thedeadparrot | Yearly Fic Wrap Up 2018

I was productive at the beginning of the year, and then I kind of decided that caring about hockey was more stressful than it was worth, and so I wandered off and didn't write much of anything until the latest monster took me (but I didn't finish it in 2018, so it doesn't count).

Hockey RPF

The Werewolf Prince's Husband (14252 words) - Everything about this fic is ridiculous. It started out ridiculously tropey in concept and then I kept adding in more and more tropes as I was writing it. It is a collection of tropes masquerading as a story, and I'm not sad about it at all.

The Werewolf Prince's Bachelor Party (4116 words) - Written in part because

silverandblue knows the easiest way to convince me to write something is blatant flattery and asked me to write something for her to record for

pod_together. Not as tropey as the original, but it does feature dudes being very bad at feelings and hopefully enough zingy dialogue to make reading it and listening to it a blast.

push and pull like a magnet do (5309 words) - Sometimes your id just asks you to write things. This was one of them.

H₂S (The Five Rings Mashup) (2195 words) - Kamikaze Remix story. I got this story to remix, and I was like 'wait, who?' But then I used Google and found out this former Pens fourth liner went to the Olympics, and the world-building of hockey witches was fun to play with, so this was cool.

X-Men

Knives Out (3980 words) - Rescued from the drafts folder. I just wanted more fanfic that explored how creepy Charles's telepathy really is, and so I just had him captured and drugged up a lot. I did try to shape some of that into an arc of some sort at one point, and it hung around the fic hoard because I felt like it needed more plot scaffolding. But then I reread it and was like 'nah, it doesn't.'

Leitmotif(s) of the year: Er, people being bad at communicating, maybe.
My best story of this year: The Werewolf Prince's Husband, almost by default.
My favorite story of this year: The Werewolf Prince's Husband, also almost by default, and because it features werewolf marriage of convenience, so it would be tough to beat even then.
Most popular story: The Werewolf Prince's Husband. Look, I only posted five stories this year, okay?
Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: The Werewolf Prince's Bachelor Party. I get that the podfic part may have thrown people, but everyone wanted wedding shenanigans!!!
Most fun story to write: The Werewolf Prince's Husband. Only. Five. Stories. This. Year.
Sexiest story: push and pull like a magnet do. This was mostly undiluted id.
Hardest story to write: Knives Out. It has literally been floating around since 2012. I kept prodding it over the years, trying to give it shape, and I like where it ended up well enough, but it took so much prodding.
Biggest Disappointment: Nah, this year was fine.
Biggest Surprise: Knives Out. I sometimes reread things in my fic hoard. Most of the time my reaction is, "yup, that's why I've never posted it." But this time I was like "hey, this is actually probably worth posting." That's definitely a surprise.
Story I haven't yet written, but intend to: I have this Kingsman Berlin fic that has consumed my soul for months. I have no idea what I'm up to after that, because it's just been all Berlin all the time. But I would love to write more this year. I just need to keep that spark alive.