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!