2020 in Review: Non-fiction Writing
Jan. 5th, 2021 09:08 amWhen I started thinking about what I wrote in 2020, I thought I wouldn’t have that much to post about. However, when I looked back on what I wrote, it was a lot! I posted something here on Dreamwidth every week this year, maintained three blog series, wrote several things for Lady Business, and wrote some things that I’m really proud of. I’m eligible to be nominated for the best fanwriter Hugo for my writing about media, fandom, and other SFF adjacent topics.
If you just want the highlights version, here are the three pieces that I’m most proud of:
Reccing as Critical Practice
Chinese History Books
On Seeing Race in My Neighborhood
In 2020 I wrote six solo pieces, co-wrote a piece and contributed to a group post on Lady Business. I’m so grateful for Lady Business and the community around it, which have been an inspiration and solace during 2020. Here are the pieces I wrote, presented in chronological order.
Best of the Business: Highlights of 2011-2020— Do you know that Lady Business has been around for ten years? This piece, published in January 2020, invited contributors to highlight their favorite contributions over the years. It was nice to look back at the things I’ve written for the blog in the last decade.
Untamed Fic Starter Pack—![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
renay watched The Untamed in early 2020. Since I had been reading a ton of Untamed fic, I put together this starter pack for her, and others. I enjoyed thinking about the different categories of fic for this, so as to really give a good feel for the breadth of the fandom.
Short & Sweet: Trans and Nonbinary Authors— I actually stared writing this in March in response to a controversial story, but then with everything going on this year it didn’t get posted until August. But it’s always a good time to boost stories by trans and non-binary authors, and I really do love all the stories on this list!
Reccing as Critical Practice— I’m very happy with this piece! I had something I wanted to say, and I think I said it well. Reccing really is undervalued as a form of criticism and I hope people who read this essay will value it more.
Short & Sweet: 2020 Stories— I talked about some stories published in 2020 that I read and enjoyed. Despite it being a terrible year, a lot of wonderful short SFF was published in 2020. I wanted to bring some more attention to that, especially considering that the awfulness of 2020 caused people to miss things.
Untamed Starter Pack Expansion Kit— I have been reading so much Untamed fic! So I wanted to do another rec list. I got to revisit most of the categories from the first post, and shout about stories I loved.
Chinese History Books— As a direct result of my recent interest in Chinese media, I’ve been reading a lot of academic histories of China. I wasn’t sure that people would be interested in reading about those kinds of dense monographs, butrenay encouraged me to write about it for a non-academic audience. It was good to really think about what I get out of reading academic history, and despite my worries people seem to have enjoyed the post.
Cosy Up With Our Short Fiction Recs— Jodie suggested that we co-write a post about soft and short SFF. It was a lot of fun to work with her, and I’m always ready to rec cosy SFF!
This year I maintained three ongoing blog series.
Media Round Ups— These are posts where I talk a bit about things I’ve read or watched lately. This year I had a hard time focusing on the media, but I did read a fair number of books, and watched a few shows, and I managed to post one of these at least once a month. It’s nice to have a place to reflect on media and share thoughts with all of you.
Monthly Goals— This is a twice monthly series. I post at the beginning of the month, looking back at last month's goals, and set goals for the month. In the middle of the month, I check in with how I’m doing with my goals and sometimes adjust them. I started doing this in August 2019, so this is the first full year of these posts. I find it really motivating and helpful to write down goals publicly so this series has been good for me. Also it’s nice to have a spot to link pictures of my sewing.
Observations—In this new series that I started this year, I wanted to talk more about nature and urban planning: two things that I have a fair bit of formal education in but wasn’t writing a lot about. This series has been less theoretical than I hoped. I haven’t written about urban planning concepts or why I hate agrarianism. However I have enjoyed writing about taking walks, bay area weather and other things I’m observing. My favorite post in this series so far is On Seeing Race in My Neighborhood
Five fandom 5+1s and a Meme
This spring, I wanted to produce some cheerful content to help deal with everything that was going on in the world. I think the intro paragraph I used for these posts sums up the project well
Here’s the six posts in the series in the order they were posted:
Five Books and One Movie
Five Critical Essays and a Squee!
Five Institutions and One Conversation
Five Fictional Moms and an Aunt
Five Short Stories and One Poem
Trope OR Trope Meme
Themed rec list
Another project I worked on this spring when I wanted to write cheerful posts. These have a mix of media types and genres and were a lot of fun to put together.
Food
Awesome Built Environments
So, despite the way everything about 2020 made it hard to focus, I had a good year writing-wise! I was able to keep up a steady and consistent output which is a thing I have struggled with in the past. I also wrote several things that I’m really proud of. I hope to keep writing things I enjoy and can be proud of in 2021.
If you just want the highlights version, here are the three pieces that I’m most proud of:
Reccing as Critical Practice
Chinese History Books
On Seeing Race in My Neighborhood
Lady Business Posts
In 2020 I wrote six solo pieces, co-wrote a piece and contributed to a group post on Lady Business. I’m so grateful for Lady Business and the community around it, which have been an inspiration and solace during 2020. Here are the pieces I wrote, presented in chronological order.
Best of the Business: Highlights of 2011-2020— Do you know that Lady Business has been around for ten years? This piece, published in January 2020, invited contributors to highlight their favorite contributions over the years. It was nice to look back at the things I’ve written for the blog in the last decade.
Untamed Fic Starter Pack—
renay watched The Untamed in early 2020. Since I had been reading a ton of Untamed fic, I put together this starter pack for her, and others. I enjoyed thinking about the different categories of fic for this, so as to really give a good feel for the breadth of the fandom. Short & Sweet: Trans and Nonbinary Authors— I actually stared writing this in March in response to a controversial story, but then with everything going on this year it didn’t get posted until August. But it’s always a good time to boost stories by trans and non-binary authors, and I really do love all the stories on this list!
Reccing as Critical Practice— I’m very happy with this piece! I had something I wanted to say, and I think I said it well. Reccing really is undervalued as a form of criticism and I hope people who read this essay will value it more.
Short & Sweet: 2020 Stories— I talked about some stories published in 2020 that I read and enjoyed. Despite it being a terrible year, a lot of wonderful short SFF was published in 2020. I wanted to bring some more attention to that, especially considering that the awfulness of 2020 caused people to miss things.
Untamed Starter Pack Expansion Kit— I have been reading so much Untamed fic! So I wanted to do another rec list. I got to revisit most of the categories from the first post, and shout about stories I loved.
Chinese History Books— As a direct result of my recent interest in Chinese media, I’ve been reading a lot of academic histories of China. I wasn’t sure that people would be interested in reading about those kinds of dense monographs, but
renay encouraged me to write about it for a non-academic audience. It was good to really think about what I get out of reading academic history, and despite my worries people seem to have enjoyed the post. Cosy Up With Our Short Fiction Recs— Jodie suggested that we co-write a post about soft and short SFF. It was a lot of fun to work with her, and I’m always ready to rec cosy SFF!
Ongoing blog series
This year I maintained three ongoing blog series.
Media Round Ups— These are posts where I talk a bit about things I’ve read or watched lately. This year I had a hard time focusing on the media, but I did read a fair number of books, and watched a few shows, and I managed to post one of these at least once a month. It’s nice to have a place to reflect on media and share thoughts with all of you.
Monthly Goals— This is a twice monthly series. I post at the beginning of the month, looking back at last month's goals, and set goals for the month. In the middle of the month, I check in with how I’m doing with my goals and sometimes adjust them. I started doing this in August 2019, so this is the first full year of these posts. I find it really motivating and helpful to write down goals publicly so this series has been good for me. Also it’s nice to have a spot to link pictures of my sewing.
Observations—In this new series that I started this year, I wanted to talk more about nature and urban planning: two things that I have a fair bit of formal education in but wasn’t writing a lot about. This series has been less theoretical than I hoped. I haven’t written about urban planning concepts or why I hate agrarianism. However I have enjoyed writing about taking walks, bay area weather and other things I’m observing. My favorite post in this series so far is On Seeing Race in My Neighborhood
Other
Five fandom 5+1s and a Meme
This spring, I wanted to produce some cheerful content to help deal with everything that was going on in the world. I think the intro paragraph I used for these posts sums up the project well
Welcome to Five Fandom 5+1s and a Meme! This is a series of posts about stuff that’s important to my own personal fandom history. I wanted some space to talk about happy and whimsical stuff and explore the different ways I’ve experienced fandom over time. I thought it would be fun to borrow the popular fanfic structure of 5+1 things. I’m using the word fandom very broadly here, to include SFF book fandom, transformative fandom, and just liking things. The things I’ve picked to talk about might not be the best or my favorites but they are fundamental to my experience and have shaped my thinking.
Here’s the six posts in the series in the order they were posted:
Five Books and One Movie
Five Critical Essays and a Squee!
Five Institutions and One Conversation
Five Fictional Moms and an Aunt
Five Short Stories and One Poem
Trope OR Trope Meme
Themed rec list
Another project I worked on this spring when I wanted to write cheerful posts. These have a mix of media types and genres and were a lot of fun to put together.
Food
Awesome Built Environments
So, despite the way everything about 2020 made it hard to focus, I had a good year writing-wise! I was able to keep up a steady and consistent output which is a thing I have struggled with in the past. I also wrote several things that I’m really proud of. I hope to keep writing things I enjoy and can be proud of in 2021.
