{ fiction: year in review 2008. }

[delga]

There's no way that I wrote as much this year as I did last year, but I probably posted more often because of the drabble comms. Plus: I ficbarfed all over Yuletide. (I'm sure you're all grateful for that image.) I don't really know how to organise this? I guess by fandom. I don't really know why I'm thinking this through in-post, but there you have it.

/drabbles
01 ante meridiem. (criminal minds)
-- your voice bore me north. (city of ember)
-- think sweet thoughts about the river. (the interpreter)
-- so they tended the burial. (troy) Um. As of yet I haven't re-posted this from the comm.
counting these as one; I don't really think I'm in the position to be passing off single drabbles as single fics

02 on the strait. (numb3rs) (rewind challenge; drabble series)
03 arrest. (numb3rs) (rewind challenge; drabble series)

04 point of no return. (ncis)
-- you took the bones of me. (ncis)
-- cut off both our arms and reach for nothing. (ncis)
-- a prophesy of sand. (ncis)
-- this language of ours. (ncis)
-- an exercise in breathing. (ncis)
-- the echo of birdsong. (ncis)
-- you left your thumbprint inside me. (ncis)
I consider this to be one fic, basically.

05 your parting gift, a fist. (flashbacks of a fool)
-- every word means goodbye. (flashbacks of a fool)
again, two for one.

/sarah connor chronicles
06 tin girl or, the untold story of cameron phillips.
07 fractures.
08 what dreams may come.
09 we have these things in common.
10 we shift each other's bodies.

/random fandoms
11 they keep resurrecting suzie. (torchwood)

12 i've got spots; i've got stripes, too. (ncis)
13 turn not, tempt not. (ncis)

14 on the corner of main street, just trying to keep it in line. (csi: new york)
15 turn this thing around. (csi: new york)

16 at the violet hour. (wire in the blood)
17 stranded. (stargate: atlantis)
18 tiembla conmigo. (criminal minds)
19 the world as you don't remember it. (flashbacks of a fool)
20 strength in numbers. (army wives)
21 lloyd's still got them polaroids. (life)

/spooks
22 paper silhouettes.
23 i will dream i was a daughter.
24 half-life.
25 asynchrony.

/original fiction
26 gloves, and the canvas floor.
27 discourse in apathy.
apparently it was my plan in 2008 to write fics with ridiculously long and fatuous titles. if it's a song lyric, that's probably bonus points.

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my favourite story this year (of my own): I'm a little proud of how think sweet thoughts about the river worked out; gloves, and the canvas floor is special to me; and an exercise in dreaming because it was a stylistic risk that, I feel, paid off.

my best story this year: gloves, and the canvas floor did everything I wanted it to do in a very short space. (Haha, that was also the first fic of the year. Oh dear.) I think it was pretty successful.

story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I was really lucky this year, actually, because I got a lot of feedback which is always lovely. I think this is probably because I was writing in fandoms which are now less obscure, and writing character/pairings that appeal more. That said, the world as you don't remember it is typical M-fare: long-ass fic in a fandom that no-one knows or cares about, haha. But no, I've totally been spoiled this year.

most fun story: lloyd's still got them polaroids is my only forray into the 'yayface' side of fic this year. Other than that, everyone is a miserable fuck.

most sexy story: I guess tiembla conmigo? I always have these ideas about how physical bodies should interact but I'm shit at making that actually happen on the page. So. You choose.

story with single sexiest moment: Fingers on wrists, guys - once in gloves, and the canvas floor and once in tiembla conmigo. I think it's more overt in the latter, with Reid's insistent demands. Again, I'm not sure how well that's actually conveyed.

"holy crap, that's *wrong*, even for you" story: There isn't one as such this year. Suzie is pretty fucked up in the Torchwood fic, but that's par for the course. I think I managed to eradicate all gratuitous death this year. Insert arms of yay here! On the other hand, I guess any fic that has Tidwell/Reese is an immediate ew-face, lols.

story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: the world as you don't remember it (flashbacks of a fool); this was supposed to be a fic about Jesse and Ruth, and it actually turned into a story about Jesse and Peggy Tickell which was unexpected. I'd been thinking a lot about how the film is set in this matriarchal environment and how sometimes that was a bit de-stabling for Jesse, and suddenly Peggy Tickell came up, sharp and in control. So. Yeah.

hardest story to write: haha, i will dream i was a daughter was really hard for me to write because it featured two characters that I have a difficulty writing, namely Ruth and Zaf. This is why Zaf has barely any constructed dialogue; I lifted most of it from the episode!

biggest disappointment: discourse in apathy is actually part of something I have been trying to write for the past two years, and something I just can't seem to nail. Time to put that one to bed, I think. In terms of fanfiction, I couldn't get Stranded (Atlantis) off the ground properly. I wish I'd done that one more justice because the idea was okay, the execution was not-so-much.

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looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Apparently I wrote about the same number of fics this year (or posted the same number of fics) as I did last year, which was surprising. I thought I'd written far less. I think in terms of word counts, I probably have written less.

what pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2008? Hahahaha, Tidwell/Reese. And all the fic for Flashbacks of a Fool. I don't really know why that film struck me so hard.

what's your favourite story of the year? not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? gloves, and the canvas floor and think sweet thoughts about the river. I have a lot of pride about those two.

did you take any writing risks this year? (see above for unexpected pairings, etc.) what did you learn from them? Not really. One of my plans from last year was to go back to experimenting with my style, and I haven't really done that. I don't feel too bad about that though because every fic I wrote this year was wrung painfully from me, heh, so I think that makes up for the lack of range. I'm disappointed that I didn't write more 'queer' fic; since having dropped Numb3rs as a fandom, I haven't really been pushing myself in that regard. (Or rather, the stories haven't been there to tell).

do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? Write! Try to experiment, try to write more 'queer fic'. Try to write longer pieces, and try to finish the NCIS drabble series (never going to happen, guys, lols). I also really want to finish the Spooks/NCIS crossover I've been working on. So. Yes.

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With thanks, as ever, to everyone who left feedback or shook pompoms. Nothing would get written if it wasn't for you.