Every Day of the Month

Challenge #6

Journaling prompt: What games do you play, if any? Are you a solo-gamer or do you view games as a social activity?
Creative prompt: Write a story/fic around the theme "game night".

I would tend to think of family occasions here, such as the Christmas just gone where a lot of time was spent playing card games (and trying to figure out why, exactly, someone had scrawled all the Cluedo names over the playing cards. That was eventually traced back to my cousin's soon to be ex husband, although no one ever did remember why he'd done it). It's inevitable that it ends up in laughter when someone muddles the rules (see: my cousin's attempts to teach Mum Exploding Kittens, or the accusations of reneging at cards which my grandad renamed "running the egg" back in the 70s and it's stuck as a family expression ever since).

And here's a Dark drabble:

When Ines presents Mikkel with a 1980s computer, Mikkel finds himself thinking back to the times he’d sneak in when Magnus had his game nights with Jonas and Bartosz. One time when Magnus had refused to let him play, Mikkel had pulled the plug, and Bartosz got pretty angry at him because he’d been winning. Jonas had been nice about it, though, and had offered to teach him some of the basics so that one day, Mikkel would be able to join in with them.

Now he’s stuck in 1986, Mikkel thinks of the game night he now won’t experience.

If you’ve written fics for more than one year on AO3, go to your statistics page. Click on the different years at the top to see the categories of statistics for each year.

1. Which year did you write the most words? Do you know why? e.g. you had more time; you were caught up in an exciting new fandom or pairing; you got a rush of ideas etc.
Apparently 2023. That was the year I got into three of my top five fandoms of all time (Dark, From and School Spirits - there was also a new season of Yellowjackets, another of the top five, so I think those would have given me inspiration). Having said that, this was the year I started the epic Dark series which I'm only now coming close to finishing, and AO3 has carried that word count over to 2025 because the most recent chapter of that was posted this year.


2. Which year did you write the least words? Why was this? e.g. lack of time, too busy, no inspiration etc.
Technically it's telling me 2012, but I don't know if I should count that because I only joined AO3 that October so would have the least words for that reason. Out of the full years, it appears to be 2020, with 2021 following. That time period is pretty self explanatory, with a combination of lots of my shows being on ice for the pandemic and therefore not providing as much inspiration, but also I was not in a good headspace during that time due to the lockdowns and not seeing any family for over a year (for anyone who doesn't know this, my extended family is rather scattered across the UK)

3. Which years did you get most hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. popular fandoms, lots of words written.) Are there years where you have the same amount of bookmarks and subscriptions?
2015 for hits, 2017 for subscriptions and that has just reminded me of another series I need to finish. Will someone please stop me from starting series? 2023 for bookmarks (blame that one on School Spirits.) 2015 just beats 2023 for kudos.

4. Which years did you get least hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. niche fandoms, not many fics written.) Do you have any other conclusions?
2019, looks like quite a few niche fandoms that year.