write like you need it to survive

Scope note: I am including the WIP I completed this year, which will also appear in the previous year during which chapters were posted, if I ever get around to making a fic year in review post for that year. Stories posted for 2022 Christmas fic exchanges are included in this post.

In 2022 I posted 17 stories, including the concluding chapters of one WIP begun in 2021, for a total of over 104,000 words of fic posted in four fandoms. This was a pretty average number of stories for the past several years (since 2017, I've posted 12-18 stories per year) and a bit of a bounce back from last year's total of less than 82,000 words of fic posted. Weirdly, my word count total for 2022 was within a hundred words of my total from 2007, when I was, uh... working full time, in grad school, and shoveling most of my writing into a story I wouldn't post until the following year. 2022... also had its challenges, but I continue to regard it as The Year My Writing Came Back From The War, so I am pretty pleased all in all.

I actually wrote over 155,000 words of fic this year, with most of the unposted word count going to the Sandman Nightmare Apocalypse AU I started as a Nanowrimo project which... only needs another 80K or so, so... it could get finished in 2023? Maybe??

Story titles this year quoted The Mountain Goats, Taylor Swift, Rainier Maria Rilke, Beck, Swedish synth-pop duo The Knife, U2, T.S. Eliot and Sammy Cahn, who I have just this moment learned was the lyricist responsible for "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"

( Fic List )

( Fic Review Meme )

Scope note: I am including the WIPs I’ve posted to AO3 this year, and will also include them in future Years in Review for years in which new chapters are posted. Stories posted for Yuletide 2018 are included in this post.

In 2018 I posted 13 complete stories and added chapters to two ongoing WIPs, for a total of over 284,000 words of fic posted in four fandoms. That is the fewest different stories I've posted in a complete year of fic-writing, ever, but, uh, one of them was the lion's share of TINSOB, so.

I actually wrote just over 211,000 words of fic in 2018 (most of TINSOB was written before this year, but otoh I wrote the remaining TINSOB chapters and most of Slavefic #6 and haven't posted them yet, so.) My worst month was March, when I wrote less than 3,000 words of fic in the entire month (and then I got on some new brain meds) and my best month was October, when I wrote over 30,000 (helloooo Venom fandom!)

This year’s titles quoted from The Mountain Goats (3), T. S. Eliot, Alan Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Daft Punk, Dan Fogelberg, and Linkin Park.

(Fic list and a bunch of meme questions under the cut)

( Fic List )

( Fic Review Meme )

Scope note: Anonymous exchange fics are included in the Year in Review for the year in which they were revealed, so this post includes my Yuletide 2016 story, which was revealed before midnight on December 31 in my time zone. I am including the two WIPs I've posted to AO3 this year, and will also include them in future Years in Review for years in which new chapters are posted.

This year I posted 20 complete stories + 2 WIPs in 3 fandoms totalling just over 235,000 words, which made for a possibly even more mono-fannish year than last year, which was my most mono-fannish to date. I am getting fandom-monogamous in my old age, apparently. (I mean. Apart from writing gay werewolves for money, and so on.)

This year's titles quoted from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2), Dan Fogelberg (2), Bleachers, Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Alan Jackson, Mission: Impossible, The Mountain Goats, Stan Rogers, Taylor Swift, and X Ambassadors.

( Fic list )

( Fic review meme )

Scope note: Anonymous exchange fics are included in the Year in Review for the year in which they were revealed, so this post includes my Yuletide 2013 stories, revealed on January 1, 2014. To my surprise, it also includes my Yuletide 2014 story, which was revealed before midnight in my time zone on December 31, 2014.

This year I posted 32 stories in 10 fandoms totaling a little over 407,000 words, which surprised me--it topped the total for 2008, the year I posted Missing Persons, which accounted for 250,000 words all by itself. I didn't have one such enormous story this year, but one novel-length and six novella-length fics plus assorted mid-length stories add up, apparently.

Titles this year were quoted from The Mountain Goats (4), Paul Stookey, Guys & Dolls, Fiona Apple, The Decemberists, Shakira, Fall Out Boy, Dar Williams, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, U2, Josh Ritter, and The Police.

( Fic List )

( Fic Review Meme )

Scope note: Anonymous exchange fics are included in the Year in Review for the year in which they were revealed, so this post includes my Yuletide 2011 stories, revealed on January 1, 2012. My stories for Yuletide 2012 and tw_holidays will be in the 2013 Fic Year in Review.

This year I posted 41 stories in about 7 fandoms, totaling about 170,000 words. Plus one orphaned fic-snippet thing.

( Fic List )

( Fic Review Meme )

Scope note: Yuletide fics are included in the Year in Review for the year in which they were revealed, so this post includes my Yuletide 2009 story, revealed on January 1, 2010. Yuletide 2010 fics will be in the 2011 Fic Year in Review.

(Why yes, I am a librarian, if not a cataloger.)

This year I wrote 22 stories in 11 fandoms totaling a little over 110,000 words.

( Fic List )

( Fic Review Meme )

Which is to say: with less than ten hours left, I am prepared to admit that I have posted all the fic I'm going to post yet. And I must say, it's been a pretty good year.

( 2008 Fic year in review. )

I guess now that it's 2007, I have to surrender the hope that I'll post more fic in 2006. So:

( 2006 Fic Year in Review )

And! All is now revealed for yuletide! So I can say an official and public and madly squeeful thanks to greensilver, for my beautiful beautiful Yuletide Standoff story, One Up, complete with (oh my god, so cool, how did I not mention this before?) a certain FBI agent named Granger in a supporting role. :) Thank you again!!


As for me, I wrote Anna and Everything After for rivkat, based on the book Anna to the Infinite Power, which I confess I had never heard of before I got my request. You see, I wrote for rivkat last year, too, a Johnny/Bruce Dead Zone story, and we were matched on the very same offer and request this year, but I quailed at the thought of trying to write the same pairing again and remain even a little anonymous, so I decided to pick up a new fandom. Wheeeee!

untrue_accounts was my kind and helpful beta on this one! Thanks, Melymbrosia!

I also wrote The Beautiful Lull for ishyko, a Reign of Fire Queen/Creedy story. The title comes from the first line of a Tragically Hip song called "Gift Shop," which will make sense if you read the story. *g*

iuliamentis betaed this one for me on short notice, because she is awesome. Thanks, Iulia!

pearl_o did it, so I should too.

( So, I wrote a bunch of stories in 2004. )

Of these...

The best is Sunday's Child. I think. Maybe. 'Best' sort of freaks me out. This meme took me the entire morning and then I made some semi-arbitrary decisions about these categories.

My favorite is The Way He Should Go. Which. Likewise.

The sexiest is Saturday at the Garage. Probably?

The fic with the single sexiest moment... I'm taking the fifth.

The most underappreciated is Wept and I am only going to say this once: Kink is not a scary word. Now go read it.

The hardest to write was either Code-Switching, which came early in my porn-writing career and required me to figure out a lot of stuff about the way the relationship arc of the hockeyfic was going to work, in order to keep it in continuity while writing way out of order, or Seen and Unseen, because when I gave iuliamentis the first draft, she declared it boring and demanded a complete rewrite. I've, uh. Actually had a pretty easy writing year.

elephant? corner? hm?

Because the year-in-review fic meme is ALL about bibliographic control. Yes it is.

I wrote two stories in 2002:

Small Mercies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike and Xander, S7 gen)

and

At a Glance (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike/Xander futurefic)