starlights

2020: Fic Year in Review

The Stats:

☆ Total Word Count: 76,180!
☆ Total Fics Written: 8
☆ Fandoms Written In: still just one, NCT (god when will i branch out)
☆ Pairings Written For: jaemjen (3), renmin (2), nahyuck (2), jaemsung (1).

Chronological list:

☆ january:
☆ february:
☆ march:
☆ april: let's cast a spell (just you and me)
☆ may:
☆ june: love, love, love / love letters (& stupid wishes)
☆ july:
☆ august:
☆ september: the boy you loved in spring / lovesick. / halfway home
☆ october:
☆ november: like the falling summer rain
☆ december: make it come true


I can make three different observations looking at this list. First of all, September was a crazy month. I remember I was a bit stressed out, even though it wasn't that bad because halfway home was almost done by then. Also, the list itself looks packed on some months mostly because some fic fests tend to have similar schedules so~ Finally, I didn't write much during the first quarter of the year because I had finals + my thesis + travelling ^^

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✿ Overall Thoughts ✿

🌲 Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? If you predicted anything.

No! I honestly thought maybe I'd reach 100k but oh well, I can always aim for that next year! I definitely met my goal from last year though ^^


🌲 What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January, and was it as unpredicted as this entire year?

Space au for sure!!! I've been into sci-fi since I was very young, but I never thought in my life I would end up writing a fic based on star wars. I mostly used the lore and not the story itself anyway but still! There was a lot of space battles, space travelling, war, and overall it was very fun! I actually want to write more space aus now. Thank you Robin for being that little push I needed for that prompt, and for accepting to collab with me once again ^^


🌲 What’s your own favourite story of the year? Compared to overall?

My first instinct is to say halfway home, because discovered how much I enjoyed space aus, life and death situations, reluctant companions as a trope, but also reaffirmed my love for enemies to lovers. Writing never felt like a task, words kept coming to me naturally, something that has only ever happened writing this specific fic. It didn't feel like something I had to complete or get done, which I often feel towards other fics, specially considering I was writing it for a fic fest.

Even then, after re reading all my fics  from this year, I gotta say that I loved  love letters way more than I expected to. It's such a cute, light fic, but it made me happy.


🌲 Do you have a story from previous years you now feel is underappreciated? Better than you remembered it to be?

No. I only completed 2 fics during 2019 and they were well received in my standards ^^ I'm pretty sure baby, we will be alright isn't that good too soooo hahah


🌲 Did you take any writing risks this year?

I think so! First of all, deciding to write the catholic boarding school nahyuck, lovesick. I had wanted to write a fic like that for a while, with catholic imagery + references. I was raised catholic myself, but it was still challenging. I also tagged that work as character study, mostly because of how Jaemin carried himself in that fic, that mix of pride and guilt, and the way he can't love himself just yet, but how that's okay. I don't know if I managed to pull it off (it wasn't a super long fic, after all), but I'd like to think it was different from how I used characters in my other fics.

I also almost didn't write the star wars fics. Writing a trope that's not super popular + a ship that's also not very popular felt a bit like I was writing something doomed to fail, but then I was like fail at what? Not having enough kudos? I thought no one would read that, but Robin said she didn't care, and that made me realize that the problem was that I cared a bit too much about stats. This leaded to me taking some time of writing and reflecting about this for the later part of the year, and I can say that now I'm much better at just writing for the heck of it, and not for stats.

Finally, I never thought I'd say this, but writing short fics is very hard for me because I tend to think they are of "less quality" than longer ones when I write them ORZ. I struggle a lot to choose the scenes and just to get to a point where I'm satisfied with the fic. This year I wrote three fics under 10k!


🌲 Biggest source of inspiration?

Mmmh, music and other fics I guess? I get inspired by fics when I see people write a trope that I wouldn't expect to like, but end up loving, like for example what happened with exes to lovers, specifically with vivi's fic, penrose steps. For music, 95% of the time I need to listen to music while writing. I also make playlists for almost all of my fics, which helps a lot during the writing process.


🌲 Do you have any fanfic goals for the new year?

Yes, but I'm going to make another post for it later! For now, to reach 100k, since I didn't make it this year.


🌲 You survived a year! Did the circumstances drive your creative juices, or did it leave you as out of whack as it did everything else?

Obviously this year was hard, but at the same, I had a lot of time for writing and overall doing all the things I wanted to do, so there's that.

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✿ From my past year of writing, what was… ✿

🌲 My best story (or scene!) of this year: If we are talking overall, personally, I think it's halfway home. I learnt a lot from it , and I think it's my best writing up to date. A close second is like the falling summer rain, even though I'm only one chapter in.

My best scene is definitely from halfway home. Either when Donghyuck gets drunk, or when he visits the waterfall with Jaemin! ^^

🌲 My most popular story of this year: my collab with robin, let's cast a spell (just you and me), with 388 kudos and 3330 hits as of now. From my own solo works, it's love, love, love, with 296 kudos and 3389 hits.

🌲 Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Mmmh, maybe halfway home? That fic was everything to me so I just feel like it deserves love. Objectively speaking, though, it's definitely like the falling summer rain.

🌲 Longest story of the year: Technically, it's halfway home, with 25k, but I only wrote 13k of that. Next to that is love letters with 20k ^^

🌲 Shortest story of the year: make it come true, with 2,3k.

🌲 Most fun story to write: halfway home, for sure!

🌲 Story that needed the most research: I'd say halfway home, but I did most of the research because I wanted, not only because I needed to, if that makes sense. I love star wars, so it definitely didn't feel like a burden. like the falling summer rain, though, it's another story. I don't like doing research in general, so it definitely felt a bit overwhelming to do research for it.

🌲 Story with the single sexiest moment: halfway home, both in the scene when they were practicing (physically fighting each other sounds very sexy to me), and also the waterfall scene, since it's their first kiss, and it's very sensual too (even though it did kind of badly lol).

🌲 Story with the single cutest/sweetest moment: ah this is a hard one! Maybe that one scene on the hot tub in love letters! That scene was part of the movie as well, but in my fic was more emotional than sensual, maybe, so it was very cute and heart warming for me ^^

🌲 Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: Mmmm, nothing, to be honest! I don't think my nsfw fics are that extreme haha.

🌲 Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: This one is hard too TT Maybe the boy you loved in spring? It made me realize how much potential Jisung has as his own character in fics ^^ I don't think I'll ever write from his pov again (although you never know), but it was definitely an experience. halfway home is a close second because I loved writing from Donghyuck's pov, and watching him slowly catch feelings for Jaemin ^^

🌲 Hardest story to write: love letters, for sure. I was like "I'm already 10k in but they JUST made the deal (to fake date)... now I gotta the whole fake dating thing and then the catching feelings process like... what the fuck... just k word me now". I also re wrote the intro 3 times, not even kidding, and lowkey had a (writer) crisis because I was not having as much fun as I though I would, as writing high school fics felt a bit weird for me. I almost ended up dropping out of the renmin ff because of this reasons, but I'm glad I managed to pull through, because looking back, I do love this fic a lot ^^

🌲 Biggest disappointment: Oooof. Maybe lovesick., because the ending was rushed? I wanted to write more scenes for it but I ended up not having enough time/motivation to do so. But I think it turned our alright, specially considering it's both of my betas fav work from me this year! I think it's very intense and it has good balance between more poetic(? writing and my own kinda practical style, so I guess it's okay.

🌲 Biggest surprise: let's cast a spell for sure! At first I wasn't very sure about the prompt but the writing process was very fun! I ended up really liking the result too. Same goes halfway home tbh, but mostly because I never though people would be interested in reading a space opera fic.

🌲 Most unintentionally telling story: It's been a year and I still don't know what this question is referring to if i'm being honest? ehhh yeah.

🌲 Favorite comment: this comment on lovesick and this comment on love, love, love ^^


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✿ Favourite Opening Lines: ✿

I struggle with intros a lot, so I don't think I have a favorite one? But I guess this one comes close, although it feel very info-dumpy, ugh TT

Jaemin’s problem weekend at Hogwarts starts, as always, with Jeno Lee. It’s not that Jeno gets him into any trouble because, if anything, it’s quite the contrary. Having three Slytherin friends can definitely speed things up down the road for a nice, friend-driven Hufflepuff like Jeno.

from love, love, love

✿ Favourite Closing Lines: ✿