[Check-In/Wrap-Up]

[kalloway]

Just a reminder - this is your community, too. Feel free to use it to ask for advice, vent, commiserate, celebrate, etc.


Awesome! We did it! One Dead Plotbunny 2014 is over~ Feel free to check-in with your weekly stuff or everything from the year, if you'd like!


We will be rolling on into the 2015 project over the weekend, after some advertising and whatnot in a few places. Feel free to advertise on your own as well! (we have a banner here)


If you have a deadline coming up, you can do it! If you need a deadline, feel free to ask!

Comments

[kalloway]

I've had a lot of family stuff (ill parent) the last couple weeks, work, new semester of school, so I've not been doing much writing, but the last year overall has been great.

I managed some amazing work on my website - the sort of stuff I didn't know I could get done. Now I just need to relax, find a groove (I'm working less crazy hours than ever before in my life), and get stuff done.

And not get caught in my EPIC YAK SHAVING/RESEARCH SPIRALS...

[ravengown]

Yak shaving is the woooorst it feels so useless. But I'm glad work has stabilized \o/ And seeing you sort out all your website stuff was really inspiring!

[silverr]

Yeah, you have definitely been through some Bumpy Ride lately.

*hands cushion for sore tush*

[taichara]

Past year has seen my lowest creative ebb in yeeeaaaars but I did manage to get the third self-pub out for what that was worth; the vast majority of the contents, mind you, are from previous years' actual work. I also finished a bigbang (note to self: those end in misery every time except one, stop bloody doing them), one original work of ~15k, and some feeble tinkering here and there.

I need to stare down next month and hit a deadline, and get some ducks in a row now that I can think more again.

The past year has sucked. The past two, even. Here's to finally getting back to things this year --

[silverr]

*huuuugs*

*raises glass to a better 2015*

[kalloway]

*snugs* This will be a good year.

[silverr]

My 2014 Fanfiction Summary is here.

Despite an almost non-stop string of small disasters last week, I managed to get the first half of chapter 9 of Deceiver drafted (@5500 words). Hope to ship at least that section off to beta this week.

Also, I must say that some moderate yak-shaving--I spent almost an entire Sunday watching blacksmithing videos--led to both a plot breakthrough AND my commissioning fanart for my birthday, a piece that looks as though it's going to be SPECTACULAR.

(WoW-fans: it's Kael'thas reforging Felo'melorn.)

[alassenya]

Kael'thas is always an interesting subject, I'll look forward to reading it when you've finished.

[ravengown]

My 2014 fic meme is over here!

I had to drop out of the Guess the Author challenge I wanted to participate in at the last minute ;((. And I ended up getting a huge plot bunny for Teen Wolf which is kind of consuming and bizarre but I am so happy (it involves Hawaiian tricksters and canon divergence and Bitcoin and fixing all of S4, what could go wrong.)

[silverr]

Hawaiian tricksters? Sounds fun!

[crookedspoon]

Wow, has it been a year already? That's awesome! Thank you very much for keeping this running :D

I... have actually not worked a lot on the WIPs I brought with me when I started here. I did however manage to update my idea bunny list, which is now at 155 (114) items. 155 since I started writing it, 114 actual items that need to be finished, meaning I crossed off 41 items! And i wrote a lot of short stuff though that never made it on it.

Despite my utter failure at working on my WIPs and long-standing projects, I am proud to say that this was my second most productive year since I started writing fanfic. I fell a couple thousand words short of my goal, but well. Considering that I never made it this close before, it's pretty darn awesome.

I have some optional stuff to finish until the end of the month, and my next real one is beginning of March. My recip hasn't edited their placeholder yet.

And I could use some writing buddies. I'm thinking of creating a friending meme-type questionnaire. If you were to look for one, on what grounds would you choose them? I.e. what questions would be relevant to you?

[silverr]

I'm not sure what is involved with the sort of meme you're talking about?

Personally, I'm always interested in talking about weriting in general, any topic, and I'm happy to do it here (or elsewhere). I think we've had some people post questions in the past and everyone has chimed in?

[chordatesrock]

Congrats!

Writing buddy meme: I would want to know about:
-Fandoms
-What they're interested in writing
-What they're interested in reading
-What they're looking for (in-depth, holistic crit of everything? line edits? cheerleading?)
-What they're offering (ditto)
-Length of fics they're willing to do this for
-Length of fics they're writing right now
-Length of fics they want to be writing
-What they're aiming to get out of writing, reading and/or editing (self-expression? fame? BNF status? just get the ideas out? learn to write better by looking at other people's work critically? be nice? entertain people?)
-An overview of what their process currently looks like?
-Fandoms, fandoms, FANDOMS. I have the best beta for just about everything... until I write something in a fandom she doesn't share and then, whoops! what now? So fandom is pretty helpful information.
-Are they interested in meeting tight deadlines, or being regular, or anything like that?
-Anything they *don't* want to edit or read or talk about?

*shrug* Those are just some ideas.

[alassenya]

I'd be interested in a writing buddy, more for concept and flow feedback rather than a nuts-and-bolts beta reader. As other comments state, finding some fandom in common is the most essential step.

[kalloway]

You're welcome.

Also, if you want to host a meme on the community, it's fine with me. ^_^

[chordatesrock]

I've checked nothing off my list that was there initially (a couple things that got added later), and I've added a lot. But I have written tens of thousands of words this year, so that's okayish, I guess?

[silverr]

I would say so, yes. Words are good.

(And hey, priorities change.)

[crookedspoon]

I agree with silverr. Every word counts.

[green]

I started a lot of fics in 2014, but finished absolutely none. I jotted down so many ideas and even got a few fancy story outlines banged out, but very little came of it. I've forgotten how to do the writing thing. But I'm not giving up! Maybe I should start posting snippets again as I go along. That used to be somewhat helpful.

[silverr]

I just got a wild idea -- what about poems?

Stories have beginnings/middles/ends, right? But poems.... poems can be focused on just oe single moment, captured in words. (Some people write drabbles this way as well.) Maybe just relaxing and trying to capture the one moment that made you want to write all those ideas down will help you remember that you do know how to do the writing thing. *g*

[adraekh]

I never knew this community existed until now! (I am sad I never knew this community existed until now.)

2014 was a relatively good fic year for me, considering that I had stopped writing and posting fic around 2010 when I got caught up in real life. Then things happened, as they do, and I found myself in fandom again at the beginning of 2014, and writing fic again, and -- fuck me sideways -- in graduate school at the same time, but I still (somehow) mananged to put out seven fics. (Four of them are predictably summer-break!fics, and one more is a winter-break!fic, and a few of them are really quite short, but I wrote and finished stories, so I will consider this a win!)

I have yet to figure out how to balance school with writing though. I expect this lack of balance will continue to haunt me for the next 5-6 years, and then I will possibly have to figure out how to balance research with fiction-writing. (How do people do this?)

Also, I have one more soft deadline this month: I want to push out a short fic by the 31st for ff_exchange, but augggghhhh, this week is fucking crazy.

[silverr]

First: Don't be sad! Be happy you're here now!

Second: Congratulations on grad school.

Third: The balancing thing can be done (Heck, sounds like you've already done it.) I know of two people who've managed it -- one while getting a master's, and the other while getting a doctorate -- so it can be done! It almost seems as though writing fanfic is a compensatory activity from the other half of the brain; it does mean, however, that you do a LOT of typing.

[alassenya]

Thank you so much for all your work in hosting the comm over the last twelve months. I've found it really helpful to have to declare what I'm doing each week, though I have to admit that the frequency did get irksome towards the end and didn't fit in well with how I usually track my writing, which is monthly -- would you be terribly upset if I reverted to a monthly check-in this year?.

As for the plot bunnies ... I'll post official figures on Sunday but I appear to have gone from 27 bunnies to 32, which was not at all the intention. Most of the additions are short works, though, so I might have a better success rate in 2015.

Thanks again, and I'll definitely be signing up for 2015.

[silverr]

Not The Mod, but check-in is always optional, so if monthly works better for you, well then, we'll see you once a month.

[falkner]

2014 was the year I wrote and posted the most ever, and I am really proud of a lot of the things I wrote, so I'd say it was a great year in the end!

Buuut, it was almost exclusively one-shots and new ideas, so there are still a lot of old plot bunnies around that need to be killed soon or I will go crazy. I guess the issue is that I don't really have any friends who care much about fanfictions, so there's nobody I can talk to for bouncing off ideas and getting opinions on how stupid my new plot sounds, and I end up discouraging myself before I can finish those stories...
Hopefully in 2015 I will learn to push through with my ideas anyway! It's either that or another year of Batman porn, so it's a win-win situation either way ;D

[kalloway]

\o/ Awesome!

I know the feeling about old plotbunnies. You can bounce ideas off the comm. if you'd like, and no matter what, if the idea is something you want to write, run with it.

[tentaclesock]

For many years, most of my fandom involvement has been peripheral, with few creative efforts emerging from my keyboard. Last year, however, I participated in Yuletide for the first time. The story I wrote got a surprisingly high amount of positive attention, which made me feel at least as good as the two supremely satisfying stories I received. (One was a treat.) I've started multiple fics, including one that's based on an unfulfilled Yuletide prompt, but I haven't finished any of them. I signed up for three challenges at once, since having a specific recipient in mind motivates me to write as nothing else does.

So, is this community where I want to be?

[kalloway]

It is, if you want it to be. Quite a few people have mentioned that the weekly check-ins keep them motivated (just to be able to tell someone what they're working on helps).

However, you're not committing to anything by just hanging out and seeing how we work, so try it out and if it isn't the community where you want to be, that's perfectly okay.

[taichara]

*actually pays attention to the banner url*

There's a tumblr?

[kalloway]

The person who made the banner has it hosted on tumblr and I didn't see any reason to download/upload because I'm lazy since it seems to be fine where it is. ^^;;

[morbane]

I've enjoyed the check-ins and the encouragement over 2014!

I posted 24 pieces to AO3 in 2014, but almost none of them were the fics I said here that I was going to write - or existing WIPs/plotbunnies at all. Part of that was that I went mad with exchanges. I'm happy with my total output, but less happy about my record in returning to story ideas once I've let them lapse.

This year I'm only going to allow myself to sign up to 6 exchanges tops, and I know what 5 of them are in advance (the 6th is a wildcard in case an amazing new exchange comes along that needs extra support to get off the ground).

But I'm not quite sure how to motivate myself to return to old stories, otherwise.

[kalloway]

\o/

(I know the feeling.) I'd suggest revisiting canon and re-reading what you have so far of the WiPs and see if you can kick your brain into gear. Tackle one of them at once (the one that grabs you first), not all of them, so you don't feel overwhelmed. And go from there.