My heart bleeded, girl

I'm not doing the usual template this year because there are too many of those questions I can never answer well.

I wrote a lot this year. Pretty much double what I usually write. I signed up for every challenge that came down the road, I think. I've long given up pretending that I'm going to write without challenges, so that's fine. And it's comforting to do the same challenges, to find the rhythm of the year, starting with picfor1000 in February, through j2_everafter, spn_j2_bigbang, spn_meanttobe and spn_reversebang, on through insmallpackages and the popslash secret Santa. I find I like that. And this year I did some challenges I've not done before, like spn_summergen and spn_cinema, and there were new challenges that I did, like the Sam and Dean Minibang and 50states_spn.

I was very happy with my Big Bang this year, it was a rare home run, the kind of writing experience that makes me keep writing. I didn't have my usual post-BB let-down/dry spell, which was wonderful. I struggled with some stories, posted a few that I know could have been much better had I not given up.

I wrote a lot less sex this year and a lot more fade to black. Part of that was laziness, part of that is my feeling that I've written and read every kind of sex scene I could possibly be interested in, kind of a "been there, done that" feeling. Mostly it was just laziness, I think. Writing sex is hard, yo.

I think AO3 has made a difference in the amount of feedback I get, and there have been endless discussions of the "kudos" button, but I like getting a response to what I post, whatever form that response takes.

I think each and every one of my titles were song lyrics, or taken from some quote or another.

So...

Feb. 14
Faster, Faster, Faster for picfor1000. Danny/Chin. 1000 words.

This turned out to be the only H5O I wrote, except for a tiny 2.10 coda, which surprised me. I thought I'd write a lot of that this year, but I didn't. I started to write a couple of others, but my interest waned. I could blame Season 2, but that didn't start until September. I adore Steve, Danny, Chin and Kono, but found it hard to find something to say about them.

Feb. 18
Did I fall in love or did I find disaster? 9838 words.

J2, written for j2_everafter. Loosely based on Chicken Little. After managing to claim Cinderella in 2010, and then realizing that even if I was ever fast enough to snag Sleeping Beauty I'd rather explore that through Sam and Dean, I decided to choose lesser known Disney movies from now on. (That would certainly explain the fact that even as we speak I'm struggling to figure out what the hell I was thinking when I claimed The Apple Dumpling Gang for this year's challenge.)

Anyhoo, this one veers perilously close to crack, or at least silliness. Jensen is completely neurotic, and I had the best time ever writing it. This is also the story that several folks at the anonymeme trashed because they said I was Jared-bashing when I mentioned his GINORMOUS FOREHEAD.

Feb. 28
I wrote popslash for popsoundboard's Brave Author Challenge. Every time I say "never again," but those SBDs of my heart keep pulling me back in. (SBD=Sparkly Dance Boys, in case anyone was wondering.)

NKOTBSBWTF? 2770 words. Chris/Lance, my beloved Trickyfish. It also includes my favorite kind of Justin, the one who is bordering on insane and is easily mocked by Chris and Joey.


June 13
There's quite a gap between February and June, but I was doing a lot of writing in that time, working on Big Bang and fighting with the spn_cinema story I wanted to write.

This one was for spnspringfling, for embroiderama.

And Rivet by Rivet. 1599 words. Sam/Dean, and scars.

July 21
spn_j2_bigbang. We Will Organize Our Children 43,109 words.

I've written a lot of stories over the years, and there are a handful that were such joy to write, that I was eager to write, couldn’t keep myself from working on them, that were pure pleasure. Stories that I think are really, really good. I can think of maybe four or five like that. This was one of them.

The summary doesn't really sum up the story, it sums up what story the story told, if that makes sense outside my head. This is John and his boys, year by year, and it is the story of my heart. One of them, anyway. :)

The art by alchemise was both gorgeous and exactly what I wanted.

It was probably my least read story, I would imagine. The summary was apparently off-putting, it was gen, it was long, it was about John. I want everybody to read it, because it's my love letter to John, but it makes me so happy that I wasn't bothered by the paucity of feedback. It's what I expected, and I was happy to get what I did. The story still makes me happy to even think about it.

Sept. 3
To the place I belong. 4819 words.

This one was written for spn_summergen, also for embroiderama.

Sam and Dean quit hunting and settle down. Curtain!fic. Bobby. I love it and am currently working on a couple of timestamps, which I almost never do, because once a story is done, it's done, but I like this 'verse.

Oct. 11
I will build for my family a bulletproof love. 11,572 words.

Written for the Sam and Dean Minibang for samdean_otp. There was lovely art by salty_catfish.

Sam and Dean, season 2, set during Everybody Loves a Clown. This is one of the ones I struggled with, one of the ones that made me decide a minimum word count, at least for a first draft, is not something I really like. It turned out okay, but it's not one of my favorites.

Oct. 12
I see great things in baseball. 8264 words.

Written for spn_meanttobe. J2 baseball AU, where Jared owns a minor league baseball team and Jensen is his assistant. So much fun to write, and pretty popular, at least at AO3.

Nov. 6
Catch me a Catch. 1853 words.

Sam/Dean. In which Bobby plays matchmaker. Written for a prompt for laurificus's 7.06 Reunionating Comment Fic Meme.

Nov. 9
An untitled J3 ficlet that I wrote for topaz119 for her birthday. 511 words. I should think of a title and get it on AO3, just for the sake of completion.

Nov. 14
Passing on the Lefthand Side. 10,877 words

Written for spn_cinema. J2 version of Same Time, Next Year. Man, did I struggle with this one. I started it for the April round of the challenge and just couldn't get it right and ended up finishing it for the November round. But I was happy with the way it finally turned out, after I let it sit for several months. In fact, I think it's the second-best story I wrote this year. I didn't expect a lot of people to read it, because it's all about infidelity, but I was surprised that it did get read. It was probably the riskiest thing I wrote this year.

Nov. 17
Baby, You're so Real. 5694 words.

Written for spn_reversebang. Sam/Dean, body swap, inspired by awesome art from violetraindrop.

Nov. 29
Yikes, I almost forgot this one. A H50 ficlet that I wrote for powrhug. 325 words. A 2.10 coda. Jenna, Danny and Steve.

Dec. 5
I wrote a Suits drabble for insmallpackages. 100 words, Mike/Harvey, but mostly Donna.

Dec. 23
Is that a brief in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?. 1265 words.

Suits again, again for insmallpackages. Mike/Harvey. Three times Mike hits on Harvey accidentally, one time he does it on purpose. There's nothing like writing in a new fandom - it's gotten almost 800 hits on AO3 and 51 kudos. And that's in one week. O.o I like Suits, but don't expect to write much more of it. This was unexpected, actually.

Dec. 30
Waltz of the Flowers for 50states_spn. 3211 words. I let this sit all month and then finally finished these past few days. I completely made up the folklore and it's almost farcical, but I kind of like it a lot. Sam/Dean.

I also wrote 2600 words for the popslash secret Santa exchange, Make the Yuletide Gay, and I have about 3000 words in WIPs.

That's a total of around 112,400 words. Two H50, two popslash, two Suits, seven SPN, and three J2 stories. I thought I wrote a lot more J2, but I guess that's because I spent so much time thinking about Passing on the Lefthand Side.

For 2012, I'd like to keep writing, and maybe try some original fic. I don't think I'm done with Sam and Dean, and I'd like to write more about some of the other characters on the show. It's not like there's a dearth of them. We'll see. I've already signed up for picfor1000.