2019 - YEAR REVIEW - WRITING FANFIC
May. 31st, 2020 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nicholas_lucienYeah! Forever Knight got re-released (same quality as the last DVD set) in a new DVD box set, so you can get all 3 seasons for a nice little price (cheaper than what I paid for it - now $28). Still available on Amazon here.
First up: Gifts! I received 1 gifted story this year!
Emergency Call is a double drabble story from Merfilly written from a short prompt. It's a sweet story with Nat and Schanke, where Don has a problem with a gift for Jenny and calls for Natalie to help him. We've all been there with trying to follow those assembly instructions!
Second up: Prompted Story! I wrote two prompted stories!
This year the FkFicFest had one prompt for all writers to use: Ten Years. We could use the prompt however we liked, even splitting up 'ten' and 'years' into its own ideas/prompts. I ended up writing How to Spend the Next Ten Years. It took me a long time to settle on a topic for this story. I searched for other stories, song lyrics, music bands, movies, until I found a movie called The Book of Ten Years. It was very scary looking, so I only watched the trailer while covered in my blanket. But basically, it was about a magic book that would grant any wish written in it, at the cost of ten years being taken from a life. Mix that up a bit, and I had an idea where there was a magic wish granted for ten years at the cost of a life. Magic book had already been done in Forever Knight, so I went looking for other magical items and learned about magic rings, real rings that existed that people thought were magical. One such ring was worn by Genghis Khan and had been missing for a while. LaCroix had been with Genghis Khan and that was it! So this story was about a stranger that came to town, found Nick and offered the wish-granting power of the ring, and all Nick had to do was decide if the cost of a life was worth finally gaining mortality. So the story is one of my Cure stories as well!
Once I got going, this was a fun little story to write. Obviously there is the references to ten years, directly using the prompt, but the number ten actually comes up a lot in the story. The chapters are organized by days (Monday - Sunday), the days we are following Nick. But the stranger, Will, had actually been in town before the story started. Adding up the days he was with Nick, and the days preceding that, Will was in Toronto for ten days. And (not to spoil anything) but the old vampire in the story was brought across in 995, and the story was actually set in 1995, making him 1,000 years old, or 100 decades (and you can break the 100 into groups of ten as well). Another ten can be found in the magical objects either directly mentioned or actually in Nick's loft: an amulet, the Black Buddha, a stone carved with a healing spell, the Maya cup from Altun Kinal, 2 books of magic, and 4 magical rings.
The other prompted story was a request by a reader for a vampire wedding story, specifically between Nick and Janette. A Vampire Wedding tells the story of a modern wedding with references back to Nick and Janette's wedding centuries before. It's also a reconciliation story, having taken place shortly after Partners of the Month. I had to do a lot of research into weddings, and dealt with a ton of wedding ads for months afterwards.
Third up: Other stories!
I wrote 6 other stories this year. Coming in at the beginning of the year was The Penalty, part of the Calendar Day Series. This day was the day an ad ran in the paper - the only day it ran. That ad prompted the whole story and the title for the story. It is a story mostly about LaCroix and Nick, with Nick not wanting to be a vampire and LaCroix trying to fix that. The story is set in Detroit in 1915.
I'm getting closer to that drabble I want to write. This year I wrote Just a Little Bite, which comes in at 620 words. A fun little story set before the series, Nick is trying to explain how he can't eat food and Nat is not buying it. She insists he needs to try mortal activities, part of the process of becoming mortal again. It's a tempting story, as in the Biblical tempting story!
Part of a new series started this year, The Caddy Series focuses on stories that predominately feature the Caddy, usually in how Nick acquired the car. This first story, Under Janette's Protection, involves Nick and Janette, though Janette isn't actually present until the very end. But its a cute little story and also explains how Nick ended up going to Greenwich Village.
To get in my UF story, I finally wrote an idea out that had been bouncing around for a while. The Immovable Object references the irresistible force paradox (what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?), and is actually the third story I have written that mentions this, along with possible solutions to the paradox (see Faded Memories and Hidden Desire). In this story, Nick is being stubborn and suffering because of it. LaCroix is very patient with him, and helps Nick in the end, once Nick realizes what he needs. And its a Nick/LaCroix ending, so that's nice. Despite what it may seem, in this story Nick is both the immovable object and the unstoppable force - it is his two sides - the vampire and its basic drive as the stubborn force, and Nick's conscious decisions to be stubborn and not yield as the immovable object. The story is thus what happens when both of these forces try to occupy the same space, the same individual. The paradox must be resolved!
Glory is the first story in my Songfic Series (though not the first song I wanted to write about, its just the one that got completed first). Named after the song Glory, it weaves a tale inspired by, and using words, from the song. It doesn't list the lyrics (as that is not allowed on AO3), and you don't need to know the song, but its fun to read the story and then go back and read the lyrics to see what matches up. The story takes place before Nick meets Nat, and this encounter Nick has would set into motion the event where Nick will meet her. Interesting tidbit for the story, there are two original characters, Waite and Tedric, and they refer to another character called Alvaro. These names all mean Guardian or Watcher in various languages.
Finally, the story I am pretty happy with how it turned out, is Annie, Are You Okay? We know Nick is old, and has come across many people - some long forgotten, others more famous and still known. I had wondered how Nick would deal with encountering a woman from his past, well, at least the image of one. And I had just been learning the history about CPR Annie . . . .
Fourth Up: Live on the Air expanded by a few entries. A project taking a few years of research and many, many images, but I put together a detailed summary of the Caddy (at least the parts Nick would touch, I'm not going into every single detail of the car). Broken up into two entries (along with images) the first goes into a brief history of Cadillac and then what features are found in the 1961 and 1962 Cadillacs (these cars are a transition from the 1959 huge fin, heavy chrome machine from earlier, to the more boxy, trimmed down Cadillac of the later 60s). Lots of details include the instrument cluster, the fin lights, the radio, etc. Finally, this review ends with, well, how these particular cars ended - safety features. That would change these cars faster than anything else. The second post (also with a lot of images) goes into exactly which car was Nick's car. There is confusion - in the series the car is called a 1962 multiple times, but many of the details you see of the car (especially the fins and back lights) are from a 1961, and the actual cars themselves are referenced to as being 1961 and 1962 cars from the actors and owners of the cars. So this post goes into exactly what is different between the two models, how to identify it, and then screenshots identifying the car model (its a 1961). I also identify the color of the car (its Jade). But like all things in Forever Knight, it is complicated. Season 2 would introduce a second car, and that car is a 1962 (but I still go by the first car used). And even that first car - 1961 model it may be, but it is made of parts from a 1962. Such confusion! But I detail it all out. A great reference if you want to know what it would be like to sit in Nick's car!
Also, I am still slowly going through each episode and I added one in 2019: For I Have Sinned. Its a nice one becuase this is the episode with the flashbacks to Joan of Arc, and each flashback is at a different time in her life, beginning before her meeting with the Dauphin to her end at being burned. It also gives some maybe hints/clues as to what happened to Nick in his mortal life, or ideas he got towards the end of his mortal life.
For this upcoming year:
Well, since this is half-way through 2020 I already know I will write some more stories and write for the 2020 FkFicFest. Still have too many ideas floating around, just have to pick one and write it. Don't have a lot of time, but I'll get them in. I've been meaning to start my long Series of Nick's life, so that will begin this year. Probably watch some more episodes, now that the summary of the Caddy is over (that took a lot of time). Maybe I'll get that drabble done this year, maybe. At least two more songfics - one I've started will be about a fight and the next one will be about LaCroix. And a Nick/LaCroix story, of course!
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