Category: Writing Related

The Kudo Project: Halfway Through

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It’s officially halfway through the year (give or take five days), so it’s time to take a look at one of my yearlong projects.

For those who don’t know, I’m tracking every kudo that I get on Archive of Our Own throughout the year of 2022. This is merely being used as a motivation tool, not as a brag. Every time I would open my email and see my daily kudo email, I felt this burst of serotonin.

While this project is ongoing, I wanted to mark the midway point. I’m actually proud to see that I’ve kept up with this every day. It’s been a bit of a ride.

Important To Note

There are several details to note before we dive into the data. The first is that June’s data is not going to be 100% accurate, due to the issues brought up in my previous blog post. The fics came down on June 20th, and reposting started on June 26th and is still ongoing as of this posting. This means that not only is there a gap in the data that wouldn’t normally be there, there is also the possibility of duplicate kudos, as fans of the works are rereading them and kudoing them as each set of fics goes up.

Another thing that needs to be acknowledged is that as of May, I no longer had the semi-guaranteed support of the discord I was formally involved in. In fact, I have reason to believe that being a fan of my works will now get you banned. (Which… considering what I’m seeing in some author notes, I wouldn’t put it past them. Way to overcorrect and miss the damn mark. [Insert Insult Here].) This means that the number of kudos I would have received in May and June was probably slashed in half, maybe more. While I can’t prove this, it’s something that should be noted.

And finally, there is the possibility of human error. One of the biggest issues with this project is that the kudo email doesn’t give a number for each fic. (Example: TITLE (3 kudos), name, name, etc.) Instead, each username is written out, and the number of guests kudos is listed at the end. (Example: Name, name, and 3 guests left kudos on TITLE.) I manually count these daily, usually at the beginning of the morning. It’s very possible for me to miscount, especially on high kudo days. I’m half tempted to go back to January 1 and start again, or even to August 1st, 2021, which is when I wrote my first popular 9-1-1 fic, just to see if there is any counting differences.

Hmmm, an idea for later.

Monthly Totals

Let’s start with the easy. All told, I have been given 7175 kudos as of July 1st. This breaks down to about 1196 kudos per month, which only one month surpassed. If we want to break this down into days (as from January 1 to June 30, there are 181 days), every day would average about 39.5 kudos. This is a bit more common.

While I didn’t actually start this project until March, I used data from January 1st (since I never clean out my email anyways). That month, I received 903 kudos across all of my stories. My biggest day for kudos was January 12th, while my lowest day was January 10th. I published eleven stories (of varying quality) during this time, with those stories earning 237 kudos.

February blew everything out of the park, which make sense as it was a writing challenge month. Throughout the month, I received 2861 kudos. My biggest day was February 6th, while my lowest was February 3rd. I wrote 28 stories during this month, earning whopping 1882 kudos from those stories alone.

March was much slower, as I was in Febuwhump recovery. I received 1001 kudos over the course of the 31 days, with March 6th being my largest day, and March 20th being my lowest. My lone fic, published on March 1st, received 42 kudos for the month.

April had a bit of a decline, do to not posting any fics during the month. I received 839 for the month. My biggest day was April 6th, while my lowest day was April 3rd.

In May, things turned higher a bit. I received 895 kudos throughout the month, thanks to the two fics I published (earning 265 between the two of them). My biggest day was May 30th, while the lowest day was May 12th.

And finally, there’s June. It’s currently my lowest month, due to the circumstances. I received 676 during the month, with a third of those coming during this reposting time. The lone fic I posted (prior to pulling my fics down) received 87 kudos from before and after.

Popular Stories

To absolutely no one’s surprise, my most popular fics in 2020 were mostly written in February. In fact, out of the top ten fics, only three came from outside of February, and two of those were posted in 2021. The other is from May. For ease, I will break down the top five, then list the next five with their kudo totals.

A total of twenty two fics have received over 100 kudos in 2020. Among those, only four have received higher than 200, not taking into account any kudos from 2021. One is just shy of 300, and one is over 400.

(To note, the cut off date for kudos was the June 30th kudo email. These fics have all gained more kudos in the days since. Also, two of these fics were written before 2022, but only kudos from this year counted.)

The highest kudoed fic is Hidden Bruises, with 431 kudos since it was posted in early February. To note, this is almost entirely from before it was pulled down. It was reposted on June 29th and earned 16 kudos before the end of the month.

Runner up is a fic I wrote in May, An Invitation Surprise. As of June 30th, this fic received 297 kudos, of which 21 came from after it was reposted. This was a test fic and a bit of a spite fic, and I’m glad to see how quickly it gained traction.

Third is one that dealt with the aftermath of that controversial scene (and 5×06, but who’s counting). His (Head’s) Own Worst Enemy remains one of my most popular fics at 228 kudos. It will be reposted either today or tomorrow, depending on how far I get.

Fourth is the oldest of the top ten fics, published back in November to pretty much rave reviews. Just from 2022, Back in Class (to Protect Those I Love) has earned 218, with just 7 of those being from after reposting. As an aside, this one is one of my favorites.

And in fifth, we have a funny little 9-1-1 Lonestar fic that I wrote on a whim during Febuwhump. Accident Prone is still gaining kudos at 184, with 8 kudos coming after it was reposted.

The other five fics to round out the top ten are: Fever Guardians (169), Please Don’t Go (167), A Time to Celebrate (163), How Long? (Check the Clock) (154), and Misunderstanding on an Epic Scale (137).

Other Notes

Something that has struck me is that some of my oldest fics have received kudos this year. Several of my Old Guard fics, written primarily in February 2021, have all received a kudo or two this year. What’s more surprising is some of my old Super Robot Monkey Team fics from 2012 have received a kudo, which is most unexpected. And also, a few of my Fusionfall fics have also been poked at. I really need to finish that one fic…

What The Data Tells Me

That I have far too much time on my hands.

Okay, no, seriously. I may be a word human, but I do like numbers once every month or so. Just seeing everything laid out in front of me like this has been very interesting, watching fics raise in popularity, or barely make a peep. The only major detail I’ve noticed is that I received more kudos when I was posting with the support of the discord. Once I walked away, my counts did clearly drop. Also, this controversary and shift in the 9-1-1 community has caused a decent amount of readers to slowly shift away from AO3. (I happened to notice that posting has slowed on AO3, and a lot of the familiar faces aren’t there, or aren’t commenting/kudoing.)

Questions The Data Has Raised

Well, the biggest question I have right now is, “What will happen if I start writing for another fandom?” This is my plan, as I really want to shift away from 9-1-1 fanfic. I’m not sure what fandom I will be heading towards (it all depends on the next several months).

Another question is the effect of pulling my fics down and reposting them. I can confidently say that while I am receiving kudos, it is at a very slow rate compared to where it was in mid-June. I believe this could be because of my presence on the first list, which included a way to block authors from view.

What Now?

In writing this post, I went from debating restarting my data collection to actually deciding to do it. I am planning on starting with January 2022. This will of course be a multi-week project, but one that I’m going to take my time on, due to how long this will take. If I do take my time and get more accurate data, I’ll be able to accurately chart the effect of June 2022 and the two week deletion.

The next update, which will be actually very interesting, will be at the beginning of October, right as Whumptober kicks off (if I take part, which right now I have not made any decisions).

Thank you all for taking a look at this data with me! It’s been a very interesting ride thus far, and I’m curious to see where this goes.

Until next time!

(Take a shot for every use of the word “Receiving”, since I can guarantee I spelled it wrong. Every. Single. Time. Including right here.)

Let’s Talk: My 2022 Kudo Project

~ Liz Harrison ~ 1 Comment

Something that I’ve been struggling with this year is motivation, especially in relation to writing.

It’s something that I have dealt with my entire adult life, since college anyway. There are times that I can write for days, weeks even, all sorts of different things. And then there are months that I just stare at a blank screen wondering why I even bothered getting my degree in Creative Writing, because I’m so zapped.

Even when I was working on Febuwhump, which was one of my most successful writing ventures since getting majorly back into writing fanfiction back in February 2021, there were days that I just didn’t even want to look at anything, or even think of writing. (And this, friends, is why I started working on my Febuwhump prompts in early January, after the prompt list dropped.)

But then I noticed something.

Because of my job search, I ended up checking my email a lot. And something that always gave me a real serotonin boost was seeing the daily kudo email from AO3. And I thought about it, and I came up with an idea.

But before we get to that, let me explain. Something Archive of Our Own does is once a day they email you a list of who gave “kudos” to your works. It lists each work separately, and it can sometimes be crazy to see almost 50 names next to one of my works. (Of course, nothing will ever beat the day I got 199 kudos for one work on the same day, and no I’m not joking, I have the screenshot to prove it, which I may post on TikTok one of these days just to freak out about…)

Anyway, I came up with this idea. If I wanted to get writing, I needed some motivation. So I made a spreadsheet using Google Sheets (so that I could look at it on my phone if need be). I’d include screenshots, but this isn’t a brag post. I’ll just try to be as detailed as possible.

On the top row, I made a column for every day in 2022. Each day is color coded by month, starting with the first to whatever is the last day. Along the left side is every work that is currently on AO3 that has received kudos this year. They are in alphabetical order. Any work published this year is color coded to the month it releases, mostly just so I can see how much writing I’m doing (or not, in the case of March and April). But the top row and column are frozen so that they can be seen while I’m scrolling.

Each day, I go through the email and input the previous day’s kudos, filling in any blank boxes with zeroes for calculation purposes. It looks kinda messy, but at the same time… it helps. (I also tally up each individual day’s kudos, but that’s for my planner, and I’m going to leave that for another discussion post.)

At the end of every month, I use a simple formula to see how many kudos each story received during the month, as well as which days were more popular. It’s always interesting. I also just see how well the works I’ve posted for a particular month did. I also copy the list from the main sheet and move it to its own sheet, so that I can hide the month on the main sheet and not have the file crash on me. It helps with organization too. Currently I can only see April on. On May 1st, I’ll transfer everything and then I’ll see May. But I’m not deleting anything. If I need/want to, I could expand all of the columns again and see them all.

For example, in January, I got over 200 kudos for new works posted, which I think is pretty good. That was spread out over eleven fics. In March, I got 42 kudos for the lone story that was published on March 1st. And in February… I almost cracked 2000 kudos for 28 works being posted. No, you read that right. February was absolutely my best month this year.

Like I said, this isn’t a brag post. But the numbers keep me motivated.

I’m planning on continuing this all year, right into the new year. I’m curious to see if my currently popular fics stay popular, or if others will sway into that popularity. It’s been interesting to watch. I know most people aren’t into breaking data down, but it’s kept my mind moving, and that’s always a plus.

Unless it comes up in passing, I’ll keep the numbers for this to myself until December. I’m curious to see just how much changes over the course of a year.

Until next time!

The 118 Discord Bingo Wrap Up

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

August 2022 Edit:

Hey everyone, before you read this post, I just want to give a quick disclaimer. I was a member of the 118 Discord up until May 2022, when I left due to a… difference of opinion on something that happened in the 9-1-1 fandom and how people might handle it, as well as seeing that the mods had become people I was no longer comfortable with supporting in any way. It’s my personal belief that the 118 Discord is have become a dangerous place and probably will never be a safe place in fandom again, unless you cast aside your ability to have an opinion and only follow their personal opinions and beliefs about this fandom. You can make your own opinions. I won’t be removing the references to that discord from this post, as that would be disingenuous (unlike their handling of many things in fandom), but I want it clear that I do not represent or support them in any way. These fics mentioned here were written before this all came to light. All reference to the discord have been removed from the fics, both tags and author notes. As a added point of clarity, this post has remain unedited beyond this note, a brief note at the end of the post, and the links to the stories. My comments written here do not reflect how I currently feel about the discord or any named members.

Thanks so much for your understanding.

My first attempt at doing a writing bingo, and it went… pretty well, actually.

Last year, when I got into the 9-1-1 fandom, and onto the 118 Discord, I signed up for the bingo they were hosting on a whim. I picked a 5×5 card, which included 25 prompts (including the free space) and figured that I’d have no trouble finishing it.

Yeah, I’ll never make that mistake again.

I ended up finishing 21 out of 25 fics, which I’m really proud of. Some were short, some were long, some I thought of while half asleep, while others took weeks for me to make work. It was a challenge in every sense of the word. But let’s dive into it.

For context, the Bingo started in April 2021 (I think). I got my card in June or July, and it officially finished January 31, 2022.

As with my other challenge write ups, I’ll be following my Whumptober Wrap Up set up, to break down the event in a few different ways. I’ll be touching on some of my favorite fics, as well as the ones that did amazing.

Challenge Overview

Before we get into the major breakdown, let’s go over the full challenge.

Over the course of the bingo, I wrote 21 fics between September 4th (when I remembered I’d signed up for this challenge) and January 31st.

My total word count for the event was 27,239 words, focused on 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star, with no crossovers with other fandoms.

As it’s been a few months since the end of the challenge, I’ll be putting up the top three for each section below. However, since there are five that are very popular, I’ll be noting the ones that repeat and then including the next ones until I have three fics per section.

Most Popular by Hits

By far my most popular Bingo fic, “Back in Class (to Protect Those I Love)” was something that I had been quietly working on for a while. I wanted to do a “5+1” style fic, and this was something I thought was plausible. This is also one of my favorite fics I wrote last year, hands down. There’s just something about it that makes me smile when I read through it. If there is just one bingo fic you want to flip through, make it this one. (I could gush about this fic for days if I wanted to, but I’m trying to keep this relatively short. You’re welcome! :P)

“Doze the Afternoon Away” was the first bingo square I filled. It’s also probably one of the softest and fluffiest. It’s just calm and quiet and I even wrote it from Hen’s point of view. I don’t have too much to say about it, except that it’s just a quick blink and you miss it type of fic. I like it.

“Trauma Takes Many Forms” was a look at post traumatic stress disorder and triggers, all in under a thousand words. Writing from Eddie’s point of view is always hard, but this… this ended up being one of the fastest prompt fills I did, if I remember right. It’s one I wrote to show that trauma can be remembered in a myriad of ways, and can affect someone’s normal life without even realizing it.

Most Popular by Kudos

I’ve already talked about ““Back in Class (to Protect Those I Love),” “Doze the Afternoon Away,” and “Trauma Takes Many Forms.”

“Paint Fight” was just pure fun. I love fics that are moments in time, where there isn’t any trauma or drama, just good happy fun. And this one… it’s just one of those that I reread when I need a pick me up.

Okay, there’s a story behind “Dancing Past and Future.” It all came about because the Discord watched MindGamers and Step Up: Revolution back to back. Suddenly I had a terrible idea, but it actually worked and I was so glad that the person I gifted it to enjoyed it. It’s a fun little play on the actors’ careers prior to 9-1-1. It didn’t go exactly as planned, but it came out alright in the end.

“Firefighting… Gamers?” was a total joke. I wrote it after getting prompted, and it’s based on the game Animal Crossing New Horizons (which… well, I’ll have a post about that one of these days). Anyway, I just wanted to do something humorous, and this worked well in my opinion.

Most Popular by Comments

I’ve already talked about ““Back in Class (to Protect Those I Love)”,” “Firefighting… Gamers?,” “Doze the Afternoon Away,” “Dancing Past and Future,” “Trauma Takes Many Forms,” and “Paint Fight.”

“Returning the Favor” is another Audie the dog fic. I wanted to have Dad!Bobby, and I randomly decided that having Buck be minorly hurt worked well for the story. Audie is a very sassy sarcastic dog, and I actually wrote one of my favorite lines for this fic, I swear. It was well worth it to me.

So, I wrote “Frozen Hearts Still Beat” with the thought that the “Gwyn is dead/going to die theory” was a possibility after 3×03. Of course, I ended up right four episodes later. This one is one I’m pretty proud of, though it didn’t get the love I wanted it to get. But I really think I captured Carlos’ broken emotions of seeing the man he loves unconscious in the hospital.

“The Beautiful Aurora” is one of those fics that I just decided to do. I wanted to expand on the final scene of Tarlos in 1×10. It’s pretty short and there’s really not a lot for me to say about it, honestly. It just happened to work for what I needed.

Most Popular by Bookmarks

I’ve already talked about “Back in Class (to Protect Those I Love)”,” “Doze the Afternoon Away,” “Dancing Past and Future,” “Returning the Favor,” “Paint Fight,” and “Firefighting… Gamers?”

“Wedding Bells (Visit Hell)” was a fic that I came up with on a whim, and it happened to fit with one of the bingo prompts. I decided to jump on the “Diaz parents suck” trend with this, but I did have a little bit of fun with it. It kinda ran away from me, but I did enjoy it.

“Christmas Postcards” was something that I’d been thinking about a lot. Buck sent a postcard to Maddie during his probie year, before she escaped Doug and joined him in LA. But who took the photo? That’s what I wanted to explore, and I think it came out pretty well in the end.

“Rainy Day Shopping” is just a quick little weird fic that I didn’t particularly like writing. I tied it into Advent, but I just wasn’t particularly happy with it. It happens.

Most Popular by Length

I’ve already talked about “Back in Class (to Protect Those I Love),” “Returning the Favor,” “Wedding Bells (Visit Hell),” “Dancing Past and Future,” and “Christmas Postcards.” Seeing a pattern yet?

“The 118 Wordle Competition” was a funny little fic that I wrote because of the Wordle craze. It blossomed into a post-5×10 fic. I had a bit of fun with this. It didn’t get much of a glance from people, but I don’t mind. It was the final Bingo fic I wrote.

“Summerville Tales” was an attempt to write an Alternate Universe fic, featuring both 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star in a small town setting. It was a fun little experiment that I may or may not return to. The drive isn’t there (and the person who initially sparked it isn’t someone I want to speak to right now…). But I may jump back into it at some point.

I blasted out “A Veteran Talk” in about two hours, wanting to get the plot that popped into my head down on paper. I wanted to do a fic that touched on Eddie’s status as a veteran, which isn’t something that often gets touched up in this fandom. It unfortunately was posted late on Veterans Day and was pretty much ignored. I’m not bitter about it, just disappointed.

My Favorites That Didn’t Get a Mention

I had a good deal of fun writing “Quite the Bell Ringer,” as it was just a “firefam” meetup fic. It wasn’t anything special, but I enjoyed it. I’m not surprised it didn’t really hit anyone’s radar, honestly. I just thought it was fun to write, and it was a cute way to write this prompt.

Wrap Up

For my first actual Bingo, I think I was pretty successful. I finished 21 out of 25 prompts, which was honestly more than what most people wrote, as most people chose a 3×3 card, something I didn’t take into consideration when I picked up this challenge. In the future, when the 118 Discord hosts this again (because apparently they will be?), I’ll be sure to only pick a 3×3 card, if only for my sanity. (August 2022 Edit: This will not be happening, see the note above.)

I managed to get seven bingos, two horizontal, two vertical, both diagonals, and the four corners. The four prompts I didn’t get to do were Detective AU, Lifeguard AU, Soulmate AU, and Meet Ugly.

I’m glad that I took part in this challenge, but I’m also glad that it’s done. Mostly because I got hit by burnout after doing this, Whumptober, Advent, and Febuwhump back to back.

If you want to read any of them, they are all up on my AO3 account! Just look for any that are part of the “Remy’s 9-1-1 Bingo 2021” series. They are all in prompt order. (August 2022 edit: The collection has been deleted. If you would like to know which fics are bingo fics, please look at the first comment below. I’ve listed them out in order. Thank you!)

Until next time!

Febuwhump 2022 Wrap Up

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

February has come and gone, and with it was Febuwhump! This was my second time participating in Febuwhump, and I had a blast with it (even if I lost steam for a bit due to job search related shenanigans). I’m really happy with how everything came out. Please enjoy this quick little write up about the entire event!

As with my other challenge write ups, I’ll be following my Whumptober Wrap Up set up, to break down the event in a few different ways. I’ll be touching on some of my favorite fics, as well as the ones that did amazing.

Challenge Overview

Before we get into the major breakdown, let’s go over the full challenge.

Over the course of the challenge, I wrote 29 fics between February 1st and March 1st, 2022.

My total word count for the event was 35,376 words, focused on 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star, with brief crossovers with The Old Guard, Criminal Minds and CSI:NY.

As it’s been a bit over a month since the end of the challenge, I’ll be putting up the top three for each section below. However, since there are some that are more popular than others, I’ll be noting the ones that repeat and then including the next ones until I have three fics per section.

Most Popular by Hits

To my upmost surprise, “Hidden Bruises” has been a fic that consistently gets hits and kudos every day. I was having a very hard time with the prompt for this one, if I remember right. I’m glad that people enjoy it, as it’s my requisite “Buck pushed himself too much #2” fic. 

Though the theme of the entire challenge is “whump”, I really wanted to do some lighthearted fics as well. “Accident Prone” is one of them, taking place in a nebulous time after Lone Star 3×04. Just having Carlos both worry over and tease TK was a balm my heart needed.

“Stumbling Out” was a little fic that I came up with at the last moment, as I had just had some bad work-related news. I don’t really remember what was my inspiration behind this, but it worked. I think it got popular simply because it was pretty current to the season.

Most Popular by Kudos

I already have talked about “Hidden Bruises” and “Accident Prone.”

I personally love “His (Head’s) Own Worst Enemy.” It’s probably one of my favorite fics I wrote during February, and I got to make a crack at the lack of care Buck let’s himself get during 5×06. Writing characters that can’t outright describe where they are due to injury is something I love doing, and writing Buck with a head wound is always fun.

All I can really say about “Please Don’t Go” is this. It’s very personal to me, because it’s some of the same thoughts I had when my father died. It was a dark time for me, and wow did it come out on paper for this.

Something I planned early on for Febuwhump was to have a fic with a character in a fever. I decided to place “Fever Guardians” early in Season One, simply because I was doing my rewatch at the time, and wow Buck has had some character growth.

Most Popular by Comments

“How Long? (Check the Clock)” was an absolute blast to write. I’d wanted to do a 5+1 for a while, and this just made it possible. It also helped with me getting over my issues with Chimney this season, and wow am I happy with how this came out. This is one of the best fics I wrote in 2022.

“Kidnapped Away” was an indulgence fic. I’d been quietly planning to write a 9-1-1 Lone Star / CSINY fic for a while now. This is the the beginning to a much larger fic that I really want to work on this year, once I get out of my writing funk. It got a good reception.

“Separated at Birth” is based on a fan theory that popped up right after the character Lucy Donato was announced, and I absolutely ran with it. I’m still happy with it, though the second chapter isn’t as good as I wanted it to be, due to the fact that I ended up rushing it. But it’s a fun non-canon fic.

Most Popular by Bookmarks

I already have talked about “Hidden Bruises,” “His (Head’s) Worst Enemy,” “Accident Prone,” “How Long? (Check the Clock),” “Kidnapped Away” and “Fever Guardians.”

Something I’d already planned on doing during the first part of 2022 was write the second chapter to “Rude Wake Up Call”. Chapter 2, called “After” was one that slowly came into being and just happened to work for this challenge. I’m happy with how it came out, and that it has hopefully set up a satisfying conclusion. At some point, anyway.

There’s a lot about Buck’s past that we have only touched upon, and “Cold Shoulder to Thanks” was a story that just poked at one of those times. (Seriously, it’s one of my only peeves with Buck Begins, as it’s more of a Maddie origin story compared to a Buck origin story…). I always figured there were reasons that Buck never stayed anywhere long until joining the LAFD. Here’s a fun answer as to why.

I have no real idea why I made “Misunderstanding on an Epic Scale” as crazy as it ended up being. I did go to Target that day, and I did have an argument with someone in the book section (but it was about me still wearing my mask, which apparently was infringing on this guy’s rights or some other nonsense…). But my brain got weird and this popped out. Go brain?

Length

I already have talked about “How Long? (Check the Clock).”

“Gettin’ Taken for a Hike” is the sequel to one of my favorite fics from Whumptober. I had a lot of fun with this, mostly because I really really wanted to do a sequel to the first fic. It’s somewhat annoying that it didn’t get as much love as I feel like it deserves, but fine, people are lame.

“Learning Boundaries” ended up being the latest in my Criminal Minds/Old Guard/9-1-1 series. I always gave fun adding new stories to it. This one was actually attempt number two, as I ended up having to set aside my first attempt because I completely messed up the timeline. I really enjoyed touching on some of the highlights of Season 3, but adding an immortal twist.

I absolutely wanted to do at least one Bob Evans fic, and “Falling on the Highway” was one of them. I was in a pretty angsty mood when I wrote this, but it’s one of my favorites. I really took the time with every part (and made a fun reference to my county while I did it!). I also put a lot of love in it, and I’m glad that people have read it.

My Favorites That Didn’t Get a Mention

Though I flat out will say that this fic is a bit of a mess, I still loved working on “All the Scars We Cannot See.” And dammit, I’m in love with the title, and I will fight people because of it. It’s a good fic about the consequences of words. (And, fun fact, it was always the fourth fic on each of the categories for above, once the already mentioned fics were removed per category.)

I absolutely had to write a crack fic, and “It’s a Pasta Hostage Situation” is absolutely that. It’s just fun, and I had a good time working on it. Oh, and I got Thin Mints for writing this, so it was absolutely worth it.

One of my other favorite pairings is 4 Alarm Fire, and thus “Burning Hot and Cold” was born. The title is a pun, but wow did I like writing this one. It was supposed to be a text fic that I quickly lost interest in formatting as such, so instead it because a full fic and I think it worked out better like that.

My other Bob Evans fic was “Untriggered Breakdown.” There was a joke running around the Discord was on that everyone was writing breakdowns for Buck and Eddie. So, this was my contribution. I also didn’t plan to write Bob Evans, but I’m glad it kinda happened all on its own.

And finally? “Clowns in School” was the additional prompt, affectionately titled FebuClown. I absolutely had fun writing this, because I got to bitch about Pennywise the Clown. I don’t like clowns, I actively avoid them, and wow was this fic therapeutic. 

Wrap Up

Febuwhump was a good show of my writing skills, working with prompts that I normally wouldn’t touch, pairings that aren’t well known or well liked in the fandom. For the most part, everything was very well received and it was a real confidence boost when I needed it. I’m taking a bit of a break from writing right now, for a few reasons. If things work well in April, I’ll probably get back to writing in a few days. (Provided that Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga stops sucking my soul in.)

If you want to read any of them, they are all up on my AO3 account! Just look for any that are part of the “Remy’s Febuwhump 2022” series. They are all in prompt order.

Until next time!

Advent Wrap Up

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

August 2022 Edit

Hey everyone, before you read this post, I just want to give a quick disclaimer. I was a member of the 118 Discord up until May 2022, when I left due to a… difference of opinion on something that happened in the 9-1-1 fandom and how people might handle it, as well as seeing that the mods had become people I was no longer comfortable with supporting in any way. It’s my personal belief that the 118 Discord is have become a dangerous place and probably will never be a safe place in fandom again, unless you cast aside your ability to have an opinion and only follow their personal opinions and beliefs about this fandom. You can make your own opinions. I won’t be removing the references to that discord from this post, as that would be disingenuous (unlike their handling of many things in fandom), but I want it clear that I do not represent or support them in any way. These fics mentioned here were written before this all came to light. All reference to the discord have been removed from the fics, both tags and author notes. As a added point of clarity, this post has remain unedited beyond this note, a brief note at the end of the post, and the links to the stories. My comments written here do not reflect how I currently feel about the discord or any named members.

Thank you so much for your understanding.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am beyond behind getting these challenge wrap ups done (I have three total, this is the first). But there is a reason for that.

For context, “Advent” was a holiday-themed challenge hosted by the 118 Discord. I had a blast doing the entire event – to the point that I think I was one of only two people to finish it. I technically was a few days late, but it’s totally cool.

I’ll be following my Whumptober Wrap Up set up, to break down the event in a few different ways. I’ll be touching on some of my favorite fics, as well as the ones that did amazing.

Challenge Overview

Before we get into the major breakdown, let’s go over the full challenge.

Over the course of Advent, I wrote 25 fics between December 1st and December 31st.

My total word count for the event was 32,684 words, focused primarily on 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star, with one crossover with Digimon.

As it’s been three months since the end of the challenge, I’ll be putting up the top three for each section below. However, since there are five that are very popular, I’ll be noting the ones that repeat and then including the next ones until I have three fics per section.

Most Popular by Hits

“A Time to Celebrate” has consistently remained one of the most popular fics I’ve written. It’s a sequel to a fic I wrote for the 9-1-1 Bingo, so I won’t go into too much detail. What I will say is that I wrote this after the 5A finale, though I didn’t mention a few details that came up during that episode. I remember having a time with this fic, as I knew what I wanted to write, but I got lost in my plans and didn’t get to the expected end point. It’s on my list to continue one of these days.

“Buck the Dad Dog” was something I was working on before the Advent challenge, and it just happened to fit the prompt perfectly. I love the idea of Buck having a therapy dog, and Audie wrote herself. This one didn’t give me too much trouble… considering it wouldn’t end. But that’s okay, because it inspired me to write more in this ‘verse.

I can’t explain “The Mistletoe Incident”. I just can’t. It’s one of those fics I think I wrote quickly with no idea what my plan was when I got started. However, I did get a kick out of rereading it so that I could write up this little blurb. I know why it got a lot of views, anyway. Most Buddie fics do.

Most Popular by Kudos

I’ve already talked about “Buck the Dad Dog,” “A Time to Celebrate,” and “The Mistletoe Incident.”

“Surprise Santa Meetings” was one of my first “Chim screwed up and is still blaming Buck” fics. I actually forgot about it, which is hilarious, considering I’m constantly getting kudos for it. I also included my own personal headcanon for where Maddie is, though 5×12 is going to completely destroy it. Whoops. But it’s a good fic in my opinion.

When I started “A Letter to St. Nick.”, I never expected to be writing a fic touching on Buck’s life with his parents, comparing it to how he was helping raise Christopher with Eddie. It ended up being angsty, but I really liked it (and rereading it for the first time in over four months).

“The Results of Snap Decisions” was my attempt to feel better after the downer that was 5×10. (Wow, did I not know what the future held for us.) It’s a good little fic that I really wish the showrunners would have looked at, as it deals with what happens when you make a quick decision without taking into account all the factors. It’s one of the better fics I wrote during December.

Most Popular by Comments

I’ve already talked about “Buck the Dad Dog,” “A Time to Celebrate,” and “Surprise Santa Meetings.”

One of my goals during Advent was to write fics with pairings I normally wouldn’t. “Ornamental Traditions” was one of my first, featuring the pairing of May Grant and Ravi Panikkar, two characters that I think would have some great chemistry. I had a lot of fun with this one actually, which is always good, and the whole point of Advent.

“Audie’s First Christmas” was a continuation of “Buck the Dad Dog”, because I fell in love with having a dog character that was adorable and somewhat sassy. I also wanted to write an actual Christmas dinner with the rest of the characters, similar to 3×10. It’s just a fun, feel good piece, with a dog.

“Cookie Based Distractions” was my first attempt at writing one of the other rare pairs that I fell in love with in this fandom. Bob Evans is the pairing of Buck and Bobby, and it was a blast to give it a go, even if I did have to deal with an idiot trying to “mansplain” why it was wrong. I’ve done a couple more with this pairing (most notably during Febuwhump, post coming soon). And cookies! Cookies are a major feature.

Most Popular by Bookmarks

I’ve already talked about “Buck the Dad Dog,” “A Time to Celebrate,” “The Mistletoe Incident,” “The Results of Snap Decisions,” “Surprise Santa Meetings,” “A Letter to St. Nick,” and “Audie’s First Christmas.”

“Return to Big Bear” was one that I’d had in the back of my head long before Advent. I wanted to see how Buck would react if he had to go back to Big Bear, as the last time he was there was when he was saving Maddie (or, rather, just bringing Maddie home, since she saved herself). This was self-indulgence, but it worked, and I got to write a panic attack and everything.

So… “Stargazing for Christmas Dinner” was one where I saw the prompt and promptly swore. The prompt was “Christmas Dinner”, but I’d written three Christmas dinners by this point (and was well on my way to burnout). I wanted no part in doing another, so I decided to have a bit more fun with it, by featuring something that I really miss doing – stargazing. The problem with living in a highly populated area is that you don’t really get to see the stars…

“Christmas Eve Floods” was a little fic where I was totally burned out, but I really wanted to write sad!Buck. And thus, I flooded his apartment and didn’t edit the fic. It was a good little fic, but it never really got looked at surprisingly.

Length

I’ve already talked about “A Time to Celebrate,” “Buck the Dad Dog,” and “A Letter to St. Nick.” Seeing a pattern yet?

I really wanted to do a 4Alarm fic, so “Announced via Ugly Sweater” was born. I also have never understood why ugly sweaters are a thing, so that absolutely came through in the prose. But it was fun to write, since trying to really get four characters at the same time is somewhat difficult. But I really enjoyed it (and I wish others had as well).

“A History Defined by Christmas Crackers” was a fun one, since I actually managed to throw in a bit of the cooking lessons I was being taught. I’ve never really been able to get my hands onto real Christmas crackers, so most everything I used was from Google or Harry Potter fanfiction. But it was still a lot of fun.

With “Yule Log Apology Cakes,” I wanted to write a possible reason for Chimney to have been suck a dick to Buck, both in canon and in the previous fic to this one. I really liked how this one came out, and in a way helped me get over my issues with Chimney (or at least, began to).

My Favorites That Didn’t Get a Mention

I’m still kinda mad that this one has been mostly overlooked. “The Well Worn Path to Together” is a Tuck fic, that being the pairing of TK and Buck. It’s all soft and wonderful and I spent a good deal of time learning about Hanukkah for this one. I really enjoyed how well this came out, even if it is still the only (or maybe one of the few) fics that didn’t even get a single comment.

“Digi Christmas Morning” is the third of my 9-1-1/Digimon series that I’ve been doing. It’s the required Christmas fic, along with the required engagement fic. I liked this one because it was a great way to end Advent without being too heavy. And it’s Digimon, so nothing can go wrong there.

Wrap Up

Advent was a process. Like I said at the top, I was only one of two people to finish the full thing, which was fine because the point was to at least do one prompt. I took a few extra days to complete everything. But I will say this: while I’m happy with what I came up with, I was honestly really glad when it was over. I felt so drained by the end.

It also didn’t help that I went directly from that into finishing the bingo and then into Febuwhump… but those are posts for the next few days.

If you want to read any of them, they are all up on my AO3 account! Just look for any that were posted in December 2021. They are all in prompt order.

Until next time!

An Uncomfortable Comment Situation – Update

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Back in December (December 22, to be precise), I made a post regarding an uncomfortable commenting situation that I was dealing with. This was actually the second post where I talked about this issue.

To quickly summarize the situation, I had someone make an uncomfortable comment attempting to “mansplain” something in a fic I wrote during early December, featuring a “Rare Pair”. I wasn’t happy about it, but I was polite in my response, basically writing that while I thanked them for their comment, I would probably be writing more for the pairing in the future, and I requested them not comment on any and all of my future fics, as I wasn’t comfortable with them commenting anymore.

And for ten days, they didn’t. I was okay with this. I didn’t miss their comments. 

Then, they commented on another fic. It wasn’t a truly rude comment. But it was a comment attempting to push me into writing the sequel to the fic the way they wanted, with the fandom’s most popular pairing. It’s the tone that bothered me, and the fact that they felt they were allowed to dictate what I wrote.

As a quick side note, they have done this to many writers in the fandom. And I’ve been uncomfortable with it every time. (And I’m not the only one.)

So, instead of replying directly, as I thought my point across, I chose to do two things. On the next fic, I left a polite but firm comment in the bottom author note regarding comments that told the writer what to do, and how I wasn’t comfortable with it, and that I didn’t want them in my comment section. Then, as soon as the new year started, I turned on comment moderation.

Now you’re caught up on the situation.

Since December 22nd, this person has commented on a few of my fics, but usually just nonsensical comments that I just either ignored entirely, or straight up deleted. I have tried to not let it get to me when I see a comment.

Then, on February 13th, after I wrote a fic regarding the aftermath of 9-1-1 4×14 (where main character Eddie is shot by a sniper), I got this lovely comment (copied directly from the comment email:

Awww, so sweet. Who ever taught Eddie to hide his pain needs to be shot.

I wasn’t happy. The fic dealt with the aftermath of the shooting, with Eddie trying (and failing) to pretend that he wasn’t affected by the incident. So I was already uncomfortable. But what really annoyed me was the blatant stupidity to comment “X should be shot” on a fic about a character that’s been shot four times now.

So, in a moment of weakness, this is how I replied. (And yes this is unedited. But around this time, I was not in a good headspace anyway.)

Okay, no. Stop.

I'm literally approving this comment simply so I can write this. The constant suggested violence in my comment section needs to stop. Comments like this make me ridiculously uncomfortable, and any one that comes after this one will be deleted.

I literally put on comment moderation on JUST so I can screen comments like this. I don't want to have it on, but I do simply to moderate my own fandom experience. Please understand that I cannot stand this, especially when I'm already not in the best mind space, as I stated in the author notes.

At this point, just do me the favor and just skip my fics, as I've requested in the past. I think I can deal with the one less kudo or hit.

As you can see, I once again requested the person not to comment. I was clear. And then they had the balls to reply back (because of course they did).

I hear ya, I don’t like violence either, for me when I say something like this I don’t mean it literally, I was being facetious but I can see where that type of stuff gets lost in transition on the internet. I’ll try to be aware of it in the future.

So… Yeah. I was done. Don’t make stupid comments. I snapped.

I know you're being factious. It has nothing to do with being lost in translation. I just don't want you reviewing my stuff, okay? Period, end of story. If AO3 had a block button, we wouldn't be having this unwanted conversation, as I'd have blocked you months ago.

Take this as a lesson. The words you say can and do hurt. I'm not the only person who feels this way at this point. I'm done with this conversation. Any further comments from you will be deleted without being read.

I’m well aware I was kinda rude, but I was also done at this point. I’ve read so many comments from this person where they have acted so high-and-mighty, that I just snapped. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.

I did get a reply, which I deleted after reading it (“How rude”), but I considered the matter closed. After all, I got my point across. Right?

Wrong.

Once again, a week or so later, I got two more comments. They were rather inoffensive, but at this point, I was pissed, because I made it clear I didn’t want them in my comment section, period. But AO3 doesn’t have a block button, and I’d done all I could at this point to keep them away.

So I took to the internet: Tiktok, Twitter, and Reddit, and asked the question: “How do you get rid of a commenter that just won’t get a hint?”

One of the Redditors came through for me. They suggested that I write up an abuse report as this was harassment. So I did. I was as clear as I could be. I made a point to emphasize that I was uncomfortable, and felt unsafe, and that I wasn’t the only one who had the same thoughts, though I couldn’t speak for anyone else. I just wanted this person to stop putting comments on any of my fics, regardless of whether they were above board or they were not appropriate.

I actually heard back within twelve hours. A member of the Policy and Abuse team at AO3 actually took the time to review what I’d written… and sided with me. All I am aware of is that the person is not to contact me (I’m assuming they emailed them, but I’m not sure). As an aside, I think they were also suspended from their account for a bit, as I noticed them making comments from a guest account.

I’m mostly satisfied with this. I wish it was a full ban, but beggars can’t be choosers. And until AO3 is able to implement their block button, this will have to do. Hopefully this is the last time I have to deal with this person, and I don’t have to make anymore updates.

Until next time!

An Uncomfortable Comment Situation – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

About ten days ago, I wrote a post about a comment that I had received on one of my fics. You know, a “This is good, but” type comment. This was for a fic that featured a tagged rare pair. I wasn’t happy with it, but I responded pretty politely, where I politely thanked them for the comment, told them I would probably be writing the pairing in the future, and to please not comment on any and all of my future fics, “lest they not like something else I write and write another rude comment”.

Well, I figured that would be that. I haven’t seen them comment again, nor have they shown up in my kudos. Which I was really happy about.

Until last night.

The other day for Advent (which I’m behind on, yikes), I posted a fic about Buck adopting a dog and helping train her to be a therapy dog for emergencies, you know, to make kids more comfortable after everything has gone crazy in their lives. It ended pretty open-ended, with me already privately planning to write a sequel for day 20.

It was very well received, getting a BUNCH of kudos and a good amount of comments. And then… And then they commented.

And what kills me is that their comment wasn’t rude. It just was trying to push me into writing a pairing that I wasn’t planning on writing. Not that there’s a problem with the pairing, it’s the main pairing in the fandom. But I hadn’t planned on it. Hell, I wasn’t planning on adding any pairings in any way. It was meant to just be friends and family.

But honestly, just seeing their comment made me want to throw up. I’d asked kindly for them to not comment, and yet they did. And they tried to direct my fic the way they wanted. And I’m not happy about that at all.

Initially, I was going to writing the sequel of the fic using the pairing that he didn’t like previously, but I just couldn’t do it. Not that I didn’t want to write the pairing, it’s just I didn’t want to write it while being spiteful. 

Instead, I am going with a different plan. The same exact plan that I’d come up with initially. But the other thing is, I’m going to be turning on comment moderation across the board. I know that turns off a lot of commenters, but I’m going to explain in the bottom author’s notes exactly why I’m doing it. No names will be mentioned, but it hopefully will be obvious. I’m just sick of getting these comments. 

So, yeah. That’s my plan. It’s been a weird day. And now I’m off to write a bunch more before dinner and watching the Hawkeye finale!

Until next time!

A Disappointing Advent – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I’ve mentioned it before, a lot actually, that I’m doing an Advent fic challenge for the month of December (because of course I am). I’m not to the halfway point yet, but I did notice something and I wanted to talk about it.

One of my biggest goals during this challenge was to focus on non-traditional pairings in the 9-1-1 fandom universe. I wanted to branch off and try something different, which is something I’m normally never comfortable with.

At this point of the month, I’ve posted ten fics. Two have gotten a good reception. The rest? Well, mostly ignored.

I knew this going into December. Writing a pairing that isn’t one of the canon pairings (or the one pairing that everyone wants to be canon) basically means that only fans of that pairing will touch it. It doesn’t matter how good the writing is, or how well the summary is written, or if the tags intrigue the readers. If it’s not one of like four pairings, it won’t get noticed.

Honestly, it’s a bit of a let down. I know that several of the fics I wrote this time weren’t the best, including one of the two that is getting a great reception. But I was hoping for more. And it’s sad.

I just wanted to do something different, something that would be more creative and would let me focus on characters I normally wouldn’t touch. And it’s not working.

I took a risk this December, and I’m not sure if it’s gonna pay off.

…

There is another reason, though. One that I didn’t want to consider, until I sat back and looked at the situation with the Discord.

There are several of us writing fics that aren’t getting noticed, which is opposite from how Whumptober went. Now, I know that part of it is oversaturation, as we wrote a lot of fic. But the other part…

We’ve been critical of several plot lines this season.

I’ve mentioned in my episode reviews for 9-1-1 season five that there have been several storyline choices this year that don’t really work, or are just plain awful. The biggest one, of course (excluding the final moments of 5×10) was when Chim punched Buck. Hell, Chim’s whole storyline this season, now that I think about it. I’ve been very vocal about how punching Buck was over the line, as well as Chim taking his daughter to chase after Maddie, after Maddie told him to not follow after her. (I’ll do a detailed post about this issue and the fallout later, as it’s something I can dedicate some actual time to.)

Several of my fics this December have either made mention to this storyline (and have my feelings towards it), or I’ve outright stated it in the author’s notes. I’m not going to lie and say that may have had an effect on the readers.

It’s something I didn’t consider until this evening, working on the fic for prompt 11, which I’m using as a sequel to my Paramedic!Buck story I wrote during November (I’ll talk more about that in the coming weeks, when I get into my Bingo card). I had written a line that basically made Chim not come out very nicely, and I don’t regret it. And now of course that line will affect the new story… and I’m okay with that. It may not be the popular choice, but it’s my choice.

Like I said, I’m somewhat disappointed with how some of my advent fics are being received. Maybe in the future, that might change.

Fingers crossed.

Until next time!

Dealing with Writer’s Block and Daily Posting – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

If the past three months have taught me anything, it’s that I need to plan ahead.

For example, I spent all day doing a thousand little things, and completely forgot to work on both this post, as well as my Advent fic for tomorrow (which I usually post between midnight and 1AM.) Which is kind of a problem, as now I’m panicking because technically I’m late.

But that’s something that happens when you’re dealing with a decent case of writer’s block and burnout.

Over the past three months, I’ve probably written about 45 fanfics, which total out to over 50000. On top of that, there’s all the blog posts from October, the few from November (due to the burnout), and of course everything from December thus far. That’s a lot of writing.

The way I’m dealing with the fic writing is by making it a bit of a challenge. I’ve already decided what I’m writing for most of the prompts, which means I have a starting point. By giving myself an early posting deadline, I’m actually making it easier. If I miss because I’m busy or I need to wait until later on to write, I’ll be able to because I’ll still have hours in the day. It would bother me, but it would still get done.

This blog kinda took the big hit just because I needed to cut something for a while. It’s been a pretty stressful few months, and blogging didn’t give me the same joy it did during the summer and last year. Hopefully I can make that a better habit in 2022.

But in all honesty, I’m dealing with burnout by sprinting. Yes, I said sprinting. In this context, I’m writing in 20 minute increments. This has actually increased my productivity, as I’m sprinting against other people, which also encourages me to do more. Yes, I have to edit more, as I make more simple mistakes, but I can get through an entire 1500~ word story in just over an hour. It’s a good thing.

Like I said at the top, the main thing I’ve learned is planning things out. It’s helped in ways I can never really describe. This is one habit that will be around next year, as I want to continue to write. However, my goal for next year is to write longer pieces of fic instead of short but fun ones.

My goal for tonight and tomorrow is to get really ahead, so I’m gonna jump back into that. Who knows, maybe I’ll get further than I could have ever planned?

Until next time!

Whumptober Wrap Up – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

September 2022 Edit

Hey everyone, before you read this post, I just want to give a quick disclaimer. I was a member of the 118 Discord up until May 2022, when I left due to a… difference of opinion on something that happened in the 9-1-1 fandom and how people might handle it, as well as seeing that the mods had become people I was no longer comfortable with supporting in any way. It’s my personal belief that the 118 Discord is have become a dangerous place and probably will never be a safe place in fandom again, unless you cast aside your ability to have an opinion and only follow their personal opinions and beliefs about this fandom. You can make your own opinions. I won’t be removing the references to that discord from this post, as that would be disingenuous (unlike their handling of many things in fandom), but I want it clear that I do not represent or support them in any way. These fics mentioned here were written before this all came to light. All reference to the discord have been removed from the fics, both tags and author notes. As a added point of clarity, this post has remain unedited beyond this note, a brief note at the end of the post, and the links to the stories. My comments written here do not reflect how I currently feel about the discord or any named members.

Thanks so much for your understanding.

This has taken me an extra five weeks to do… because HOLY SHIT.

When I decided to do Whumptober back in September, I figured it would go the way of Febuwhump. I would be good for about half the month, then taper off and be behind until early December, if I was lucky. But the 118 Discord was absolutely amazing and inspiring, and wow, did I get shit done. In fact, I finished writing everything several days early!

So, my plan is to break this down in a few different ways. I’m not going to talk about every fic that I ended up writing for the challenge, but I will hit on a few that became my favorites. Trust me, there’s a bit to get through.

Challenge Comparison

Before we get into the Whumptober data, I wanted to actually compare it to Febuwhump. Both were month long challenges, but wow did things go differently.

During Febuwhump, I wrote 28 fics between February 1st and May 9th. During Whumptober, I posted 31 fics between October 1st to the 31st. (Technically, I started writing in early September, but the posting dates are what counted.)

My total word count for Febuwhump was 30,373 words, focused primarily around The Old Guard, with several crossovers with Criminal Minds.

My total word count for Whumptober was 41,922 words, primarily focused in the 9-1-1 fandom, though I did cross over with 9-1-1: Lone Star, Digimon, Sword Art Online, The Old Guard, and Criminal Minds.

Now, I will point out that the 9-1-1 fandom is much larger than The Old Guard fandom, which explains why my total hits and kudos are so skewed towards the former. But it is interesting to see that I wrote over 11000 words more, with only three extra days to show for it. But I’m not too surprised.

Most Popular by Hits

The most popular fic I wrote during the month by far is actually one that I’m not happy about. I wrote a fic for day five called “Two Directions,” which is an Anti-Ana fic. Now, I wrote it prior to the premier of the latest season of the show, when the character Ana Flores was nothing more than a cardboard cutout of a character. By the time the day came around to post it, it was the day after the third episode, where Eddie breaks up with her. Now, the fic itself doesn’t exactly paint her in the best light (though it’s nowhere near as mean as several that I’ve read in the fandom). But I’m not exactly proud that I wrote it the way I did. I ended up putting a pretty detailed note at the beginning explaining my intentions with the fic, and how it was written early. I’m glad it was popular, but it’s not one of my favorites.

The next three on the list for top hits are all within about a hundred hits of each other. “Rude Wake Up Call” was written for day two, and it’s the shortest fics I ended up writing, as I was still getting back into really writing. This one is one that I actually enjoyed writing, and it’s one that will soon (hopefully) get a second chapter.

“Maybe He Should Skip Leg Day” was a fun one from day ten, that I really enjoyed figuring out how to make work. I really enjoyed the narrative behind this one, without even trying. I think I wrote this in about two hours? And it worked, without too much trouble. I also did a good deal of research with this one to make it at least semi accurate. Did I succeed? I think so.

And of course, let’s not forget about “The Most Valuable Collectable” from day twenty eight. But I’m going to wait to really talk about that one.

The fifth fic on this list was one that I never expected to get so damn long, but it did. When I started day twenty three’s “Taking Something Precious,” I figured it would be maybe just over a thousand words. I didn’t think I would nearly hit three thousand, with plans for another chapter. I also wasn’t planning on writing SEAL!Buck, but that’s what happened. It was absolutely crazy, and I have to thank the Discord for encouraging me to finish it once I realized where it was going. This one is a ride, and I really want to hop back on.

Most Popular by Kudos

The top two fics for this category were “Maybe He Should Skip Leg Day” and “Taking Something Precious.” Since I already mentioned them, I’m going to move past them.

When I was writing “The Most Valuable Collectable,” I’ll be totally honest, I ended up scrapping it and restarting. I realized the way I wrote the villain was wrong, and would present a commentary that I wasn’t comfortable with. I ended up changing it, and it mostly worked, though I think if I had some more time, I would have done things a little (okay, a lot) differently.

The night before I posted day twenty nine’s “Seventy Hours, and A Moment More,” I felt like something was missing from it. So I jumped into a couple sprints on the discord… and added nearly 1500 words and an entire subplot. What had been this simple little fic expanded into something else, and I’m really happy about it. It was worth all the extra trouble I ended up going through in editing.

“‘No’ is a Complete Sentence” from day seventeen ended up being one of the most talked about fics, both on AO3 and on Discord. Apparently me leaving it where I did was a problem? I have the second chapter mostly written, I just need to sit down and finish the thing. I want May to be strong, instead of some weak character that many of the people in the comments kept portraying her as. This one is one of my favorites, BTW.

Most Popular by Comments

The top fic for this category was “‘No’ Is a Complete Sentence.”

I wasn’t exactly happy with day four’s “Do You See Me?” So much so that I’m considering adding a second part. It deals with a scene from one of the second season episodes, and it’s something that I really thought was going to happen (congrats writers, you got me). But I’ve read someone else’s take on the scene, and it was far better then my own. This is life.

“Left Behind” from day six was… personal. Something that wasn’t addressed in the show was exactly what happened between the end of season two, and the beginning of season three, primarily focused on Buck. When I first saw the show, I assumed that the 118 had his back the entire time that Buck was on medical leave, but I’m not entirely sure that was the case. When I wrote this one, I was pretty stubborn. (My thoughts on this have changed a bit more since writing this fic, and it’s something I want to talk about in a full post one of these days.)

Two fics ended up tied for the fourth position on the list. One I’ve already talked about (“Taking Something Precious”). The other…

When I started brainstorming the prompts for Whumptober, day twenty two was one of the first I came up with. “Hiding Behind a Screen” was inspired by another fic, but I took it in a different direction. I was never a fan of Abby in the show, especially of how her relationship with Buck was shown. When it came to this fic, I thought about it, and her reaction during the final episode of season one. It’s, not very nice to her, but I really did enjoy writing it.

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I’ve already discussed every fic on this top five! They are: “Seventy Hours, and A Moment More,” “Taking Something Precious,” “Maybe He Should Skip Leg Day,” “‘No’ is a Complete Sentence,” and “Left Behind.”

Length

Two fics in this category were already mentioned: “Taking Something Precious” and “Seventy Hours, and a Moment More.”

Alright, the first one is kinda cheating, because I did just write the second chapter. But I’m counting it, because I posted it on my birthday. Day twelve’s “I’m Begging You (to Come Back to Us)” is a crossover fic, one of like six I wrote for this challenge. I had a random thought one night on the Discord, and this idea popped in my head and wouldn’t leave. What if Buck decided to play a video game from Japan, and ended up trapped in it. Thanks, Sword Art Online, for not getting out of my head. While it didn’t end up popular, it was actually kinda fun to write a character that had interactions with the main characters of SAO, without actually talking to them. Outsider POV was fun to do in those scenes!

“Just Keep Swimming (Until the End of Time)” from day eleven was a labor of love, because I had to publish a fic before this, which I barely managed to do before Whumptober started. This was the biggest crossover I did, as I tied 9-1-1 into my Immortal Genius series. Having to writing about drowning was… terrifying. I had a plan originally, but someone ended up writing something to that effect, so I had to move it. It’s a whole thing. But I loved this one, and I really want to jump back into this world.

Prior to Whumptober, Sadie from the Discord and I both wrote 9-1-1/Digimon fics in celebration of Odaiba Day. I ended up using day three as the sequel to that fic, and I loved it. “Unwelcome Guests” features more Digimon as well as problematic parents. I had way too much fun thinking about how the different characters would react to Digimon, and it was worth it. This had actually been requested, and there will be a third fic to go with this… someday. That will hopefully feature more of the 118.

My Favorites That Didn’t Get a Mention

These last five are the ones that I really think deserved some more love, because I’m proud of them.

“Gettin’ Taken For a Ride” was a funny but serious take on kidnapping. I trapped Buck inside a trunk and sent him over a cliff. No, that’s not a joke. It ended up being one of my favorites, because I added in the surprise villain in the last paragraphs. This one will be betting a follow up for sure.

Okay, “Revenge, Just Add a Cactus” is seriously just a fic I wrote to tease the hell out of SadieYuki. She has had a tag on AO3 that is “Chase Mackey can Suck a Cactus”, and I just couldn’t help it. The damn thing wrote itself. I wrote most of it in like an hour, and laughed my way through every moment.

“Just a Little Nick” was my required response to Buck getting cut while on blood thinners. This one… I just kinda ran with it. I’m not too happy with it, because it’s been done before, but I got to throw in a joke to Eddie’s cooking. Or lack there of. Speaking of which…

“Cooking is a Public Health Hazard” was my ‘kitchen scene’. Basically, in 5×03, Ana leaves Eddie’s kitchen looking like a bomb went off. It’s insanity to see, if you haven’t. Most of the fandom wrote scenes that made fun of it. I… had a lot of fun writing this one, mostly because the excuses some of the fandom gave pissed me the hell off.

And finally, “Here’s to California Beaches” is my first attempt at writing what the 118 Discord called the pairing “Four Alarm Fire”. Basically, it’s the pairing of Buck/Eddie/TK/Carlos. Together in a poly relationship. I wrote it as pre-4AF, and I had fun with it. Plus I threw in a joke from when I was growing up…

Wrap Up

It’s hard to wrap up 31 fics, especially ones that I really loved working on. This is just a decent sampling of what I wrote, but there are others that are also available on my AO3 page. I’m really happy with how this all came out. In a way, it proved that I can write, and I can write a lot. I felt so good by the end, and I can’t wait to work on more. (Which I’m doing this month).

I hope you enjoyed this wrap up! I’ll absolutely be doing another one at the end of the 118 Advent. (September 2022 edit: Per note above, I will not be participating in any sort of fandom event set up by the 118 Discord. This statement had been stricken through to reflect this.)

Until next time!