Top 5 favorite fics, in order of completion

[petronia]

No one tagged me, I just wanted to do it as an exercise in listmania. XD Not a very good one, as it turns out - top 10 would've been more accurate. Also, I favour stuff written after 2004. I have to keep moving. LIKE A SHARK.

Flor de Yemanjá [Prince of Tennis]: By way of unreasonable emotional attachment, which I figure is the point of the exercise. This and A Proof by Contradiction are the two best ending scenes I've ever written, I think. I'm usually very bad at endings, if I manage to arrive there at all. Also, funniest line of 2004.

You Shimmer Like Words I Barely Hear [Mirage of Blaze]: All the MoB pieces are intensely personal, but this one is unfinished, so there's still that umbilical connection. Um... I just realized I never uploaded At Most, Flowers to my website.

mithrigil had a post some time ago where she talked about writing fic as symphonic composition. One rises to the extent of one's native ability: I write fic as mixtape. XD; How about that German ambient goth jazz, guys.

High Rise [Viewfinder]: IMHO the one VF fic of mine that comes close to capturing Yamane Ayano's ineffable genius. XD I mean the others are all very well but. Also, funniest line of 2005.

Halcyon [Yukikaze]: I associate this story with "A Proof...", for obvious reasons, and in the end I think I like it better. Probably because it's more pretentious personal ahaha. Half of the thing is really me talking to myself, trying to integrate conflicting canons and falling back on wildly extratextual references (it's the one story I've written in recent years that needs a DVD commentary, although it's much more cohesive than I thought it was when I wrote it). The other half is Jack, who in fact is one of my most vivid... muses, I guess. Some characters speak, and one transcribes as best as one can; others make one grope in the dark, and every sentence is trial-and-error. Then there are characters one delivers with total inner conviction, wrongheaded or not, the way one vouches for how a very close friend takes their coffee. Jack is one of the last, for me.

Also I think it's well-written. XD There's no filler, every sentence gives me a sense of job satisfaction.

Senza Fine [JoJo]: I'm going to start posting this here, although I think everyone who cares has already read it. XD Time will tell if it's any good, but like all my JoJo fic I really enjoy writing the thing. It's very meta. XD I mean in a way it's a love letter to JoJo itself, as well as to the awesomeness of Italy and ALL SHOUNEN JUMP MANGA EVER.

Runners-up: A Proof by Contradiction, Una Música Brutal, Rainshine, Open/Close - mostly for the Schuldich and Reno in Leá Monde chapter. #10 is open to debate.

Better to do one's top 10 all-time favorite fics by other people, no?

Comments

[fable.livejournal.com]

Better to do one's top 10 all-time favorite fics by other people, no?

Oh, do it!

Somehow I'd missed the vf fic when you first posted, so I'm very glad you did this meme - it was so great. You make me love the series every time you write it.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I bet your missing it has something to do with the fact that Chrissie pretends it doesn't exist. XD She also won't read my HnG fic on account of it being depressing. But glad you liked it!

I'll do the other top 10! But it will take some thought. XD

[two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com]

I loved High Rise. I don't think I've ever actually told you that. ♥

I was just saying to Erin, it would be interesting for people to tell others what their top 5 of other people's fic are, and then to compare, because it's interesting to see what writers pick and what readers pick up.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

♥

I'm making my list. It's full of emotional idiosyncrasies though, like favorite songs.

[two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com]

oh god, I knowwwww. But it would be neat, you know? Especially to know why people like things, and whether or not those are the same things you like about your stories, and oh writing.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Better to do one's top 10 all-time favorite fics by other people, no?

Yeah, because otherwise I keep changing my answers.

I really like everything in your top five. XD I hadn't read the Mirage of Blaze. It's neat. The club scene is over my head but I really like the idea of Chiaki taking over the body of a teenage suicide. (And the double-talk about comfortable prisons, etc.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It's canon, the teenage suicide - one of the side stories gets into it. The family shows up, and things.

It's barely the introduction to the real story, to be honest. XD Afterward he's supposed to meet the woman again, and supernatural crap happens. What I was talking about on carnet re: writing the same unfinished plot over and over (the other one like this is "Darken Thy Tresses", the Vagrant Story fic).

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

When I read through the club section again after reading the end, I noticed it was really carnal -- cigarettes, alcohol, the woman's dress, the physical reality of the music and the musicians. I thought that was cool. It does feel like a snapshot though.