because it's very much the theme of Heartstopper overall for me - the way these characters just keep trying and trying to get it right, even when it's hard, even when they mess up along the way. Doing your best with kindness. It runs through all my HS fics this year, but yeah, particularly The Subjunctive Mood.
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Favorite is a hard call - I love them all in their own ways. But the one that makes me happiest this year is ready to dive. It's definitely the most joyful, and the lightest in tone. Pretty straightforward meet cute romcom-ness. It pleases me.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Risk is a strong word, but as a cis white woman, I was definitely a bit nervous centering a canon trans woman of color in a story that starts before she's out as trans. I definitely hit up several of my RL trans friends to discuss how best to approach that, and I did my best to handle it with sensitivity, but yeah, I was worried about writing that. But trans stories very much need to be told, so very much worth the risk. If I mess up, I can listen and learn and improve.
My best story of this year:
Probably The Subjunctive Mood. But I'm always biased toward my longer fics, just because I put SO much time and thought and energy into them.
My most popular story of this year:
find a way to make it make sense again, which I'm quite happy with as well. There are a lot of post-canon uni fics for Nick&Charlie, and I had to try my hand at it at least once, but I do think I took a slightly different approach to it, and I think it works. (Popular fanon is that Nick plays rugby professionally as an adult; Word of God does say he goes semi-pro for a while. My personal headcanon is that would deliberately NOT make that choice, though, so this fic is my thesis statement there.)
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Completely unsurprisingly, no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that). TOG fandom is very much waning, and a Quynh-centric fic was never gonna be popular. I'm not mad about it. But I do really like what I did with this weird little fic, so, yeah.
My least favorite story this year:
Nah. There are only four of them, and they all accomplish what I'd set out to do with them. I don't have beef here.
Most fun story to write:
ready to dive was basically written over the course of a long weekend, in one manic stretch, and I got to lean into a lot of silly fun with it. Easy answer to this question.
Story with the sweetest moment:
Nick and Charlie continue to just be an incredibly sweet, loving couple, in any iteration. Um. Probably their first kiss in ready to dive, which is just light and accidental and silly. I've had to lean into the sap hard for this fandom, because that's just who the characters are; I'm teaching myself to just embrace the cringe and enjoy it.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
ready to dive has the closest thing to an explicit sex scene in my fics this year; that and the uni fic are both M-rated. Both fics also feature scenes where dancing together in a club leads directly to running home to have sex, oddly enough. But I think it's gotta be this one - the focus is much stronger on the act of sex itself than I usually write.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Not THAT wrong, but no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that). Quynh's brain is a very fucked up place in the wake of 500 years in the iron maiden. It gets dark.
Most overdue:
Somehow, I have never written anything centering a trans character before, so I definitely needed to write The Subjunctive Mood. Though it feels like cheating, a bit, since it's still Nick POV, not Elle. But still. She's definitely the secondary lead in this one, as well she should be.
Favorite title:
find a way to make it make sense again just fits. It's from a song featured in the Heartstopper S3 soundtrack, and it very much suits the vibe/theme of the story there.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
The Subjunctive Mood - for Elle, but also for Nick and Charlie as well. In a lot of ways, this fic explores bullying and the impact it has both on the victims and the bystanders, and I feel like I've done a deep dive into how these three characters, in particular, were shaped by the culture of bullying at their school (and at home, for Nick). I didn't like writing those scenes in more depth, but I learned a lot from it. (Shoutout to my wife here as well - she is professional a bullying prevention expert, and was a fantastic sounding board for me throughout writing this one, as well as probably the reason I was so interested in exploring the concept in the first place.)
Hardest story to write:
Longer fics always take a few stops and starts along the way, for me. But I think ultimately find a way to make it make sense again was probably harder, for some damn reason - it just took a while for the actual point of it to coalesce properly in my head. It started as just a vague oneshot idea about Charlie and Nick at uni, and people misjudging their relationship, and struggling through a bout of insecurity together; it took me a while to figure out the actual source of Nick's stress in particular, though, which was frustrating to me.
Biggest Disappointment:
Nope. All good here.
Biggest Surprise:
That a simple canon divergence where Nick & Elle become friends first would turn into the longest fic I've ever written. Why. How. Like, before Heartstopper, all my other longfics are action-packed plotty epics, and then this simple little show has me spitting out 100k meditations on friendship or whatever. What the hell.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Hmmm. I don't know that I have an answer for this one this year. Nothing is really coming to mind. I guess my wife's fingerprints are all over Miss Singh's lecture about bullying in The Subjunctive Mood - like, literally, she freestyled it for me while I took frantic notes and then basically just transcribed it into the character's voice as best I could. That's the closest I can think of.
Favorite opening line:
"The first time she met Andromache in the flesh, Quỳnh slit her throat." (no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that)) - definitely sets the tone for that piece.
Favorite closing line:
"And Andromache extends her hand." (no one likes a mad woman (you made her like that)) - no, but seriously, this is a very tight fic with a lot of deliberate rhythm and repetition, so purely aesthetically, I think a lot of my favorite lines this year would come from this one fic.
In conclusion:
I survived the year. Huzzah.
Fic-writing goals for 2026:
Finish The Subjunctive Mood, obviously! I'm so goddamn close. But also, as every year, I do want to hit 100k words total again. Wouldn't mind if that were in a higher quantity of total individual fics for once instead of mostly being contained in a single longfic, but hey, whatever works. I imagine this year will continue to be Heartstopper-focused for me in terms of writing, especially since canon is coming to an end in 2026 (both the comics and the show/movie) - I'd like to enjoy the fandom while it lasts. But who knows?
