2012: A Year of Words (SO MANY WORDS)

[kol]

I had a few writing goals for 2012, including what I thought was the ludicrous goal of writing 150,00 words in a single year. Well, I wrote 177,771 words in original fiction, poetry, RP posts & profiles, fanfiction, drabbles, and other assorted writings, beating what I had thought was impossible. I mean, 71,617 words were written in November alone (personal record)! And after 10 years of Nanowrimo, I finally achieved my goal of writing each and every day for a month.

So yes, this was a pretty successful year on the writing standpoint, even if I didn't finish much and not nearly enough of that number came from RP tags.

Below is a list of stories I've written this year, with first lines for both finished & unfinished fic. However there are two exceptions-- I decided against including any first lines for original work, as it was making me anxious, and ficmas drabbles for Kingdom are not listed below. They will be 2013 works and besides, I have a terrible history of showing people things and then not going on to finish them.

Original Work

Of the 177,771 words I wrote, most of them came from original works. Surprising I know!

• IPOMverse: did some brief work on Leagues of Steel & The Long Reach of War (could be seen as books 1 & 2 even though there are 400 years between them?), and actually started a short story in the universe, His Company of Havoc. All are on hold because I still don't feel like the project is ready for me to sit down and write a novel, much less a short story in the universe. Needs more cooking!
• SVS: I'm on the second draft of Chains of Magic, which I'm hoping to ship out for consideration in March 2013, and I wrote 50,005 words of book two, which is nameless but I usually just call SVS (Silicon Valley Sorcery). Pretty good year in this verse. SVS, btw, began as a the blending of two former projects-- a bit of 2007 with a LOT of 2009 Nano :D. Only I would basically write an AU of an original piece no one else has read *sigh*
• I wrote poetry this year. I really think it helped with a lot of my lingering depression issues, too. GO ME RECLAIMING MY WRITING AGENCY :D

Series/Fandoms/Games I wrote anything for this year:

Alice (2009 miniseries)
Finished
You dig the tunnel, I'll hide the soil
cast: Alice Hamilton/Hatter, Duchess/Jack Heart
summary: Taken to Wonderland as a child, Alice Hamilton grows into a very different Alice of Legend.
written for: Yuletide 2012

Alice Hamilton had known today was going to try her patience.

The morning broke hard and premature, the sounds of Charlie moving around camp before dawn rousing Alice from a well earned sleep. She needed no time piece to declare the hour early and a most unfair time for training, but Charlie made no move toward her side of camp, quietly leaving without setting the traps or giving her any sign of acknowledgement.

Charlie mysteriously leaving camp before dawn was one thing— her mentor was madder than any hatter she’d ever met, after all— but Charlie never, ever, forgot to reset the traps.

YES THIS FIC. Much more successful than I thought it would be considering how much I gutted it (my outline is longer than the actual fic ended up, lol)... I'm thinking of going back and writing a second, longer version that follows what I had planned. The 6,235 words I cut at deadline weren't bad, I just didn't have the time to polish them into being necessary. The narrative worked just fine without two entire chapters-- and that was very eye opening.

Bleach
Unfinished
Her Missing Piece
cast: Matsumoto Rangiku, Hitsugaya Toshiro, various others
summary: a character piece taking place in the 17 month gap in Bleach canon
status: I have written 3 complete drafts and I still have no idea where I'm going with this XD
Draft #1

Rangiku leaned forward, the paleness of her breath caressing the black memorial stone before her. "Do you ever think of what might have been, Taicho?"

Draft #2

It did not take long for the shinigami to settle into a new normal.

The first to adapt are the those with the superficial wounds-- it is easy for the first, fourth, and eleventh divisions to move forward, to refuse to allow what little loses they suffered to define them. They are strong, whole-- why should the betrayal of Aizen and the Winter War challenge their self perceptions?

The elevenths celebrations defiled the crisp night air the first night, their wild challenges doing little to staunch the blood soaked dawn that defined the tenth division.

In the weeks that followed, the tenth division became a living graveyard, their leaders trapped in twin coffins of aching regret and hollowed grief. From the only rooftop high enough to spies upon Soul Society, Rangiku dully watches as her fellow Lieutenants grow stronger, finding a power within that drives them close to the next level.

But Rangiku cannot share their success.

Draft #3

Spring had long come to Soul Society, but in the small memorial garden nestled beside the outer walls of the Tenth division, winter still reigned. The chill of frozen earth seeped through her hakama, but Matsumoto Rangiku remained still, kneeling before the division’s memorial stone. The discomfort was a small sacrifice against what so many had lost that day. Few divisions carried reminders of the war, content to grow stronger and pretend the incident hadn’t shaken their way of life. As if the war hadn’t fundamentally changed the character of Soul Society and those who found under the division banners.

The Tenth Division dared to display this bleak reminder, a solitary black stone in a sea of perpetual ice, proclaiming that wars born in winter leave wounds that should not be forgotten. For it was in the gaining of those wounds that their strength was truly tested. It was in their greatest losses that their division grew; perhaps not in spiritual power, but in a wisdom Rangiku would wish on no one. A wisdom claimed by watching as fanaticism drove their close ones to terrible sorrows and for Gin a tragic death. And very nearly brought about the destruction of their way of life.

I fully intend to finish this one I figure out what story I want to tell and what tone I want to tell it with. Right now I have about 10, 215 words across 3 drafts and a handful of head canons I really want to use but haven't found the best way to integrate. Boo!

Dark Angel (+ The Pretender crossover)
Unfinished
These Shackles We Allow
cast: Max, various others
summary: a character piece taking place in the 17 month gap in Bleach canon
for: The Dystopian AU Big Bang
status: Perpetual drawerfic. The BB folded 2 chapters in & I just gave up, especially as both fandoms are very dead.

The first week, Max struggled with the logistics.

Waking up strapped to a table, bled to the top limit of a transgenic’s tolerance, it was difficult for her brain to function correctly, be the machine Manticore had trained it to be. Her body was slow adapting to the anemia born by six vials of blood stolen every handful of hours.

Half-blind by the unrelenting brightness of her surroundings, it was fractured conversations that first filtered through the brain fog. Whispers of this as a renewal wing, her the only transgenic kept. “All part of the plan,” the wheeze of an old man, struggling to suck down enough oxygen to bite his words with. “She’s perfect.”

The voice lent a shiver down her spine.

Looking back, that was when she first began planning her escape from The Centre.

Doctor Who
Unfinished
Gult. Guiltier. Guiltiest
cast: The Doctor
summary: Kol wrote a Doctor Who fic in January apparently? I had entirely forgotten *__*
status: Drawerfic... for now.

The console room is quiet. but the Doctor cannot find peace alone. Not since the flashes of three guilts, losses all of them he could have prevented if he'd only been more. Or perhaps, he wonders, rapping quickly four times upon the dim console, a little less.

It is intolerable that his thoughts should linger on the three when there is so much more of time to explore before him. So many mysteries his previous faces have left him, so much his future selves are just waiting to thrust upon his reedy shoulders. And there is still the mystery of River Song to unravel, and the real chance to save the little girl she once was and could be again.

But in these quiet hours where the Ponds keep to themselves, when the TARDIS falls deeply into her own circadian rhythm between tossed adventures, the Doctor finds himself lost to the guilts of his last face. The loss of Rose, the muddle he made of Martha, and the disaster he laid upon Donna. He's tried to fix things with this new face-- not with them, naturally, but with the Ponds he cherishes, but regardless of his best efforts, in these quiet moments his failures haunt him.

Might rewrite with Ponds drama later. Oh the things you find in your Scrivener Document XD.

Homestuck
Finished
And I A Dream, Strangled Awake
cast: Redglare
for: the Rarewomen fic exchange :D
summary: Your entire life has been spoilers, how can your death be any less?

You hear the whispers of the heavens, so far above the canopy of your nursery. Your new limbs reach out, stretching with all their might towards the twinkling lights, but they remain just beyond you. You have never wanted anything more than to touch that brightness, and the denial is too much for you.

Those are stars, Redglare, a silky shadow whispers across the tip of your mind. You thank your lusus for the knowledge, but wonder at the tone the dragon supplies-- concern, caution, and a dreadful longing you barely understand. You have never seen the dragon, but he has always been a strong presence in your life, just beyond the scope of your eyes but always dwelling within your mind.

“Can I have them?” You breathe out a desperate wanting, your heart dazzled by the promise of those sirens above. They are more than simple lights to you and hardly a simple entity that Pyralspite would name them with so simple a word as stars.

No, they are all voices, each begging for your ear, a magnificent chorus of promise that you can only brush the barest of comprehension. You have heard the callings of the stars and it has left you wanting them with every aching scrap of your young, wriggling body, more than you have ever wanted anything else.

ffff I love this stupid piece, even if it did start off MUCH better as a fun action-adventure piece with Redglare chasing after her pirate foe & breaking out of jails and being generally bamf. I was really affected by everything with my aunt when i was writing this, and it left a lot of my writing hollow, passive, and weirdly in first or second POV. I think the second part is the strongest-- the first and third are just too moody and although I put in the opening bit here, I actually hate the opening. But my recipient seemed to really enjoy the fic though? So there is that!

Unfinished
The Sheer Force of You
cast: Redglare
summary: You have been waiting for this day your entire life.
status: Drawerfic. Utter drawerfic

The clock strikes three and your teeth gleam in the darkness. Yes, the day has finally come-- this is the dawn of the greatest day your people will know, the day you drag the most notorious criminal of your time to justice. Already you can feel the jury screaming for the pirate's head, moved by your flawless testimony. You have been waiting for this day your entire life and you can barely control your excitement.

You are Redglare and you just hope you can break out of this inconvenient jail cell, find the pirate queen, and drag her to justice before the jury has your head for stalling.

My original rarewomen fic! This is such a different creature from what the actual assignment fill turned to be that I'm considering it an entirely different fic. Still a Redglare piece, but this rambling Dragon-riding adventure. But while I was writing, the tone of Homestuck changed & I ended up doing a COMPLETELY different work for my recipient instead-- thankfully she liked it!

Kingdom
Finished
The Curious Fate of Mr Snuggles (unedited)
cast: Kona and Eli
for: Babyherd!AU fic :D
summary: That cuteness attacks fic where eight year olds create a seal through Loni's front door, aka that time Kol got consumed by Kingdom's babyherd.

Kona scrunched her nose. Her best friend was weird-- who showed up for adventures in a suit? But she couldn’t help but think he looked a little like a prince, sleeping beneath a grove, waiting for some maiden to come and pinch him awake.

She resisted, but only just.

Notes: SO CUTE OH GOD


Unfinished
The Wandering Moon
cast: Mara, Deon, various others
for: Kingdom's Naruto AU
summary: aka the one where Mara returns from 6 years wandering the ninja world, aka the one where Mara is kinda the AU's Kakashi (... does this make Deon the AU's Guy, because that would be amazing XD), aka the one about stolen ninja eyes.
status: I am still writing this what is my life anymore.

Mara knew in this light the moon was perfectly reflected in her eyes.

It was a look kunoichi strive to perfect, to capture the romance of a moment and twist it, holding a mark in place until it was time to stick that dagger through their heart. For it to happen now was pure accident, and accidents got kunoichi killed. But she was in no danger with Deon, no chance he could be distracted by the illusion of romance.

They both knew the eyes the moonlight was reflected in weren’t hers.

Progress is v. slow because I think I'm the only one who cares about Naruto, much less the AU. But still I continue on, because this is actually a pretty good piece *__*

Climbing the Floral Throne
cast: Reed
for: Kingdom's FMA AU
summary: aka the Reed Chang piece
status: ... I forgot I didn't finish this. THIS IS WHY I DON'T SHOW MY WORK TO PEOPLE, SORRY FLY

The world had endured 28 generations since the last Chang held the Flowering Throne. Dynasties had come & crumbled to dust, revolutions transforming even the mothballed corners of the farthest temples, and entire histories had came forth to the lands surrounding their most ancient kingdom. When the Chang Family last boasted an Empress, Amestris was but empty grassland and alchemy a secret only the desert knew

I really love that last line ;___;. I need to finish it this year.

This Too Shall Pass
cast: Reed, Mara
summary: Reed/Mara vs burnout; aka the log where Reed is a badass healer for once
status: in my writing notebook!

Will edit this in when I figure out where I put my writing notebook

Yeah that above? That's why I haven't finished this. XD

Fading into a Distant Memory
cast: Rebecca, various others
for: SAD!Babyherd!AU I guess? Written waaaay before I got excited about happy!babyherd
summary: A character piece on Rebecca Barros I wrote in February
status: Total drawerfic

I think the old guard had it easy, back when legends were easy to mold to your use. It wasn’t that people back then didn’t have imagination, but if they were trying to top the previous generation, it wasn’t quite as difficult. Living in the modern era, on the backs of thousands of generations struggling to top the next… it made the title of legendary that much more difficult to gain.

And it was precisely why that label getting so casually thrown in my direction made my insides squirm more than Joe Mata's live bait jar.

I have no idea where I was going with this. The fic is dreamy and sad and not really what I pictured for the character? I think this is also one of

Third Star on the Right
cast: Kona, Eli
for: Babyherd!AU
summary: Teenagers find the strangest reasons to show they care
status: Oh man this thing is ridiculous I need to finish it already

Out of all her siblings, Kona was the only one who loved sleep. She needed at least nine hours to function on minimum cylinders, and woe be any sibling who bounded in to wake her if a hunt broached into her precious sleep time. Anela still joked that if it were legal, Kona would marry her bed— a forbidden love Anela had witnessed first hand, as the two siblings had shared a room right up until Anela had moved out after college.

Four hours had past since Kona had gone to bed. It was well past midnight, yet sleep continued to elude her, defying her best efforts to sink into the wonders of dreamland.

The bed itself was every bit as comfortable as it usually was, so the problem was entirely her. Counting sheep had only led to wondering why her mother & Bennet had been whispering in the hallway, just low enough she couldn’t make a word out regardless of how hard Kona had pushed her ear against the door. Sipping a glass of water made her thoughts tumble into all the ways a hunt could go wrong— only such a thing could send Mama out this late, sneaking out the front door & pushing the car down the drive-way to avoid waking the kids inside.

And counting backwards from one hundred had been futile, each number turning into a face that could very well belong to a newly departed hunter. She gave up counting completely when at 89 she pictured Eli’s face. Was he okay? Had he been drafted into whatever was going on? Should she call to make sure he was alright?

A coldness settled in her chest, defying the heat outside and the worry gnawing on her mind. If it was serious enough to pull Eli in, Momma would have dragged Kona out of bed, too. Her and Eli were a team… even if they weren’t currently talking to each other. There was no point worrying about him if Mama hadn’t risked sneaking into Kona’s room to wake her up.

What Kona should be doing was trying to get to sleep. Sleep was her friend… and she wasn’t quite sure Eli still fell in that category.

Yeah this has a slow build but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT. Ug I need to finish this like yesterday

I think I'm missing a few things here... will probably edit this once I find them :3


Legend of Korra
Unfinished
Between a rock and a cold place
cast: Lin Beifong, Bolin
summary: Lin is thankful for the South’s brutal slap of frozen air against her face. Unfortunately for her, another earthbender has ventured into the snowy wastes for some much needed solitude…
status: Will be working on this sporadically

…. [t]his kitchen is too warm, too filled— choking her with memories of summers spent here when her world was so narrow in focus, her ambitions only a life with Tenzin and finding her own path outside that of her mother’s long shadow. Lin-that-was struggled with what was expected, nearly given in countless times until she discovered hers are hands that bend iron and mold justice for an entire city, domesticity to be an itch she will never feel the need to scratch no matter how much her love for that man. And if she’s honest with herself, this damned kitchen, filled with a family she never really wanted, is worse than all the days she spent trapped in that cell, stripped of her bending. She feels more the ghost of Lin-that-was than the woman she’s made herself in all the years since and that’s a hundred times more damaging to her self image than a few days without earthbending could ever be.

I am totally going to finish this fic. EARTHBENDER FEELS

Naruto
Finished
She is tired of the feel of this girl's pain
cast: Karin, Sakura
note: A complete re-write of an earlier work
summary: Karin survives the Uchiha & finds help where she least expects it.

Karin knows why these former allies of Sasuke’s are standing before her. Interrogation, torture— she is a ninja, she knows and accepts the drill. It isn’t like this world of theirs is advertised as puppies, true love, and easy living. Karin knew the risks when she decided to follow Sasuke out of Sound. But what she can’t figure out is why these ninjas are just standing there, watching her bleed out.

Originally a kunoichi (lady ninja) piece originally posted October 2010, I rewrote it entirely after chapter 600 (August I think?). I just have a lot of Karin and lady ninja feels T__T

Unfinished
Revenge of the Broken
cast: Karin, various others
summary: A Karin kicks all the asses piece
status: Drawerfic. So freaking angry man

They like to tell us about the past as if they've learned something of their mistakes. But when we look at today, it is clear to our eyes that those so called teachers have learned jack shit.

Ended up going back and re-writing an old Karin piece instead. But oh wow is this something I need to come back too now that I'm not feeling so frustrated and helpless in my own life. Karin unleashed and just angry at the world and kicking all the asses, this is something the world needs wow.

Restless Heavens
Unfinished
A Land Consumed; Shed Blood Becomes A Sea
cast: Enki, various others
summary: A travelogue meets coming of age story, Shed Blood follows Enki as he sets off to En, determined to find his King. He quickly discovers the kingdom is far worse than any claim.
status: Will be working on this sporadically!

Enki does not breathe. Above him, servants tidy his rooms, chattering blandly of the days events. Clinging desperately to a thin rope woven of stolen bedding, all Enki can do is close his eyes against the dagger sharp cliffs below and still his equally jagged breathing.

For his escape to work, his caretakers mustn't notice him gone for hours yet. Perhaps in this, an ill favored kirin might find his first taste of luck.

RH is a sandbox, so eventually I'm going to finish this. I can tell you it will *not* remain in present tense. I started this after Homestuck fic and it kinda shows.

Sailormoon (NYC!AU)
Unfinished
An Influence of Fixed Stars
cast: Moe (Mercury)
summary: An original!Senshi adventure because I am 12 at heart you guys. aka the NYC!Sailor Moon project that quietly consumed my heart this year, including a few artworks and a lot of inspiration gathering off tumblr.
status: Written & art drawn for tale & game that do not exist. Woe.

A typical day begins with Moe blindly reaching for whatever smells the least and blindly wriggling into it beneath her blanket nest, colors or her flatmate's Parsons sensibilities be damned. Some days she makes it out with the sheen of dirty hipster fashion-- oversized men's shirts paired with relatively unstained leggings, feet sliding into her thrift store cowboy boots that have seen at least three better owners. Most of the time Moe looks like the fucking train wreck she is outside of the calling.

It can't bother her. Moe doesn't enjoy people having an impression she's a hobo, but the fact is she's juggling too many pots in this Senshi fire to spare a moment to care about something that means so little. She's got a city surveillance system to make her bitch if this monster fighting business has any hope of working, a dude running around in a Tuxedo ruining all her plans that she ABSOLUTELY HAS to find a way to stop (or maybe recruit because damn that fool can parkour like nobody's business), and now she can add a fucking talking cat to the mix, thanks Moon.

Fashion can wait until she's dead and a mortician's plaything to make those lucky fucks who survived her feel better about themselves. Now Moe's got lives depending on her -- why waste time on fitting in when her fingers are already reaching for her ipad, sweet talking that surveillance feed to fold her right in?

Let the eyes of New Yorkers slide from Moe's form with disgust. She could give two fucks right now for anything beyond what the city sees with its thousand lensed eyes.

I need to find a game to put Moe in. Also why do I seem to be attracted to dysfunctional Mercury Senshi.

Scandal
Unfinished
Flare, Burn, Devour
cast: Olivia Pope
summary: A character study on Olivia Pope
status: Drawerfic, for now

Olivia wonders, somewhere between the wine rack and the couch where that glass sits lonely on her coffee table, if she made the right decision three years ago.

Sore ankles only just released and ears still ringing from a self righteous adulterer's shrieking protests of the video Olivia had asked point blank if there was ANY possibility had been in existence, she knew there wasn't enough time to rest before the next round began. Network sharks smelled blood in the water, and there was only so much chum Olivia's team could dish before the scandal broke.

She dug her feet beneath her, letting the wine breathe before she poured herself a well deserved glass. The guilty always lied right to her face, as if that minute without embarrassment another knew their dirty little secret would save them from the scandal. If the Senator had the guts to tell her the video had any chance of existing, it was only a question of finding the scorned lover's laptop-- carelessly left unprotected by an open wifi network in Washington DC-- and planting a very devastating virus.

Three years ago, a career as a fixer had seemed poetic justice. Each family she helped, each life she restored, rubbing some of the blood stains off the scandal Olivia knew one day would catch up with them all.

Yeah I totally forgot I had written this, wow! I should probably continue it...

Comments

[impersona]

OF ALL OF THESE STORIES, I WANT THE NARUTO ONE THE HARDEST. Also the birthday fic from the 15 years later AU.

Congrats on all of the words! Any rewards in mind?

[kol]

15YLAU-- ssssshhhh you are getting your giftmas presents soon Sageface

;___________; the Naruto!Au is so very bitsome ;__________;

You know I didn't really think of a reward? I just set the challenge & treated it as a LIVE OR DIE situation. But it does feel nice to say I wrote that much words in one year.

And it will be even nicer next year saying I wrote 200,000 in one year :D