2024 fanfic year in review

[marmolita]

Crossposted to tumblr but here's a year end review thing!

 

2024 year in review

Taken from the list in this post! I decided to just come through and answer all the questions.

How many fics have you worked on since January?

Well I posted 41, but I have 2-3 more being actively worked on.

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

I did a fake-reddit-post mediafic this year!

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

Final Fantasy XV my beloved, back for a second go at being my obsession

How many fandoms did you write for this year?

5 if you include "original work" as a fandom.

What ships captured your heart?

Squall/Seifer(/Rinoa) definitely leapt out at me this year. Other than that I've been kind of all over the place, but am currently in a gladnoct state of mind for some reason.

What characters captured your heart?

Okay so I didn't write any fanfic about it, but I read Naomi Novik's Scholomance this year and Orion Lake absolutely captured my heart. He is entirely blorbo bait for me, but alas, I didn't get what I wanted out of him in the third book and didn't find much fic about him either. Other than that, I spent a good while this year feeling like Squall Leonhart was extremely relatable, and then got back to FFXV and my true love Noctis.

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

Yes, actually! This year I wrote a Stardew Valley fic, and I also wrote my first (and so far only) Destiel fic for SPN.

What fic meant the most to you to write?

Hmmmmm. It's probably the Niflheim!Gladio fic that I haven't published any of yet because I'm not far along enough to be comfortable with it. Other than that possibly this little fic I wrote about Cartanica because even though I did it for a prompt, I was having a lot of feelings about Cartanica.

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

I giggled my way through writing Paw-paw said WHAT?, because the idea of Noct having a magical healing cock and it being used in a random side quest cracked me up.

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

Probably Fated Circle, the Seifer/Squall postcanon one. It ended up being way longer than I anticipated and having a lot of action scenes, and I was pretty proud of it.

What fic was the most difficult to write?

It was weirdly this random one about Noct posing for a charity calendar? Not sure why that one gave me so much trouble but I eventually kinda threw in the towel on it. Other than that, the Niflheim!Gladio one I'm still working on is being pretty difficult because it has actual plot and needed an outline and is LONG.

What fic was the easiest to write?

Pretty sure I pounded out feast for a king on my phone during breaks from work because it flowed so quickly and easily.

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?

Shortest: Sacrifice, at 328 words

Longest: Fated Circle, at 10,066 words

What were your go-to writing songs?

...the FFXV soundtrack? Actually though for my FFVIII fic I spent a lot of time listening to the FFVIII playlist I put together, which includes multiple P!nk songs (What About Us, TRUSTFALL, Can We Pretend, among others) and also Kelly Clarkson's Catch My Breath which I listened to a million times thinking about Squall.

What was the hardest fic to title?

ALL OF THEM. But probably the Seifer/Squall amnesia one where I ended up with "The Body Knows" which is a dumb title.

What's your favorite title of the year?

Muscle Memory. I started writing this one about GF memory erasure years ago and finally wrapped it up to post this year, but the title was set long before posting because it Felt Right.

Share your favorite opening line

Henry Loxlian, just past his eighteenth birthday, was the most highly anticipated student at the Academy of Saint Lillian in a century.

from The Ecstasy of Saint Lillian, an original work I did for Smut4Smut!

Share your favorite ending line

None of them, I suck at endings. And, upon reviewing a bunch of them, I'm realizing that I often end fics in the same way, with something like "Maybe [thing the fic was about] isn't so bad after all." Oops? Anyway this one was okay.

Whether it'll amount to anything in the bright light of day, Seifer doesn't know, but here in the dark he'll hold this nascent dream close to his heart.

from A New Dream

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

From Absolution: "I deserve punishment." "No, you don't. But if you feel like you need it, then I'll give it to you."

Share your funniest line

People in the comments seem to really like that in my Stardew Valley fic I had Alex say, "Thanks, bro" to Sebastian after they had sex, but tbh that's a mainstay from hockey RPF so I feel like it wasn't that creative? 😂

One that I particularly enjoyed was Prompto saying "The tentacle monster wants to fuck your throat, Noct.  All the way through." in ride of your life, though that's admittedly a little niche. I also liked Squall thinking that he and Seifer were exes in The Body Knows.

There's also the setup to Paw-paw said WHAT? which I had fun with: "Well see, I been gettin' these headaches?  Real bad ones, sometimes, and Paw-paw's been worried about it.  He told me, 'Go get Reggie's boy to fuck you and it'll clear it right up.'"

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

I kind of had some fits about writing Most Eligible, because Gladio wasn't being villainous enough, and then Noct liked him too much, and then none of the plot made sense with there just being the one banquet, so I ended up adding a pageant because why not!

What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

All my writing is done in gdocs.

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Actually coming up with a coherent plot for the Niflheim!Gladio fic and outlining it. I cannot wait to share this fic with you all but I also do not yet believe I will finish it, and I am not one to post unfinished WIPs.

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

No, I finished a lot of fics and none of them were that exciting lol

How did you recharge between fics?

I am either constantly writing in a frenzy or not writing at all for months, there's no specific recharging happening.

Did you create fanworks other than fic?

I make a lot of playlists but mostly for my own personal use.

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)

Enemies to Lovers Exchange, FFVIII Bingo, Smut4Smut, Nonconathon, Rare Pair Exchange, and a combo kinktober/promptober that also ended up becoming a server event for the Seifer/Squall discord, so that makes a total of....6-7?

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

@misswonderheart who alpha/beta reads all my fic for me and lets me yell at her about it always and forever, and @freosan for brainstorming ideas with me!

What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

Nothing? I'm still working on some fic but I don't expect them to wrap up this year.

What would you like to write next year?

If this Niflheim!Gladio fic isn't posted next year I will be very disappointed in myself tbh. I've got 14k words written so far and I'm only like maybe 1/3 of the way through it or less. I rarely even write fics that are over 10k words long so having 14k already on it is a LOT, but I have some confidence I can do it! I just need to recruit some more cheerleaders I think 😂