bironic

This year on LJ, I:

- Upgraded to a paid account, thanks to my patron who may or may not wish to remain anonymous.

- Made a spiffy layout in place of the old Refried Paper template.

- Ran the fairly successful Comment on Neglected Favorite Fics Week, which you should participate in (again?) this October.

- Read a bunch of fic in fandoms I didn't know and ended up getting into Stargate: Atlantis (Season Four next week!) and also MI-5/Spooks for a little while, the latter of which is all tigertrapped's fault.

- Wrote 16 pieces of fanfiction/fan poetry in four fandoms totalling 30,000 words, including:

- Three ficlets
- Five sestinas
- Four "regular" fics
- One meta/parody/birthday fic
- Two remixes
- One MST

Sadly, most of those came into being between September 2006 and January 2007, and 30,000 words isn't much to speak of for an entire year. This year I really want to do better in both word count and number of stories completed. I just need to manage my time more efficiently and figure out a way to get rid of these hangups I've developed.

- Beta'd a bunch of stuff for people, both individually and in groups on people's LJs. Next to writing, it's one of the most fun and satisfying parts of being a member of this community. Maybe this year I'll keep track, see how much I'm actually doing.

- Made some wonderful new friends and somehow managed to double the number of people who subscribe to this journal. I cannot tell you how happy-making this is. Perhaps the big red exclamation marks will help:



- Have become more aware than ever that I'm writing to (and for) an audience, which can be tricky when choosing what and how much to write about, because I'm not always sure why everyone's here. Too much House or not enough? More details about personal stuff, or is the balance right? More emotion or more analysis? Do people miss subjects I used to post about? I made a promise to myself when I started this LJ that I would always post for myself instead of letting imagined pressures dictate content and frequency, but at the same time, I want to keep you all happy. Stay tuned for a poll on this subject.

Relatedly, I've run the "top commenters" algorithm again and can confirm in the first ten results alone that the demographics here have shifted away from RL friends/acquaintances just a bit in favor of an emphasis on House-related topics. While I'm thrilled to be so involved in the fandom, I would like to regain a better balance around here, for everyone's sakes.

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Top Commenters on bironic's LiveJournal
(Self and anonymous comments excluded from rankings)

1	daasgrrl	230
2	kabal42	206
3	elynittria	185
4	catilinarian	153
5	thewlisian_afer	151
6	nightdog_barks	130
7	usomitai	120
8	purridot	86
9	firestorm717	75
10	topaz_eyes	70

( 11-52 )

Total Commenters: 225 (173 not shown)
Total Comments: 4831
Report generated 9/9/2007 10:49:06 AM by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7

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Last year's goals were:

- Hold another Memoryfest for all and sundry, probably in January. Check. Memoryfest II saw a jump in participation to the point that I couldn't keep up with comments and will probably reduce the frequency of posting for the next one. I loved reading everyone's memories and noticed with interest the difference from last year's 'fest in that more people were reading and sharing whom I don't know personally.

- Meet some of you lovelies who live within driving distance, and perhaps some who don't. Done! Fangirl brunches and outings have been such fun, and I hope to not only continue to enjoy them this year, but also meet a few more of you who live nearby (or don't, but will be visiting).

- Improve my commenting skills so I can say in one paragraph what it now takes four to cover. I think I managed this one. That, or I've just been discussing less. Hm.

- Write more. I posted 11 more pieces of fanfiction and 20 fewer journal entries than last year. There was a slight drop in subject diversity as well as posting frequency and, I feel, quality, but the increase in fic sounds okay to me. This year I'd like to try to post more about fandom/fanfic meta, dig into the pile of essays and books on my shelf and start some discussions. I've wanted to do that for a while. We'll see.


To mark the occasion, I've accepted synn's invitation to share her server space and have begun copying my fic over to bironic.nostatement.com. The index page will probably change so there's some sort of introduction, and the design sort of sucks, but it's a start. It feels somehow more legitimate as a fic writer to have an independent website. Feedback is more than welcome about whether enough information is included in each story link, whether the presentation works, or really, just about anything.


*raises glass* Here's to fun and growth in the next year!