2022 Fic Reading Challenge So Far
Just a little bit of an update of how far I got in these first 6 months of challenge, I guess. If you are interested in participating, you can still join. Rules can be found @fanfic-reading-challenge.
NUMBERS
Total fanfics: 210 (14 of which DNF) Total words read: 4.823.985 Most popular ship: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker (427.125 words); but I technically read more no ship fanfics (1.398.266 words) Most popular fandom: Star Wars Prequels (1.303.908 words) Different ships: 59 Different fandoms: 31 Most productive months:
January: 73 fanfic (7 of which DNF) and 986.912 words June: 56 fanfics (0 of which DNF) and 970.201 words May: 56 fanfics (5 of which DNF) and 962.930 words
HOW AM I DOING?
Compared with previous years
Total fics read in the first semester of 2022: 210 fanfics
Total words read in the first semester of 2022: 4.824.777 words
Words to fanfic ratio: 22.975
Total fics read in the first semester of 2021: 297 fanfics
Total words read in the first semester of 2021: 5.012.096 words
Words to fanfic ratio: 16.876
Total fics read in the first semester of 2020: 271 fanfics
Total words read in the first semester of 2020: 3.813.964 words
Words to fanfic ratio: 14.074
Total fics read in the first semester of 2019: 168 fanfics
Total words read in the first semester of 2019: 3.735.846 words
Words to fanfic ratio: 22.237
All in all, I think I can still at least hit the 9.5 millions words I reached last year, if I manage to deal with the seasonal depression that always hits me the hardest in late summer/fall.
Challenge tasks
Regular Mode:
Tasks: 107/125 done (86~%).
Categories: 6/11 done (AUs, Content, Minorities, Ships, Title, Tropes)
Still left before completion: completion at 80%, so I am technically already done.
Hard Mode:
Tasks: 56/87 done (65~%)
Categories: 3/12 done (AUs, Minorities, Ships)
Still left before completion: completion at 85, so 20~ still left to go. I think I can manage it.
Extreme Mode:
Tasks: 31/65 done (48~%)
Categories: 0/11 done
Still left before completion: completion at 95%, so 47~% still left. Time wise it can be managed then, since I'm halfway there. Not sure I can actually do it since I'm left with all of the actually hard ones to do.
Tasks I'm struggling with:
Author's unger age 20: I have a friend that turned 48 this year that writes in Italian, so the 45+ task I could manage easily. But I have yet to find someone younger than 20.
Reading from rec lists and bookmarks: it's something I usually don't do, because I'm super picky already and sorting through other people's favorites is tedious for me. Also, I'm one of those "forever alone" people when it comes to fandoms. My fandom friends (which are few) and I don't really do the suggesting fanfics thing. Mostly because we don't ship the same things unfortunately.
Reading from ff.net: I tried multiple times opening ff.net in these months... I have yet to read even a single fic. I'm just too used to how much easier it is to both find and read on AO3.
"Character has the same profession as you" task: can be done easily, right? Everyone at a certain point was a student... Yeah, problem is I don't want to consider student a profession. And I had very few jobs so far (was an avon "lady" when I was still in high school before I learnt what an MLM was, tutored a bit after high school, was an intern in a couple of companies and did a little bit of freelance proof reading). None of which I really care to read about even if I manage to find fanfics with them. Don't know, this task in particular is almost triggering for me, apparently.
Reading from different fandoms: while I did read from more than 30 different fandoms, for most of my minor fandoms I read short things, mostly under 5.000 words. Which makes the Fandom tasks the hardest for me. Also, I don't know if I should consider all of the Star Wars content as just one fandom, or if each trilogy should be considered it's own (same for each animated show and each disney+ series).
Numbers category in general: I literally keep this one category always closed in extreme mode (and I skip it quickly in hard mode). Seeing those numbers I already know I won't reach apparently make me very anxious. Which means I'm ignoring even those tasks I could probably complete.
Reading WIPs specifically: it's just something I usually don't do because of memory issues. But I have one author in particular that I love that has plenty of WIPs. I'm just procrastinating on this one I guess.
Titles from song lyrics/books: despite my love for titling fanfictions with lyrics, I struggle finding titles referencing songs from the 80's and the 90's. And don't even get me started with books.
The "Childhood friends to Enemies to Lovers" Trope: I know one ship in particular that fits this trope. And it's my damn NOTP for that specific fandom. (I mean, if anyone know of an Obikin/Vaderwan with Obi-Wan the same age as Anakin, the two of them being friends, then Anakin falling then the two of them becoming lovers, I would read the fuck out of it. But I still haven't found something like this so... For now this damn trope is killing me.)
Relay fanfics: even if now I know what they actually are, I stumbled into only one. There's a second one I'm not sure about, because there are not tags or notes that make it obvious that it's a relay. otherwise, multiauthors fanfics are apparently something I struggle to find.
5 fanfics each from 5 fandom events: I managed to do this for 2 events so far. Like I mentioned already, I'm picky, so for me it's hard to be so restricted. I guess I just have to get over it and actually search for events collections...
Tasks I surprising didn't struggle with at all:
25 different soulmates AU: I'm literally missing just 4. Maybe it's because I consider different some of these AUs on "technicalities". Like, I think it counts as a different soulmate AU if both have marks but they work in different way. Like, maybe one the mark appears when you meet, another has the mark that works more like a compass, or things like that.
AUs in general: I am am literally 7 fanfics away from completing even the extreme mode AU category. And it's mostly because I'm waiting for being in the mood to read the AUs I'm left with and I need to stumble into the 4 aforementioned different soulmates AUs.
Minorities: I never realized how much I read about minorities apparently, because I'm only 3 fanfics away from being done with this category in all extreme mode (already done with them in the other difficulties).
Ships categories: I'm 7 ships away from being done with the first of the 2 tasks from extreme mode. It'll probably be a little bit harder to complete the second task. But I was surprised by how quickly I managed this, considering I usually stick to my 10 usual ships. This one really pushed me into reading more into my minor ships and exploring ship I found interesting but never read about.
"one of each for every letter of the alphabet" tasks: I had to specifically search for letters like K, X and Z, but all in all it wasn't hard at all, especially since you can sort fanfics easily on AO3. (And there are alphabets challenges apparently!)
Tropes: other than the previously mentioned trope in specific, I'm basically missing only 4 total tropes tasks. Three because I'm very anal about finding the right fanfic about said trope otherwise I get annoyed with them and the last one is the tropesgiving event task. Because I haven't bothered looking for it yet.
Kinky stuff: another thing I found out about me because of this challenge. I'm more into reading kinky fanfictions that I realized at first.
Fandoms under 2000-1000-500-100 fanfics: I'm into niche things. Didn't know some of the things I like are actually this niche.