Fandom year in review...

[zara_zee]

Saw a few people on my flist doing this and it made me want to take a look and see what I've done this year. I thought I'd been more active than usual, but...wow... I've been busy!

In total, I wrote a little over 130,000 words of (posted) fic this year...

I did a bunch of challenges:

1 x spn_j2_bigbang
2 x spn_reversebang
1 x da_reversebang
1 x spn_summergen

Also,
2 x prompt fics
2 x 9.23 episode codas
9 (so far) x season 10 episode codas.

The episode codas have been great fun. Thanks to kalliel for the suggestion. Season 10 has been super inspiring and writing a coda is a great way to really get into an ep and think about it in detail. Reading everyone else's codas has also encouraged me to think about each ep in ways I may not have considered... overall, the whole coda club thing has really enhanced my enjoyment of this (already fabulous) season! (And if you're not already following spn_x and spn_bunker, you should be!)

I've read a whole bunch of awesome fic this year...and I'm STILL behind on my reading!!!

I also signed up for H/C Bingo in 2014, but I think I've failed dismally. I got...a couple done...and I've got some wips on my harddrive and I will finish them, but not in time for this challenge...

My New Year Fandom resolutions are:

• to continue with the codas and write one for every single episode


• to keep challenging myself to branch out and write new and different (for me) things


• to finish the J2 gladiator fic that I started for H/C bingo


• to update my masterlist which is so, so behind

I'm already doing the spn_reversebang again this year and have my first fic posting soon. I've then got a second fic for this challenge posting in February. And I plan to sign up for the spn_j2_bigbang again this year too.

What about you? How was your fandom year in 2014? What are you excited about in 2015?

Comments

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

I think it's amazing to do the year-end master list and realize just HOW MUCH we've done!! As the year goes by, we're so focused on individual stories, we don't see what a body of work we're creating. Kudos!

I haven't really done the look ahead one yet, perhaps today! Probably snagging two from you ;-) about updating the masterlist and challenging myself.

*high five*

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

That's so true, you really don't realize how much you've done until you sit down and take a look.

I challenged myself last year to, well challenge myself! To write tropes I'd never done before, to write pairings I'd never written, to be open to wider range of fic...and it was great. I want to keep that up this year and highly recommend it as a goal! And yeah, the downside of all that productivity...the housekeeping; the masterlist gets out of date quickly (yours too, I'm guessing?) ... so that's a good goal too! :)

Here's to a challenging, productive 2015 (with nicely updated masterlists!) :)

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

Masterlist - yeah, I was just writing so much I kept thinking, oh I'll get to that later. Six stories more and...chaos!! LOL!

*high fives you*

[frozen_delight]

Wow, what a great list. You've been a really busy writing bee last year, and I love your resolutions for 2015, too.

If you've got a free minute, I'd love to hear some more about the awesome fic you've been reading. I've read A LOT of fanfic last year, but I'm sure I've still missed out on some great stuff.

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

As to my reading, it's mostly been challenges. Big Bangs, Reversebangs, SPN Cinema. (And I still haven't read them all!)

Also, every now and then I go off on little tangents. Earlier in the year I got into race/ethnicity bending fics and read a handful of good stories and then I got really into the whole ABO trope, but what I really loved were the subversive ones, the ones that did something different with the trope (snickfic is good for that!).

And of course, I've been loving all the episode codas!

So it really depends what you like. If you've been reading the challenges too, there's a good chance we've read a lot of the same stuff! What have you been reading?

[frozen_delight]

Thanks so much! This is probably really stupid, but could you explain to me what SPN Cinema is?

I think I've read quite a few Big Bangs, of the Wincest, Destiel and Gen kind, and obviously a lot of episode tags, both for S9 and S10, and then a lot of older fic, mostly Wincest, which probably everyone else has already read a long, long time ago. Oh, and of course lots and lots of brilliant new genfic thanks to Summergen.

I only started reading SPN fic last January, and it took me quite some time to discover how much good fic is hiding away in the depths of LJ, as opposed to the Sherlock fandom, where practically all the fic can be found on AO3 these days. Are there any LJ comms that you can recommend for finding good fic?

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is a lot of great SPN and RPF fic hiding out there, just waiting to be found. I still stumble across old fics that I haven't managed to come across before in the past five years! It's always a happy day when that happens. :)

SPN Cinema is a challenge community. They have various challenges throughout the year where you can nominate a movie and then write and/or do art for the movie. I haven't written for them (yet!) but I've read a lot of great stories over there! See here: http://spn-cinema.livejournal.com

Some other communities I like are:
http://padacklesrps.livejournal.com (Jared/Jensen slash)
http://spn-au.livejournal.com (SPN AUs)
http://j2au.livejournal.com (RPS AUs)
http://sn-fic.livejournal.com (Pretty much any kind of SPN fic)
http://hoodie-time.livejournal.com (A Dean hurt/comfort community)

All of these comms are pretty active. Feel free to have a look on my profile page at the comms I'm watching. Some of them aren't active any more though and I should probably get rid of them, but haven't gotten around to it!

I also find http://spnstoryfinders.livejournal.com really helpful. Just going through the tags that look interesting and then seeing what others have recommended has found me some great fic!

And there are some rec communities too:
http://j2-recs.livejournal.com
http://sd-recs.livejournal.com

Oh, and http://spnnewsletter.livejournal.com is a great comm to watch because it watches a lot of the comms and does a daily round up of what's being posted where!

You may have already found a lot of the above, but those are some of the places I'd suggest looking for good fic! :)

I also keep an eye on what my friends rec because there's every chance if they've loved something, I will too! :)

Happy fic hunting! :)

[sw0rdy.livejournal.com]

Some great suggestions here. I'd definitely second http://spnstoryfinders.livejournal.com and http://spnnewsletter.livejournal.com as good resources for discovering fics. :)

[frozen_delight]

Thank you!

[frozen_delight]

Oh wow, this is amazing! Some of these I already knew, but some I didn't. And SPN Cinema sounds great too.
Thanks so much for putting all of this together! <3

[sw0rdy.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year and well done for being so productive!! I'm determined to sign up for the spn_j2_bigbang this year (for years I ignored this one because for some reason I thought it was j2 only - d'oh! - but I'm worried I haven't even got a seed of an idea yet). In fact, you've just reminded me that I haven't done my fandom New Year's Resolutions yet!

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And, and... [falling over myself with excitement, here] With respect to spn_j2_bigbang... you DO have a seed of an idea!!!

You could do the sequel to 'You've done all the things that could kill you somehow' for this!! SPN Gen is totally allowed and H/C with massive Dean whump is always popular. :)

And then you could do the one where Sam keeps his promise and tells the nurse about their lives for the Gen Big Bang later in the year! :)

[And I've just realized you've posted that immediately post-purgatory prequel you were talking about, which I somehow missed in the madness of Christmas and New Year... off to read that now!]

[sw0rdy.livejournal.com]

Lol. Again, there's no logic here, but I always feel like I'd be cheating if I wrote a sequel for a Big Bang challenge. I might just go that route though if one of those stories grows longer than I intended.

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

No, I can see how you might feel that. A lot of people do write sequels for it, though. So long as each story is complete, I don't think it really matters, and you can always put a link to the first story with your new fic. But I do see where you're coming from. :)

[sw0rdy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm definitely up for signing up this year - it's always felt like the 'big' one so I'll be excited to take part.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Busy busy busy! Damn I might have to do this exercise myself after all... and da_reversebang! I need to check that out this year.

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

DA_Reversebang is nowhere near as big as its SPN counterpart, but it was fun!

Your output would have to have been phenomenal last year, what with all the words and all the art! :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'm certainly a bit busy now - which is why I haven't got round to having a review... I've got sammyBB art to do and fic to final edit, 3 RBB's to art for and super_disney story to finish! Oh and I need to do my tax return soon too or I'll get fined. Meep!