The FanFiction Story I Wasn’t Supposed to Write, and Why I Did – Blogmas 2022

December 19, 2022 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Let me set the scene.

It’s fall 2021. I’m still active on a certain Discord. Things are still going fine, no real drama or arguments to speak of, at least not ones that are making me question my sanity. Whumptober has passed, Advent is looming, but there’s time in the middle to breathe.

I’m browsing the prompt channel. I didn’t go in there often, as I usually didn’t like writing prompts given by someone. They were too conflicting or too rigid or too “Buddie-centric,” enough that I just didn’t care anymore. So imagine my surprise when I came across one that caught my eye enough to warrant a second glance.

The prompt was hilarious almost word for word the basic premise of a fic I had just began plotting out. I immediately tried to claim it, but someone swooped in and said that they already had a piece that was in the works and this prompt matched. I tried to be the bigger person, so I let it go and put the fic in mothballs in my Google Drive, never to be seen again.

Months passed. Spring came, and with it drama. By May, I was leaving that Discord, done with being made to feel like trash for having a difference of opinion. I figured, however naively, that I’d still be in the fandom, I didn’t need the backing of the discord.

Then June 20th happened.

I won’t rehash the details of that dark week. It’s not worth it, but it does bare mentioning. That day and the week or so that followed was a dark time in my life, full of baseless accusations and me scrambling to put a damn wall between my professional life and my online life, one that was already there but one that had been torn down by the same people I had once considered close.

Six days later, I decided to repost everything. It took a long eleven days of editing and retagging and posting, all the while I was in training with my job and just trying to keep my head above water mentally.

(But what exactly does all this have to do with a story? I’m almost there, I swear.)

As soon as the last fic was posted, I revisited a work that I’d been working on literally up until the moment everything came crashing down. That would be my “Buck on BookTok” fic, which I’ll discuss another day, I think. That ended up getting posted about two weeks after the fallout. It was a safe fic to post, as it mostly just featured Buck after the bombing, without touching on the tsunami or the lawsuit or anything else. The response was amazing.

The moment I had hit post on that fic, I went back into Google docs. I had a few fics that I’d been playing with at the same time, though nothing stood out. It just felt like more of the same.

Until.

I saw it.

And I grabbed it.

I spent two days scouring two different Fandom Wikis to make sure I had my details right. I created a timeline and lists and literally debated between two different locations for what seemed like years, but was probably an hour and a half (the length of a standard lecture during work training, because priorities). I rewrote my author note regarding the origins of the fic, before deciding that I didn’t want that connection at all.

Instead, I went vague, I handed it off to be quickly edited by the most begrudged editor in the known universe (aka my mother), and posted my 9-1-1 / 9-1-1 Lone Star / MCU Fusion fic.

Yes, this was the fic I wasn’t supposed to post, because someone had claimed the prompt. The problem was, it had been nine months at this point and there wasn’t any movement. I also clearly wasn’t part of that discord anymore (and I have in the past been slightly vocal about it). I had waited this entire time, thinking I would post it around now if they actually had posted the fic.

But they didn’t, so I did. To great damn success.

The next month I wrote the first sequel that I had thought of but never thought I’d get to actually write. And then, last night, I finished off the trilogy.

Am I sad to see that I have it marked as complete? Absolutely. It was a fun little world to play in. But I also wanted to put a pin in it. I left it well enough that if I wanted to, I could return to it at any time. For now, at least, it’s complete.

As for that other fic? It’s still never been posted. I assume it’s gone the way of most prompt fics off of that discord, into a dark pit of nothingness and despair that fuels their bullshit. (Or I missed it, but I’m being vivid today.)

Should I talk about a few of my other fics that I’m wrapping up this week? Hmm… Decisions, decisions.

Until next time!

Dealing with the Holiday Writer’s Block – Blogmas 2022

December 15, 2022 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

So, I’m gonna be totally honest. December is the worst time for me to try writing. I’m so very destracted.

This came up on r/fanfiction on Reddit about dealing with writer’s block, and it got me thinking – when was the last time I sat down and wrote some fics? I realized it had been a bit, and I realized I was in writer’s block mode. Which is a bit of a problem. Whoops?

Normally, I would get out of writer’s block in a gradual fashion. I would go focus on something else for several weeks, such as a video game or a book series or a tv show that’s been on my list (which in this case would be Outer Banks because a dear friend will not stop hounding me about it). I’d take the time to basically relax my brain and just work on other things. Maybe do a new cross stitch, something I was enjoying doing in the summer before everything went to hell in a handbasket.

But. Well. I don’t really have time for that.

Remember the other day when I talked about my list of fics I want to try to finish by the end of the year? Yeah, I really want to get to those. And that’s just slightly a problem when I’m dealing with writer’s block.

I have a plan though! I really do! I think. I hope.

I’m not going to worry about anything until this weekend. I’m just going to think of work, and watch Outer Banks on Netflix (I’ve been promising a friend I would watch it, it’s about time I just do it at this point), and maybe get the layout for my planners tentatively laid out. I’ll keep a blank Google doc open for any idea dumping, but it won’t be something that I push. And, of course, I’ll also post here, hopefully at a normal hour instead of right before midnight PST because I keep starting posts in the morning and forgetting to finish until right before I head to sleep.

Hopefully by taking this little complete reset, I’ll be able to pull myself out of writer’s block pretty quickly. That’s not my normal way, considering I normally have writer’s block for a solid month twice a year (should’ve figured it was coming, last time I was this bad was in July so…).

Wish me luck, we shall see what comes of this insanity. *wink*

Until next time!

Whumptober 2022 Wrap-Up – Blogmas 2022

December 13, 2022 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

For my final challenge of the year, I decided to do things a little bit differently.

Since I was going to be working on Whumptober while also trying to fix up some other things, prep for Nanowrimo, and also work my stressful job, I decided to allow myself the ability to do something a bit different. I gave myself permission to write drabbles. If you don’t know what a drabble is, it is a piece of writing that is exactly 100 words. I ended up writing several double and triple drabbles (or 200/300 words) to some of the prompts, which was both a challenge and a test, and I think some of those fics ended up being some of my favorites.

As with my other challenge write ups, I’ll be following my Whumptober 2021 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 31 fics between October 2nd and December 5th, 2022.

My total word count for the event was 25,163 words, focused on 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lone Star, The Old Guard, and The School of Good and Evil, with minor crossovers and mentions of CSI:NY and Criminal Minds.

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

I’m not really sure what inspired “Overlooking the Head,” but I’m glad that I wrote it. In a way, it was a subtle way of telling the people who had been attacking me that I actually did like Chimney Han, I just didn’t like him in one specific storyline (shock of all shocks). This is something I’d been thinking about for a while, so I’m glad I got it down and posted.

“A Different Kind of Heat” is my ode to the differences of climates. I’m someone who really doesn’t do well in humidity, especially in Texas, where I was one of the people who nearly collapsed that year. I just don’t like the heat. Yes, TK would know better, but it worked for the story, so I’m happy about it.

I think I have a thing for dropping Buck down staircases, as seen in “Staircase Tumbling.” Why Buck? Because it’s Buck, and if the writers won’t give us what we want, it’s up to fic writers to do it for them. I really enjoyed coming up with this one, which was written while I was at my writer’s club at my library. I enjoyed it a little too much, haha.

Most Popular by Kudos

I already have talked about “Staircase Tumbling.”

I was alwasy going to write a sequel to “BuckBookTok” and thus “BuckLifeTok” was born. I very much enjoyed bringing this to life, especially since I got to once again play with the tsunami and what damage it left behind to LA and the 118. I have a final fic in this trilogy in the works, it should be posted soon.

“Family Crashes” was very much inspired by the frankly ridiculous amount of traffic I could see from my office window when I have to go into LA for my in office day. The Buckley parents appearing just kinda forced themselves into the show, even though I didn’t plan on them. It worked in my opinion.

“Avoiding a Family Fight” was written not because I didn’t like the Buckley parents, but instead to get my temper down about being forced to do things because “family”. I very much enjoyed bringing this fic to life, even if certain people didn’t understand or get my full intentions at the time.

Most Popular by Comments

I already have talked about “Staircase Tumbling,” “Family Crashes,” and “Avoiding a Family Fight”

I decided early on to include Lou Ransone at least twice during this challenge, with “Gun to Temple” being his first appearance during the month. I think I really enjoyed this one, to the point that I would love to keep going with this fic if I so chose. Maybe one day I’ll do something else along these lines. (No, Remy, no getting more ideas, you have too much to work on right now as is!)

“Long Shift Surprises” was born from one of my Buck and Audie fics getting nominated for a fanfiction awards thing, but because I had two fics nominated in the same category, I had to choose one or the other. Since I went with the other, I wrote another Audie fic to balance it out. Sleepy Buck and Audie for the win!

The thing about “Potentially Scarring Questions” is that it was born out of people asking invasive questions about others. That’s it, that’s the inspiration. For men, that’s always bothered me, so this came to be. I enjoyed bringing this one to light and I’m very happy with my results.

Most Popular by Bookmarks

I already have talked about “Staircase Tumbling,” “Family Crashes,” “Avoiding a Family Fight,” “Potentially Scarring Questions,” “Overlooking the Head,” “Gun to Temple,” and “BuckLikeTok.”

“Stuck” is another Lou Ransone fic, but it was also brought upon thanks to so many people deciding what was and wasn’t going to be in Seasons five and six (and being so wrong about it). I’m also very happy with how this one came out.

I came up with “An Atypical Effect to a Head Injury” simply because of how many times it seems like Buck has been hit on the head. No, seriously, that’s what did it. This got a lot of love for being so short and I’m happy with that. Plus, injured and surly Buck is always fun.

I’m not surprised that “Taken Away” has been bookmarked a good amount of times. It’s one of my incomplete fics that I really need to get back to by the end of the year (see yesterday’s post). I just have to find my notes first and I’ll be able to really knock it out…

Length

I already have talked about “BuckLikeTok,” “Family Crashes,” “Staircase Tumbling,” “Avoiding a Family Fight,” “Potentially Scarring Questions,” “Overlooking the Head,” “Gun to Temple,” and

Considering they are best paired together, I’ll be talking about them together. “Firestarter” and “Only Embers Left Behind” are both part of my “Immortal Genius” series, with Buck taking the forefront for five total fics. Here, Buck is dealing with an arsonist and ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time… but his immortality keeps him alive. For me, I wrote it to show that Buck was finally starting to accept his lot in life, leading into the finale of his arc. They aren’t the most popular, but I’m okay with that. I write what I love, damn it.

“Crutch Time” was just good clean fun. I hated being on crutches when I sprained my foot and I’m still salty about it, and that was in like 2008 (I can hold a grudge). It’s another Audie fic, one that I absolutely had a great time writing since it practically wrote itself.

My Favorites That Didn’t Get a Mention

I had a great deal of fun with working on “Almost Dead on My Feet,” only because it presented me with the challenge of remembering how to timeline. Something that I’ve struggled with this year. I enjoyed it a lot and I’m glad that it came out alright, even if it didn’t get a majorly great reception (my 9-1-1 Lone Star fics rarely do).

“An Unlikely Friendship” was the final Ransone fic of Whumptober, this time dealing with the aftermath of his attack in 5×02. I tried to make it clear that he and Buck were friends that might become more, though I’m not sure how much of that came through. I did like it, and I enjoyed the challenge I gave myself with it.

Wrap Up

While I wasn’t successful in completing Whumptober in October, I do think I am hapy with the quality of many of the fics that I posted. Several of them are fics that I very much enjoy and I’m happy to see that they have gotten love over the past few months.

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 Whumptober 2022” series. They are all in prompt order.

Until next time!

End of the Year Writing Goals – Blogmas 2022

December 12, 2022December 13, 2022 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Something that I normally do at the beginning of December is make what I call “the list.”

What is “the list,” you might be asking? Well, it’s my list of fics that I really really want to finish by the end of the year. Most years it’s short, maybe one or two fics that I would love to finish or at least update. Last year it was longer as I was knee deep in working on fics for that discord’s Advent challenge.

This year, I have ten fics that I’d like to at least update, if not complete. Yeah, it’s a lofty goal. Yeah, it’s probably not going to be finished in December, especially since I lost a lot of my writing time while being sick, and I literally just made the list last night instead of sleeping.

But let’s go over it, because why not? It’s content.

The Immortal Genius

Last year I started a sequel/spinoff to my Criminal Minds / The Old Guard crossover series. I crossed in 9-1-1, starting with the tsunami and going forth from there. It’s had a decent reception, especially since I think that Buck and Spencer Reid would have a good friendship if they were ever to know each other in reality.

I had always envisioned the 9-1-1 portion to be a trilogy event. An introduction, a compilation fic in the middle of major moment, and a conclusion that wrapped up Buck’s main arc (accepting his immortality and the thought of eventually leaving his found family) while also leaving it open for Buck to return as a background character should I decide to continue with the larger story.

Well, that was until Whumptober 2022, when I decided to do a two part fic instead of that conclusion that continued Buck’s story without ending it. I enjoyed writing both fics, even if they weren’t very well received.

My goal for the end of 2022 is to hopefully find a way to wrap up the side story. This one may be put on the back burner depending on how I do with the other fics that I really need to get finished with.

The Adventures of Buck and Audie

The fun little series where Buck has a therapy dog that has a funny personality. This is a series that I come back to when I have writer’s block. There’s no real “end” to it. I somewhat want to add one more story that can be something of a finale, if only to leave a somewhat satisfying conclusion. (And I’d like Aislinn the dog sitter to finally make an appearance, especially since her only part of series with her character is that her school really likes to lose her transcripts.)

BuckTikTok

I had only just started working on this fic when everything started going down in the 9-1-1 fandom (yes, I’m keeping it brief for a reason). I ended up posting it about a month later, not entirely satisfied with what I’d written, but wanting to get it out into the world so that I could move on.

It went over very well. So well, in fact, I ended up writing a sequel. And now it’s time to conclude the trilogy. The project had always been conceived as a three part series. The only problem is my notes have vanished (my notepad decided to grow legs and wanted away). I’m hoping in the next few days to come up with something that will be a good conclusion to this little fic.

Fire!Fam DigiDestined

This is a maybe/maybe not addition to the list.

My 9-1-1 / Digimon series was my first fic in the fandom, but it has been tainted by everything that has happened to me in this fandom. I did end up writing another fic at the end of July (post drama).

The conclusion of “Chance Reunion” is pretty good. I could say the series is done and not feel back about it. But I also feel like I can write another fic that could tie things up more. I’m not really sure. We shall see.

Back Again from Beyond

“Once Was, Is Now” was a labor of love for over a year. I had started it while still on that discord, but someone claimed the prompt out from under me, and I let it go. Nearly a year passed with it in my head and the other person never posting their claim. So, back in July, I finished and posted the fic, with an explanation that I waited on posting out of respect, but it had been over a year and I was done waiting.

When I dropped that fic, I realized that I had to write this as a trilogy. The set up and two conclusions, one with Buck and one with Carlos (as May would be with Buck’s ending). I’ve since written Buck’s conclusion and now I have to write Carlos’. I can always write them with a more open ended finish so that if I want to come back and add to it, I can, but the goal has always been three.

This one is on the list for sure.

“Next in Line” / “Late Night Knocks”

I opened a can of worms with “Next in Line”, because I discovered that in my exhaustion I’d forgotten to include a line that didn’t make Bobby come out to be a terrible person. So I wrote “Late Night Knocks” and included that explanation, but I also left it open for a finale.

I would really like to give the three fics a good finish, tying them up without leaving anything to chance. With Jay Halstead out of Chicago PD, this is this is the time to do so. If I can finish it this December, that would be brilliant.

“Held Back (What a Detriment)”

I have a slight wish to continue this fic, as I think the premise I set up in interesting. My biggest issue is that I’ve never been a fan of writing “shifter” fics, which is somewhat of a problem considering the fact that the fic is about shifters (prompt fic during Writer’s Month).

I’d like to give it a second pass to at least finish up my thought process. If I can finish it during December, that would be a plus. If not, that’s okay too. it’s just something I’d like to work on.

Life Saving Magic

I pulled “Life Saving Magic” out of nowhere during my cleanup for Whumptober. I seriously don’t even know where the idea popped in my head. I just wrote a triple drabble and sent it out… and got a few messages asking me to continue. So… I guess I will one of these days.

This is one that, if I get to it this month, I won’t be updating until the end of the month. I need to plan first.

Friends Helping Friends

How do you annoy people? Make Buck and TK friends and have them still be friends long after the crossover episode. Yeah, I did that, no I don’t care. “Far Reaching Friends” was one of my most popular Writer’s Month fics that absolutely demanded a sequel, which I wrote during Whumptober.

I’d like to wrap up Buck’s impromptu trip to Austin with one more fic. It wouldn’t take much to tie this little trilogy up with a bow, even if it wasn’t originally planned from the get-go. I can probably knock that out in one night if I sit down and do it.

Taken Away

This one is majorly important for me to at least get the next chapter out. I’ve been sitting on this since the beginning of Whumptober.

“Taken Away” is the sequel to “Kidnapped Away”, which was written during Febuwhump 2022. The basic premise is that TK is kidnapped by the Cabbie Killer in New York City and Carlos and Owen must work together with the NYPD Crime Lab and Reed Garrett, Mac’s stepson and TK’s only real friend back in NYC, to get him back.

I posted the first chapter during Whumptober that set up the background to the story, while “Kidnapped Away” serves as basically the first chapter of a sort. It’s high time I sit down and just knock out at least one chapter.

…That Seems Like a Lot

It is. That’s ten fics that I want to work on, most of which need to be longer than just 500 words or so. But actually typing this out has helped me come up with some semblance of a plan to attack this , with some things being regulated to the back burner as necessary, while others are needed to be updated/completed in an more immediate fashion.

As for now, I’m going to spend tonight planning and prepping to move forward with this, along with everything else I already have on my plate. This is shaping up to be a very busy end of the year…

Until next time!

[Edit: sorry this is so late, apparently I can’t have a healthy week this year, to top off why 2022 still sucks…]

Writer’s Month 2022 (Delayed) Wrap-up! – Blogmas 2022

December 9, 2022 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Well, my first attempt at Writer’s Month went… well… I at least completed the challenge. Two months late. It’s a whole thing. But I really did enjoy the different prompts, so I will probably give this one another try next year, when I can dedicate more time to it while not stressing myself out.

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 31 fics between August 2nd and November 14th, 2022.

My total word count for the event was 29,703 words, focused on 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lone Star, The Old Guard, and Fusionfall with brief mentions or crossovers with Hawaii Five-O, SWAT, and Teen Wolf.

As it’s been 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

By far one of my most popular fics this year thus far, Far Reaching Friends was born out of wanting to have some sort of crossover between 9-1-1 Season 5 and 9-1-1 Lone Star Season 3. I remember knocking this one out in no time at all and really loving bringing this to life. I actually wrote a sequel to during Whumptober 2022 and I think I want to play in this world one more time.

I ended up coming up with Late Night Knocks on a whim, but it also became a tribute to one of my favorite One Chicago characters, Jay Halstead, who was (horribly) written out this season. This is another idea that came up out of the blue that I enjoy and I’m happy to see that others have enjoyed it as well. I have one more planned for this mini series.

So, confession. I have an irrational fear of earthquakes. Home Shakes popped into my head while I was pacing my room trying to come up with something. I joking said that this fic’s secondary theme was “writer’s block due to annoyance.” This one ended up being a good quick little writing exercise that I enjoyed knocking out.

Most Popular by Kudos

I already have talked about “Far Reaching Friends” and “Late Night Knocks.”

The amount of times I rewrote Cards from the Heart is frankly embarrassing. I could not decide what to do, then I had an idea and backtracked, and finally I just ran with what I posted. It’s probably one of my favorites just because it’s cute, and that’s what matters.

And Now, To Tomorrow is the sequel to one of my favorite fics I’ve written this year, mostly because it’s the crossover I was never supposed to write, and yet I did. This sequel was difficult to write only because I knew what I wanted to say, but I wasn’t sure how to say it. But I’m happy with how it came out, and the third fic should be completed before the end of the year if all goes well.

Fat Lip came out of wanting to write about the catfish incident but in the current day, and give Hen a voice to the situation since she didn’t really get one during Season 1. I really enjoyed working on this one, especially sarcastic Buck coming out. Surprisingly I wasn’t in the best of places mentally when writing this, as well as suffering from food poisoning during the majority of that week.

Most Popular by Comments

I already have talked about “And Now, To Tomorrow.”

I got “in trouble” because of the joke behind Teaching Knots. Yes, it’s a BDSM joke, no, it’s completely clean, and yes, I had way too much fun with setting that bullshit up. I’m happy with it, even if I got some funny pseudo-pissed off messages.

Pain Day was born out of the thought that Buck’s injury might not have healed as perfectly as the show implied. So I decided to explore that. I’ll be totally honest, I was looking for a prompt that would fit this plot, instead of the other way around. This one worked well, and I love it.

Held Back (What a Detriment) holds the distinction of being the first fic I’ve ever posted with the wrong title (I misspelled detriment). I also marked this fic as incomplete, as I’m still not sure if I’m going to come back to it or not. I’m just not into writing about shifters, but I way decide to do so in the future. Only time will tell.

Most Popular by Bookmarks

I already have talked about “Pain Day,” “Far Reaching Friends,” “Home Shakes,” “Fat Lip,” “Cards from the Heart,” “And Now, To Tomorrow,” “Teaching Knots,” and “Held Back (What a Detriment).”

I unintentionally sat on Rainbow of Thanks for awhile. This was a fic that I had a barebones idea for, but I ended up enjoying what I ended up writing for it. Hell, I love any fic that makes Christopher special, because I love that kid.

I also got in trouble for Next in Line. ANd by “in trouble,” I mean I pissed off a lot of people because Buck didn’t get to go to Chicago. I had everything planned out, but no one believed me. (Late Night Knocks” is the sequel to this fic, and there is a third tentatively planned.)

My literal only speculation for Season 6. Worrying Away from Home was born simply to prove that I could write a speculation fic, even though I don’t like speculation fics. Also, it totally turned into an anti-Buckley parent’s fic because why the heck not. Worth it.

Length

I already have talked about “And Now, To Tomorrow,” “Late Night Knocks,” and “Far Reaching Friends.”

I spontaneously decided to write a Fusionfall fic, and Three Days On Fire is the result. I pulled it out of nowhere just because I could. I really enjoyed playing around in that world again, so much so that I want to do it again just because.

What is Silk Nights? I still don’t know. I just pulled it out of nowhere. I can’t explain it, nor will I. It’s… a thing. Just go with it.

King of the Lego Castle was written as a tribute to Lego’s 90th birthday. No, seriously, that’s the whole inspiration. But it was fun and I’m happy about it. That’s about all I have to say on the subject.

My Favorites That Didn’t Get a Mention (aka All the 9-1-1 Lone Star fics)

I came up with Music From a Former Life thanks to listening to Ronen Rubinstein’s music. It was a fun little fic that I really feel like deserved more love.

I still have a love for my Buck and Audie fics, and I wrote one from Audie’s POV. It’s Hard Being Popular ended up not being popular, but it was a fun little experiment. Can I help it? Audie is a sassy pup.

I don’t normally write future fics, but there was something about writing a fic from an adult Christopher Diaz’s point of view. The Story of Our Lives is a fun little fic that almost made the cut on several categories for this wrap up, missing by only one point here or there.

Did I really write a fic about TK and Paul going to where TK almsot froze to death? Yes, yes I did. And no, I don’t have a problem with that. It’s therapy. It’s called This is Where I (Nearly) Died and it didn’t get nearly enough love, damn it.

And finally, something that I’m mildly hoping for 9-1-1 Lone Star for Season Four is some Carlos!Whump, so I wrote some myself. Role reversals are fun sometimes. I called this pain Waiting for the Wake Up, and no, I have no regrets.

Wrap Up

I really enjoyed this challenge, only because the prompts are different’ then ones I’m used to. I’m happy that I have it a shot even if I didn’t get to complete it in August. It was worth the attempt. I may or may not take part in it next year, depending on life circumstances, but I have no real complaints. Heck, one of my favorite things is that they give a seven day grace period on posting! No one else does!

All in all, it was a good challenge and I’m happy to move onto other things.

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 “Writer’s Month 2022” series. They are all in prompt order.

Until next time!

The Best Anonymous Comment I’ve Ever Received on AO3 – Blogtober 2022

October 5, 2022October 4, 2022 ~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I’m crying while typing this, because I’ve been laughing so hard.

Late yesterday evening, I received an anonymous comment on one of my fics. The vast majority of the comment was… well, personal attacks and basic grumblings and whining. I’m not entertaining that, even if I rolled my eyes hard enough to give myself a headache.

No, it’s the last lines that made me burst into laughter at 10:30 at night.

The lines, in part, read: “You need to delete this repulsive fic! Live action and animation should never be written together – it’s taboo!”

(I, ah, cleaned up the language and grammar. You’re welcome for that.)

So, before I tell you what fic this was, I have to ask this lovely anonymous commenter. Did Mary Poppins hurt you? Did Who Framed Roger Rabbit? bother you that much in childhood? Seriously, I could probably find many instances where live action and animation shared the same screen and shot, but I’m just feeling to lazy to do it.

Anyway, the fic was my 9-1-1 / Sword Art Online crossover fic, “I’m Begging You (to Come Back to Us),” which was written on a whim about a year ago. It was totally written as angsty crack, with some tragedy thrown in for Buck in chapter two. It’s completely harmless.

Look, I like off the wall crossovers as long as all sets of original source material are respected. I’ve written a couple of them myself beyond this fic. It’s fun, especially when you are trying to mesh two different fandoms together in one cohesive unit… and then sometimes it actually works. Sometimes it doesn’t and that’s what makes it fun.

I’ll be totally honest that for a split second I was actually angry about the comment. I thought this would be just another example of gatekeeping the 9-1-1 fandom, demanding that only certain types of fics be posted and only featuring certain characters. But alas, it’s just the ravings of someone who doesn’t know how to hit the back button or read the tags.

I’m not going to publish the review simply because of the personal insults. But it had to live on in some form. I figured someone might get some enjoyment out of it too.

Until next time!

The Kudo Project: Halfway Through

July 5, 2022July 13, 2022 ~ 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

April 17, 2022April 17, 2022 ~ 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!