October, November and December 2021 In Review

 It’s been ages since I did one of these. Since I hit my GYWO goal I’ve been less motivated to write up my progress. So here are 3 months’ worth of progress!

 

Audio:

• I recorded 3 more chapters of Unrestrained. The tension is ratcheting up
• I podficced Final Examination by asecretchord. Thanks to asecretchord for having a podfic permission statement on AO3! 
• I recorded Two Men In a Bar by Nabielka, it’s a fic I’ve recced many times on Discord. Tom Riddle/Edmund Pevensie. I am dying for more of this ship. As a general rule, I dislike crossovers, because I’m unfamiliar with so many other canon universes, and love the HP world and characters so much. BUT I do love Narnia, I remember my dad reading them to me as a child. And Edmund is deliciously flawed. The fact that he’s a Muggle who can resist the Imperius Curse is so damn exciting.

 

Words:

• 600 words for an alternative ending for Noughts and Crosses. I’m working on this for Voiceteam Mystery Box, a podfic scavenger hunt challenge.
• 1.5k for In the Web. Still working on the themes.
• I finished in time for AUctoberfest! So here I am, claiming my translation of All You Need Is Love by the great TreggiDi. Loved writing this. Big thanks to avioleta and space_wingding for the Americanpicking assistance. It’s the 60s, Snape is a Vietnam War veteran, Harry is a peace-loving hippie.
• AND I finally finished my Secret Snarry Swap fic. This is my first time writing for Swap. It took ages. Necessitated a painstaking HBP and DH re-read. Endgame. 49,362 words in this 3-month period, and MANY hours spent agonising over word choices, cutting naff lines. I finished editing it several days after it posted… eek. Probably only made it about 2% better though haha. I’ve been blown away by its reception! 

 

My year-long Get Your Words Out goal was 200k, and I wrote 286,987! NOICE! 

I’ve signed up again for next year, but will be off to another slow January because I’m in the thick of Voiceteam.

 

The wind has gone out my sails for my Choose Your Own Adventure, because space_wingding was beta reading it and seems to have disappeared from the planet. If you’re reading this: I hope you’re well, and hope to see you again in my inbox. Whether it’s soon or years from now. 

2021 in Review

 Fear not, I’m not gonna rehash my monthly reviews. I joined AO3 on 3^rd January 2020. So to this day, I’ve got 2 years to look back on.

 

Here is a pie chart of my Harry Potter words! YAY SPREADSHEETS:

 I wanted to do 20k translation and ended up doing 85k. A lot of these words aren’t on AO3 and I plan to post the bulk of them in 2022.

  

Onto podfic stats!:

I recorded 34 hours last year and 36 hours this year (6 more than my goal). What surprises me most is the similarity of my pie charts in comparison with 2020. My tastes haven’t changed at all. I am significantly faster (unsurprisingly, since I’m less of a n00b and refined my editing and recording) but I had lots of dry spells.

Last year I podficced 91% Snarry, and this year a significant Drarry chunk was my 90k fic.:

Miscellaneous 2021 stats

- I broke 0 Kindles! :sunglasses:

- I haven’t totally mastered Scrivener, but I am getting the hang of it, and I love it. I haven’t looked back.

- I still felt as though I was jumping from fest to fest, without time to read any fanworks. However, I was glad I hadn’t read Avioleta’s AUctoberfest she wrote based on my prompt til I’d finished my Swap fic. We’d trod over the same paths. And it meant I couldn’t subconsciously copy elements of her work.

- Last year I thought it amazing I got 1000 kudos on my Snarry soulmate fic, and now it’s doubly amazing to see 1.5k!!! Thanks all! And 366 on Endgame, after less than a fortnight - blimey people!! I truly appreciate your support.

- I am up to 12 kudos on Of Love Notes and Bottle Caps! YAAAS. MUST finish that in 2022 LOL. For the 15^th year, it is still on my to do list. Bad Joc.

- I beta read about 5 things, not good. 

- I read Self-Editing for Fiction Writers for the 3^rd time. 

- I listened to EVERY SINGLE EPISODE of KM Weiland’s Helping Writers Become Authors podcast. This is gold. Everyone should listen to her. I have learnt so much and I’m sure I’m a better writer thanks to her. It’s been weekly for 10 years! All her posts are on her blog, too.

- Decided not to be in contact with ~30 Drarry fandom people after some nasty group bullying

- A goal from last year was to have a sound dampening podfic frame, and my husband built one. I am no longer recording under a blanket, or crouched in a den.

- Editing podfics takes about 1/3 of the time now I use punch and roll. I’m surprised more podficcers don’t do this, as it’s industry standard amongst audiobook narrators. I utilise a number of macros and believe my quality is much higher nowadays

- I aimed to co-write a Snarry, and we succeeded

- I took part in Voiceteam, Voiceteam Mystery Box, Snarry AUctoberfest, Secret Snarry Swap, Snarry-a-Thon, and HP Podfic Mini Fest.

- I added 200 authors with blanket podfic permission statements to the FPSlist. This will turn their names green on the Chrome extension. I encourage all creators to consider writing a statement -  a ”yes”, ”ask first”, or a ”no”.

My goals for 2022

- I have signed up for another 200k Get Your Words Out challenge

- Translate at least 1 story. Thanks to Bailou I have a shortlist, in order of preference

- Spend most of my year working on my time travel Snarry

- Write at least 1 podfic guide

- Record 20 podfic hours (much less than this year)

- Sign up for ZERO fests. Except perhaps Voiceteam and Voiceteam Mystery Box. How else is this time travel ever gonna get done??

- I am only going to podfic authors with blanket permission statements going forwards