2022 Writing Meme

[elenothar]

Snagged, with some alterations (i.e. me having fun trying to some up every fic in one word), from velithya and mumblemumble <3

January

[Guardian, Weilan, 11k, linguistics] Unintelligible

February

[Guardian, Weilan, 7.5k, dragon] Variable
[Lost Tomb Reboot, Iron Triangle, 5.5k, stabbing] Gilded

March

[Guardian, Weilan, 1.5k, gender] Delusions of Universality
[Guardian, Weilan, 4k, dark energy intimacy] what the weave tells you

April

[Guardian, Weilan, 3k, birthday] Nameday

May

[Guardian, Weilan, 3k, aphrodisiac] Unusual Results
[Guardian, Weilan, 1k, time travel] of thousands just the one
[Guardian, Weilan, 12k, treaty repercussions] Treaty-Bound

June

[Guardian, Weilan, 3k, collar] Cradled
[Lost Tomb Reboot, Iron Triangle, 2.5k, food issues] Cures
[Guardian, Weilan, 6k, dragon #2] Scales

July

[Guardian, Weilan, 2k, merit brush] Meritorious
[Guardian, gen, 3k, li qian] eliminate the possible

August

[Lost Tomb Reboot, Pingxie, 6k, drugged confession] Poison Leads To
[Lost Tomb Reboot, Pingxie, 4.5k, telepathy] a spot in the mind
[QZGS, Yuhuangye, 3k, comfort] Blue Summer
[Guardian, Weilan, 2k, one bed] a handful of inches

September

[Guardian, Gen, 2.8k, Chu Shuzhi & Shen Wei] Knell
[The Rebel, LNS/ZQM, 1.5k, ZQM lives] Breath In
[Guardian, Weilan, 1.5k, Shen Wei + baby] Distraction Level: Lethal
[Guardian, Weilan, 3k, wings] Changing like the Seasons
[Guardian, Gen, 1k, hair] Tresses

October

[Guardian, Weilan, 35k, accidental marriage] Tethered in Gold

November

[Heihua Movie (DMBJ), Heihua, 3k, post canon] a series of variably pointed conversations
[Guardian, Weilan, 1k, hair #2] with this braid I thee
[Guardian, Weilan, 13k, music] Old Songs

December

[S.C.I. Mystery, Tongyao, 2k, HC] telling
[Guardian, Weilan, 3.5k, tree] Life Flow
[Lost Tomb Reboot, Gen, 2k, Wu Erbai & Wu Xie] Relatedly

Overall, 152,581 words written in five fandoms. Less than in 2020, but more than almost any other year - Guardian and other cdrama fandoms continue to be really fun and generative for me \o/

A selection of meme question I found interesting:

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

Two come to mind: QZGS (Quanzhi Gaoshou/The King's Avatar) was entirely not on my radar since I've never previously been interested in anything esports-related, but the characters really just hit me over the head and now I'm invested; S.C.I. Mystery is... well, it's not what I'd call a good show, but the mains make it work and suddenly fic had fallen out. As it does.

What's your favourite story of 2022? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

Unintelligible, without a doubt. Languages and linguistics are one of my main RL interests, and I put a lot of thought into Shen Wei's relationship with several different languages. It's even got some lines I still sometimes think of fondly.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for 2023?

I never put myself strong goals for fandom-related things (it's supposed to be fun!), but it'd be nice to black out my Guardian Bingo square. And make a bit of a dent into my long WIP list.

My best story of 2022:

Best, as in most popular by kudos would be Unusual Results. Can't say I expected that, but yay for people liking the story?

Best, as in I think it's the best work... I honestly wanted to answer this question but it turns out I'm pretty incapable of rating my own work, so I'll leave that.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Probably The Rebel story Breath In. I don't find it surprising, mind you - it's a tiny fandom to begin with, and I didn't write the main pairing to boot - but though it's a short fic I put quite a bit of research into it and like the end result.

Most fun story to write:

Much to my surprise, I think it's telling. Usually I have 'oh no new fandom how do I write these people' panic, but this S.C.I. fic just really flowed onto the page and I found the character dynamics very fun to play with.

(In terms of Guardian, it would be Old Songs)

Hardest story to write:

Tethered in Gold. It took about 1.5 years to be written and published. I'm really out of practice with fic that's longer than ca. 20k, and I kept getting side-tracked by other story ideas. Still very glad I managed to finish it, though.

And there we have it. To an equally fun and fic writing heavy 2023!

Comments

[marycrawford]

Holy shit, look at the size of that fic list, go you! \o/

[elenothar]

I've absolutely been bowled over by my own fic output the last couple of years - specifically since I discovered Guardian/Zhu Yilong. I've never been that prolific before, it's both baffling and lovely. I guess sometimes things just hit you exactly right...

[marycrawford]

It's super lovely! I've never been prolific, but my AO3 was a wasteland between 2014 and 2019, and then... Guardian. And yes, Zhu Yilong. I blame him and his face, basically.

[mumblemumble]

Just like. What is it about him and his face and just. Making everyone write words about him and his face when previously no words were happening! It is a mystery. He's magic. AN ANXIOUS LITTLE BEAN. A MOVIE STAR. A HUNDRED AND ONE CHARACTERS IN A TRENCHCOAT.

In conclusion, Zhu Yilong. I will see myself out.

[marycrawford]

:applause:

I am only able to quote Daniel Lavery on the topic (or "Dirtbag Sappho"):

Fragment 90

It’s no good, I quit,
 
Mother or whomever else is concerned, I
officially resign from
weaving, and all other work,
You can
blame God, if you want,
 
just let me lie here on the tile

God has almost
killed me with
that boy’s face. Have you seen it? Who can weave, at a time like this.

[mumblemumble]

My god, such perfection.

WHO CAN WEAVE, AT A TIME LIKE THIS. This guy gets it.

[marycrawford]

I've been using "who can weave" as shorthand for my general response to Z1L's everything, and it just fits.

Even if I can't actually weave, regardless XD

[elenothar]

I have nothing to add to this exchange, you've both said it all already - "who can weave" is a great shorthand, and we all seem in the same state XD

[trobadora]

OMG, that is amazing. :D

[lunarriviera]

(jumping in to say I love danny's parody, that is all)

[tinny]

Heheee, I hadn't seen this before, and I will absolutely add "who can weave" to my active vocabulary now. :D

[elenothar]

AN ANXIOUS LITTLE BEAN. A MOVIE STAR. A HUNDRED AND ONE CHARACTERS IN A TRENCHCOAT.

☝☝☝ a mystery, and yet not because look at that collection of words

I feel like "who can weave" and "in conclusion, zhu yilong" very much get at the same thing here

[mumblemumble]

SO TRUE, SO TRUE. He's just. So much. I'm glad I found him in 2021. 🥲

[elenothar]

Me too, me too 🤝

[trobadora]

That is an amazing word count, and an amazing number of fics! :D

[elenothar]

I'm amazed myself, it's quite unprecedented. As discussed in above comments, the power of Zhu Yilong 😅

[achray]

so much Guardian, so impressive!

[elenothar]

I'm starting to worry about flooding the tag, tbh, but more words keep coming out...

[lunarriviera]

my favorite one-word description, by far, is "stabbing." (also LOOK AT YOU WRITING!)

[elenothar]

The stabbing fic was always the stabbing fic, because a small group of us decided Wu Xie needed to be stabbed and we each wrote a stabbing story, so it's a whole series. Serial stabbings! (sorry, Wu Xie)

(LOOK AT YOUR ICON)

[lunarriviera]

lbr it's no less than wu xie deserves (you ALL stabbed him?!)

[elenothar]

Four different stabbings, courtesy of achray, hils, teyla and me - it made sense at the time? 😅

We called the series Taking A Stab At It because of course we did

[mumblemumble]

THIS IS DELIGHTFUL. <3333

[elenothar]

🥰

[lunarriviera]

does wu xie, does he SURVIVE being stabbed four times?? i guess i have to read to find out!

[elenothar]

That icon! Very applicable

The four stabbing fics aren't really related to one another/taking place in the same verse, so Wu Xie at least doesn't get stabbed four consecutive times...

[lunarriviera]

i look forward to these stabbings of wu xie. almost as much as hue daofu would.

[elenothar]

Now that's a concerning amount of enthusiasm

[mumblemumble]

Oh, I love the one-word summaries! <3 I might try and steal that next year.

Congrats on your many fanworks! 🥳 Such a variety of themes and characters and word counts, too! I'm sorry I've been so slow about reading, I still intend to curl up with some of the longer things (long for me!) but it's taking me a while. (Musician AU!) But I'm happy you're being properly appreciated by less sluggish readers!

[elenothar]

I didn't succeed entirely at keeping all to one word since I still wanted it to be vaguely informative, but I maintain that if I wrote them in German they probably would be XD

Thank you!💖 No rush on reading - I just hope you enjoy whichever you get around to.

[tinny]

So many words, so much fic! \o/ And I tend to just skip the fandoms that I don't know, so it kind of surprised me how many there were after all, looking at them listed all together like that. :D

I'm really out of practice with fic that's longer than ca. 20k, and I kept getting side-tracked by other story ideas. Still very glad I managed to finish it, though.

Yaaay! Longfic! \o/

To an equally fun and fic writing heavy 2023!

Yes!!!!

[elenothar]

Surprisingly many different fandoms, though only two unrelated to Zhu Yilong and if compared to the amount of Guardian fic still a drop in the ocean 😅

*longfic high five*