§

It is indicative of my headspace atm and how busy I am that I STILL haven't watched this week's Doctor Who. Um, soon? Probably? In the meantime, hi, have some memes!

---

So that AO3 hitcount meme's going around again and I don't think I've actually done it before? So here goes, skipping comment fic:

( by hits )

( by kudos )

While I was looking to see if I'd done this before, I also came across the following and I would like to see it do the rounds again:

If you were asked to pick one scene, one shot, one detail, one moment of some kind out of all the things I've made and say "This, this, for whatever reason, I remember, this is something that struck home with me, that I wanted to keep," what would it be?

2011 fic & vids roundup!

( stats )

( Full list of fanworks this year: )

( meme questions )

( fic WIP extracts )

( year in fic )

And now some questions from musesfool, arbitrarily edited where I can't be bothered to answer specific questions!

( meme questions )

Hm - was going to do a fic round up post, but in all honesty I'm not thrilled with my writing output this year. I feel it's mostly marked by the things I didn't write - the big bangs I signed up for, that Late Bloom sequel, all the other bits of WIPs sitting on my computer. Alas.

But briefly, I think Remember Me As A Time Of Day (Merlin, Gwen/Morgana) is my best story, and And Tomorrow (Torchwood, Jack/Ianto, CoE fix-it) is my personal favourite for what are probably obvious reasons. I'm also fond of Someone Else's Shoes (Torchwood, Tosh, Gwen) and Something Old, Something New (Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Arthur/Gwen, Gwen/Morgana).

I do feel like doing the vid round up meme, though - vidding was good this year! Also, it means I can procrastinate on festvidding some more.

( vid round up )

That words meme that's been flying around! I have now collected three sets.

From shaggydogstail, ages ago: ( Writing, Doctor, philosophy, women, fun )

bodlon gave me: ( change, flight, stability, Torchwood, strangers )

And lefaym gave me: ( Fix-it, Femslash, Merlin, vidding, geekiness )

(Things I will some day post about: how Psych is my new happy place by featuring adorable girl geeks and boy geeks and hitting me in all the best friend OTP shippy places I did not know I had missed. Also, I have reached the end of Series 2 of Battlestar Galactica and I think als;dkj frak me is really all I've got until I've watched 3x01 at least.)


Today, let us talk about AU fic. By which I don't mean the canon AU variety -- what if Sirius didn't go to Azkaban, what if Romana survived the Time War -- but rather the sorts of AUs where John is a rainbow or Rodney is an android or Gwen's the lead singer for the Europop disco band Torchwood* or Dean's a spaceship mechanic or Arthur's the Prince of Wales.

*admittedly that one only exists in my head, though the rest are real stories. But seriously, Torchwood the trashy synthesiser band! There's nothing not to love about that. Somebody should write it for me.

See, these latter sorts of AUs aren't especially ones I'm used to, because they don't exist very much in Doctor Who or Harry Potter, though I can think of a few Remus/Sirius non-magical AUs in this vein. I think that different canons give rise to hugely different amounts of these sorts of stories - the best example is probably the fact there are tons and tons of Supernatural RPS AUs, but far fewer AU stories involving the canon characters. Jared and Jensen are essentially themselves in a whole variety of situations that would be fun to read about, and the same goes for the SGA team or the members of any of the bandom bands. On the other hand, it seems like the Doctor isn't really the Doctor if he doesn't have the TARDIS, that Harry Potter isn't really himself if he's not a wizard. The canon universe plays a much more central role in some fandoms than it does in others.

Personally, I particularly like AUs in RPF fandoms because it adds an additional degree of fictionalisation that makes it easier for me to read, and I can't not love all of the SGA AUs, which between them offer everything you could possibly wish for.

As you may have guessed, this post was inspired in part by rageprufrock's Drastically Redefining Protocol [Merlin; Merlin/Arthur; NC-17; ~46K]. Because, okay, I'd put Merlin firmly in the category where I wasn't especially interested in non-canon AUs, particularly modern day ones. And then I realised that here we have a story that makes me infinitely happy on two levels - first, Arthur is still a bit of a royal prat, Merlin is still a bit magic, Morgana is still a bit prophetic, Gwen is still a lot awesome. Second, if there were a young and famously handsome Prince of Wales in the UK right now who became openly in a gay relationship? This is exactly how it would go, down to the last ONTD screencap, and the verisimilitude is almost alarming at times. Forget the fact I would so, so happily read original fiction on just this premise if it was done this well, it was a sad moment after I finished the story and realised it didn't actually happen.

So you should go read that, it's wonderful. You should also talk to me about the AU scenarios you like and don't like, what you think these things need to work. I may or may not be considering going AU for thelittlebang, you see. Which, knowing me, will probably involve a) space, b) robots, c) an apocalypse of some description, or d) a combination of the above.

... Yeah, I've really got to wonder how I managed not to watch BSG for so long.

I taught myself how to make videos this year! It was very thrilling.

( the year that was: vids )

( meme questions! )

---

Fic round up! (Distinctly longer.)

( the year that was: stories )

Statistics etc:

Word count: roughly 100,000.
Story count: 44
Fandoms: 8 [HP: 15, TW: 14, Who: 6, HDM: 2, SGA: 2, Crossovers: 1, Good Omens: 1, Skins: 1, Firefly: 1, Merlin: 1]
Genres: 18 m/m, 17 gen, 4 m/f, 3 f/f, 2 mixed.
Most written pairing: Remus/Sirius at 8 stories, with Jack/Ianto a close second. You're all shocked, I can tell.
Most written character: Jack Harkness clocks in with appearances in 14 stories. Heh.

( meme questions! )

I am tagged by sunnyrea:

Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five fic-favourites you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same.

( and the top five are: )

-- I'm not tagging anyone in particular, because I love reading this meme when other people do it, so please go ahead!

That 25 first lines meme that's been floating around.

( taking me all the way back to February )

---

In other news, mostly I am continuing adventures in vidding at the moment. I have two things fully on the boil right now, one of which is a genre-bending, slightly spoofy Torchwood vid, and the other is a multi-fandom extravaganza. Both, I fear, require skills I do not currently possess, but I'm trying. Aspect ratios, you are no match for me!

I'm also really looking forward to reposting my exchange stories, rs_games particularly as it feels like I've been waiting forever to answer comments and talk about it, nnnargh. I am done, done, done with exchanges for the rest of the year, if you catch even a whiff of me signing up for one you are to thwap me instantly.

Yuletiiide! I never did get around to doing any recs posts pre-reveal, alas, but I've still got such a backlog of fic to read that I guess I might as well get through all of that first.

Firstly, thank you so so much to my two delightful authors, firstgold and vivien529, you are both wonderful!

Second, reveals. My main story was in Skins fandom for mturtle, which I've backdated, because seriously, does anybody even watch this? It only got a response from my recipient on the site (and she was delighted with it, it sounded like, so that's more than good enough for me), so hmm. Anyway, if you're interested:

Make Believe
Cassie, PG-13, 1500 words
Queen Cassie would like to present herself to her royal court.

My other story was a pinch-hit for lyras! I was pleased with how this turned out, but I really wish I could have had more time on it - there's all sorts of middle scenes with Will and bits with Lyra that I realised I just wasn't going to have time to write. Another time, then.

Four Midsummers
His Dark Materials
Will, PG, 1500 words
Summary: Four of Will's Midsummer days.
Notes: Written for lyras in the 2007 Yuletide exchange.

( Summer was bursting with warmth and colour, and Will was beginning to feel as though he had a pattern of life again. )