The Year in Fanfiction Memes
Dec. 27th, 2009 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBecause it's that time of the year again
January
Betraying Londo to Turhan would have prevented the war; Vir remained silent.
Collection of one sentence Babylon 5 stories.
February
“You want me to hypnotize you?” the Doctor repeated, amazed.
Surprises, Doctor Who.
March
No story at all!
April
She barely notices Baltar’s presence in the raptor back to Galactica, until he starts to talk, asking her to intercede for Gaeta with the Admiral.
The Quality of Mercy, Battlestar Galactica.
May
No story!
June
Garibaldi knew she was trouble from the moment he first saw her.
The Big Sleep, Battlestar Galactica/Babylon 5
July
The first time Arandis saw Curzon Dax, she was less than impressed.
Fear No More, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
August
Usually, Henry wasn’t good at predicting what any given phone call from Tony Stark would be about.
Proportionate Responses, The Order/Iron Man
September
Death by oxygen deprivation was supposed to get you high.
Proserpina, Returning, Babylon 5
October
No story!
November
No story!
December
The civil service was ever present.
Christmas Tales, Torchwood
Conclusions: same amount of fanfiction as last year, which is to say, not so much; this was the Return To the Space Stations nostalgia year for me, fanfiction-wise, with DW and TW ongoing current fandoms, as well as some BSG. Also, I overuse "the first time X saw Y".
Moving on to
Favorite story this year: Fear No More (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.). It started out with a headache of a remix assignment, because the writer I was assigned to mostly wrote drabbles or rather short fic, and the one longer one I could see promising was off limits. But then I reread the stories again and my imp of the perverse (akaselenak's thing for fannish underdogs) struck. One of the ficlets was set during one of the most unpopular DS9 episodes of all times, He who is without sin..., and was a missing scene between Jadzia Dax and Arandis (lover of Dax' previous host Curzon). Now, Curzon is probably the DS9 character who died before the pilot and we still know most about, but one episode where he's merged with Odo aside, we never actually "meet" him. Lo and behold, several challenges grabbed me at once. 1.) Dax character exploration via Curzon, 2.) exploration of a sexual relationship between an old and a much younger party which doesn't gloss about age and everything that comes with it the way both fan and pro fic often does, 3.) wrapping this up with somewhat reversed roles when Arandis meets Jadzia later, which flows in the original story. Once I had this, I couldn't stop writing. Which resulted in one of my lenghthier fanfics to date, as well as the one I'm proudest of this year.
My best story this year: Either Fear No More as well, or my Yuletide story (name to be inserted post-reveal). I'm usually short on plots and long on dialogue or inner monologue, but with these two, something actually happens while there is simultanous character exploration, and I'm happy with the language as well.
Most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Well, neither Fear No More nor The Big Sleep had many readers, but then, one has a dead and a one shot character in its centre and the other is a crossover attempting to combine two insanely complicated mythologies, so I'm not that surprised.
Most fun story: Surprises (Doctor Who). Because Jo Grant always makes me smile, and she and Three are lovely to write for.
Sexiest story: Hm, usually I just reply "I fail at sex", but this year I actually wrote one story with flirtation (The Big Sleep) - because flirting is Ellen Tigh's default mode, and the banter between her and Garibaldi was fun to write - and one where sex, age and the different takes on it are important characterisation elements, Fear No More. I don't think either is sexy in the "wow, that's hot!" manner but sex is definitely there. Err, it's up to the reader?
"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: The Big Sleep (Battlestar Galactica/Babylon 5). I'm quite proud of the Morden = Cavil and Ellen cutting deals with Shadows and Vorlons both ideas, you know. *veg*
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: The Quality of Mercy, which among several other reasons I wrote as a series of missing scenes for Laura Roslin in the last half of season 4, in a way that was supposed to be both canon-compliant yet indicative of the woman she used to be before all her scenes were with or about Bill Adama. I knew one of the scenes would be with Gaius Baltar, because that particular relationship always fascinated me, and I wanted a scene with Laura and Tory to flesh out the later somewhat. But I didn't know what the other encounters wold be about, or with whom. Then after I finished the Baltar scene the idea of Laura Roslin and Caprica Six in sick bay at the same time hit me, and suddenly I knew I also had a way more logical explanation for Six' miscarriage than the one implied on screen. Plus it was a way to tie in what Caprica did in the mini. This section turned out to be by far the most popular, with just a single commentator questioning whether or not Laura Roslin would order the death of an embryo she considered a threat to the human race. (I never doubted she would. The only reason Hera survived to be born, after all, was because Baltar came up with a way that tied her survival to Laura's in Epiphanies.) And once I had written this, I knew the last section would be with Ellen asking Laura for a funeral for Tory, Boomer and Cavil. At the end of which I was in a zen state about Laura Roslin and several season 4.5 issues, having reconciled them with my earlier impressions of the character.
Hardest story to do: Clean-up Operations. I loved, loved, loved Torchwood: Children of Earth, and pretty soon afterwards wrote my Alice and Jack background ficlet, Consanguinitas. But background prequel stuff was one thing; a follow-up that wouldn't trivialize what had happened another. Yet I absolutely wanted more of Johnson and Alice in particular, whose scenes together had fascinated me, and after waiting for the story I wanted to read to be written proved fruitless. So I did what one always should do, and wrote it myself. Right at the start, I became aware of another problem, to wit, that Johnson was quite similar to a Marvelverse favourite of mine, Abigail Brand. And suddenly I felt inhibited and afraid people would think I was writing Johnson as a Brand clone. So I stopped. And started again, because I really wanted to tell that story. In the end, I'm pretty happy with the result.
Biggest surprise: My Yuletide story of mystery. (Will insert the title here later, after the reveal.) I had thrown in that particular fandom as a last minute thought among the fandoms I was willing to write in when I saw it on the list, so when I got my assignment, and it wasn't for B5 or Crusade or a Marvelverse fandom but this one, colour me stunned. But in a good way. As it happens, I did write some meta posts about the, err, fandom in question, but never a story. I first had a different idea as to what I'd write about, but this idea proved to be more of a plotless gag and was quickly abandoned. Then I went back to the source, browsed through it, and it hit me: what if spoilery character X did spoilery thing Y instead of resigning? And couldn't I then also use the general theme of Z in a complete turnaround way, plus use canon characters V and W? In a word, the muse talked, and I was soon busy scribbling.
Most revealing story: About a character, probably Proserpina, Returning, my Elizabeth Lochley portrait for the Matrithon. I've always liked Lochley, but this was my first serious character exploration of her. About me as a writer, Fear No More (because it's based on one of the most disliked DS9 episodes in fandom, see above;skywaterblue told me that this alone gave away my authorship).
A story I want remembered: All of them. I'm vain that way.
January
Betraying Londo to Turhan would have prevented the war; Vir remained silent.
Collection of one sentence Babylon 5 stories.
February
“You want me to hypnotize you?” the Doctor repeated, amazed.
Surprises, Doctor Who.
March
No story at all!
April
She barely notices Baltar’s presence in the raptor back to Galactica, until he starts to talk, asking her to intercede for Gaeta with the Admiral.
The Quality of Mercy, Battlestar Galactica.
May
No story!
June
Garibaldi knew she was trouble from the moment he first saw her.
The Big Sleep, Battlestar Galactica/Babylon 5
July
The first time Arandis saw Curzon Dax, she was less than impressed.
Fear No More, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
August
Usually, Henry wasn’t good at predicting what any given phone call from Tony Stark would be about.
Proportionate Responses, The Order/Iron Man
September
Death by oxygen deprivation was supposed to get you high.
Proserpina, Returning, Babylon 5
October
No story!
November
No story!
December
The civil service was ever present.
Christmas Tales, Torchwood
Conclusions: same amount of fanfiction as last year, which is to say, not so much; this was the Return To the Space Stations nostalgia year for me, fanfiction-wise, with DW and TW ongoing current fandoms, as well as some BSG. Also, I overuse "the first time X saw Y".
Moving on to
Favorite story this year: Fear No More (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.). It started out with a headache of a remix assignment, because the writer I was assigned to mostly wrote drabbles or rather short fic, and the one longer one I could see promising was off limits. But then I reread the stories again and my imp of the perverse (aka
selenak's thing for fannish underdogs) struck. One of the ficlets was set during one of the most unpopular DS9 episodes of all times, He who is without sin..., and was a missing scene between Jadzia Dax and Arandis (lover of Dax' previous host Curzon). Now, Curzon is probably the DS9 character who died before the pilot and we still know most about, but one episode where he's merged with Odo aside, we never actually "meet" him. Lo and behold, several challenges grabbed me at once. 1.) Dax character exploration via Curzon, 2.) exploration of a sexual relationship between an old and a much younger party which doesn't gloss about age and everything that comes with it the way both fan and pro fic often does, 3.) wrapping this up with somewhat reversed roles when Arandis meets Jadzia later, which flows in the original story. Once I had this, I couldn't stop writing. Which resulted in one of my lenghthier fanfics to date, as well as the one I'm proudest of this year. My best story this year: Either Fear No More as well, or my Yuletide story (name to be inserted post-reveal). I'm usually short on plots and long on dialogue or inner monologue, but with these two, something actually happens while there is simultanous character exploration, and I'm happy with the language as well.
Most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Well, neither Fear No More nor The Big Sleep had many readers, but then, one has a dead and a one shot character in its centre and the other is a crossover attempting to combine two insanely complicated mythologies, so I'm not that surprised.
Most fun story: Surprises (Doctor Who). Because Jo Grant always makes me smile, and she and Three are lovely to write for.
Sexiest story: Hm, usually I just reply "I fail at sex", but this year I actually wrote one story with flirtation (The Big Sleep) - because flirting is Ellen Tigh's default mode, and the banter between her and Garibaldi was fun to write - and one where sex, age and the different takes on it are important characterisation elements, Fear No More. I don't think either is sexy in the "wow, that's hot!" manner but sex is definitely there. Err, it's up to the reader?
"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: The Big Sleep (Battlestar Galactica/Babylon 5). I'm quite proud of the Morden = Cavil and Ellen cutting deals with Shadows and Vorlons both ideas, you know. *veg*
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: The Quality of Mercy, which among several other reasons I wrote as a series of missing scenes for Laura Roslin in the last half of season 4, in a way that was supposed to be both canon-compliant yet indicative of the woman she used to be before all her scenes were with or about Bill Adama. I knew one of the scenes would be with Gaius Baltar, because that particular relationship always fascinated me, and I wanted a scene with Laura and Tory to flesh out the later somewhat. But I didn't know what the other encounters wold be about, or with whom. Then after I finished the Baltar scene the idea of Laura Roslin and Caprica Six in sick bay at the same time hit me, and suddenly I knew I also had a way more logical explanation for Six' miscarriage than the one implied on screen. Plus it was a way to tie in what Caprica did in the mini. This section turned out to be by far the most popular, with just a single commentator questioning whether or not Laura Roslin would order the death of an embryo she considered a threat to the human race. (I never doubted she would. The only reason Hera survived to be born, after all, was because Baltar came up with a way that tied her survival to Laura's in Epiphanies.) And once I had written this, I knew the last section would be with Ellen asking Laura for a funeral for Tory, Boomer and Cavil. At the end of which I was in a zen state about Laura Roslin and several season 4.5 issues, having reconciled them with my earlier impressions of the character.
Hardest story to do: Clean-up Operations. I loved, loved, loved Torchwood: Children of Earth, and pretty soon afterwards wrote my Alice and Jack background ficlet, Consanguinitas. But background prequel stuff was one thing; a follow-up that wouldn't trivialize what had happened another. Yet I absolutely wanted more of Johnson and Alice in particular, whose scenes together had fascinated me, and after waiting for the story I wanted to read to be written proved fruitless. So I did what one always should do, and wrote it myself. Right at the start, I became aware of another problem, to wit, that Johnson was quite similar to a Marvelverse favourite of mine, Abigail Brand. And suddenly I felt inhibited and afraid people would think I was writing Johnson as a Brand clone. So I stopped. And started again, because I really wanted to tell that story. In the end, I'm pretty happy with the result.
Biggest surprise: My Yuletide story of mystery. (Will insert the title here later, after the reveal.) I had thrown in that particular fandom as a last minute thought among the fandoms I was willing to write in when I saw it on the list, so when I got my assignment, and it wasn't for B5 or Crusade or a Marvelverse fandom but this one, colour me stunned. But in a good way. As it happens, I did write some meta posts about the, err, fandom in question, but never a story. I first had a different idea as to what I'd write about, but this idea proved to be more of a plotless gag and was quickly abandoned. Then I went back to the source, browsed through it, and it hit me: what if spoilery character X did spoilery thing Y instead of resigning? And couldn't I then also use the general theme of Z in a complete turnaround way, plus use canon characters V and W? In a word, the muse talked, and I was soon busy scribbling.
Most revealing story: About a character, probably Proserpina, Returning, my Elizabeth Lochley portrait for the Matrithon. I've always liked Lochley, but this was my first serious character exploration of her. About me as a writer, Fear No More (because it's based on one of the most disliked DS9 episodes in fandom, see above;
skywaterblue told me that this alone gave away my authorship). A story I want remembered: All of them. I'm vain that way.
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