AO3 Wrapped 2025
Dec. 23rd, 2025 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sidewaysActually published a few fanfics this year, so resurrecting this old AO3 meme:
1. How many words have you written this year?
9,459 words were published to AO3 in 2025, and some 12,000 more in active WIPs are hanging around. I've had better years, but also much worse.
2. How many works did you publish this year?
I'm going to count the chapters of the oneshot collection as separate works, in which case it's 13 fics and one fanmix published.
3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?
Go Marching In, which addressed a very long-standing itch about how TMNT 2k3 handled the ethical conundrum in 'Rogue in the House' (answer: not super well).
1. How many words have you written this year?
9,459 words were published to AO3 in 2025, and some 12,000 more in active WIPs are hanging around. I've had better years, but also much worse.
2. How many works did you publish this year?
I'm going to count the chapters of the oneshot collection as separate works, in which case it's 13 fics and one fanmix published.
3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?
Go Marching In, which addressed a very long-standing itch about how TMNT 2k3 handled the ethical conundrum in 'Rogue in the House' (answer: not super well).
4. What work of yours has the most hits / what work of yours got more feedback than you expected?
Hit 60 kudos on Come Home Again, which isn't bad for a crude exercise in characterisation - I don't expect 'characters simply describe the events of an arc' to be that appealing to people - but more to the point I also received a number of very nice comments that put me onto a bunch of great TMNT fics in turn. (It has been a very short fic + small fandom year overall.)
5. Favorite title you used?
"Pigeon Talk". It sounds like viable slang. Also have to give a shoutout to "We, Monsters", which of course was a play on classic fourth season TMNT 2k3 episode "I, Monster".
6. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?
I mean. I guess "Go Marching In" was taken from "When the Saints Go Marching In", since I was invoking a zealous spirit, and "Something's Gotta Give" is from the Sinatra classic of the same name, since I was invoking Fallout 50s tunes.
7. Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?
Semi-romantically, we have Char/Captain in Under the Skin, my one A House of Many Doors offering this year.
8. What work was the quickest to write?
Exhaust(ion) was a 3 sentence ficathon flash.
9. What work took you the longest to write?
Both Pigeon Talk and Come Home Again have been sitting unfinished for a couple of years.
10. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?
There are a few I'd particularly love to finish:
Pigeon Talk at 3,463 words. Honestly, I think it's one of my less well-constructed ones overall and probably shouldn't have been a single scene, but I couldn't figure out a different format. So it goes.
12. What’s your shortest work of the year?
Exhaust(ion) is a mere 67 words.
13. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?
Still 'Post-Canon'.
14. Your favorite character to write this year?
TMNT Mikey is such a versatile character! He's rarely short for words and is able to keep things bouncing along, but also empathetic and perceptive in a way that means it's equally in-character to engage in some serious reflection.
15. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?
I have a weirdly hard time with Ben Thackery from Widdershins. Just feels like I keep sliding off his own individualism into stuffy stereotypes.
16. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?
No real romantic drives at the moment. I am keen to keep messing around with the entire TMNT cast, though! Kind of want to do Leo and Don some targeted justice if I can; one of the more well-known complaints of TMNT 2k3 is it doesn't give their relationship a lot of dedicated time since they represent the more introverted personalities in the family and rarely conflict.
17. Which work of yours have you reread the most?
Probably the Sewer Stories collection.
18. How many kudos in total did you get this year?
131. Which is actually pretty good considering almost all my works were for either very small or 10+ years past fandoms.
19. What’s your most common category?
It continues to be gen by a mile.
20. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?
Ooh, gosh. You can tell I felt rusty this year because I'm hesitating to nominate something. Maybe-
Leo maintains a dignified silence, but when Don palms his skull he imagines it warm and humming, a hard-drive overheating; relentless diagnostics searching for inefficiencies, editing software chewing through memory, the malicious self-consumption of malware.
22. Biggest surprise while writing this year?
After being a fan of the property since literally 2003, I finally managed to put some TMNT 2k3 works out into the world? And people actually engaged with them? And it turns out some of the fan creators whose works I've loved since I was a teenage normal unathletic human are still active? Wild.
Hit 60 kudos on Come Home Again, which isn't bad for a crude exercise in characterisation - I don't expect 'characters simply describe the events of an arc' to be that appealing to people - but more to the point I also received a number of very nice comments that put me onto a bunch of great TMNT fics in turn. (It has been a very short fic + small fandom year overall.)
5. Favorite title you used?
"Pigeon Talk". It sounds like viable slang. Also have to give a shoutout to "We, Monsters", which of course was a play on classic fourth season TMNT 2k3 episode "I, Monster".
6. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?
I mean. I guess "Go Marching In" was taken from "When the Saints Go Marching In", since I was invoking a zealous spirit, and "Something's Gotta Give" is from the Sinatra classic of the same name, since I was invoking Fallout 50s tunes.
7. Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?
Semi-romantically, we have Char/Captain in Under the Skin, my one A House of Many Doors offering this year.
8. What work was the quickest to write?
Exhaust(ion) was a 3 sentence ficathon flash.
9. What work took you the longest to write?
Both Pigeon Talk and Come Home Again have been sitting unfinished for a couple of years.
10. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?
There are a few I'd particularly love to finish:
- TMNT 2k3 fic set immediately post World's Collide, focused on Raph, Don, and memory probe problems.
- At least one of the TMNT 2k3 fics in which Don obliquely discusses SAINW with one of his brothers.
- Widdershins fic about Mal and Wolfe's early friendship.
- Destiny fic that is effectively a Yarrow character study, featuring a friend's Guardian.
- Pandora Hearts fic about Break unwillingly growing just a tiny bit fonder of young Gil.
Pigeon Talk at 3,463 words. Honestly, I think it's one of my less well-constructed ones overall and probably shouldn't have been a single scene, but I couldn't figure out a different format. So it goes.
12. What’s your shortest work of the year?
Exhaust(ion) is a mere 67 words.
13. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?
Still 'Post-Canon'.
14. Your favorite character to write this year?
TMNT Mikey is such a versatile character! He's rarely short for words and is able to keep things bouncing along, but also empathetic and perceptive in a way that means it's equally in-character to engage in some serious reflection.
15. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?
I have a weirdly hard time with Ben Thackery from Widdershins. Just feels like I keep sliding off his own individualism into stuffy stereotypes.
16. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?
No real romantic drives at the moment. I am keen to keep messing around with the entire TMNT cast, though! Kind of want to do Leo and Don some targeted justice if I can; one of the more well-known complaints of TMNT 2k3 is it doesn't give their relationship a lot of dedicated time since they represent the more introverted personalities in the family and rarely conflict.
17. Which work of yours have you reread the most?
Probably the Sewer Stories collection.
18. How many kudos in total did you get this year?
131. Which is actually pretty good considering almost all my works were for either very small or 10+ years past fandoms.
19. What’s your most common category?
It continues to be gen by a mile.
20. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?
Ooh, gosh. You can tell I felt rusty this year because I'm hesitating to nominate something. Maybe-
Leo maintains a dignified silence, but when Don palms his skull he imagines it warm and humming, a hard-drive overheating; relentless diagnostics searching for inefficiencies, editing software chewing through memory, the malicious self-consumption of malware.
22. Biggest surprise while writing this year?
After being a fan of the property since literally 2003, I finally managed to put some TMNT 2k3 works out into the world? And people actually engaged with them? And it turns out some of the fan creators whose works I've loved since I was a teenage normal unathletic human are still active? Wild.
