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Hello again, and welcome to your regular 1st January "I aten't dead" post where I surface long enough to throw some Yuletide fics at you before sinking back into lurkerdom. Once again I've only been writing treats instead of signing up, which I've been enjoying as a low-hassle way to participate and get some fics written.
I also seem to have started a new Yuletide tradition of picking up a random TV series off my to-be-watched list and then writing an excessive amount of fic while it's still fresh in my memory. Last year it was Ghosts, where I wrote five fics; this year it was Foyle's War, where I only wrote two but both were long casefic, one gen, one undercover as a couple. (Funnily enough, it's probably indirectly down to Ghosts that I ended up watching it, since doing some research on the WWII home front for fic about the Captain reminded me that I'd seen the early episodes with my dad and always meant to catch up on the rest.) I also squeaked in two other shorter fics in fandoms I've written before, Blackadder and the Tiffany Aching books.
This was - briefly - the longest thing I've written for Yuletide, my previous longest being just under 8k. I initially thought it might work out even longer, since the plot outline got pretty ridiculous. (52 bullet points!) But it crunched down a lot in the telling, being more just a case of needing a very detailed blow-by-blow of what was happening with the mystery in each scene. Much respect to all writers of TV shows who have to come up with a new murder mystery every episode, even the cheesy ridiculous ones; I had a clear idea of a couple of things from my period research I wanted to build the case around, and the plot was still a nightmare tangle to hash out. Very hard to take a stab at a line between 'too straightforward' and 'wildly over-convoluted', but it seems to have worked for people. Quite pleased with the title, too, which manages to make it seem like I had some sort of deliberate theme in mind to pull all my plot strands together. Haha, no, just happened to work out that way.
I was actually under the delusion that this one was going to work out shorter than Absent Men. Tropey undercover-as-a-couple stuff shouldn't require as much plot as a 'proper' casefic where the case is the main point, right? Instead it ended up being basically the same amount of plot plus the ship layered on top, and ballooned into not just my longest Yuletide fic but the longest thing I've written since my Alias trilogy back in, ack, 2009. Very pleased with how it came together, though! The title was initially a stopgap thing intended to do if I couldn't come up with anything better, but the more I thought about it the more I decided it actually worked.
By the time I'd edited and posted my two longfics it was already the 21st, and I had devoted exactly zero brainspace to thinking about any other treats. But I happened to have seen this Blackadder request pass by on the pinch hit list, an old faithful fandom where I was confident I could write something short without needing much in the way of canon review, and the recipient's suggestion of a Christmas theme gave me somewhere to start. Blackadder is an interesting case where the title often influences the story for me; I try to keep within the canon tradition of titles themed around military ranks, and so brainstorming Christmas-related options led me to Christmas parties. I debated how much this actually merited being tagged as Blackadder/Darling slash; it's there but it probably falls under the banner of canon-typical silliness.
I also saw that despite seven requests there were no fics in this year's collection for this series, so, having written it before a few Yuletides back, I speed-read the first few books over the final days of writing time, trying to come up with something I could write without needing to revisit the later books or wider Discworld. I had zero ideas until this concept finally came to me right before I went bed in the early hours on Christmas Eve. It seemed like a bit of a crunch but still doable to write a 1-2k fic in one day despite being at my brothers' for a few hours in the evening. Then it turned out a bit longer than that, and I was still editing at gone four in the morning. (Yes, it could have sensibly waited and gone in Madness, but I was committed by then.) Given more time I would have made some wording tweaks and tried to get more creative with the title and summary, but overall I was very pleasantly surprised with how well it held up when I had my first chance to reread it well after the collection had opened.
---
Overall, I ended up writing a ridiculous 38.5k this Yuletide, where even in my most productive previous years I've rarely squeaked past 20k total. So now I will once again leave you with my equally traditional signoff, where I make vague noises about hoping to write some actual fic of my own outside of writing for exchange prompts this year, and then completely fail to do so. See you next January, more than likely!
I also seem to have started a new Yuletide tradition of picking up a random TV series off my to-be-watched list and then writing an excessive amount of fic while it's still fresh in my memory. Last year it was Ghosts, where I wrote five fics; this year it was Foyle's War, where I only wrote two but both were long casefic, one gen, one undercover as a couple. (Funnily enough, it's probably indirectly down to Ghosts that I ended up watching it, since doing some research on the WWII home front for fic about the Captain reminded me that I'd seen the early episodes with my dad and always meant to catch up on the rest.) I also squeaked in two other shorter fics in fandoms I've written before, Blackadder and the Tiffany Aching books.
Absent Men (Foyle's War)
November 1942. Sam's out of sorts, Andrew's due home on leave, and Foyle investigates a case involving stockings and wages clerks. (12,900 words)
This was - briefly - the longest thing I've written for Yuletide, my previous longest being just under 8k. I initially thought it might work out even longer, since the plot outline got pretty ridiculous. (52 bullet points!) But it crunched down a lot in the telling, being more just a case of needing a very detailed blow-by-blow of what was happening with the mystery in each scene. Much respect to all writers of TV shows who have to come up with a new murder mystery every episode, even the cheesy ridiculous ones; I had a clear idea of a couple of things from my period research I wanted to build the case around, and the plot was still a nightmare tangle to hash out. Very hard to take a stab at a line between 'too straightforward' and 'wildly over-convoluted', but it seems to have worked for people. Quite pleased with the title, too, which manages to make it seem like I had some sort of deliberate theme in mind to pull all my plot strands together. Haha, no, just happened to work out that way.
Intents and Purposes (Foyle's War)
After resigning from the police, Foyle reluctantly takes an undercover investigation for Hilda Pierce. Sam rather less reluctantly gets herself involved, and doesn't stop there. (Foyle/Sam, 19,600 words)
I was actually under the delusion that this one was going to work out shorter than Absent Men. Tropey undercover-as-a-couple stuff shouldn't require as much plot as a 'proper' casefic where the case is the main point, right? Instead it ended up being basically the same amount of plot plus the ship layered on top, and ballooned into not just my longest Yuletide fic but the longest thing I've written since my Alias trilogy back in, ack, 2009. Very pleased with how it came together, though! The title was initially a stopgap thing intended to do if I couldn't come up with anything better, but the more I thought about it the more I decided it actually worked.
Private Party (Blackadder)
A dubiously merry Christmas in the trenches. (Blackadder/Darling, 2450 words)
By the time I'd edited and posted my two longfics it was already the 21st, and I had devoted exactly zero brainspace to thinking about any other treats. But I happened to have seen this Blackadder request pass by on the pinch hit list, an old faithful fandom where I was confident I could write something short without needing much in the way of canon review, and the recipient's suggestion of a Christmas theme gave me somewhere to start. Blackadder is an interesting case where the title often influences the story for me; I try to keep within the canon tradition of titles themed around military ranks, and so brainstorming Christmas-related options led me to Christmas parties. I debated how much this actually merited being tagged as Blackadder/Darling slash; it's there but it probably falls under the banner of canon-typical silliness.
See Me (Discworld: Tiffany Aching)
It's hard being the local witch when you're still only ten. (3500 words)
I also saw that despite seven requests there were no fics in this year's collection for this series, so, having written it before a few Yuletides back, I speed-read the first few books over the final days of writing time, trying to come up with something I could write without needing to revisit the later books or wider Discworld. I had zero ideas until this concept finally came to me right before I went bed in the early hours on Christmas Eve. It seemed like a bit of a crunch but still doable to write a 1-2k fic in one day despite being at my brothers' for a few hours in the evening. Then it turned out a bit longer than that, and I was still editing at gone four in the morning. (Yes, it could have sensibly waited and gone in Madness, but I was committed by then.) Given more time I would have made some wording tweaks and tried to get more creative with the title and summary, but overall I was very pleasantly surprised with how well it held up when I had my first chance to reread it well after the collection had opened.
---
Overall, I ended up writing a ridiculous 38.5k this Yuletide, where even in my most productive previous years I've rarely squeaked past 20k total. So now I will once again leave you with my equally traditional signoff, where I make vague noises about hoping to write some actual fic of my own outside of writing for exchange prompts this year, and then completely fail to do so. See you next January, more than likely!
