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daibhidcOkay, let's get back into the habit, eh? Although I should maybe have got back into the habit of actually writing stuff first. Still, I've done it with only two fics before, and at least gestured vaguely at it with one and zero, so here we go:
Stats:
List of Completed Fic
You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! (Wold-Newton, multiple fandoms, 1,464 words)
The Time-Touched Tylers (Wold-Newton, multiple fandoms but mostly Doctor Who, 2,950 words)
And. technically, Lost Pages of the Discworld Atlas: Hyperllamedos (Discworld, 1,957 words), in that I thought I'd finished it during the period I was out of the habit of doing these, but added another bit in February.
Total number: 3
Total word count: (finally, a pressing reason to retrieve the calculator that fell down the back of the desk months ago) 6,371.
Character breakdown: The Doctor appears in both WNU fics. Nobody else appears in more than one.
Specifics:
Best/worst title? Lost Pages is pretty meh. I'm quite pleased with the alliteration in Time-Touched Tylers, which also "feels" Wold-Newtony somehow. (You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! also feels Wold-Newtony, but that's because it's a straight lift from Jess Nevins' You Are NOT Sherlock Holmes!)
Best/worst summary? All pretty functional, tbh.
Best/worst first line? I don't love the fact I started The Tylers with two hecks of run-on sentences, but every attempt I made to alter it made it worse. I'm quite pleased with "Technically a part of Llamedos (but even more technically, and quite vocally, not one) " in Lost Pages.
Best/worst last line? The thing about the pseudo-scholarly format is that they don't really have a punchline or a twist, they just finish what they were saying. None of them even really have a conclusion, which pseudo-scholarly articles probably should do. Actually, now I think about it, Lost Pages does end on a gag, if not a very solid one.
General questions:
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
As I've said before, I stopped attempting to predict this the year I went to do this meme and suddenly realised I hadn't completed anything.
As I've also said before, despite that, less.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
I would not have predicted that I'd suddenly act on my occasional urge to haul out the old Wold-Newton stuff.
What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
I'm quite pleased with Time-Touched Tylers, which I think neatly sets out my stall re a Who-centric study of the WNU, includes what I think are some pretty solid ideas, and refers to a couple of my dafter "upcoming" articles, which may inspire me to actually work on them, and even if it doesn't, at least gets the absurd ideas out there.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
That's an ... interesting question. The one with the most kudos, and one comment, is Lost Pages, but as I allude to, that was published as complete back in '21, and got most (but not all) of this attention back then.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
I honestly thought the whole Wold-Newton But It's Doctor Who thing would attract more attention than it did.
Story that could have been better?
All of them, as usual.
Sexiest, saddest, sweetest
I rarely have an answer for this at the best of times, but it really doesn't apply to the scholarly-article-format, does it?
Hardest story to write?
I had nearly finished Time-Touched Tylers when I suddenly thought "Hang on, I should really include the Queer as Folk Tylers. They don't quite fit the theme, but it's Rusty! Rusty and his favourite surname! And they're in Manchester, and I've already got a Mancunian branch, so all I need to do is rewrite that entire section..."
And then I had actually finished it when I remembered DC Comics also have a Tyler family with time-related powers, and I just shoved them in a footnote.
Easiest/most fun story to write?
That aside, Time-Touched Tylers was pretty fun. "Writing" You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! consisted of unearthing it from the depths of the hard drive, adding the references to Countess of Confusion, Duchess of Disorder and Plight of the Pimpernel and giving it a quick once over to check I hadn't done anything stupid. I mean, yes, it had probably been more effort to write at one point, but that was ages ago.
Most overdue story?
Since I started You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! when The Secret History of the Wold-Newton Universe was still accepting new articles (or at least, I hadn't yet noticed it wasn't), I think it must be approaching or over its second decade.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
After many, many years of thinking "I should just start posting all those WNU articles I had ideas for on AO3", I finally started doing that.
Ironically, this was also the year when, after that, I discovered there is a current (or at least more recent) Wold-Newton site. But whatever uncharacteristic spark of nerve led me to e-mail unsolicited articles to Secret History, I don't think would have returned even if I had seen it sooner.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
This year's theme is definitely mock scholarship. And it's The Time-Touched Tylers.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Two years ago I came closer than I ever have before to actually doing Yuletide, and then Stuff happened. This year, for sure. Probably.
I've got a lot more Wold-Newton stuff to inflict on an unsuspecting world. I will try to write actual stories as well this year.
Oh, and I have two incomplete stories up on AO3 (one where I thought - wrongly - that this would inspire me to not get distracted, and one where, like Lost Pages, I thought it was complete, but then had to add more stuff). Hopefully I'll do something about that as well.
Stats:
List of Completed Fic
You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! (Wold-Newton, multiple fandoms, 1,464 words)
The Time-Touched Tylers (Wold-Newton, multiple fandoms but mostly Doctor Who, 2,950 words)
And. technically, Lost Pages of the Discworld Atlas: Hyperllamedos (Discworld, 1,957 words), in that I thought I'd finished it during the period I was out of the habit of doing these, but added another bit in February.
Total number: 3
Total word count: (finally, a pressing reason to retrieve the calculator that fell down the back of the desk months ago) 6,371.
Character breakdown: The Doctor appears in both WNU fics. Nobody else appears in more than one.
Specifics:
Best/worst title? Lost Pages is pretty meh. I'm quite pleased with the alliteration in Time-Touched Tylers, which also "feels" Wold-Newtony somehow. (You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! also feels Wold-Newtony, but that's because it's a straight lift from Jess Nevins' You Are NOT Sherlock Holmes!)
Best/worst summary? All pretty functional, tbh.
Best/worst first line? I don't love the fact I started The Tylers with two hecks of run-on sentences, but every attempt I made to alter it made it worse. I'm quite pleased with "Technically a part of Llamedos (but even more technically, and quite vocally, not one) " in Lost Pages.
Best/worst last line? The thing about the pseudo-scholarly format is that they don't really have a punchline or a twist, they just finish what they were saying. None of them even really have a conclusion, which pseudo-scholarly articles probably should do. Actually, now I think about it, Lost Pages does end on a gag, if not a very solid one.
General questions:
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
As I've said before, I stopped attempting to predict this the year I went to do this meme and suddenly realised I hadn't completed anything.
As I've also said before, despite that, less.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
I would not have predicted that I'd suddenly act on my occasional urge to haul out the old Wold-Newton stuff.
What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
I'm quite pleased with Time-Touched Tylers, which I think neatly sets out my stall re a Who-centric study of the WNU, includes what I think are some pretty solid ideas, and refers to a couple of my dafter "upcoming" articles, which may inspire me to actually work on them, and even if it doesn't, at least gets the absurd ideas out there.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
That's an ... interesting question. The one with the most kudos, and one comment, is Lost Pages, but as I allude to, that was published as complete back in '21, and got most (but not all) of this attention back then.
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
I honestly thought the whole Wold-Newton But It's Doctor Who thing would attract more attention than it did.
Story that could have been better?
All of them, as usual.
Sexiest, saddest, sweetest
I rarely have an answer for this at the best of times, but it really doesn't apply to the scholarly-article-format, does it?
Hardest story to write?
I had nearly finished Time-Touched Tylers when I suddenly thought "Hang on, I should really include the Queer as Folk Tylers. They don't quite fit the theme, but it's Rusty! Rusty and his favourite surname! And they're in Manchester, and I've already got a Mancunian branch, so all I need to do is rewrite that entire section..."
And then I had actually finished it when I remembered DC Comics also have a Tyler family with time-related powers, and I just shoved them in a footnote.
Easiest/most fun story to write?
That aside, Time-Touched Tylers was pretty fun. "Writing" You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! consisted of unearthing it from the depths of the hard drive, adding the references to Countess of Confusion, Duchess of Disorder and Plight of the Pimpernel and giving it a quick once over to check I hadn't done anything stupid. I mean, yes, it had probably been more effort to write at one point, but that was ages ago.
Most overdue story?
Since I started You Are NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel! when The Secret History of the Wold-Newton Universe was still accepting new articles (or at least, I hadn't yet noticed it wasn't), I think it must be approaching or over its second decade.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
After many, many years of thinking "I should just start posting all those WNU articles I had ideas for on AO3", I finally started doing that.
Ironically, this was also the year when, after that, I discovered there is a current (or at least more recent) Wold-Newton site. But whatever uncharacteristic spark of nerve led me to e-mail unsolicited articles to Secret History, I don't think would have returned even if I had seen it sooner.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
This year's theme is definitely mock scholarship. And it's The Time-Touched Tylers.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
Two years ago I came closer than I ever have before to actually doing Yuletide, and then Stuff happened. This year, for sure. Probably.
I've got a lot more Wold-Newton stuff to inflict on an unsuspecting world. I will try to write actual stories as well this year.
Oh, and I have two incomplete stories up on AO3 (one where I thought - wrongly - that this would inspire me to not get distracted, and one where, like Lost Pages, I thought it was complete, but then had to add more stuff). Hopefully I'll do something about that as well.
