Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brightknightie) wrote2023-01-15 10:46 am
brightknightie) wrote2023-01-15 10:46 am
Entry tags:
My fanfic year-in-review 2022
Now that ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hlh_shortcuts has de-anonymized, I can share my 2022 fanfic year-in-review list:
I'd planned to post more stories in 2022. But the Retro TV exchange didn't happen. And I didn't manage to complete anything not event-driven.
I did dash off several dozen assorted bits and pieces throughout the year -- just, you know, notebook sketches, random prompts, 50-200 words snippets. But I never managed to turn any of them into "real stories."
In my head, when looking at my own stuff -- not yours! -- I feel as if there's a baseline default that it can't possibly be worth the reader's time if it doesn't have not only a beginning, middle, end, arc, and moral -- I love morals and themes; I know not everyone does -- but if it also isn't at least 2K words, much better 10K, much much better 50K... though I haven't reached those higher counts in ages.
There are of course reasons I feel that way. I wrote a paragraph here examining those reasons, stared at it, and deleted it. They are all true motivations. But none logically validate my emotions about rigid prerequisites I must meet in order to post fanfic.
I have a handful of unposted, unfinished, tiny Pokemon GO sketches written over the past several years. Maybe I will pick a couple, polish them up just as they are, under 500 words, post them, and then backdate them to their actual vintages when I first dashed them off. That's got to be my most... harmless... fandom? I mean, on the AO3, even when you filter away all the crossovers and the weird M and E stuff, it still seems dominated by teenagers writing self-insert and second-person. (And if I haven't come up with Sierra's motivation for inventing the Strange Eggs by now, will I ever?)
I also have unposted, unfinished, tiny sketches in my more substantial, traditional fandoms, but... those readers and characters really do deserve more! Better! "Real" stories. All the goodness I can muster. So the question is, how do I get from the little miscellaneous bits to something I'm confident is worth a reader's attention in these fandoms? There's some measurement that I need to have "tick over" in my imagination. I don't know what it is.
Step one: I'll officially decrease my self-imposed minimum length to 750 words.
Step two: I'll put "fanfic writing" literally on my calendar with twice-weekly appointments.
Step three: I need to self-impose some deadlines. Deadlines are how events get me to finish pieces.
Thank you for your generosity in reading this whole post! If you happen to have insight or advice on how I can move from miscellaneous snippets to genuine "real stories" worth readers' time -- such as both readers and my brain will agree with -- please share with me. :-) If not, that's okay, too!
hlh_shortcuts has de-anonymized, I can share my 2022 fanfic year-in-review list:- June: Forever Knight: "Amaranth (love-lies-bleeding)" in the FKFicFest challenge (M, m/f, ~5K words) (12 kudos, 8 comment threads)
- August: Battlestar Galactica (1978): "Conjunction" for Sharpest_asp in the Every Woman exchange (G, gen, ~2K words) (6 kudos, 2 comment threads)
- December: Highlander: "Would you leave" for Argentum_ls in the HLH_Shorcuts exchange (G, gen, 3K words) (28 kudos, 8 comment threads)
I'd planned to post more stories in 2022. But the Retro TV exchange didn't happen. And I didn't manage to complete anything not event-driven.
I did dash off several dozen assorted bits and pieces throughout the year -- just, you know, notebook sketches, random prompts, 50-200 words snippets. But I never managed to turn any of them into "real stories."
In my head, when looking at my own stuff -- not yours! -- I feel as if there's a baseline default that it can't possibly be worth the reader's time if it doesn't have not only a beginning, middle, end, arc, and moral -- I love morals and themes; I know not everyone does -- but if it also isn't at least 2K words, much better 10K, much much better 50K... though I haven't reached those higher counts in ages.
There are of course reasons I feel that way. I wrote a paragraph here examining those reasons, stared at it, and deleted it. They are all true motivations. But none logically validate my emotions about rigid prerequisites I must meet in order to post fanfic.
I have a handful of unposted, unfinished, tiny Pokemon GO sketches written over the past several years. Maybe I will pick a couple, polish them up just as they are, under 500 words, post them, and then backdate them to their actual vintages when I first dashed them off. That's got to be my most... harmless... fandom? I mean, on the AO3, even when you filter away all the crossovers and the weird M and E stuff, it still seems dominated by teenagers writing self-insert and second-person. (And if I haven't come up with Sierra's motivation for inventing the Strange Eggs by now, will I ever?)
I also have unposted, unfinished, tiny sketches in my more substantial, traditional fandoms, but... those readers and characters really do deserve more! Better! "Real" stories. All the goodness I can muster. So the question is, how do I get from the little miscellaneous bits to something I'm confident is worth a reader's attention in these fandoms? There's some measurement that I need to have "tick over" in my imagination. I don't know what it is.
Step one: I'll officially decrease my self-imposed minimum length to 750 words.
Step two: I'll put "fanfic writing" literally on my calendar with twice-weekly appointments.
Step three: I need to self-impose some deadlines. Deadlines are how events get me to finish pieces.
Thank you for your generosity in reading this whole post! If you happen to have insight or advice on how I can move from miscellaneous snippets to genuine "real stories" worth readers' time -- such as both readers and my brain will agree with -- please share with me. :-) If not, that's okay, too!
no subject
(And please count this as extra kudos for "Amaranth")
It's sad to hear that you feel pressured to write stories of a certain minimum length. I bet even your snippets are worth posting. Some things work better in shorter form, some in longer form.
I think your steps to write more sound very sensible. If you do well with time-pressure, that looks like the way to go. In one of my last postings I shared my experience with co-writing. It helped me to get back to writing on a story I haven't touched for months. It's also a form of pressure, because you know others are writing at the same time as well, so maybe that could be something worth trying (if you haven't already)?
no subject
I did read your post about "co-writing." I was not wholly sure what you meant. It didn't sound like co-authoring, which is of course when two or more people collaboratively write the same one story together. I guessed that it meant something more like having some friends come together, either online or in person, and all of you work on your own separate stories during the period you're together?
If the second, no, that isn't something I've personally done, and I don't think it's available to me. :-) But many folks do similar things, I know, and it works very nicely for them!
no subject