number 5: tagging

Whether AO3 or Tumblr, tagging is so damn important it might as well be an unskippable box. Wish it was, really. So what is tagging, why tag and how do you tag?

I’m fairly sure I’m repeating not only myself but a thousand other exasperated people, including almost certainly the brilliant AO3tagoftheday account. But the simple answers are: 

Tagging is a list of individual search terms that are attributed to your work. Tag so that people can find your stuff who want to, and so people can avoid it who want to. Tag the things that are in your fic, and don’t tag things that aren’t. If it is useful to help someone find your fic or to know to avoid it, tag it. 

In more depth:

Tagging is your way of listing the things in the fic. Whether that be a pairing it covers, the genre, some tropes, elements of the plot or setting, or simply a good ramble. It can actually function as its own sort of blurb for the fic itself, giving an insight into the story that will happen at a glance. On AO3 there are distinct sections (pairing, characters, and ‘other tags’) which give you an outline for putting some things in, but there are some disagreements over what belongs where sometimes. I’ll cover that below in the how to.

Why tag? Because readers want to know what they’re getting into. They might be specifically searching for something they want to read, or they might just be curious and find your tags interesting and click where they might have passed by otherwise, or they may see a tag that contains something they very much don’t want to read and know to avoid it. Your tags are not there to trick people into reading your fic, they’re there to inform the reader what’s inside. It’s entirely unlike irl books, but the system is so useful that it has been growing in popularity with irl book readers, and there are sites you can look up a book and see its tags before buying, the same as some sites exist to do the same for films. 

How to tag is the thing people don’t seem to understand. It’s fairly simple once you get into it. Firstly you put the pairing, then the characters. Simple, right? Well, until you get into minor appearances and background relationships and the like. For these two you need to consider your readers. Someone searching the minor character tag will see your fic and read it, will they be pleased or disappointed that you were recommended to them to read and their character only appeared for a few lines? In that case put something along the lines of ‘cameo by X’ or ‘minor/background X’ in the ‘other tags’ section, so people can still see that it’s in there, but there won’t be any confusion about what the story is actually about. This goes for pairings as well. Other things to put in the tags, is the setting (the Alternate Universe: X tags are very extensive by now), the style or genre (or give a sense of this with other tags, list a few things like ‘first kiss’, ‘romance’ and ‘meet cute’ and people will know it isn’t a murder mystery), and then any notable elements. Is there a dog companion? Great! Tag them! A particular focus on food as a method of therapy? Tag it! Aliens? Tag! And that goes for warnings too. You don’t need to list everything out as a warning, someone might be looking for that kind of story. It isn’t putting people off or damning anyone that includes that thing to tag it, it’s simply a statement of content. Are there guns and warfare? Tag them! Unhealthy relationships? Tag! 

There are also what we might call main content warnings, which are right at the start. You have the option between ‘chose not to use’ which implies a fic could include any of the above but doesn’t want to disclose (and which a fic defaults to if you don’t pick any), ‘no warnings apply’ which tells a reader none of the above apply, or those above options, which range from character death to non consensual sex. You can also put these into the other tag section if you choose, why not double up? Tagging is all about being honest and on the safe side, for the sake of your readers. Don’t want angry comments? Tag properly. Want to be found by readers looking for your niche content? Tag! Want to be searchable down the line for someone with a list of search tags and filters a mile long? T a g.

This isn’t even a recommendation, it’s essentially an order. Tag your shit. Everyone benefits, especially you. 

the 2024 lineup for wwwy fest edited to only include acts featuring at least one woman or nonbinary person. Of the 52 bands listed, only 6 qualify (11%).

unedited lineup under the cut

***if i have made any mistakes or misidentified anyone please reach out and I will update the post

proper refs for my new r&m ocs :-) more info BELOW

morty v-37 - basically gets used as a human shield and then promptly left for dead by his previous rick(which is why hes got the scar and prosthetics), y-4441 finds him and fixes him up + erases his memories of the whole nearly dying thing. he’s pretty chillaxed and a bit more cynical than an average morty, more “rickish” i guess idk. tends to be skeptical, likes poking holes in rick’s arguments/inventions etc etc but like in a teasing way

rick y-4441 - very peppy, upbeat and emotional. he kind of reeaalllyyy dislikes the cfc and stays away from it as much as possible, especially after finding and unofficially adopting v-37. he’s not as tech savvy as most rick’s, his abilities are more akin to s1 rick’s skill level? as in, he lives off of scraps of materials and creative solutions, less god-like and more “old man in garage who happens to know physics and chemistry”. loves to ramble about basically anything and happily indulges in morty’s hypotheticals/questions whatever. EXCEPT! for why morty doesnt have his fingers he shuts that topic down immediately just does not want to deal with that can of worms at allll

Can I also say that the worst thing to happen to the roykeeley (and to a smaller extent royjamiekeeley) ship was the episode where Keeley expresses a desire to have like, even TEN Roy-free minutes in her day, which too many people took to mean Keeley (extrovert, social butterfly, move-maker, lover) hates quality time in both concept and execution and only wants to see her significant other on the weekends, maybe, and would probably sleep in a separate room, whereas Roy is a permanently needy fucker who needs to be attached at the hip to his significant other 24/7 in order to survive, and that therefore they are ~Fundamentally Incompatible.~ Instead of what I think the episode was trying to convey, which is that Keeley desires a very extremely normal amount of time to herself especially while she is focusing on Getting Tasks Done/Literally Working Her Job and that Roy had spent the last several months being insanely clingy largely because he was bored and angry and aimless without football and using his girlfriend as his singular purpose for living (which is not sustainable or healthy behavior with ANY partner, even one as equally attached at the hip) only for him to then get a job at the same place Keeley works, so that she could literally never get any time away from him even At Her Job. Thus tipping the scale beyond “Roy’s love language is Quality Time and he can be a bit clingy, which can be reasonably accommodated by a willing partner” to “Roy is Driving Keeley Actually Motherfucking Batshit Crazy” a problem which then gets solved by Roy leaving Keeley alone for the length of one (1) singular self care bath.

The script for DXC varies a lot from RoB and while you can't really beat the anime charm of the latter, there's things I like from this iteration's dialogues too. This one in particular is a favorite of mine, I think it's silly in a cute sorta way.

(I especially love the delivery in Richter's correction of his name.)

I just know jod was an ardent "pluto is still a planet!!!" defender. Back in the twitch streamer days he would get in violent arguments with chat about it. The lyctors used to call him on it pre-ressurection but then he erased the memory of the term "dwarf planet" from their minds when he brought them back. I bet he was like "do you think pluto gets sad that he isn't a planet anymore :((((" and then fucking killed it at the first opportunity. I hate him so much

If I ever have a character mention a modern app like Tiktok or something in one of my stories, please assume I’ve been bodysnatched or am being held hostage somewhere.

first i was the Gallade Stalker, then i was Brittany and now i'm a demon emo girl, who is also part of the Team Rocket, who is possibly also still Brittany because Brittany is everything.

the Brittany MCU is getting deep.

.

not me going through the steve rogers x reader tag and i find a post that’s like “pov you find a fic with amazing smut but it has daddy kink 👎” LMFAOOOO

i wonder if anyone’s read my fics and just immediately exited out as soon as they see the word “daddy” bc it’s in like EVERY SINGLE ONE of my fics 😂😂

listen I love dogs but people need to stop bringing them places. ma'am that yappy schnauzer is not a service animal, why is he in the grocery store. what the hell are you doing. this isn't a dog park.

One the biggest things I dont like so far with The Liar Game is that you reach a point where Akiyama no longer looks like a fucking uncanny freak in most of the panels hes in. Like they start giving him a hair over eyes look for certain panels or he looks more Pretty Boy as they turn the 2nd line under his eyes into really dramatic eyeliner

Its a tragedy.

2023 reads

Saint Juniper’s Folly

YA paranormal mystery

follows a foster kid returning to the small town he grew up in, who runs from the judgemental townspeople and ends up magically trapped in a mysterious house in the woods

a boy who lives a boring life in the town until he finds him, and wants to figure out how to save him

and the young witch from the town over who’s heard the woods calling since her mother died, and wants to help

m/m, friendship & investigating a mystery

me doing my damnedest to tell people that kim dokja gets isekai'd literally more times than you can count on one hand, and yet there's still people in the notes going UHMMM HE WASN'T TECHNICALLY ISEKAI'D like. man. they aren't even lying for the bit either, like. at least it'd be funny if they were, but nah they're just Wrong and confident about it sjhdgf

i hope fox chokes

imagine saying bg3 is a bad game when.. most of its problems come from the wider industry crunch time base line. no it isnt perfect, especially with the amount of bugs jn the latter half of the game, but if you think all the characters are boring and ill written then you may just not enjoy this style of writing, which is fine. if you have to save scum to play the game, that is definitely an issue exclusive to you. it is a strategy game, specifically one modeled after the original baldurs gate and 2 which were realeased in 2000. yes the rng is annoying sometimes. but thats also just how dice rolls are. of course the game isnt as fun if your goal is to succeed at every single roll. and using dragon age as an example of how to do it better.. as if dragon age isnt a series of games laden with huge flaws and plotline gaps. baldurs gate is way more character driven than story driven and that is okay. it is okay if it is not your cup of tea but that does not make it a bad game