#mg2024 in review

[mercurygray]

hi merc! 14, 15, 21, and 23 for the end-of-year fic asks, please! 🖤

14. What were your go-to writing songs? - answered here!

15. What was the hardest fic to title?

Teasing. Only because I couldn't well call it 'Yeah This Is Just Thirst Don't Look At Me'

21. What's something that surprised you while you were on a fic? Did it change the story? I read Fitje Pitts' letters home and then Fred adopted a cat and suddenly the cat was the most popular OC I think I've ever written and now there's no way Fred can be without an animal, ever.

Also, just Fred in general. She was supposed to be the sensible one that I had no idea about a pairing for and she is now the most In A Relationship of all of them.

23. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Routine. Capturing the same tension on a page as on screen was really, really satisfying to write, and to have people read.

This is how you know it’s bad, she thought to herself, the whiskey warm in her throat. Marion Brennan is having a drink. But she knew from his face she didn’t need to tell Harry Crosby that. – No record. No record. No record. And one fort - one single, solitary plane, with one single, solitary crew, in the middle of a room that should have been buzzing with voices. Marion felt herself growing smaller, leaning back into the table, hands gripping the edge just so she could feel something, her jaw clenched. Harding sat down next to her, the smell of his cigar and aftershave somehow comforting, his hand nearly on top of hers. And the poor navigator, slumped across the table from Bowman like a schoolboy who’d forgotten his homework. No record.

[mercurygray]

8, 9, and 18 for the 2024 in review fic ask

8. What fic meant the most to you to write?

I think it might have been Reality and Sense, or else Routine. Both of these came out onto the paper exactly as I wanted them to, and I'm really proud of both.

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? Maybe this is a selfish interpretation of this question, but watching so many people care about Marion made me really happy this year. It was really gratifying watching a lot of people go oh over a character that they might not have otherwise, and I just - yeah, that made me really happy. Seek To Hold The Wind is my least kudos'd MOTA fic but I feel like everyone who liked it really liked it.

18. Share your favorite ending line

I had some goods ones, but it might be the one I just did yesterday -

He wished, looking at her dress and her flowers and the diamond on her hand, that he could honestly say the same.

[2024 year in review]

[mercurygray]

Hey Merc!! I'm choosing #17 and #18 from the year in review questions 💕

17. Share your favorite opening line

Already answered here, but I do have to say I do have another one:

What if they didn’t know him when he arrived?

18. Share your favorite ending line

Also already answered here, but I had a lot of last lines about regret this year, apparently.

“I’m fine,” he said, and almost meant it.

[mercurygray]

8 & 30 for the year in review asks friend :)

8. What fic meant the most to you to write? - answered here

30. What would you like to write next year? That is a great question, and the short answer is - I really don't know.

The shows I'm watching right now aren't terribly inspiring on the fic front, and there's not a lot coming out next year that I think will get me into writing something. Which is...scary, actually. I might go back and watch some things to fill the gap. I never finished Mad Men. I feel like I'd like to re-watch Turn. Lately I'm finding it hard to watch something if I don't have anyone to talk about it with, and re-watching isn't exactly good for that, either.

[mercurygray]

For the 2024 in review: 6, 9, 17 & 25?

6. What characters captured your heart? Bucky Egan (to my great chagrin and slight shame).

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? - answered here

17. Share your favorite opening line. I think I have two, actually:

It was the nightmares again.

From the other side of the field they could still smell burning.

25. How did you recharge between fics? I think this honest answer to this is...that I didn't. The transition to short format meant I did a lot of scrabbling around when I wasn't working on something moaning to the group chat that I wasn't working on something, which wasn't sustainable or helpful or productive in any way and certainly wasn't a great look as a friend. I also did a lot of yardwork. Next year, I think my challenge to myself will be balancing out the things I want to do - fic, spend time online with friends - against the things I need to do - scheduling home repairs, keeping on top of work.

[2024 year in review]

[mercurygray]

so i don’t know how to read - i meant to send #23 for the fic writing meme! 😅 — @shoshiwrites

23. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

I already answered this one here, buuuuutt. I don't write smut all that often - I don't think I'm very good at it and I'm afraid all of mine sounds the same. So watching Teasing come together (and then blow everyone's socks off) was really satisfying.

[mercurygray]

hi merc!! for the 2024 in review asks, #2

2. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

I'm not entirely sure if this counts as something new, per se, but I told myself in January that I would just do short format things for MOTA, rather than trying to make a big longfic production - a little pocket universe full of things I could play with without being tied down to any one of them. It might not have been super popular, but it did keep me entertained for the whole year!

[2024 year in review]

[mercurygray]

Thank you to everyone who sent in the year in review asks! There are...a lot, so if you need to blacklist something, I'm going to try and tag them with #mg2024 in review