2017 word count closed at:

This year I wrote and posted:
10 stories for an approximate total of 135,000 words. I’d feel concerned about that, but I knowingly wrote less in order to participate more in the fandom. How you ask? By spending nearly two months moving blogs/designing a website dedicated to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Figuring out podcasting. So yeah. Less words but more commitment. Go figure!

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?
Less. For an explanation, see above. I also meant to write some kind of gen TOS adventure epic… and basically gave all my writing energy to McSpirk again. Maybe it was simpler to focus on filling prompts from McSpirkHolidayFest. Thankfully those prompts still gave me the creative legroom to produce some fairly entertaining stories. Nonetheless I am a little miffed at myself for failing to start that gen epic until the tail-end of the year.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I knew I’d write a Mirror Universe story in the summer for McSpirkHolidayFest, but I didn’t know I would write a fluffy one. January ’17 Me would have laughed my present self out of the room. It was a neat surprise, though.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Grave or Gone. I adore ghost stories, so receiving a prompt about McCoy being literally haunted by the spirit of his father? I still grin like a fool, remembering how much fun it was to unravel that lovable doctor’s sanity. (What does that say about me, I wonder?)

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
To be honest, I am risk-averse by nature. And I will add here that after years of writing, I have fallen into a little niche of creating what I like: Triumvirate shenanigans. Whether hanging out, bantering, finding trouble, or experiencing a rough patch individually, as colleagues or as lovers, I just like finding new ways to show how amazing (and lovely and sweet) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy can be as a unit.

From my past year of writing, what was….
My best story of this year:
I don’t think I had one. Changing of the Guard was my favorite, but was it better than some of the others? Probably not. In other words, no best story for this year.

My most popular story of this year (based on comments/kudos):
Invitation for the Spellbound. Twice as many comments as the runner-up! But a story about McCoy reading minds, though due to mishap and a prickly witch? Of course that would be very popular.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Grave or Gone. But you know, people see angst warnings slapped all over a fic and many of them think nope, pass. That’s okay, truly. It was only a world of hurt and heartache for McCoy (and Kirk and Spock too) that they missed out on.

Most fun story to write:
You’re going to laugh but the Mirror Universe one, hands down. That’s due to all the family feels I threw in, making Changing of the Guard something vastly different than what was first conceived. Also, Pike being a badass out of his depth when dealing with anything Jim does never fails to warm my heart.

Story with the single sexiest moment:
All of the drabble Show Me the Money (or Not). Kirk was smoldering in this, which affected me as much as Spock and McCoy. Maybe that’s why I wrote it. I like smoldering!Kirk.

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story:
Haha. Nothing is wrong to me. Or wrong with me. Moving along.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Changing of the Guard came close to this, mainly because it’s a story about people who live in an universe they don’t like, where they feel they don’t quite fit in and seek some kind of change for themselves. Yet these people are also still shaped by their environment and their peers, so they are by no means ‘good’ in the truest sense of the word. I wanted their plight to affect the reader in a way that a Mirror Universe story normally doesn’t. To do that meant tweaking my perception of the characters I’m used to in order to make their MU counterparts simultaneously part of and an outsider in a rather cruel, callous place.

Hardest story to write:
Oh geez, can we not talk about it? Lost in Orbit tortures me even now. Just recently, I almost gave up and deleted the story from existence, following a month of struggling with a lack of motivation and an errant muse. Then, through the support and encouragement of some really great friends, I trudged my way through a third chapter. Clearly I thought I could write another masterpiece like Younger Than Stars. Instead this story seems to be anything but that. Ah well.

Biggest Disappointment:
None, thankfully. I am okay with each of my (completed) offerings in 2017.

Biggest Surprise:
Invitation for the Spellbound. You wouldn’t think mind-reading is a difficult plot device… but then again, if you want it to be taken seriously, you have to get the details right. Like McCoy finally getting a clue that he ‘hears’ things he shouldn’t. Like making his co-workers’ thoughts – which had to be in the vein of praising the doctor’s good qualities – cute without being silly. Overall, the story turned out better than I thought it would.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
Believe it or not, A Starship Sweet Affair. Sure it’s a silly story from beginning to end, but the story basically wrote itself, and quickly too. When I muse on why that might have been, I would say I personally was looking for something light-hearted, funny, and sweet at that time to remind me fun exists in the world. I’m often too busy to go looking for fun, so why not experience it through words instead?

Fic-writing goals for 2018:
Not to give up on Lost in Orbit, no matter how taxing working on the behemoth may be. Also, to write less trope-y material, even if I’m committed to a summer full of tropes (the topic of McSpirkHolidayFest’s Round Three for 2018). But, wait, can I also start a new AU fic? Isn’t AU a trope itself? Gah, who knows. Self, please just keep writing in 2018 and make it good!

Related Posts:

• 2021 Fic Recap – from October 28, 2022
• 2020 Fic Recap – from February 24, 2021
• 2019 Fic Recap – from February 22, 2020
• 2018 Fic Recap – from January 5, 2019
• 2013 Fic Recap – from January 4, 2014