2013 Fic Recap

Date:

9

[ 2010 | 2011 | 2012 ]

2013 year-end word count closed at:

1.45 MILLION WORDS!

I will do a slightly less exuberant victory dance than usual because the truth is I missed my goal of 1.5 million words by 50k. Oh well.

FICS IN 2013…

31 COMPLETE; 1 WIPs
WORD COUNT ~260K

TOS
AOS
TOS or AOS
TOS and AOS
Into Darkness
K/S/M
Multi-Chaptered
K/S/M
One-shot/Drabble
Forget Me Not Five Plus One is Six
Happiness is Our Choice
Plus One
All For One
All Fall Down
A Moment’s Peace
Fair and Fine
Marry If You Must (But Do Not Tarry)
Fun Comes In All Forms
The Arrangement
Ask and Receive
General
Multi-Chaptered
General
One-shot/Drabble
I Follow
Win or Lose
Take Us Out
If I Had to Keep You
The White Horse
All His Yesterdays
The First Officer
The Woman and the House
A Matter of Size
From One Good Friend to Another
The Trouble with Jim
We, the Wallflowers
Never Had It Right
Above Ground
In Need of a Friend
The Deepest Sympathy
AU
Multi-Chaptered
Other
Collection
Holiday Universe (K/S/M)
A Holiday Letter
This Is No Holiday
For Holiday’s Sake
J ‘N B Series (Complete)
Little Help (#10, Drabble Bin)
Dreaming (#11, Drabble Bin)
The Tower (#12, Drabble Bin)

and the actual meme…

This year I wrote and posted:
32 stories (or drabble series) for an approximate total of 260,000 words.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?
Less. So much less. But that’s the trade-off with having a busier RL, so I’m okay with it.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
More like a rating. I branched out into explicit sexual content this year, which is not exactly my cup of tea to read or write. I can tell you I was just a little uncomfortable doing it too but I thought I had to give it a try at some point. I have no regrets. It gave a different flavor to my usual storytelling and, I think, was an enlightening experience. For now I will probably stick to the tried-and-true but, hey, at least I can play around in the steamier side of the fandom if I want to!

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I Follow. It’s my favorite because it told a story that meant a lot to me on a personal level as well as gave depth to a less-known character. Sam hardly gets any love in this fandom (AOS or TOS). I wanted to explore a ‘what if’ – and that’s what if there were two Kirks working their way through the Academy? How does destiny contend with that? Overall, I was pleased with the result.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I always have a hard time with this question because I see risk in every story I put out there. The lesson you learn is that people won’t always like what you like, or take a chance on your story, and that you can’t be too hard on yourself when that happens.

From my past year of writing, what was….
My best story of this year:
If I Had to Keep You. It had the perfect blend of humor and emotion and addressed the aftermath of Into Darkness too.

My most popular story of this year (based on comments/kudos):
Fair and Fine. What can I say? It had pon farr sex in it. I’m pretty sure that’s key to being popular. :)

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
I write a lot of middle-ground stories that are, on average, liked enough to be favorited a few times. But there’s one story – one super-awesome I have no idea where I came up with this idea but it’s amazing story – that is taking up all my blood, sweat and tears. It’s called The White Horse. I think because it’s a WIP that it isn’t getting a lot of love. But it should. It really should.

Most fun story to write:
Anything in the Holiday ‘verse? If you don’t believe me, go read A Holiday Letter. I guarantee something about this story will crack you up. I was laughing the entire time I wrote it.

Story with the single sexiest moment:
All Fall Down. Spock and McCoy up against a wall. Do I really need to say more? *fans self*

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story:
The ending to Forget Me Not. I made everybody suffer terribly and then I made them forget it. That’s actually pretty cruel.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Never Had It Right. This is going to sound weird but do you know how difficult it is make Kirk, Spock, and McCoy not care about each other – not even as sometimes-friends? I am not certain why I attempted to do it, much less why I did it in a 5+1 fic! That said, just because they don’t like each other doesn’t mean they are out-of-character. So when I recall that distinction I can’t help but think there must be one universe out there in which the Triumvirate could never be possible.
…Ugh, that hurts me. Let’s stop talking about it now.

Hardest story to write:
There were a couple of stories that were hard to write this year but the one that stands out the most is The Deepest Sympathy. Sometimes you write a story that is emotionally gutting. For me, this was it.

Biggest Disappointment:
The First Officer. I messed it up. I hate to admit that, but there was something I didn’t do right, or express correctly, and it left readers muddled. So the biggest disappointment is in myself. :/

Biggest Surprise:
The Woman and the House. You know how you just start a little bit of something weird and suddenly it turns into this beautiful, flowing thing? There is a particular type of storytelling I envy, where the narrative is almost like a dream but stark at the same time, and this fic turned out to be a perfect example of it.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Above Ground. It was meant to be a short background piece for a young Jim Kirk but really reminded me that there’s always a time in our lives when we are innocent. We take that for granted when in truth we shouldn’t. Innocence can be destroyed so quickly:

The truth he did not understand, nor could understand until years later on a small colony called Tarsus IV. When the dead body had a familiar face—a cousin’s face, an aunt’s face, an uncle’s—then it was infinitely more terrible than anything the imagination could conjure. And he would remember in that moment Finnegan staring at him over the lip of a grave, expectant but not expecting fear, asking, “How do you like being with the dead?”

Fic-writing goals for 2014:
There is only one. I must finish my current WIP. Even if it kills me. After that… I’ll probably stop writing sometime this year.

So how was 2013 for you? Did you read/write everything you wanted?

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About KLMeri

Owner of SpaceTrio. Co-mod of McSpirk Holiday Fest. Fanfiction author of stories about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

9 Comments

    • writer_klmeri

      Can you have writing goals when you have nothing to write? I’m getting to the point where I don’t have a lot to offer the fandom anymore.

  1. hora_tio

    Congratulations…….I think screw the 50,000 words …you wrote ONE POINT FOUR FIVE MILLION WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!! stop writing……….???? are you burned out or really feel you don’t have a lot to offer fandom anymore? i’m not an author, though I published one story, and found that to be exhausting…..so my hat’s off to you for all you the words you do write umm…..i don’t know what else to say…… i find your stories to be so stimulating….whether it comes from laughter…Pike/Jim/Archer…..or the sadness…..like in The deepest Sympathy….. Your love of the triumvirate and Pike is very apparent in your writings and is most appreciated by myself and others…. this is a personal decision but i am really sorry to hear it and hope that forever …doesn’t mean forever……….

    • writer_klmeri

      I think by taking the goals away I will be a lot more relaxed about what I do – and don’t – produce this coming year. The truth is that my RL is so much busier than it used to be. I think you know that well through our communications. I have to sacrifice sleep to get my projects done these days and sometimes I am much too stressed to write a single word. I guess I finally realize I don’t have the luxuries I used to when it comes to supporting this hobby. I think I’m starting to burn myself out. So, at the very least, a hiatus is needed. But at the same time I don’t want to disappoint anyone.

      • hora_tio

        thanks for taking the time to expand on what you meant with your post. I agree that staying up late, losing sleep, and feeling stress means it is time to take a step back. Think taking the goals away will lesson the stress. It is always good to have goals so perhaps your goal can be to relax and enjoy your writing. Perhaps doing a drabble or a snapshot once in a while will keep your muse stimulated but not overworked. From what I have seen drabbles can be fun. Maybe one of your new goals (cuz you seem like a goal oriented person) could be to have some fun with the words and that not every story has to be multiple chapters or overly fraught with deep meaning. I don’t mean that as a criticism since your stories are usually deep and have meaning…just that cute and fluffy isn’t a bad thing either.. as for the not wanting to disappoint anyone, I get what you mean but i think i used the wrong term or the wrong connotation. You don’t ‘owe’ us anything. I meant that as in i love reading your stories but I would totally understand your needing to take a break… hope this helps you a little because i would not want you to have any discomfort over your thoughts and feelings about the matter.

        • writer_klmeri

          I didn’t mean that I felt obligated to write stories. Not at all! I just don’t like to give up on things – which is where that feeling of disappointment comes from. You are right that I am a goal-oriented person. I like your idea to ‘have some fun’ and focus more on drabbles. That could be the solution to tackling this stress I’ve been feeling lately. Probably one of my biggest fears is having nothing to offer the fandom, which makes it even more convoluted that I’m too busy most of the time to offer a story. You see how it all builds? I still love writing. But with the parameters changing that affect my productivity, I think I really need to step back. And in stepping back, I can regroup and recharge?

          • hora_tio

            sounds like a plan to me….and as for the drabbles I know of another author who transitioned into them (not to say they will never do multi chapters again) just that they enjoy them and have a lot of fun with them i get what you mean with the disappointment thing but i think if you take a break ….regroup and then think of all the fun you can have with say something like ‘a day in the life of Pike with his son Jim”…..dear diary today i told my son the facts of life…it did not goes as planned…LOL

  2. natashasolten

    Congratulations on the word count, both this year’s and altogether. I think when writing becomes more stress than fun, it is time for a break. It’s all up to the individual here. But I believe in doing it for love. Fanfic especially falls into this category because there is no pay. But I also believe professional writers should love what they’re doing. If not, it can show in their work. If they don’t love what they are writing, why should the reader? There should be no guilt felt for taking a break. But you may find yourself surprised when inspiration will kidnap you out of nowhere and you find yourself furiously writing, then looking up all bleary-eyed and saying, “What did I just do?” (grin)

    • writer_klmeri

      Thanks. It can be really difficult to step back from something you’ve been so close for a long period of time without feeling guilty, but I’ll try my best!

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