End of 2022 Fandom Meme
Jan. 25th, 2023 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkrosaleenIf I post this before February, it doesn't count as late, right?
I posted 6 fics in 2022 (all for exchanges), the same number I posted in 2020. I was really disappointed with that number at the end of 2020, but I'm much less bothered now - I had enough real life shit bothering me in 2022 (and in 2020, obviously) that I'm happy to have posted even this much. With three years of hindsight, I posted some pretty good fic in 2020. In terms of how much I enjoyed writing fanfiction in 2022, I'd give myself a 7.7/10.
Fanworks I posted in 2022
It's Better People Love One Another
Ted Lasso, Keeley Jones/Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt
E, No Archive Warnings Apply, ~2000 words
Drink the Water of Life
Dune 2021, Paul Atreides/Lady Jessica
E, Creator Chose Not To Warn, ~1300 words
Shake the Disease
Stranger Things, Will Byers, Mind Flayer, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
M, Underage, Graphic Depictions of Violence, ~2100 words
Cloudbusting
Stranger Things, Max Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair
E, Underage, ~900 words
Team Spirit
Stranger Things, Max Mayfield/Eleven/Mike Wheeler
T, No Archive Warnings Apply, ~800 words
Only the Unseelie Deal In Absolutes
Star Wars Original Trilogy, Han Solo/Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker
T, No Archive Warnings Apply, ~450 words
End of Year Fandom Meme
Leitmotif(s) of the year
Four out of six feature magic/speculative science/supernatural elements enhancing a character's love life to either orgasmic or horrific results (or both). Three feature sex as a way to comfort someone having a shitty time.
My most popular story
"Drink the Water of Life" has the most hits, "Shake the Disease" has the most comment threads and most kudos, and "Shake the Disease" and "It's Better People" are tied for most bookmarks. Takeaways: explicit incest and/or underage always has very high hit counts compared to comments and bookmarks, but writing currently hot ships in currently hot fandoms helps too. And fandom is more into second person extreme underage guro than I realized.
My best story of this year
"Shake the Disease." It had an experimental, unreliable 2nd person narration that took some effort to pull off (even without the new season throwing in a GIANT PLOT TWIST that meant a certain character was radically different than the version I was in the middle of writing). I've been wanting to write the Mind Flayer fucking up Will's traumatized and sexually confused brain to a Depeche Mode soundtrack, and luckily I got an exchange assignment that allowed me to really go for it.
What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
See previous question.
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion
My least popular fic was "Only the Unseelie Deal in Absolutes," which doesn't surprise me because it's also the shortest and the only fandom more than a year old. I wouldn't exactly call it underappreciated, but it's a fun little AU piece. When Battleship called for a Fairies tag, my immediate thought was to translate the light and dark sides of the Force into seelie and unseelie fairies.
Story of mine the universe appreciated way more than I expected it to
I never would've guessed that sexually explicit erotic gore about a thirteen-year-old character written in the second person would be my most popular work by several metrics.
Biggest disappointment
I signed up for a Stranger Things big bang, got about 3k words into a post-canon Will/Mike/Eleven fic where Will goes to college in Seattle and becomes a long-haired grunge superfan, scrapped everything because it needed a different POV, then got super stressed at work and dropped out. At least I still have the playlist with all the Mudhoney, Babes in Toyland, and Soundgarden songs I discovered for the project.
Biggest surprise
Of course I knew that Stranger Things was returning this year, but when I got into the series in 2021 and the fandom had noticeably slowed down, I never would've guessed that in less than a year it'd be crashing through 2022 juggernaut ship lists (not with a ship I liked much, but whatever).
Hardest story to write
Nothing was super hard to write this year, although Battleship was pretty stressful and chaotic. I guess the big bang fic I rewrote three times to end up with about 3k words.
Sexiest story
"Drink the Water of Life," a trippy spice-addled mother/son incest fic. Body fluids are hot, sex under the influence is hot, mommy kink vibes are hot, body fluids being recycled into water that your son will drink as he mindreads your erotic thoughts of his father is hotter.
Truest story
"Team Spirit," because it's set in Boston at an NCAA sporting event.
Favorite title
"Cloudbusting." You ever think of a title so perfect that it works on several different levels and makes you feel like a genius? Cloudbusting is the title of an excellent track from Hounds of Love (the Kate Bush album with "Running Up That Hill"), the song lyrics are all about someone being a bright positive spot in a dark and hopeless moment, and cloudbusting is a practice where you aim big hard projectiles at clouds in order to force them to gush forth with rain. Perfect for a post season 4 Max/Lucas squirting fic.
Favorite opening line
From Shake the Disease: "You weren't interested in sex until you came back from the Upside Down." I love writing in second person, I love writing horror, and I love writing precocious fucked up sexuality.
Favorite closing line
From Drink the Water of Life: "Jessica rubs her son's back and waits for the stilltent to reclaim their water." I'm always into body fluids, but the fluid recycling technology of Dune adds delicious intimacy to two humans existing in the same tight space, especially when they're an unusually close mother and son.
Pairing/genre/fandom that I wrote that I never would have predicted last January
For the second year in a row, I'm fannish about one more femslash ship than I expected, because Max/Eleven (and all their assorted boyfriend-swapping poly ships) really got me when I rewatched Stranger Things. I wrote one Max/El/Mike fic last year, so it counts.
Writing risks and lessons learned
Writing ships and characters as soon as you get the itch to write for them is fun, and you end up with more written words, even if nothing gets to a state where it can be published. Sometimes it's better to binge watch and binge read and not worry about producing anything. Full-length freeform exchanges are more effort than they're worth.
Fandom goals
Here are the goals I made for 2022:
Don't sign up for any traditional exchanges, especially full-length freeform exchanges - fail, I signed up for Smut4Smut and Summer of Horror
Write and post two fics outside of an exchange - fail
Complete some of the media I'm halfway through so I can fandom without fear of spoilers - I have no memory of which media I intended to complete, but I completed some media last year, so we'll say pass
-Write some of the ships/characters I'm most inspired by while the inspiration is still fresh - yes!
Instead of goals, here's a list of things I'd like to write next year:
The Will Byers post-canon grunge fic
Will/Mike/Eleven baby OT3 set between seasons 2-3
Something gory for goreswap
More ageplay
More petplay
A juicy AU with lots of worldbuilding
Fucked up hot mess Shiv Roy domming her subby brothers
Baby dom Sam Obisanya domming slutty Jamie Tartt
Something for MCU now that I've finally seen Endgame
Something posted outside of an exchange/bang/event (a girl can hope)
I posted 6 fics in 2022 (all for exchanges), the same number I posted in 2020. I was really disappointed with that number at the end of 2020, but I'm much less bothered now - I had enough real life shit bothering me in 2022 (and in 2020, obviously) that I'm happy to have posted even this much. With three years of hindsight, I posted some pretty good fic in 2020. In terms of how much I enjoyed writing fanfiction in 2022, I'd give myself a 7.7/10.
Fanworks I posted in 2022
It's Better People Love One Another
Ted Lasso, Keeley Jones/Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt
E, No Archive Warnings Apply, ~2000 words
Drink the Water of Life
Dune 2021, Paul Atreides/Lady Jessica
E, Creator Chose Not To Warn, ~1300 words
Shake the Disease
Stranger Things, Will Byers, Mind Flayer, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
M, Underage, Graphic Depictions of Violence, ~2100 words
Cloudbusting
Stranger Things, Max Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair
E, Underage, ~900 words
Team Spirit
Stranger Things, Max Mayfield/Eleven/Mike Wheeler
T, No Archive Warnings Apply, ~800 words
Only the Unseelie Deal In Absolutes
Star Wars Original Trilogy, Han Solo/Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker
T, No Archive Warnings Apply, ~450 words
End of Year Fandom Meme
Leitmotif(s) of the year
Four out of six feature magic/speculative science/supernatural elements enhancing a character's love life to either orgasmic or horrific results (or both). Three feature sex as a way to comfort someone having a shitty time.
My most popular story
"Drink the Water of Life" has the most hits, "Shake the Disease" has the most comment threads and most kudos, and "Shake the Disease" and "It's Better People" are tied for most bookmarks. Takeaways: explicit incest and/or underage always has very high hit counts compared to comments and bookmarks, but writing currently hot ships in currently hot fandoms helps too. And fandom is more into second person extreme underage guro than I realized.
My best story of this year
"Shake the Disease." It had an experimental, unreliable 2nd person narration that took some effort to pull off (even without the new season throwing in a GIANT PLOT TWIST that meant a certain character was radically different than the version I was in the middle of writing). I've been wanting to write the Mind Flayer fucking up Will's traumatized and sexually confused brain to a Depeche Mode soundtrack, and luckily I got an exchange assignment that allowed me to really go for it.
What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
See previous question.
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion
My least popular fic was "Only the Unseelie Deal in Absolutes," which doesn't surprise me because it's also the shortest and the only fandom more than a year old. I wouldn't exactly call it underappreciated, but it's a fun little AU piece. When Battleship called for a Fairies tag, my immediate thought was to translate the light and dark sides of the Force into seelie and unseelie fairies.
Story of mine the universe appreciated way more than I expected it to
I never would've guessed that sexually explicit erotic gore about a thirteen-year-old character written in the second person would be my most popular work by several metrics.
Biggest disappointment
I signed up for a Stranger Things big bang, got about 3k words into a post-canon Will/Mike/Eleven fic where Will goes to college in Seattle and becomes a long-haired grunge superfan, scrapped everything because it needed a different POV, then got super stressed at work and dropped out. At least I still have the playlist with all the Mudhoney, Babes in Toyland, and Soundgarden songs I discovered for the project.
Biggest surprise
Of course I knew that Stranger Things was returning this year, but when I got into the series in 2021 and the fandom had noticeably slowed down, I never would've guessed that in less than a year it'd be crashing through 2022 juggernaut ship lists (not with a ship I liked much, but whatever).
Hardest story to write
Nothing was super hard to write this year, although Battleship was pretty stressful and chaotic. I guess the big bang fic I rewrote three times to end up with about 3k words.
Sexiest story
"Drink the Water of Life," a trippy spice-addled mother/son incest fic. Body fluids are hot, sex under the influence is hot, mommy kink vibes are hot, body fluids being recycled into water that your son will drink as he mindreads your erotic thoughts of his father is hotter.
Truest story
"Team Spirit," because it's set in Boston at an NCAA sporting event.
Favorite title
"Cloudbusting." You ever think of a title so perfect that it works on several different levels and makes you feel like a genius? Cloudbusting is the title of an excellent track from Hounds of Love (the Kate Bush album with "Running Up That Hill"), the song lyrics are all about someone being a bright positive spot in a dark and hopeless moment, and cloudbusting is a practice where you aim big hard projectiles at clouds in order to force them to gush forth with rain. Perfect for a post season 4 Max/Lucas squirting fic.
Favorite opening line
From Shake the Disease: "You weren't interested in sex until you came back from the Upside Down." I love writing in second person, I love writing horror, and I love writing precocious fucked up sexuality.
Favorite closing line
From Drink the Water of Life: "Jessica rubs her son's back and waits for the stilltent to reclaim their water." I'm always into body fluids, but the fluid recycling technology of Dune adds delicious intimacy to two humans existing in the same tight space, especially when they're an unusually close mother and son.
Pairing/genre/fandom that I wrote that I never would have predicted last January
For the second year in a row, I'm fannish about one more femslash ship than I expected, because Max/Eleven (and all their assorted boyfriend-swapping poly ships) really got me when I rewatched Stranger Things. I wrote one Max/El/Mike fic last year, so it counts.
Writing risks and lessons learned
Writing ships and characters as soon as you get the itch to write for them is fun, and you end up with more written words, even if nothing gets to a state where it can be published. Sometimes it's better to binge watch and binge read and not worry about producing anything. Full-length freeform exchanges are more effort than they're worth.
Fandom goals
Here are the goals I made for 2022:
Don't sign up for any traditional exchanges, especially full-length freeform exchanges - fail, I signed up for Smut4Smut and Summer of Horror
Write and post two fics outside of an exchange - fail
Complete some of the media I'm halfway through so I can fandom without fear of spoilers - I have no memory of which media I intended to complete, but I completed some media last year, so we'll say pass
-Write some of the ships/characters I'm most inspired by while the inspiration is still fresh - yes!
Instead of goals, here's a list of things I'd like to write next year:
The Will Byers post-canon grunge fic
Will/Mike/Eleven baby OT3 set between seasons 2-3
Something gory for goreswap
More ageplay
More petplay
A juicy AU with lots of worldbuilding
Fucked up hot mess Shiv Roy domming her subby brothers
Baby dom Sam Obisanya domming slutty Jamie Tartt
Something for MCU now that I've finally seen Endgame
Something posted outside of an exchange/bang/event (a girl can hope)
