Copped off brightknightie, and clearly going the rounds:

Meme: Share links to your fics with the most hits, second-most kudos, third-most comment threads, fourth-most bookmarks, fifth-most words, and fewest words.

Most hits:
Dick Francis's 10-lb Penalty: "Back in the Saddle" (6886 hits) (2016, 1866 words)

Second-most kudos:
Georgette Heyer's Venetia: "The Rape of the Book" (121 kudos) (2016, 6350 words)

Third-most comment threads:
Mary Renault's The Charioteer: "Exit Stage Left, a Wounded Warrior: The Lost Chapters of The Charioteer" (17 comment threads) (2012, 12,429 words)

Fourth-most bookmarks:
M*A*S*H (TV series): "Dear Sister-the-Sister" (11 bookmarks) (2011, 1400 words)

Fifth-most words:
"Exit Stage Left" again (12,429 words).

Fewest words:
I'm going to omit those with zero words. Two of these are artwork (and hence not fic). The third is a picture book whose words are with the pictures attached to the pics and hence not counted by AO3. Counted up by hand, though, it has a lot more more words than the story below:

Mary Renault's The King Must Die: "I Leap the Bull" (96 words) (2015)

Actually, I think this was supposed to be a drabble. (Maybe I was counting the title in by accident.) At any rate, I also have another fourteen drabbles or near-drabbles, given that the word count can shift when one copies from Word over to AO3.

Clearly this meme is going the rounds! Copped off brightknightie, who adapted it from used_songs, who got it from shipperslist:

Of 267 fanfiction works...

Under which 3 ratings have you written most?
218 General audiences
44 Teen and up audiences
06 Not rated

In which 3 fandoms have you written most?
95 Forever Knight (TV 1992)
88 Mary Renault's The Charioteer plus RENAULT - WORKS
13 M*A*S*H (TV)

I've got 44 tagged as "The Charioteer" and another 44 tagged as RENAULT - WORKS. The latter are ITOWverse stories which were written for maryrenaultfics, and really count as having been written in relation to my interest in The Charioteer. So maybe best combined.

Which 3 characters have you tagged the most often?
52 Nick Knight
27 Natalie Lambert
24 (tie) Lucien LaCroix
24 (tie) Laurie Odell

What are your top 3 additional/free-form tags?
43 Metafiction
40 Backstory
24 Historical

The Metafiction ones are almost all ITOWverse stories.

Did any of these surprise you? If so, which?

Actually, the only thing that surprised me was the fact that I've actually got 20 stories tagged as "Christmas". And two rated Mature.

Back at the end of October, brightknightie shared a a 33-question "AO3/fic" meme that was shortly thereafter done by pj1228 as well. I said at the time that I'd do it once my ficinabox story was written and the collection opened.

Well, I got the full two-week extension and used the week's delay needed for late pinch hits, and still only got the final revisions done just as the collection opened at midnight last Saturday. In fact, I've tweaked since then (though mostly just typos and SPaG, of course). At this point, though, I've read my own gifts and commented on them, replied to comments on the two stories that I wrote, and started looking at the collection. All of which means that, finally, I have time to do the meme.


1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?
It's just my name, glommed together with no space between.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback?
Apparently there are 17 comment threads on each of the following:
- "Exit Stage Left, a Wounded Warrior: The Lost Chapters of The Charioteer", which is a two-chapter postscript to Mary Renault's The Charioteer
- "In Which Pooh Hunts for the Meaning of Christmas" - the first in a two-part Winnie-the-Pooh series
- "In Which Pooh and His Friends Celebrate Christmas" - the second part of that series

3. What is your ao3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?
I don't have an AO3 icon. My LJ/DW icon is the cover of the 1973 reprint of the 1953 edition of Mary Renault's The Charioteer. The design is the same as the first edition, except for the text on the back, which isn't part of my icon.

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?
I'm always impressed by brightknightie's comments as moderator of fkficfest. On the whole, I think FK fandom has a good comment tradition. In my (limited) experience, I'd say rarelit fans tend to leave good comments, too.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?
I keep going back to reread merriman's "Donation". It's a bit sentimental, I suppose; but I find it nice to snuggle with.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?
I'm currently subscribed to 106 stories. A couple of years ago I pruned the list, taking out WIPs that had been completed; and I probably need to do it again. Quite a few of the stories I'm subscribed to have (almost certainly) been abandoned; but hope springs eternal.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?
For FK, I often just ignore LK. In Arrowverse, I'm slowly working towards an AU/futurefic in which Leonard Snart is rescued from the Oculus explosion. I guess there's a theme there: I do think killing off characters is a pretty fake way for authors to contrive "deep significance", especially on TV shows. And especially when I like the character!

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total?
Nineteen subscriptions and 349 bookmarks.

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it?
Not that I can think of.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.
I'd like to be better at writing/finishing stories outside gift exchanges. Nowadays, I do seem to need those deadlines to keep me writing.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?
I mostly write gen. However, that's not to say I've never written about people who are in relationships: it's part of life; and a lot of characters are canonically coupled up. My focus in such stories is going to be characterization, though: I don't write smut.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?
I think it's 246. I did two stories for ficinabox; but the anon period is still going on, and I think that means they don't appear in my stats yet.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing programme?
I'm not sure what this means. Are you asking me how many unfinished stories I have that aren't posted yet? If so, then I'm not sure: maybe a half a dozen or so. Mostly, nowadays, I don't start stories unless it's for a gift exchange—in which case they get finished, since they have to be posted. As a result, I have a warren of plot bunnies that have never been started.

Oh, there are also a few things that were finished many years ago; but they were typed (on a real typewriter, I mean) and hence have never been posted anywhere.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?
Keep them in my head.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?
In a manner of speaking. In 2019, my sister (fawatson) wrote "Secrets and Lies" and asked me to beta it. For lack of time, she wound up sort of scrambling the thing together and, instead of using the post-posting week to polish it, added a humongously long final chapter. The joke is that, had she posted that as a separate treat, I wouldn't have been inspired to ask her if I could rewrite her fic. She agreed; and, to cut a long story short, I hashed the bits apart, reorganized them, tweaked a bit, and doubled the length with new material. The result, "A Winchester Always", is fannishly counted as "mine" since I wrote it in the context of remixrevival. However, on my website, I credit it as co-authored.

16. How did you discover AO3?
I'm not sure. I joined in July 2011. Probably someone in the old maryrenaultfics community said they were crossposting their fic there.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?
I think, in the tiny world that FK fandom is today, my stories are fairly popular. They seem to be well regarded in Charioteer fandom, too. Sadly, my association with maryrenaultfics (which died in flames) has led to a degree of notoriety in places like fail_fandomanon where, for years, they mistakenly thought my sister and I were the moderators.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?
No.

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?
No. Not if you mean a fan writer.

My fannish leanings began many years ago. I'd say it was my love of Andre Norton's books that led to a lot of long-running self-insert stories when I was in junior high. However, these were never written. They were the sort of thing you use to wile away time when walking down the street or lying in bed. I never had the patience to actually write anything at that age.

The first fanfic I wrote was based on the original Star Trek series; and I was in my thirties by then. In so far as I was "inspired to write", it was by the knowledge that there were other people out there who wrote fanfic. However, I'd never read any except in published collections. I didn't get in fandom per se until 2004, when I went on line.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?
Read a lot. And not just fanfic.
Write a lot. And reread what you write: everything needs to be polished.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?
A bit of both. For short fic, I generally have the whole thing in mind before I start. For longer stories, I know the ending; but some of the plotting may be done on the fly. Nowadays, I usually start at the beginning and forge on to the end. For really long stories, bits may be written out of order simply because they're so vivid they're getting between me and the things that haven't been worked out yet. Mostly such bits get inserted along the way.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?
What do you mean by a bad comment? Someone being rude? Not usually. And I think it's idiotic to feed the trolls.

I have, once or twice, had someone point out a canon error or Britpick me. In that case, I check to see if they're right; and, if so, I figure out how to fix the problem. Usually, all it takes is a lightning band-aid. And I thank them: those aren't bad comments; they're bloody helpful! I try to research things; but, if I've missed something that's obvious, I certainly want to put it right.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc.)
Detailing action scenes is difficult. Fight scenes particularly: the last time I got in a fight was when I was about ten or eleven. (My parents had guests over; and the son, who was about my age, was picking on my little sister, who's five years younger.) Certainly, in elementary school, kids sometimes got in fights; and there'd be a general pile-on, and I'd get involved. I mean, I'd dither round the edges, since I'm not keen on fighting; but there comes a point when you have to pitch in, since all your friends are in there. In my very limited experience, it's like jumping into a swimming pool: okay once you're in.

But that sort of thing didn't continue beyond Grade Five; and I was nine then. I've never taken self-defence classes, or anything like that. So I find fight scenes pretty hard to choreograph.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?
I'm signed up for Yuletide; but I haven't started yet. I just did two stories for ficinabox; and, as the exchange has a 10K minimum (which can be broken up over multiple stories) and only opened last weekend, there's a lot to read.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?
This year, I did knock off a little trickortreatex story while working. I'd wondered if I'd have to default since the ficinabox story I was doing was proving a bit ambitious. However, I woke up one morning with a teeny tiny idea writing itself in my head; and, for Trick or Treat, a teeny tiny idea is really all that's needed. I went downstairs and wrote it before breakfast.

In general, though, it depends on whether the next gift exchange I want to do overlaps with the one I'm currently doing. And that normally would just involve taking time out for nominations, signing up, and maybe minor brainstorming (as I did with Yuletide this year). I don't usually write multiple stories at the same time.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?
No.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?
I hope so. Certainly, if you compare my writing now with the stories I told myself as a kid, then the answer has to be yes!

28. What is your favourite story that you’ve written?
I'm particularly likely to go back and reread the stories that required a lot of research or worldbuilding or got deeply into character exploration.

29. What is your least favourite story that you’ve written?
Some years back, an FK fan posted to the fic list a story that I gather she hoped would inspire another War. In it, she wrote an attack on the Vaqueras' headquarters—the sort of thing that did actually prompt some of the early Wars. Not realizing that she hadn't cleared it with the Vaqueras, I responded with another ficlet. The Vaqs were not amused. Of course, I apologized; but I've never put that story up anywhere.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?
I really hope I'll have finished a few of the plot bunnies I have. Some have lingered in the warren for years.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?
Dialogue.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?
Putting pen to paper. Or nowadays, fingertips to keyboard.

33. Why do you write?
The stories bug me till I do. Some of them are very insistent. One of the fic I just did for ficinabox definitely had its own ideas on how much time I should devote to it. All I could do was go along for the ride.

Meme from lightbird:

Comment on this post and I'll ask you five questions. Answer them in your own journal, offer to give the first five commenters their own sets of questions, and let the cycle continue! (or if you prefer you can answer in the comments).

lightbird asked me:

1. I know you create your own graphics and wallpapers, and you shared many of your color scheme experiments during the last sunshine_challenge. Do you do handcrafts or painting on canvas or other types of art like that?

Not recently. When I moved in with my mother at the end of 2013, everything had to be put away; and I'd been dealing with renovations for quite a while before that, which made it hard. I do want to get the room that used to be her bedroom fixed up as a library-cum-workroom, and the shelves were installed about three years ago; but the place is full of boxes, and I don't have enough money to put in the additional shelves I need to unpack everything.

However, I used to make dolls' house things. I've done some polymer clay food, sewn miniature clothes, made furniture, and painted/assembled garden plants, all in the one-inch scale.

I've done a little painting (and then photographed the pictures, since I don't have a scanner) for picture book fanfic and fan art; and I've also done some manips. You know my FK icons, probably; but I've also done fannish bookcovers for a couple of Mary Renault's books.

If you're curious, the two picture book fanfics are "The Church Mice and the Choristers" and "Hairy Maclary - Big Game Hunter". I guess you could call them pastiche: I tried hard to copy the authors' own styles when doing the paintings.


2. What was the best book you read this year? What made it special?

Oh, this is hard! It reminds me of Grade Eight, when we had Library period once a week, basically as a part of English. We were supposed to rate the books we'd taken out the previous week—the usual sort of five-part scale, you know. It ran from "Didn't Like" up to "Best Book I Ever Read". I never gave anything that top rating. I simply read too much!

I think, though, if I had to pick just one, it would be Naomi Novik's first Scholomance book. I got it for myself at Christmas; and, since I never read my presents until after the day, I read it sometime either the following week or the beginning of January. It flat out clobbered me. I've read it three times this year! Bought myself the sequel for my birthday, and plan to get the third one for this Christmas. She's a good writer, of course; but the worldbuilding in the Scholomance series is stunning.

3. What's your favorite season? What about it makes it your favorite?

I guess I like autumn best. The heat of summer is past; we're not chilled by winter. Spring always seems to go by so fast; and, as I hate heat, summer looms threateningly in a way that winter doesn't. Even with the a/c on, summer is harder to take than winter. I can always put on a sweater.

So I prefer autumn. Also, the leaves look so gorgeous.

4. I've really enjoyed your FK fics and one of the things I admire about them is how much research goes into them. How much time do you spend researching a story before you even start writing?

It depends on the story. A lot of shorter stories, especially little ficlets, I can just knock off with no research at all. I'm pretty familiar with the characters by now! Longer stories that are canon based will be researched by rewatching the appropriate episodes. For major stories with an historical setting, though, I will spend a long time (usually on line) checking every detail that occurs to me. For such stories as "The Siege of Hastings", "Couched Work", or "Phases of the Moon", I might spend as much as six weeks in research—to the point where I actually start to wonder if I'll have enough time to write the story!

For non-FK fic, if I'm utterly familiar with canon, the same is true. I will at least re-read/re-watch as far as possible to make sure I get canon details right. If I intend to write pastiche, i.e. in the author's style, then usually I'll reread twice. (When the story starts writing itself in my head in style, then I know I'm ready to put fingertips to keyboard.) I always do quite a lot of research for historical fic, though. I like to get details right.

5. What's your favorite hot drink?

Mocha! For years, I used to buy General Foods' Suisse Mocha; but it's no longer available round here. So I worked out a recipe that tastes very similar: a blend of Fry's Cocoa, instant coffee, Splenda, and powdered skim milk, mixed with real skim milk, and heated in the microwave. A year or two later, I found I'd left a tin of the commercial stuff at my sister's, and found very little difference in flavour. However, it is true that, when I next had a full physical, my doctor said my cholesterol count had gone down. So clearly the homemade version is actually better for you!

Failing that, at home, I'll make hot cocoa using skim milk and a lot of Fry's cocoa powder, but NO sugar. Or instant café au lait, with hot milk, a little instant coffee, and some Splenda. However, the mocha is my go-to hot drink.

As a complete change, I also like hot mulled cider.

Meme taken from lightbird.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?
236

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
463,012 words

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
45 or so

Main fandoms: Forever Knight (91), The Charioteer (40 + 42 ITOWverse stories), DC's Arrowverse (13)

Gift exchange regulars: Jean Robertson series (5), Swallows and Amazons series (5), M*A*S*H (5)

( Read more... )

From moetushie, I have the following:

1. Tents:

Right at the moment, the Toronto Star is running its usual series of columns encouraging people to donate to their Fresh-Air fund to send kids away to summer camp. There's a lot of fond reminiscing along the usual lines.

Well, I remember the municipal day camp that our parents sent us to. The kids were taken by school bus from their local schools, crammed in tightly to a degree that was surely illegal, disembarked somewhere in the ravine of the Don River (not the real one!), and split into small groups of about a dozen kids the same age, each group with its own tent in a small clearing. You get what you pay for: the municipal day camp was cheap in every way. My memories are of heat, thirst, and boredom.


2. Candles:

My sister likes to have lit candles on the dining room table when there's a celebration. However, she also collects fancy candles—or, at least, she used to actively do so, and still has them in a display cabinet. She's got molded ones in fancy shapes, carved ones, ones done with layers of different colours, or with inclusions. These are definitely not for burning!

Around her birthday and Christmas I keep an eye out for any sort I don't remember her having. A fancy candle makes a good extra present.


3. Shell:

I used to collect seashells. When I was a kid, these were mostly ones my dad brought home when he'd been away at a conference; but there was a time when I bought them on holidays. Some years ago, my mother gave me a tall, skinny cabinet for them. I've not added to the collection in many years; but, as long as I have room, I've no intention of throwing them out. Some are beautiful, some are intriguing, and all are ones I've had for decades.

I've always been the collecting type. When I was a kid, it was stamps and coins, pebbles and seashells, and various inexpensive ornaments that got picked up on holidays or given to me as presents.

Nowadays, I collect small animal figurines.

Also borrowed from toujours_nigel (here). This time, the idea is to put up the last line of each of the last ten stories I have posted.

So here goes:( Read more... )

Borrowed once again from toujours_nigel, whose own is here. We did this last year, didn't we? What goes around....

The idea is to put up the first line of each of the last ten stories I have posted, and see if there are any commonalities or patterns. Going back ten takes me right where I left off last year. How tidy.

So here goes:( Read more... )

Copped off toujours_nigel, who got it from lilliburlero.

Rules: Go to your AO3 works page, expand all the filters, and answer the following questions!

( Read more... )

Borrowed from toujours_nigel, whose own is here. The idea is to put up the first line of each of the last ten stories I have posted, and see if there are any commonalities or patterns. Going back ten covers everything I've done this year as well as the stories I wrote for Yuletide last year. Rather neatly, too: none of the Yulefic has had to be omitted.

So here goes:

• "All good things must come to an end."
  
  "Hot Buttered Crumpets", 5K, written for artemis1000 in the Everywoman gift exchange.
  
  Crossover between The Chronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland. Back in England after the children's first visit to Narnia, Lucy meets the real Alice.



• "This is the Last Will and Testament of me, Natalya Maria Balandin née Sukhareva…."
  
  "Gone Where the Goblins Go", 5K, written for nycmacysgirl in FK Fic Fest.
  
  Forever Knight. Fill between Seasons One and Two, elaborating on the backstory for Natalie that was introduced in the Season Three episode, "Dead of Night". She is reluctant to go to see her grandmother's lawyer when the old lady dies.



• "The heist was, of course, planned to the second."
  
  "Stopped Cold", 17K, written for rivulet027 in the Worldbuilding Exchange.
  
  The Flash (TV series). Some months after Captain Cold returns to Central City after being rescued from the Oculus explosion, the newly formed Rogues pull their first heist. There are unexpected consequences....



• "‘What the hell just happened?’"
  
  "Truth and Lies", 431 words, written for sperrywink in Chocolate Box.
  
  The Flash (TV series). After the episode "Rogue Air", Cisco and Caitlin talk about the attempt to transfer the prisoners from the Pipeline.



• "He kissed her, caressed her—and sank his teeth into her neck."
  
  "To Perfect Her for the Taking", 572 words, written for monicawoe in Chocolate Box.
  
  Forever Knight. LaCroix's perspective on the events in the flashback to the Season Three episode "Trophy Girl", in which Nick drains Liselle, whom his master had intended as his own prey.



• "‘We should’ve kept the emerald,’ said Mick out of the blue."
  
  "Price above Emeralds", 386 words, written for sperrywink in Chocolate Box.
  
  DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Mick talks to Len after the events of the Season One episode "Blood Ties".



• "After becoming a vampire, Javier did not return to Pizarro’s army for long."
  
  "A Tale of Cain and Abel", 2K, written for androcksandthings in Yuletide.
  
  Forever Knight. In 1531, Vachon slowly flies north from Lake Titicaca, eventually arriving in Mexico City. The Inca is ever in pursuit.



• "Let ol’ Screed tell yer, the advan’age o’ rats is ’ow simple they are as prey."
  
  "A Rat's Eye View of the World", 1K, written for ladygray99 in Yuletide.
  
  Forever Knight. Screed's perspective on food and friendship, and his life as a carouche. Written in his own idiosyncratic idiolectal blend of Nadsat and Cockney.



• "‘He never caned me at school.’"
  
  "Don't Insult My Intelligence", 2K, written for moetushie in Yuletide.
  
  The Charioteer. As Bunny drives back to Bridstow after dropping Laurie at the hospital, he considers the implications of their conversation.



• "She was alone."
  
  "Entire of Herself", ~3K, written for swmbo in Yuletide.
  
  Swallows and Amazons series. While the others go sailing, Susan stays behind on Wild Cat Island to set up camp herself. Takes place shortly after The Picts and the Martyrs.

Ye-e-e-s. I can see one obvious thing most of these have in common. As first lines go, they tend to be short and snappy. They're designed to grab you fast and toss you on to the rest of the paragraph, wherein lies the real interest. In fact, seen in isolation, some of them are remarkably uninformative! One would really need the first paragraph, I think, to make much sense of "All good things must come to an end": it's just a saying, and could lead almost anywhere. And "He never caned me at school" is a direct quotation from the novel.

I wonder if, should I go back further, I'd find that this is true of my earlier stories as well? Is this a consistent aspect of my style or a relatively recent evolution?