year in fic: 2022

[sword_logic]

word count for posted works: 19,092 words
word count for unposted works (incl. wip): 21,457 words
total word count: 40,549 words

pretty writing-light year for me, not entirely sure why; so it goes, though, i guess. i wrote a lot in both 2020 and 2021 so i suppose it's natural to have a bit of a fallow year. and what a way to end the year too — S11 au sequel cooking in the oven. i may never actually be free of that goddamn show.

steam, fill shape, share
haikyuu!!, 1,806 words, rated G — posted 2/27/22

this was a castoff from plate tectonics that had enough chutzpah to stand on its own. this (and plate tectonics, too) was really kind of a meditation on loneliness.

plate tectonics
haikyuu!!, 14,631 words, rated T — posted 4/30/22

this fic fought me every god damn inch of the way. when i was tallying up my unposted word count, i found 3,121 words in my deleted fragments doc from this fic. i'm happy with how it turned out!

ontologies
bleach, grimmjow/ichigo, ichigo & kon, rated G — posted 11/5/22

TYBW's release pulled this one out of me. the TYBW anime has been absolutely incredible so far and i can't wait to lose my whole ass when our beloved Catte makes his dramatic re-entrance.

i realized as i was writing out the list of published works that i published two G-rated fics this year (one of which was genfic), which feels so unusual. my stuff generally hovers around teen. oh well! i also didn't write any destiny fic this year for the first time since 2018, i think. that feels strange. but this year has been tumultuous, i haven't spent a lot of time playing the game, and there's been some lore i feel :| about too. so it goes.

in any case, the usual meme!

1) What’s your personal favourite thing you wrote this year?

ooh, this is a difficult one. i feel like i generally tend to be most excited about the newest thing i've worked on, and right now that's what i'm feeling — writing in the S11 AU version of chorus just feels like coming home at this point.

wait, no, i have a better answer: this one goes to a fic that i wrote with the intention of not posting it. it's unfinished and will remain unfinished. it veers wildly around everywhere. it was very, very fun and satisfying to write.

2) What’s your least favourite thing you wrote this year?

hmm. i don't know. i started and stopped a few things around summertime when i felt the "oh god i should be writing" feeling and they all felt... not good. so i guess that, as a category, is my least favorite thing.

3) Which of your fics was most different from what you usually write?

aforementioned "i plan on not posting this" fic was pretty different, both in the plan to not post it and the contents of it. it's a pretty silly and superficial fic; i'm not really Saying Anything with it. that's fine. that's why i liked it a lot.

4) Which of your fics this year was most successful?

i think this has to go to the Not Posted fic again. it got me writing when i'd been in a long drought for a few months.

5) Which of your fics do you wish was more successful?

this is sidestepping the question slightly, but i wish that plate tectonics hadn't fought me so hard. when i was tallying up my word count, i scrolled through the doc where i'd shoved all my cut fragments and there was some really good stuff in there. i wish i'd been able to incorporate that all successfully.

6) What’s your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote this year? 7) What’s your favourite piece of description or narration?

combining these two answers because it's the same snippet for both this year:

“You’re not him,” Grimmjow repeats, his voice pitched lower as he crowds close. Kon knew, in some part of his mind, that this might happen somehow; he’s seen Grimmjow and Nel at the Kurosakis’ front door, unmasked and boxed in by their fake bodies, but the possibility stumbling into one of them on the street like one of Ichigo’s old high school classmates had only ever existed as something distant and vague. Kon inhales a pinched breath and feels his vision waver as he stares up. Ichigo isn’t short; maybe Kon is just too used to viewing the world from a height of about six inches, maybe he’s just shrinking back into the hedge like a bird before a fox, maybe Grimmjow is just too tall and too strong and— “You’re not alive.”

Fury erupts in Kon’s borrowed chest. He’s alive. He’s alive. He’s alive because of Ichigo. And he knows for a fact that the same is true for the being that stands before him.

“I’m more alive than you,” Kon spits back, and shoves uselessly at the fist holding him in place. Grimmjow’s arm is like iron.

8) Which fic this year was most fun to write?

i am having a BLAST working on this sequel to S11 AU (or maybe this is finally the year that i start calling the fic by its title). it feels like coming home in so many ways: not just because this fandom has been part of me for so long and refuses to let me let go, but also because i get to sink back into halo at the same time. hey, maybe this'll get me to finally play infinite.

9) If you could go back and change something about one of the fics you wrote this year, what would it be?

this is much more vague and much less actionable than the way i've answered this in the past, but i wish that plate tectonics hadn't been so difficult for me to write. i wish i could snap my fingers and change the amount of energy it sucked out of me.

10) What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year?

this question is getting harder to answer. there's a particular structure i want to try for S11 AU sequel and wrangling that has made for an interesting week of planning, so maybe once i finish this project i'll try being more intentional with structure for the next one, too.