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starladyYuletide first, and first up, writers! ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
threeguesses wrote As I Always Say, and Carmarthen wrote Tribute. Contrary to many people, I never really have strong ideas about what I want out of Yuletide; thank you, writers, for fulfilling my request in such wonderful spades! I'm really glad that the fics have gotten relatively wider notice, since they assuredly deserve it. ♥
As for what I wrote…well, I only had time to write one story this year, and it was so screamingly obvious, I'm quite sure everyone who knows me and read the fic put two and two together immediately. All of which is to say, I appear to be cornering the market on Heian Period RPF for Yuletide: I wrote Songs by Ono no Komachi forlnhammer.
Larry actually requested the Kokinshû, and this is not a very Kokinshû fic, partly because I am not a scholar of Japanese literature and have never actually read it, except for the translations Larry's posted to his journal and the poems we read and translated for it in my classical Japanese program the previous summer. I like to write seasonal fic for Yuletide (yes, this is a major tell of mine), and I didn't have time to work my way through all of the Winter scrolls--I didn't have much time to do anything, actually, because I was so damned busy this December, so I fell back on an easier idea I'd had, namely, the life of Ono no Komachi, who is darned awesome. Ki no Tsurayuki sort of muscled his way in very early on, which is very much a him thing.
This fic, like I said, is very strongly influenced by Tom Lamarre's book on classical Japan, right from the title and the persistent confusion in the fic between songs and poems--they truly were interchangeable, particularly at the beginning of the Heian period, which is when the fic takes place. I'm not as strong on the details of daily life in the 9thC as I am in the 10th, however, so most of the details are consequently vague. I hope people like it; I do, though as usual I wasn't sure where it was going until I finished it. Many thanks towintercreek, who puts up with me asking her to beta things in fandoms she's never read and who always has great comments, which I strive to put into action. ♥
Finally, I wrote a New Year's Resolution.
The Wallmaker's Carol (4150 words) by
starlady for lionpyh
Fandom: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nicholas Sayre, Prince Sameth, Lirael (Old Kingdom), Sabriel (Old Kingdom)
Summary: Just after "The Creature in the Case," Lirael and Nick spend Miwinter in Belisaere with Lirael and Sam's family.
I really love the Old Kingdom Chronicles, and I really like writing seasonal (thus for me, wintry) stories for Yuletide. I was listening to my college's Christmasfest recording of my favorite carol, "I Saw Three Ships," early in December and the idea for this story fell out of my brain.
So, it's time for
The End of Year Fanworks Meme!
Fic I Wrote:
From the Collected Works of Solwing: 'England', The Chronicles of Narnia by way ofbedlamsbard
Synthesis (Scenes from an AU), XM:FC
Turning and Turning, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, for Parallels 2011
Last Will, and Testament, The Chronicles of Narnia/The Dark Is Rising Sequence
from The Classic of the Three Realms, Half World, for Kaleidoscope 2011
Songs by Ono no Komachi, Kokinshû/Heian Period RPF, for Yuletide 2011
Honi soit qui mal y pense, Sherlock Holmes 2009 steampunk AU
Total word count: Roughly 36,000 words. Throwing in papers and translations, I'd put it at about 75,000 words for the year (though I'm not counting my WIPs, some of which are very wordy). I'm satisfied, though this has been something of an off year, in terms of quantity--though not, I think, quality.
Vid I Made:
Too Big to Fail - Occupy Wall Street
Looking back, did you make more fanworks than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I never have expectations, but I think I wrote more than I was thinking I would--though it wasn't as much as I wanted to write, so there you go.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you do that you would never have predicted in January?
Well, I had absolutely no inkling that XMFC would eat my brain at the beginning of the year, and also, both the Parallels and Kaleidoscope fic were things I'd never even thought of writing fic for, both the sources and the characters in them.
What's your own favorite fanwork of the year? Not the most popular, but the piece that makes you happiest?
Hmm. I recently reread a lot of my fic, and I really like them! I think my personal favorite may well be Last Will, and Testament, because it's so very much the way I think and see things, and I like the way it nestles comfortably between several fandoms and also real-world events. Synthesis and Honi soit…make me pretty happy too.
Did you take any creative risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Hmm. I am going to define "writing exchange fics really, really close to the deadline" as a creative risk, and I learned that I shouldn't do it if I can avoid it.(Though, with all three exchange fics I wrote this year, that is what I did.)
My best piece of this year:
This is a difficult question. Probably Synthesis, though I think a high proportion of my fics this year did exactly what I wanted them to do, which is gratifying.
My most popular piece of this year:
This one's easy! Synthesis, with a total hit count that probably exceeds the total hits on everything I've else ever written put together, and which I still get kudos on every few days. I'm really glad people like it; I certainly do.
Piece of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Hmm. Probably Honi soit… at this point, since I just put it up, but actually probably from The Classic of the Three Realms, which I quite like, and also Turning and Turning. More people should also watch Too Big to Fail.
Most fun piece to make:
I had a lot of fun writing some of the scenes in Synthesis (Erik recruits Logan! Erik tells Scott how to date a telepath! Erik retrieves baby!Nightcrawler! Oh, Erik), I gotta say.
Single sexiest moment:
I suppose I can't nominate moments in things I haven't actually published, so that means it's the Mary/Watson/Holmes interactions in Honi soit…, though I do find Tsurayuki's unintentional proposition of Komachi sexy, in its own way.
Most "Holy crap, that's out there, even for you" piece:
That is probably either From the Collected Works of Solwing… or Last Will, and Testament. The first is Borgesian poem fic with no actual characters or dialogue! The second mixes three very popular book series with extreme prejudice and abandon.
Piece that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Either Synthesis or Songs by Ono no Komachi, but probably Synthesis. I actually started thinking about it before I saw the movie (thanks, fandom osmosis) and it is my way of understanding X-Men canon, and the characters in it, by way of writing a total AU about them. Yup.
Hardest piece to make:
Turning and Turning, because I'm not fannish about the movie and I couldn't see the OT3 at all. Still, I really like what I did write, and I think it's good, and I'm glad that I could write to the recipient's request even without actually feeling it very deeply. And I like the details of daily life in Japan that are in there; I don't know how it reads to other people, but I can see Tokyo very clearly in it.
Biggest disappointment:
I don't know if it's a disappointment, per se, but I'm very conscious of the fact that, as much as I like it and think it's good, Too Big to Fail barely meets whatever minimum technical threshold must exist for vids. I wanted to make more vids this year, and just didn't, though I'm about to start clipping for one that I can hopefully make quickly.
Biggest surprise:
Apparently I have Feelings about Narnia. I also clearly have Feelings about X-Men, which I would never have predicted based on anything in my previous life experiences.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Oh, every piece I write is telling! They just each tell different things. Probably Synthesis or Last Will, and Testament, though comparing Last Will… with, say, something like Recompense shows me just how much different my relationship to my grief for my mother's loss is than it was two years ago. Synthesis, though--Synthesis is a lot of my deeper philosophical views (I mean philosophy in the informal sense) put into fiction. And I think, ultimately, that every thing I write deals in some way with questions of love and family, but then I knew that I was interested in those questions already.
Overall Thoughts:
I really like all of the fic I wrote this year. I don't want to claim that I've turned some kind of corner in skill, but I've been consistently happy with the things I've written, even those I've written on very short deadlines; I feel like I'm able to control and think consciously about my writing in a way I couldn't before. So I want to keep writing, and hopefully keep feeling that way about what i write.
Happy (Gregorian) New Year, all. ♥
As for what I wrote…well, I only had time to write one story this year, and it was so screamingly obvious, I'm quite sure everyone who knows me and read the fic put two and two together immediately. All of which is to say, I appear to be cornering the market on Heian Period RPF for Yuletide: I wrote Songs by Ono no Komachi for
lnhammer. Larry actually requested the Kokinshû, and this is not a very Kokinshû fic, partly because I am not a scholar of Japanese literature and have never actually read it, except for the translations Larry's posted to his journal and the poems we read and translated for it in my classical Japanese program the previous summer. I like to write seasonal fic for Yuletide (yes, this is a major tell of mine), and I didn't have time to work my way through all of the Winter scrolls--I didn't have much time to do anything, actually, because I was so damned busy this December, so I fell back on an easier idea I'd had, namely, the life of Ono no Komachi, who is darned awesome. Ki no Tsurayuki sort of muscled his way in very early on, which is very much a him thing.
This fic, like I said, is very strongly influenced by Tom Lamarre's book on classical Japan, right from the title and the persistent confusion in the fic between songs and poems--they truly were interchangeable, particularly at the beginning of the Heian period, which is when the fic takes place. I'm not as strong on the details of daily life in the 9thC as I am in the 10th, however, so most of the details are consequently vague. I hope people like it; I do, though as usual I wasn't sure where it was going until I finished it. Many thanks to
wintercreek, who puts up with me asking her to beta things in fandoms she's never read and who always has great comments, which I strive to put into action. ♥Finally, I wrote a New Year's Resolution.
The Wallmaker's Carol (4150 words) by
lionpyh Fandom: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nicholas Sayre, Prince Sameth, Lirael (Old Kingdom), Sabriel (Old Kingdom)
Summary: Just after "The Creature in the Case," Lirael and Nick spend Miwinter in Belisaere with Lirael and Sam's family.
I really love the Old Kingdom Chronicles, and I really like writing seasonal (thus for me, wintry) stories for Yuletide. I was listening to my college's Christmasfest recording of my favorite carol, "I Saw Three Ships," early in December and the idea for this story fell out of my brain.
So, it's time for
The End of Year Fanworks Meme!
Fic I Wrote:
From the Collected Works of Solwing: 'England', The Chronicles of Narnia by way of
bedlamsbardSynthesis (Scenes from an AU), XM:FC
Turning and Turning, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, for Parallels 2011
Last Will, and Testament, The Chronicles of Narnia/The Dark Is Rising Sequence
from The Classic of the Three Realms, Half World, for Kaleidoscope 2011
Songs by Ono no Komachi, Kokinshû/Heian Period RPF, for Yuletide 2011
Honi soit qui mal y pense, Sherlock Holmes 2009 steampunk AU
Total word count: Roughly 36,000 words. Throwing in papers and translations, I'd put it at about 75,000 words for the year (though I'm not counting my WIPs, some of which are very wordy). I'm satisfied, though this has been something of an off year, in terms of quantity--though not, I think, quality.
Vid I Made:
Too Big to Fail - Occupy Wall Street
Looking back, did you make more fanworks than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I never have expectations, but I think I wrote more than I was thinking I would--though it wasn't as much as I wanted to write, so there you go.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you do that you would never have predicted in January?
Well, I had absolutely no inkling that XMFC would eat my brain at the beginning of the year, and also, both the Parallels and Kaleidoscope fic were things I'd never even thought of writing fic for, both the sources and the characters in them.
What's your own favorite fanwork of the year? Not the most popular, but the piece that makes you happiest?
Hmm. I recently reread a lot of my fic, and I really like them! I think my personal favorite may well be Last Will, and Testament, because it's so very much the way I think and see things, and I like the way it nestles comfortably between several fandoms and also real-world events. Synthesis and Honi soit…make me pretty happy too.
Did you take any creative risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Hmm. I am going to define "writing exchange fics really, really close to the deadline" as a creative risk, and I learned that I shouldn't do it if I can avoid it.(Though, with all three exchange fics I wrote this year, that is what I did.)
My best piece of this year:
This is a difficult question. Probably Synthesis, though I think a high proportion of my fics this year did exactly what I wanted them to do, which is gratifying.
My most popular piece of this year:
This one's easy! Synthesis, with a total hit count that probably exceeds the total hits on everything I've else ever written put together, and which I still get kudos on every few days. I'm really glad people like it; I certainly do.
Piece of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Hmm. Probably Honi soit… at this point, since I just put it up, but actually probably from The Classic of the Three Realms, which I quite like, and also Turning and Turning. More people should also watch Too Big to Fail.
Most fun piece to make:
I had a lot of fun writing some of the scenes in Synthesis (Erik recruits Logan! Erik tells Scott how to date a telepath! Erik retrieves baby!Nightcrawler! Oh, Erik), I gotta say.
Single sexiest moment:
I suppose I can't nominate moments in things I haven't actually published, so that means it's the Mary/Watson/Holmes interactions in Honi soit…, though I do find Tsurayuki's unintentional proposition of Komachi sexy, in its own way.
Most "Holy crap, that's out there, even for you" piece:
That is probably either From the Collected Works of Solwing… or Last Will, and Testament. The first is Borgesian poem fic with no actual characters or dialogue! The second mixes three very popular book series with extreme prejudice and abandon.
Piece that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Either Synthesis or Songs by Ono no Komachi, but probably Synthesis. I actually started thinking about it before I saw the movie (thanks, fandom osmosis) and it is my way of understanding X-Men canon, and the characters in it, by way of writing a total AU about them. Yup.
Hardest piece to make:
Turning and Turning, because I'm not fannish about the movie and I couldn't see the OT3 at all. Still, I really like what I did write, and I think it's good, and I'm glad that I could write to the recipient's request even without actually feeling it very deeply. And I like the details of daily life in Japan that are in there; I don't know how it reads to other people, but I can see Tokyo very clearly in it.
Biggest disappointment:
I don't know if it's a disappointment, per se, but I'm very conscious of the fact that, as much as I like it and think it's good, Too Big to Fail barely meets whatever minimum technical threshold must exist for vids. I wanted to make more vids this year, and just didn't, though I'm about to start clipping for one that I can hopefully make quickly.
Biggest surprise:
Apparently I have Feelings about Narnia. I also clearly have Feelings about X-Men, which I would never have predicted based on anything in my previous life experiences.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Oh, every piece I write is telling! They just each tell different things. Probably Synthesis or Last Will, and Testament, though comparing Last Will… with, say, something like Recompense shows me just how much different my relationship to my grief for my mother's loss is than it was two years ago. Synthesis, though--Synthesis is a lot of my deeper philosophical views (I mean philosophy in the informal sense) put into fiction. And I think, ultimately, that every thing I write deals in some way with questions of love and family, but then I knew that I was interested in those questions already.
Overall Thoughts:
I really like all of the fic I wrote this year. I don't want to claim that I've turned some kind of corner in skill, but I've been consistently happy with the things I've written, even those I've written on very short deadlines; I feel like I'm able to control and think consciously about my writing in a way I couldn't before. So I want to keep writing, and hopefully keep feeling that way about what i write.
Happy (Gregorian) New Year, all. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 03:50 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 05:49 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 19:41 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 19:42 (UTC)