writing year in review 2020

[hyojungss]

year in review commentary trend was started by leeseokmin  and in addition to the usual format I took questions from this list. 

total number of completed stories: 8 (▲2) +drabbles

total word count: 19,884 (▼107 words) LOL... + ~2.3k in drabbles

fandoms written in:

svt (▲1)

• ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR (jun/wonwoo, 2554)
• ALWAYS & ALWAYS (wonwoo/mingyu, 1402) (for siyao)

svt / pristin (-)

• fever dream high (nayoung/jeonghan, 2271) (for sapphy and jess)
• antithesis (jun & woozi & jieqiong, 3700) (k-pop ficmix 2020, for miuyi (rainiest))

oh my girl (▲1)

• better to have loved and lost (binnie/jiho, 1393) (gg jukebox mixtape)

twice (-)

• sunset framed (nayeon/jeongyeon, 2789) (gg jukebox r2)

omg / rv / hotshot (NEW)

• not quite paris (hyojung & seulgi & sungwoon, 1418)

fe3h (NEW)

• let me go again (felix/annette, 4357) (director's cut)

(no omg x weme and no keyaki, ▼2)

(drabbles: gfriend sinb/astro moonbin, apink hayoung/rv joy, svt the8/pristin jieqiong, omg jiho/binnie)

chronological year in review:

• not quite paris - january

wrote it in a day i think after going through the hyojung sungwoon twitter search. hyojung is engagement meeting free pass type AND kkondae after all so it was fun to think about how she'd approach the ideas of first love. it was also mildly terrace house inspired. i think it's sort of forgettable but i like the idea behind it, just wasn't really fleshed out

• ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR - march

had wanted to write wonhui for ages, after many months collecting ideas i put it out and then like two days later flfl mv came out <3 im rly proud of this one - it's not my first time writing wnh but i feel like i finally know how to write this dynamic which i love so dearly. this is also my favorite fic title of the year, i mentioned this seungkwan quote to sam in passing and when i was lost on what to call the fic she gave a surprisingly useful joke suggestion n then called me insane for using it

• fever dream high - april

the idea for this came last year after the release of tswift cruel summer which describes jeonghan better than anything else!! i honestly dont remember what sparked this that month (hello quarantine memory loss) but sapphy and i both sniped each other one after the other. jess and i had been talking about inyyjh too thus were new brainworms born!! 

• sunset framed - june

treacherous is my favorite 2yeon song (of which i have many) but it was really hard to write this because other people have written better 2yeon with the treacherous narrative. worse, I'VE written better twoyeon before with the treacherous narrative... so i had to pull the gimmick of reverse chronology and make it more about the journey than where they ended up. i dropped this concept once during the fest period to write odamon (keyaki) instead but i ended up going back to this lol t__t i think it's good in execution but boring in concept ajdjdjd

• let me go again - july

dcf mods know i dropkicked my original idea and never really came up with a new one ... the whole time i had said I didn't want to write tbs au because the film is semi-autobiographical and i didnt want to ruin it but in the last days i only realistically could have written for a narrative i knew by heart +___+ well despite thinking it's not readable i did get nice comments on it and there are some sweet moments i suppose

• better to have loved and lost - august

when mixtape was announced i no context polled lyrics from nobody (mitski) vs dead oaks (now, now) and nobody won so i merged it with a binho seed I'd come up with in march or something. the rest is history... it was a few days of writing and some of editing or something like that. and yes it's not even 1.4k but i do think it's the most balanced piece i wrote all year, very realistic but not real, cohesive, self concluding

• antithesis - september

ahaha.... i got my ficmix recipient email on july 1 and immediately knew there would be no way i could produce something of the quality they deserved. i'd adored miuyi's writing since siyao asked me to read tides so i asked siyao to beta for me and started writing that night. the worst part was when KYLAGATE happened in august and the ujikyul rumor resurfaced everywhere on twitter. i was seriously contemplating scrapping it but it was too integral to the story t___t anyway after spending most of my waking hours worrying about this and editing constantly i was really very proud of it, which is the only proof to me that delayed gratification is worth it.

at this point I'd been in four writing fests in a row that overlapped each other especially in august and was extremely worn out LOL.... 

• ALWAYS & ALWAYS - september

fittingly like my tides eye opening experience i didn't see the appeal of meanie at all until spring 2018 crash course from siyao. i really couldn't have done ficmix without her help so i dug up one of her old fic prompts. i wrote this in less than 12 hours (again this isn't actually impressive for the word count but it is to me!!) but I'm really thrilled with it like the binho... i think it's a well rounded narrative and comes from my understanding of the personalities but with proper hints of scenario building. 

goals/wips from 2019:

• svt/pristin/omg diner au: not happening
• nayoung/jeonghan idolverse cruel summer fic: did happen it's fever dream high!! ❤️
• netteflix bl defect au moment fic: did not happen but i did write au netteflix... i truly have no desire to write 3h canon anymore but I'm not really thrilled with what i did write lol
• write standalone wonhui: ❤️ all the moments i long for!
• write nct dream: i would get lost in the sea after all...
• maintain mix of idolverse/au: exactly, with 4 canon and 4 au! it wasnt like i tried hard to keep it balanced i think my brain just does its thing ❤
• write pieces that are so good they overcome the lack of readership! make them good for the people who do read and leave it at that!: hmm well i think so personally......... i certainly did not solve the problem of not getting attention but my writing definitely improved to me ❤ and i did get really dear reception from people who are important to me!!
• do a minifest where you each write a fic based on a movie... (inspired by this svt eternal sunshine au): and it became director's cut :) ❤️ 

i would say that is a solid 5.5 out of 8 👏
 

looking back, did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

amountwise makes sense, but i was not expecting my average word count to drop more t___t
 

what pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

jun jieqiong woozi loool..... in the year 2020... and to a lesser extent meanie, but ever since getting Converted i knew that was coming it was just a matter of when
 

events you participated in this year:

• gg jukebox round 2 - taylor swift
• director's cut (movie/tv inspired) (mod)
• gg jukebox mixtape round
• k-pop ficmix 2020

i had a great time with them all, definitely recommend joining future rounds of any :)
 

your own favorite story of the year:

ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR - i got myself with all the right tropes (stilted convos, road trip, water)
 

best story of the year:

better to have loved and lost - it just feels universally understandable with its light angst and summer tropes

antithesis - has the most polished sentences and is packed with "canonical" references and is by far the most fleshed out, character wise
 

most fun story to write:

...? better to have loved and lost? fever dream high is also a candidate because i love writing banter
 

hardest story to write:

sunset framed/let me go again/antithesis. like pulling teeth all around, but the first two never came together
 

most memorable comment/review:

rewritehistory

"all these mundane things become so charged with meaning in your writing that kaia tweeted about visiting the han river and my first thought was literally “thats where nysc had their first kiss”" - jess

ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR

"that being said, the idea of jun always initiating contact with wonwoo during the time overseas struck me as a blazing reminder to how bubbly and forward jun can be yet still come off as remaining half-opened in place of his earnestness and selflessness T___T" - ren 

antithesis

don't think i will ever forget the comments on this one... each one (hwa, ao3 user miuyi rainiest T___T, ash! <3) was and is so validating in their own ways and i am so grateful to them and others who expressed their feelings about it elsewhere. knowing what you wrote in was truly read in all its depth!!! unparalleled feeling

etc

every other comment on something targeted towards someone specific LOL... fever dream high, ALWAYS & ALWAYS in particular. <3 i do love to snipe people!!! no greater compliment than telling me you've unhinged!

anon on let me go again who said they'd always wanted a the big sick au and that i did it well even though i'd admitted it was only partial t____t it was really validating at a time when that was my greatest concern

ren's comment on better to have loved and lost because she doesnt know omg at all but said the fic would stick with her T__T
 

comments about writing style or process:

i think this was the first year in a long time i had written anything in full past tense (as opposed to only in flashback). i think ash is the one that made me realize through her fic how effective this is for tone! right before ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR, i had just reread anne of green gables and its associated books, which is a delightful example of past tense romance and a true prose role model. i wrote mostly past tense for ALWAYS & ALWAYS, which was appropriate but also made the ending more effective i think.

in better to have loved and lost, i actively tried to maintain the sensory theme of heat/fire/sun. i really liked the effect of that and how it tied in thematically too- hope i can try that again!

something i really enjoyed doing was coming up with section subtitles in antithesis. it helped me outline the narrative. my favorite is the first one, salt is a preservative. honestly i thought about removing the subheadings because the sections were no longer in balanced lengths (i was keeping track of word count) but by that point i had already gotten used to the separation of sections and i was afraid no one else would see the Vision without them... i think before this yr I'd only ever used numbers or letters as section headings but i dont remember fully lol

i want my titles to be shorter and stronger lol. i think loved and lost would have sufficed for example, antithesis was sort of last ditch. ive procrastinated on choosing titles lately and that's bad bc i rush the final editing just to get things out >__<

favorite opening line(s):

the way I love

Jieqiong had called him out of the blue, banking on the fact that he hadn’t lost his SIM card and his number wasn’t tossed to the sasaengs like food for wolves.

favorite closing line(s):

ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR

But Wonwoo had more important things to do than uselessly stare at Junhui. His phone screen lit up his face before he had the chance to lower the brightness, and Junhui winced in the dark. He was still awake.

Wonwoo typed slowly and deliberately.

Jeon Wonwoo: I think I've been in love with you for a long time.

Junhui shifted, and the sound of his phone unlocking made Wonwoo tremble. But he did not look away.
 

better to have loved and lost

“Take care and drive safe,” Jiho tells her as she leaves, and the only sensation in her throat is burning, so she can’t reply. The ground is on fire, too, so she has to get out of here.

Then she opens the front door and walks out to her car, listening to those late-summer crickets she’s come to hate chirping in the darkness.

favorite 5 line(s) from anywhere:

fever dream high

Nayoung has always been the type to plan out everything she has to do meticulously. (...) Here’s the ranks she’ll have to climb in the modeling world before she can expect to be offered lucrative endorsements and fashion shows. Jeonghan was an accident, though. The feelings were also an accident.

sunset framed

Sometimes when Jeongyeon opens her vault of memories late at night she remembers all the times Nayeon's approached her, from the first encounters that changed everything to yesterday's solicitation of her schedule from now on, all the while optimistic and idealistic, relentless, with all its faults.

ALWAYS & ALWAYS 

You can’t return a relationship to the store. The history will always be there.

let me go again

Felix staunchly refused to stick around for what Sylvain called the “cast meet-and-greet” in favor of going back to their shared apartment and staring at the ceiling.

/

“I want to hear your voice,” he said to her, only half awake and leaning against the library wall. Annette was typing away on her laptop next to the window, trying in vain to finish this paper that’s taken ages because of her neurotic perfectionism.

“I can’t talk to you, silly, it’s night hours and I have work to do. See, you made me spell ‘kriegspiel’ wrong.”
 

top 5 scenes from anywhere you would choose to have illustrated:

• jun and wonwoo across the table from each other in the rest stop cafeteria* in ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR
• jun and wonwoo facing the busan shore in ALL THE MOMENTS I LONG FOR
• jiho and binnie wading through the sea of flowers under the sun in better to have loved and lost
• jun and jieqiong looking out at the crowd from the bar in antithesis
• teenage 2yeon walking home from school together in the sunset in sunset framed

*note: this scene was actually inspired by a wenseul vlive so i can really just go watch that. but the potency of this mental image i just cannot explain
 

wips/fanfic goals for the new year:

WIPs/plans:

• 17hols :) 
• seok birthday fic: [redacted] but it is out there if you look
• 10k piece (for me that means anything over 6k will do, if i give up) either for dcf round 2 or original fiction or new fandom
• jeonghan/sowon.................

goals:

• write things that are good......
• write in 2nd person
• write original fiction
• stop claiming I'm going to retire when this is clearly a lie

favorite fic you read this year:

Fish in the water by miuyi (rainiest) ❤️

perfect girl revolution by yoonbot (iverins) ❤️

as always my ao3 bookmarks are public. i also have general ficrec spreadsheet but i haven't updated it yet

 

thank you for a great year and for reading! <3

EDIT 1/3/2021: wrote 2 more drabbles for 17hols before the end of the year, but I'll talk about them at the end of 2021, I never really gave the comment prompt fest by 0323 a real discussion here but it was also a fundamental part of the end of the year!