Backtrack Post!
What happened in 2020? Whatever it was, it ignited a spark in me and spurned me to new levels regarding my writing output! This is a backtrack post to have one last look backwards at what I managed to generate in 2020, before we successfully move with big steps towards 2021! :D Enjoy~
Now, without further ado, a bit of a review of the year in terms of my fanfiction writing! :D As per usual, you’ll find it under the cut, folks interested in the statistical side of things! I’ll also include a bit of a cautious prediction as to what 2021 will hold in store for you, dear readers, so, for those of you curious enough to go on: have fun reading! Cheers!
I gotta say, in 2020 I’ve been productive with my fanfiction-writing like I haven’t been in all of the five years before!
My obsession with the One Piece fandom has successfully stuck with me, it’s in its second year and going strong, still! :D On top of that, I’ve lately started branching out due to various Challenges and Gift Exchanges to involve other fandoms in my writing.
In total
In 2020, I transferred all of my fanfics from ffnet over to AO3 (and tried to do vice-versa for some, although that’s tapered off quickly when I saw how much more effort that was... XD I’ll finish transferring Celebramus Vitam sometime in 2021, but that’s all that ffnet will see of me any longer, methinks...), getting my whole word count logged on AO3 for all of my years up to 404.461 words. WOHOOOO!!!
All in all, I’ve written and put online 223.371 words for all of my different fandoms in 2020 alone (I subtracted the # of words for my transferred fics there, but added the ones that dragged over from 2019 - see my reasoning for that below, those were: A Gamble in Time and An Older Brother’s Plight). Predominantly, I’ve spent my time in One Piece fanfic-land, with Yuuri! On Ice following close behind. In third place, there’s both Magic Kaito and Asterix in a tie, having each gotten one more fanfic published for their fandoms.
2020 was the year that I created a few Series to better organise my fanfics and had fun participating in Challenges. I remodeled both my Series as well as my Tumblr a few times and restructured the plot of a few of my stories as I went along. Things changed, happenings had to be changed to accomodate different outcomes and new characters made themselves known.
First and foremost, my obsession with Portgas D Ace’s character has opened the way for me to explore more characters in the OP universe: Sabo’s now a close second favourite character of mine, with Buggy as well as Shanks sharing the third place in my personal rankings. Funnily enough, Buggy has quite literally bowled me over with his charm and charisma, thank you very much @stereden, for nudging me into that one’s direction. XD
My participation in the Women! Wanted Zine (which shall be out in 2021 and which I am super looking forward to physically holding in my hands soon~ thank you @womenwantedzine for keeping the anticipation alive!!!) made me aware of how little the female characters of OP are being talked about and thus, a Shiny New Series for them was born that I try to keep adding to every now and again.
I have also taken part in Nanowrimo 2020, and, while doing that, managed to break a personal record and arrive at writing 1k+ words in 15 minutes, whenever the mood hit! That was awesome to see spelled out by the sprint bot, seriously.
Yuuri! On Ice
I wrote three fanfics for this particular fandom that I’m quite proud of, especially seeing as I wrote one within two week’s time for the Heart Attack Exchange: it’s called Theirs is a magical kind of love and it’s got 10k+ to its name. This one’s just as fluffy as the one whose name I still to this day can’t pronounce correctly (forgive me, Russian-speaking folks!): от надежды родится вечность. (copy and paste are heavenly tools sometimes XD)
Tallying the word count of all three fics I wrote up, I arrive at 36.600 words having been written for this particular fandom and I gotta say, I’m quite proud of those.
Also: don’t worry, folks, I’ll keep coming back to “IT support, how can I help?” sometime this year - it won’t be finished this year I don’t think, but it’ll be continued, for sure. ;) As of this post, it’s got 22.681 words and I have grown quite fond of the thing, all in all.
One Piece
If we count both A Gamble in Time (12734 words thus far, with chapter four in the workings already) and An Older Brother’s Plight (15333 words) to the mix (they did start being written in December of 2019), then we’re at 175.051 words written in the One Piece fandom in 2020 alone.
My most prolific writing phase of 2020 has involved my longest fanfic, Through Troubled Waters. With its 77k+ words, it is at the same time my longest one. Having that one stay a 51-chapter-fanfic is still my most ambitious project, although if things keep going as they are, I don’t see why I won’t manage that. (#famous last words)
Altogether, I wrote 44 fanfics for the One Piece fandom in 2020 alone, most of them 100-word-drabbles that nevertheless were awesome to write.
I wrote a couple of longfics and a few oneshots-that-didn’t-stay-oneshots. XD
My most popular fanfics of 2020 in this particular fandom were also the ones I kept alternating between and working on the most: An Older Brother’s Plight is at the top and already finished with 15.333 words to its name. In second place, we find Through Troubled Waters (77.048 words at the time of this post). Third place occupies Dead Man Walking with 24.034 words to its name at the time this post was written and published and fourth place goes to A Gamble in Time (12.734 words).
Most of all, I had fun, engaging with the fandom, with like-minded people, throwing lots of plotbunnies around and prompting as well as enabling people to keep creating the most amazing pieces! Seriously, the people you get to know sometimes... couldn’t have written half of all of those fanfics without you - you know who you are!!! ;)
Thank you very much for, in turn, enabling me to write my best~
Predictions for 2021
Currently, I am very much immersed in writing for and finishing all the still-missing chapters for Dead Man Walking, which shall be done and over with by the end of January 2021, at the latest, I hope *knocks on wood*. Once that is done, I’ll be free to look at other things again and focus on the rest of my stories, once more. Moreover, I shall polish up the whole story of Dead Man Walking and edit it to include the missing bits (there is at least one for Chapter 11 that I will not spoil for those of you patiently waiting for it!).
For anything else, I will not be making any clear-cut or detailed predictions as to when I’ll update what, I’m afraid. 😅 I’ve learned my lesson with that one...
What I can already tell you about is the following: two side-stories/spin-offs to Through Troubled Waters are already in the workings and have been since November 2020. Together, once they are finished, they’ll have about 60k words to them. Potentially, (make that very potentially. Maybe. Hopefully,) they shall start to be posted in April, seeing as then would also be the first anniversary of the main story’s fic... although they do depend on particular chapters having been published before, so, who knows? 😅
On top of all of that, I’m still working my job, I’ll be finishing as well as pursuing another degree starting in January and living my life (and keep doing other hobbies I have along with keeping up my social contacts and having fun) while the pandemic is going on. Sooooo. Not a lot of free time at all, eh? Fanfiction writing is atm my go-to for relax time and I’m hopeful it’ll stay that way in 2021.
Considering I’m doing all of this writing for free? Publishing more than 223k in a year’s time while doing all that other stuff besides? That’s a whole lot of awesome output, I’m going to pat myself on the shoulder for managing all of that while a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic is still ongoing. *pat*
So, for those of you wondering when I’ll update the next chapter to any of my fics: it’s reasonable to assume I’m either writing or taking a well-deserved break at the moment. ;) I shall keep writing fanfics, though, no worries there.
Thank you very much for reading!
Cheers,
Aibhilin.
This post was put online on the 01.01.2021.
