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braxiatel · 1 year

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Tagging on AO3 - A how-to guide for new writers with a MCYT spin!

Intro

Recently, I have seen a lot of improperly tagged fics on AO3. I think it is a shame to see people posting their first fics putting so much good effort into tagging them while not knowing how to make the most of their tags. Thus I decided to write a how-to guide focusing on each of the fields on the ‘Post Work’ page on AO3, detailing what you might want to include in each of them and how certain things will likely be interpreted by your potential readers.

Disclaimer: all fandoms have slightly different tagging conventions. That means everyone, based on their own history of fandoms, will have slightly different ideas of what “proper” tagging is. I do not pretend to be an unbiased source of information, however, I have been reading and publishing fic on AO3 for the past decade, and I think I have a pretty firm grasp of tagging at this point, at least enough to help people who have no idea how to approach it get started.

Rating

[ID: A scroll down menu titled ‘ratings’ with the options ‘not rated’, ‘general audiences’, ‘teen and up audiences’, ‘mature’, and ‘explicit’. The title is marked with an asterisk to indicate this is a mandatory field.]

Rating tells readers what age groups you, the writer, consider your work to be appropriate for. It leans on cinema conventions (US American ones, specifically).

Culturally what is and is not considered appropriate for certain age groups can differ, which makes rating difficult. My best advice is to do your best and be kind when informing others you believe they’ve missed the mark. By using AO3 we are all agreeing to the risk that an author did not have the skills or the perspective to tag appropriately; Tags don’t get vetted by a panel, so risking inaccurately or inaddequately tagged fic is part of the deal. That said, here are my thoughts on how best to approach rating your fic:

I wish I could give you clear-cut lines on rating, but the truth of the matter is there are overlaps and grey areas between each category. Use your best judgement, and remember that if in doubt about rating always go for the higher of the two or the Not Rated category. Historically rating has been heavily based around depictions of sexuality and violence, so those are what I will mainly be discussing in these descriptions of the different ratings.

General audiences means everyone, children and adults alike. In general, think of what level of violence and romance you expect to see in cartoons – fics rated General Audiences can contain subtle romance, non-lethal violence, and injuries discussed but not depicted. If you think your fic might be rated for general audiences I recommend asking yourself ‘would I read this story to a 7-year-old?’ If you can think of something that may not be appropriate for that 7-year-old to read, bump up the rating.

Teen and up means 13+. As with above, imagine giving the fic to a 13-year-old. Would it be appropriate for them, or does it depict things they may not be old enough to understand yet? Works rated Teen and up can contain depictions of dating, romance, kissing, and hints towards sexual activity (think of your typical ‘they retired to the bedroom followed by a fade to black’ scene). In terms of violence things rated teen can contain fight scenes and injuries depicted with some detail (think blood stained clothes or mentions of broken limbs, but no gore or detailed descriptions). You may also expect to see consumption of alcohol (but not alcoholism or drug use) or fics focusing on ‘darker’ themes such as character death or major illness.

Mature means 18+, however I think it is worth mentioning as over the years I have seen people saying they are understanding Mature to mean anything as young as 16+. Officially AO3 lists Mature as adults only, but be aware that you will likely have people in their late teens beleiving they are part of your target audience as well. I think we all know kids can and will lie about their ages and that it is impossible to avoid them reading material not meant for them entirely, but given how typical this misconception seems to be I recommend caution with this one rating in particular. Typically you will find non-explicit sex scenes, non-graphic violence, and in general themes that require a certain level of critical thinking and mental robustness to parse in fics rated Mature. For a sex scene this may mean describing what sexual acts are being performed in what positions, without getting into details about the appearence of genitals or how specifically the acts are being performed. For violence this can mean talking about specifics of a fight and what injuries a character has sustained, talks of blood, shallow burns, loss of limbs, or how your characters plan to stich up their injuries in the field, but not detailed descriptions of injuries. You may see depictions of ‘dark’ themes such as addiction, terrorism, abuse, etc.

Explicit is also 18+. Here you will find graphic sex scenes and gore, and ‘dark’ themes pervading the work in such a way that it cannot easily be skipped. I think intent matters a great deal in determining the difference between Mature and Explicit. If you want to shock your readers with the gory kill your serial killer character just committed, if your sex scene is intended as pornographic and/or is highly descriptive, or your character is going through excruciating mental torture, that would be Explicit. The more detail you add, the closer you get to an Explicit rating. If in doubt ask a friend or beta reader, ideally one with more experience rating fics than you.

Not rated is the default rating and could mean anything between the other four ratings. There are a number of reasons you as an author might want to use this – perhaps you are uncertain how to rate your fic, or perhaps you do not want to spoil the content at all. The important thing to note is that when it comes to filtering by rating all fics in the Not Rated tag will get filtered alongside fics rated Explicit. That does not mean that the fic is necessarily Explicit, just that it could be and you must assume only readers who are old enough to read something that could potentially be Explicit will access it.

Archive warnings

[ID: A list of potential archive warnings. The warnings are ‘choose not to use archive warnings’, ‘graphic depictions of violence’, ‘major character death’, ‘no archive warnings apply’, ‘rape/non-con’, and ‘underage’. The title ‘archive warnings’ is marked with an asterisk to indicate this is a mandatory field.]

I think some of these are self-explanatory - graphic depictions of violence and major character death - whereas others do require a little more explaning.

Rape/non-con. I am singling this one out simply to explain what non-con actually means. It is an older fandom term and is short for non-consensual, i.e. an explicit lack of consent. It is simply an older fandom-specific term that is synonymouswtih rape.

Underage. Underage refers to fic in which one or more characters who have not yet turned 18 are described as having been in or depicted in sexual situations. Please note that it does not exclusively refer to fic in which one character is a minor and one is an adult – a fic depicting two characters who are both minors in a sexual situation should also be tagged as underage. According to AO3 guidelines fics that vaguely imply sexual acts involving one or more underage characters do not need to be tagged in the Underage category.

No major archive warnings apply. None of the listed warnings are true for this work.

Choose not to use archive warnings. One or more of the warnings could be true for the work, but the author is activelly choosing not to tag it. You may want to choose this one if you are unsure if a situation counts as graphic violence, if the character being killed off is a major character, if the character is actually underage, or if it is indeed non-con. It can also be used when you do not want to spoil the content of your fic for your readers.

Fandom

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘fandoms’. Underneath it says ‘if this is the first work for a fandom it may not show up in the fandoms page for a day or two’. The title is marked with an asterisk to indicate this is a mandatory field.]

This is where you tell your readers what fandom or fandoms your fanfiction is based on. You can enter multiple fandoms if your work is a crossover.

All free-form tags, including fandom tags, can be written in non-Latin characters. However, the fandom will be archived according to a Romanised transliteration.

If you are looking to tag a fandom that is not already on the archive simply type its full name into the fandom field, making sure you have spelled it correctly, and it will be added to the archive by a volunteer as soon as possible.

A note on MCYT fic specifically: given the nature of the medium it can be hard to determine where to draw the lines between which SMPs your work does and does not belong to. However, tagging every SMP a character will likely be seen as spam.

Ask yourself what canon or canons the work is leaning into. Does your Hermitcraft fic feature DSMP lore crucial to understanding the world-building or appearances by DSMP characters, or is there just a couple of throwaway lines that are only there as fun references for people who are also DSMP fans? Does a character in your Empires fic reference events from the Life series as part of a character’s backstory, or is it about one of the Empires characters ending up stuck in one of the Life games?

It is about scale and amount, and tagging every SMP a character has been in has the chance to disappoint readers looking for depictions of a character as shown in a particular SMP and will make them less likely to read your work in the future.

Categories

Categories refers exclusively to what types of relationships are depicted in your work.

If one relationship is the main focus of the fic this is the one you should tag for in the categories section. If multiple relationships share focus you should tag all of them.

The archive offers the following options for tagging categories:

[ID: A list of potential categories. They are ‘F/F’, ‘F/M’, Gen, ‘M/M’, ‘Multi’, and ‘Other’.]

F/F, F/M, and M/M. F is short for female, M is short for male. Thus, F/F is a relationship between women, F/M is a relationship between men and women, and M/M is a relationship between men. These tags include binary trans people or non-binary trans people who are depicted as aligned with one of the binary genders. Anyone who has told you that you have to misgender trans characters was either misinformed or lying.

Multi. Multi can refer to either multiple romantic/sexual pairings being the focus of the stories OR romantic/sexual relationships between 3+ characters. Both are valid interpretations of this tag, as it has different historical use in different fandoms.

Other. Other refers to a number of things including: romantic/sexual relationships where one or more characters are not male or female or aligned with either of these, relationships that do not fit into the traditional romantic/sexual - platonic binary, relationships involving 3+ characters, romantic/sexual relationships where one or more parties involved are too far removed from human standards of gender to be categorised this way, or anything else you do not believe fits in any of the other categories.

Gen. Gen is short for ‘general’ and refers exclusively to fanfictions that do not focus on romantic/sexual relationships, regardless of rating. A fic rated for general audiences that focuses on romance should not be tagged as Gen.

A fic can fit into several categories (e.g. a fic focusing on two romantic relationships, one between a man and a woman and one between two men, should be tagged as F/M, M/M, and multi).

Different fandoms have different standards for polyships - some prefer to tag ‘multi’, some ‘other’, some ‘multi’ and ‘other, and others ‘multi’ and/or ‘other’ and whatever F/F - F/M - M/M tag comes closest. It is up to the individual author to decide what is most appropriate for that particular ship/more common in their fandom. Personally, I would tag my M/M/M polyship as M/M, Multi, and Other.

Relationships

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘relationships’.]

Relationships in this instance refers to all kinds of relationships, not just romantic/sexual ones.

Romantic and sexual relationships should be tagged with a / between names, e.g. ‘[person A]/[person B]’, and platonic (familial, collegial, friendship, etc.) relationships should be tagged with a ‘&’ between names, e.g. ‘[Person A]&[Person B]’. This is an important distinction as AO3 separates the two into two different tags. You should tag what is the end goal for your fic - thus a friends to lovers fic should only be tagged with the ‘/’ version of a tag and not the ‘&’ version.

For relationships that do not fit into a neat romantic/sexual or platonic binary conventions differ from fandom to fandom. Personally, I prefer to tag both and specify in the ‘additional tags’ field that the relationship is ambiguous, queerplatonic, etc. Relationships that are written as either platonic or romantic but could theoretically be read as romantic/platonic as they do not outright state that the characters

aren’t/are

in a realtionship should only be tagged as either ‘/’ or ‘&’, whichever is appropriate.

All free-form tags, including relationship tags, can be written in non-Latin characters. However, the fandom will be archived according to a Romanised transliteration.

A note on the order of character names in relationship tags on fic containing sex scenes: historically certain fandoms have taken the order of the 2+ names of a ship to denote which character would top and which would bottom in sex scenes, with the top being written first and the bottom second. This is not widely used anymore, but be aware that some readers may interpret your tag this way.

For the most part the only tags you should be writing in this field are the relationships depicted in the fic, but there are a few common exceptions I have seen in multiple fandoms

‘No romantic relationship(s)’. No romantic relationships are depicted in this fic. It is theoritically made redundant by the existence of the Gen category, but to be honest I think enough people mistag non-Gen fic as Gen that this tag can potentially still be useful for readers trying to find fics that do not depict romance.

‘Minor or background relationship(s)’. This tag can be used to separate the tag(s) of the relationship(s) that are the focus of the fic and those that are not. e.g. ‘[Person A/Person B/Person C/Person D], Minor or background relationship(s), [Person B/Person E], [Person F & Person G].’

You may also see people list relationships as ‘background [person A]/[person B]’ or ‘[person A]/[person B]/[person C] (minor)’ or similar to denote the same. Personally, I prefer not to use this method as it can potentially create additional work for AO3’s volunteers.

A note on tagging background relationships and background characters: Some writers prefer not to tag them to avoid cluttering tags of characters or relationships that only make minor appearences. Personally, I strongly believe that relationship tags and character tags are content warnings of equal importance to anything you might find in the ‘additional tags’ section, and if a character or relationship has any bearing on the story whatsoever they should be tagged.

A note on MCYT fic specifically: Please see note in the ‘Characters’ section explaining synonymous tags to learn why you do not need to use the content creator’s names in order for your fic to show up in searches.

Characters

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘characters’.]

This is where you list the characters depicted in your story.

For the most part, the only tags you should be writing in this field are the characters in the fic, but there are a few common exceptions I have seen in multiple fandoms

‘No characters’. Used when no characters are depicted in the fic.

‘Minor character(s)’. This tag can be added between the tags for the main character(s) of the fic and any other characters depicted.

Some people may also write this is ‘background [person A]’ or ‘[person A] (minor)’ or similar. Personally, I prefer not to use this method as it can potentially create additional work for AO3’s volunteers.

All free-form tags, including character tags, can be written in non-Latin characters. However, the fandom will be archived according to a Romanised transliteration.

A note on MCYT fic specifically:

A common complaint I see is “I wish AO3 didn’t make us use the content creators’ names when talking about the characters”. I feel you, I don’t like to mention them either, but I have good news: you don’t have to!

AO3 is coded in such a way that one tag can have multiple names, and while we can’t avoid the ‘official’ name of the tag showing up in searches, you can use one of its alternate names on your own fic.

I will walk you through how to do this in such a way that your fic will still show up in the relationship and/or character tag when people search for it. I have picked an example tag to show this.

First, you want to find the tag you are planning on using and click on it.

[ID: A list of AO3 tags. A cursor is hovering over the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’].

It will take you to a page that looks like this.

[ID: The AO3 page for the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’].

At this point you want to find where it says ‘[# of works] Works in [Tag you want to use]’ at the top of the page and click on that.

[ID: The AO3 page for the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’. A cursor is hovering over the large font size name of the ship at the very top of the page.]

Which will take you to a page that lists all of the details about that ship, including what type of tag it is, what tags it is linked to in other tag categories, and lastly what other tags are registered as having the same meaning as this tag. It looks like this:

[ID: The details page for the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’. It lists its parent tags as the character and fandom tags it belongs to, as well as all of the possible synonyms for that relationship. Some examples include ‘MumboJumbo/Grian/GoodTimesWithScar’, ‘mumbo/scar/grian’, and ‘pre-Mumscarian’.]

If you manually input any of the tags listed in the ‘tags with the same meaning’ section your fic will automatically show up in searches for that ship.

Alternatively, you can manually input a tag that is not listed. This tag will not show up in searches until a volunteer has had the time to categorise your inputted tag as synonymous with the tag containing the name(s) of the content creator(s). If you do this for a relationship, try to avoid portmanteau ship names, duo names, and other ship nicknames, as the person categorising tags might not have the same familiarity with the source material or the culture of the fandom as you do. Instead write it following the ‘[person A]/[person B]’ format.

Additional Tags

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘Additional Tags’.]

Finally we have additional tags.

This is a catch-all category for any tags that do not fit into any of the other categories. The tags you find here will usually fit into one or more of the following categories:

Genre. Some examples include conventional genres such as romance, fantasy, and meta critique, but also fanfiction specific genres such as fix-it, fluff, and angst.

Tropes/Themes. Some examples include lovers-to-enemies, alternate universes, alpha/beta/omega, polyamory, canon-divergence, and found family.

Format. Some examples include ficlet, multi-chapter, drabble, POV second person, and unreliable narrator.

Common triggers. If there is anything in your fic you want to warn your readers about that is not included in the archive warnings, this is where you do it. Some examples include dub-con (dubious consent), loss of limbs, eating disorders, alcoholism, and references to past abuse.

Bear in mind that anything can be a trigger, even everyday situations or things typically commonly associated with positive emotions. It is impossible to tag every trigger, however, we can try our best to tag common ones.

Comments or additions to tags from other categories. Some examples include mentioning that a ship is written as queerplatonic, that a character is depicted as having ADHD, and that a particular character is bottoming in your sex scene(s).

This is not a comprehensive list, but should encompass most of the tags you would be looking to use in the Additional Tags category.

Try to keep your trigger warnings together as much as possible, as readers might otherwise miss tags listed separate from the rest of the triggers. If you are unsure how to do this for multi-chapter fic, consider adding the ‘tags may change’ or the ‘other additional tags to be added’ tags to your fic, and then continue to add tags as you publish new chapters. This will tell your readers to re-familiarise themselves with the tags on your fic with each new update.

One tag you may see used often is ‘dead dove - do not eat’. This tag does not necessarily imply dark themes, it is simply a convenient shorthand for ‘I have told you what to expect from this fanfiction. If you choose to read it and dislike what you find you cannot claim that you were not warned’.

A very common mistake I see is people using AO3 tags like they are tumblr tags. It isn’t bad per se, but it does make filtering harder. Volunteers called tag wranglers routinely go through uncategorised freeform fandom, character, relationship, and additional tags to sort them into the proper categories. While I cannot tell you what to do, I would urge you to bear in mind that AO3 is an organisation run entirely on voluntary work, and it is very easy for you to make their lives easier. Some examples of how to do this include using the ‘ambigious relationship’ tag instead of some variation of ‘could be read ad /p or /r’, trying to avoid typos in your tags, or keeping your notes on why you wrote this particular fic in the author’s notes.

The one exception to this, as far as I have seen, is to add additional information to the tags you include. An example would be using the established tag for a potential trigger and then adding how it appears in another tag. This way people looking to filter that trigger can still filter it, and people who are hesitant about it can read what you have to say about it. I have included a few examples of this from real life fics I found browsing AO3 just now.

[ID: The Watchers - Freeform, they’re not like the Watchers from Evo though]

Establishes that a particular faction of characters are depicted, but divorced from the original source material.

[ID: Audio series 04: Gallifrey o4 (Gallifrey), set between reborn and disassembled]

Establishes that the fic takes place during the fourth season of the source material, then specifies exactly which episodes it is set between.

[ID: Genocide, and general wartime atrocities]

Establishes a common trigger is present, and that you can also expect depictions of similar themes that might not be as easy to define.

[ID: no major character death, but death all the same]

Establishes that while the archive warning for major character death has not been used, death is still depicted in this fic.

[ID: POV first person, might switch it up though]

Establishes what type of narrator to expect, as well as the fact that this may change over the course of the multi-chapter fic.

One final note

My #1 advice for anyone, regardless of what category they may be tagging in, is this: Always bear in mind that you are tagging both for the people looking for a fanfiction like yours and for the people looking to avoid a fanfiction like yours. It is a description to attract readers only as much as it is a warning for readers looking to avoid certain tropes/themes/characters/etc.

I hope this helped. Happy writing! <3

#mcyt #fanfiction #writing #writeblr #AO3 #archive of my own #I've done my best here. If you think I missed something important or disagree with something I would be happy to discuss it #but please remember I'm just one person who is not infalliable #just trying my best to help people #I do not want to spread misinformation and have fact-checked what I could #but when it comes to social rules like these there's only so much fact checking you can do #also a big thanks to all of my friends who read through this to look for inaccuracies #love you guys <3 #have also tried very hard not to let my own opinions seep through #cause trust me there are common tags that make my blood boil #well... one in particular #but that wouldn't teach anyone anything useful #other than how to annoy me I guess akdjhaksj

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