Personal fic year in review

[aadler]

Quick summary? Two stories, five drabbles, one ten-drabble collection. Total word count for 2025 was 10,728. So, yes, I’ve done dozens of stories that were individually longer than my total output for last year.

All the same, not too bad. Not a great year, but I’ve done worse.

Breakdown

My “Snapshots” are an odd beast: drabble collections, but each drabble is for one of my Backstage stories, so it’s me being self-referential. “Snapshots 05” has drabbles that connect to ten of my most recent Backstage fics:
     – “Into the Abyss”
     – “Rough Trade”
     – “Just Can’t Kill the Beast”
     – “the Other Night I Dreamt of Knives”
     – “Jack Be Nimble”
     – “Zulu Time”
     – “the Price of Lace”
     – “Listen to the Mockingbird”
     – “So Sad the Song”
     – “Digital Divide”
I’d spent some time catching up on these. “Into the Abyss” was written in 2014; the last two — “So Sad the Song” and “Digital Divide” — were done in 2024, so it took me that long to come up to date. The drabbles themselves, though? Last year’s work.

The non-Snapshots drabbles:

“Final Respects” – Gunn and Anne at Cordelia’s grave.
“Last Light” – Dr. Gregory’s introduction to Natalie French.
“Cruel Summer” – Buffy’s ‘lost summer’ in Los Angeles, haunted by dream/memories.
“Quite Contrary” – Ethan Rayne’s perspective on his relationship with Giles.
“Unforgivable” – Cain the werewolf hunter has a grudge.

Finally, the two full stories:
“the Body Politic” – my summer_of_giles story for 2025. Why was Giles assigned as Buffy’s Watcher?
“the Precocious Harmony of Little Jade” – in Hong Kong (post-“Chosen”), a Slayer’s daughter faces a task of her own.

Normally, I consider any fic year to be substandard unless I’ve managed to turn out at least three stories. With the number of drabbles I posted to fill the gaps, I can call 2025 more or less adequate.

Let’s see if I can make this year a better one, though.