#2016 roundup

I was tagged by the wonderful @papurukakugan. Thank you bby. Most of what I’ve written actually happened this year so this is going to be pretty long. And I’m only including what I’ve posted to AO3, not the small prompts that have been posted on tumblr because I don’t even want to think about tracking those down.

AO3 Stats - 2016

Word Count: 283, 913 (about 70,000 of that isn’t mine because I’m listed as a co-author on two fics that I don’t write for but I’m too lazy to do the math.)

Hits: 33, 319

Kudos: 1, 995

Comment threads: 227

Bookmarks: 342

2016 Works

Happy New Year everyone! I thought I’d start the year ahead with a look back at 2016. Despite such a year full of upheavals and unease, it was a positive one for me career-wise. I was particularly happy that I got to work on quite a large number of book projects, something I’ve been trying to develop for a while. Here’s a selection that I am allowed to show, and a few tiny sneak peeks of those that I’m not yet! Books

Hoxton Radio I’d almost forgotten about my interview on Hoxton Radio at the beginning of the year! After feeling nervous from the very moment I said yes to appearing on Ladies What Brunch, I’m really glad I pushed myself to do something that was scary to me. The programme showcases women from a variety of industries, so it was a nice opportunity to talk about my career so far, and the lovely presenter Helen Sorren put me at ease. As someone that uses their hands a lot when I speak, I had to physically sit on them to stop myself from doing this on radio! I was also tested on my fairy tale knowledge live on air- tricky stuff! You can still listen at https://www.mixcloud.com/HoxtonRadio/ladies-what-brunch-with-illustrator-laura-barrett/

Photo © Sarah Kendal The Blackberry Train Another highlight was getting to work on the cover art for James McCartney’s (son of Sir Paul McCartney) new album, The Blackberry Train.

Here’s a selection of other work I enjoyed working on last year, including a logo for Scandinavian childrenswear brand Annaliv, paper cut outs for BBC South East Today, and illustrations for the Oxford Lieder Festival’s The Schumann Project printed programme.

St George’s Hospital One of my favourite projects last year was creating large scale window and wall illustrations for St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London. Working with the wonderful Arts Director Lucy Ribeiro I created a series of Jungle Book themed images for the aptly named Jungle Ward.

I then took the large scale illustrations as a starting point to create smaller and more intricate book illustrations. 

Inktober I very much enjoyed working on Inktober this year, pushing myself to move away from the computer and draw in a variety of inky materials for the month of October.

There’s been a lot more colour in my work this year, something I’ve often shied away from as I love the striking look of pure black and white, but several clients and projects have called for it, so I’ve been trying to develop this more and make it my own. I think the seasonal forest pieces that I ended the year working on come closest, and I’d like to continue to develop these further, whilst still going back to my monochrome first love, black and white. Now, I need to get back to working on this year’s exciting new projects! Onwards...

My BEST posts of 2016

December ♥ 21

My SE Gift Exchange!

November ♥ 23

A tablet doodle of Jacob and Queenie!

October ♥ 97

Inktober Maka cloaked in Black Blood!

September ♥ 104

Pidge pixel art!

August ♥ 31

Kid’s Fire Emblem Armor Design Sheet!

July ♥ 26

Tablet doodle of Rey!

June ♥ 35

The beautiful boy Yoon!

May ♥ 120

Kanan, Hera, and their smol son Ezra!

April ♥ 72

SoulxMaka week submission on the angsty side!

March ♥ 498

Pyhrra and Jaune Pokemon pixel art!

Thank you for the support in 2016, my art blog’s first year. Here’s to a fun 2017! <3

I did it! I decided to do one of those end of year round ups where I talk about fics I’ve written. 

Total Year-Long Wordcount: 58282 according to AO3! This doesn’t even take into account the stuff I didn’t cross-post from tumblr

Overall Thoughts: That’s 10k more than I did last year so that’s pretty awesome!

In which I babble about stuff I’ve written

So last December I was sitting on the couch I’m sitting on right now in my parent’s home for the holidays. I’d been playing a lot of WoW and my guild had just downed Archimonde ahead of the curve. I had my moose and I knew some of what Legion had in store for us. I also had just read Tides of War and War Crimes and was kinda annoyed by what I knew they were doing with Jaina - who I loved since warcraft III, and was generally annoyed by how they treat a lot of their women characters. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do something - write stuff I wanted to see.

I hadn’t written much in the prior 2-ish years because I’d been RPing and that took up time and I got involved in that community. But I really wanted to write something again. And I wanted to step away from my RP chair because my evil abusive Ex was one of my main RP partners and it was not something I wanted to do much with because of it. And I was playing a hell of a lot of WoW.

I had some ideas and some very specific scenes I thought would be super duper cool. But to get there I needed to write all the stuff that would support it, because this is how my brain operates - can’t just throw something out there, you have to build up to it.

I thought I would be done with the whole AU and caught up to Legion by Leagion’s launch in August. You may laugh. But hey! I got the first fic done before then!

Links go to the Masterposts.

Blessing of the Red Crane. So this fic. I love this fic. I wanted to explore what would have happened if Jaina had gotten some damn therapy. That the nature of the Sha and everyone having just been in Pandaria, this all made sense to me. This was a very personal fic and I’m sure I am all over the damn page but in this moment I don’t care (other times I care a lot). This comes a bit from trying to piece myself together after an abusive and manipulative person fucked me over for two years and led me on for a year before. It was cathartic to write someone else getting through their shit and I got my shippy stuff AND I would eventually be getting my super awesome future scenes.

I started to write this december of last year and then I started to post it at the end of January. I set a goal for myself that I would post once a week (with a few days leeway on either side) and for the most part I did that. I am super proud of myself that I did that. I know the ship isn’t everyone’s fave and I am super duper omg THANK YOU to the folks who stick with me and who read and follow this series. <3<3<3. I finished this before Legion launched and the delay in the final chapter was trying to get the first chapter of the sequel out at the same time.

Spell-Weaver is another fic I started to dabble in last year when I was home for the holidays. It is vastly different than I thought it was going to be. Originally it was just an adventure story. Now it’s this sprawling political drama. Then a new friend (Hiiiii @jthorsten )suggested I add more conflict in general to my works and this has turned into something way more awesome than a very impersonal “people fight  monsters” which is what it was going to be. I’m okay with this.

Earthwarder

This was a fic where I wanted to write and add to it every day. I ended up tying it into my Au and then getting busy with playing Legion so the daily thing dropped down to monthly. Which kinda sucks :( but I have found it hard to get back into the mindset which is part of the problem. The other bit was having too many projects. I have a vague outline for where I want to go with this one I just need to sit down and do it. I do enjoy writing Wrathion. He’s an arrogant know it all who cares more than he wants to and I have some super fun things planned for him. The bit I am doing now is less interesting but important so It might get a bit more gloss-over-y just so I can progress the story.

Lifebinder Is my shameless dragon fix-it. I started playing with this one last Dec as well but it was very short and I was writing at what is now the end of the story. The Chronicle volume 1 came out and I wanted to play with the lore around the Titans and I wanted to give Alexstrasza more of a story than I had been giving to her. Writing her adventures with the archeologists was surprising fun. I have this planned out through its end and even have the climax scene on draft 2. it’s fun I just need to sit down and write more.

After this I have a bunch more stuff in this AU allll the way to Legion. I just hope I keep the steam and the interest. I would really like to finish

What I Did:

Watched 24 movies.

Read 40 books.

Turned 21.

Started at a new university.

Went to Nashville, TN; Savannah, GA; and Jacksonville, FL on spring break.

Took a day trip to Detroit.

Took a three week camping trip in the summer and visited four national parks (Roosevelt, Glacier-Waterton, Yellowstone, Grand Teton).

Got professional mental health help.

Spent two days in St. Louis.

Where I Was:

My birthday in Michigan with my grandma and mom and brother.

July Fourth in Michigan by myself.

Thanksgiving in Michigan with the whole family together for the first time in over six months.

Christmas in Illinois with my parents and brother.

What Stood Out:

Books: A Tale for the Time Being, The Giver, Why Haven’t You Written?, Watchmen, Skim.

Movies: The English Patient, Mental, The Fundamentals of Caring, Trainspotting.

Moments: Sitting around my grandma’s hospital room with my mom and brother, laughing and talking and feeling the love of family; Walking into hospice again for the first time and crying in disbelief that we were back there; Going to calculus every day for two months in the summer and loving it; Walking across the dusky red land under the cliffs in North Dakota; Seeing two full rainbows in Montana; The pink sky in Idaho as we drove home from my grandparents’.

What I Hope/Plan for 2017:

Work more on getting along with others.

Work more on having a charitable spirit, giving grace and forgiveness to others, and not suffocating myself in bitterness and anger.

Always give my best effort.

According to AO3: 723,287 words in 2016 ... But there is a lot of stuff I write that never makes it to AO3.

Total 2016 Pages Edited: god only knows

Total 2016 Hits: 1,127,762

Total Hits Ever (since 2012): 4,270,538

Other Account Stats for 2016:

AO3: Subscribers: 2,781; Kudos: 66,532 ; Comment threads: 7,832 ; Bookmarks: 14,997 ; Subscriptions: 13,730

Links and Titles to 2016 Works:

are.... you kidding me? Here’s my AO3 dashboard, go wild.

Favorite Fic:

Hardest Fic: 

Do You Plan to Take Prompts in 2017? I always take commissions. Prompts maybe, depending on time + energy.

What was the best thing about 2016? People were willing to commission me a lot more. Realizing that people actually think my work is worth paying for is  an amazing thing for me.

What was the worst thing about 2016? The lack of time and energy to actually write, plus the dips in my mental health that made my creativity zero.

Any last thoughts for 2016? Good bye you terrible piece of trash may we never meet again; I hope 2017 kicks your ass.

I wrote a lot this year. I may have written the most I have ever written, but I know for sure I have posted the most I have ever posted in a single year.

I’m posting my stats.

And like that’s missing all of Hold This which is another 38,600 words.

So my 2016 total is actually 279149 words posted. Holy crap.

My stats are really tiny compared to a lot of people’s stats who have riotously popular and awesome fics, but I am really proud of how much I was able to accomplish this year and SUPER DUPER OMG THANKFUL for everyone who left me kudos, comments, subbed (!!!!), and gave likes and reblogs this year.