#but i need everyone to not be ableist about it

[ineffable-doll]

Tips on adding tags to fics

I wrote a guide last year about writing fanfic summaries (check it out here) and thought it might be useful to do a follow-up on tags! (Please note that this is AO3-specific and focuses entirely on the Additional Tags section. And also that all of this is just my opinion.)

I see folks often lament that they don’t know what tags to add to their fics; I think the biggest struggle comes from folks not knowing what purposes tags serve. So, let’s discuss that!

Convey Tone

The first thing tags are used for is to tell the audience what tone to expect from the fic. Is it a lighthearted comedy with some sweet moments? Tag it with Fluff, Humor, and Comedy. Is it a dark, slow, depressing tale that ends poorly? Try Heavy Angst, Sad, Bad Ending.

When looking for a fic to read, people want to know what the vibe is so they can find the fic that matches what they’re in the mood for. The summary is useful for this, too, but the tags are where you can really confirm: Yes, this is a fic with Light Angst, Humor, and Happy Ending.

In short: use tags as tone indicators. Not all fics cleanly fit one tone or the other, so overlap tags accordingly. It’s normal to have some contradiction; that’s the nature of storytelling.

Some common tone indicator tags:

Fluff

Tooth-Rotting Fluff

Domestic Fluff

Romantic Fluff

Light-Hearted

Crack

Crack Taken Seriously

Hurt/Comfort

Emotional Hurt/Comfort

Comfort No Hurt

Hurt No Comfort

Humor

Some Humor

No Plot/Plotless

Light Angst

Angst

Heavy Angst

Angst With a Happy Ending

Eventual Happy Ending

Sad Ending

Bad Ending

Happy Ending

Hopeful Ending

Ambiguous/Open Ending

…and more!

2. Content Warnings

Next, tags are a great place to add content warnings for your fic. Notes can go into more detail or be used for chapter-level warnings, but putting the broad categories of your content warnings in the tags is a good idea so those who wish to avoid certain types of content can do so, and those specifically seeking out heavy content can find what they’re looking for.

AO3 has the Archive Warnings function to help with this, but tags can elaborate on or specify warnings that don’t fit the Archive Warning categories.

Not everyone likes content warnings or sees the point of adding them, or they feel that they ruin the surprise element of storytelling. I won’t make a detailed argument here, but consider content warnings a sign of respect for your audience and their wellbeing. Triggers are very real things rooted in trauma and the least you can do is give someone a heads up that what you wrote could negatively affect them. Plus, as mentioned, sometimes darker content is exactly the thing someone wants, and a warning can actually be another way to attract a reader.

A very very short list of content warning tags to consider (and here’s your own heads up for mentions of upsetting topics in this list):

Death

Grief/Mourning

Violence

Canon-Typical Violence

Torture

Blood

Abuse

Alcohol

Drugs

Rape/Non-con Elements

Mentions of Rape/Non-con

Consent Issues

Mental Health Issues (there are lots of more specific tags for this category)

Panic Attacks

Ableist Language

…and more!

(There is definitely more that could be said regarding content warnings for Explicit fics, but I don’t read or write those, so you’ll need to look elsewhere for that.)

3. Searchable/Fandom-Specific

One of the most useful aspects of tags is being able to search the entire Archive via tags and/or filter content by tags (both to include and exclude – familiarize yourself with AO3’s Filter system if you haven’t already). So, you’ll want to include tags that folks are searching by. Tone indicator tags are used this way, but so are fandom-specific, character-specific, and relationship-specific tags.

If you have no idea where to start, look up the fandom/character/relationship you are writing for and filter AO3 by that. Then, spend some time looking at tags and filtering by different ones. See what comes up. Reading fic is always the best way to learn how to tag them, and that’s especially the case here. Maybe you’ll end up creating a new fandom tag!

While fandom-specific tags are not necessary, they can help make your fic easier to find, especially in large fandoms. Note that fandom-specific tags will usually have the fandom listed in parentheses at the end.

It’s difficult to make a list of tags for this sort of thing, but here’s some common structures I’ve seen over the years:

[Character Name] Needs a Hug

Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual (etc.) [Character Name]

Oblivious [Character Name]

Dramatic [Character Name]

Sweet [Character Name]

Angry [Character Name]

Disabled [Character Name]

Autistic [Character Name]

Agender/Nonbinary/Trans [Character Name]

[Character Name] Has Anxiety/ADHD/Tourette’s etc.

Ambiguous [Character Name] and [Character Name] Relationship

Queerplatonic [Character Name] / [Character Name]

They/Them Pronouns for [Character Name]

Teacher/Superhero/Artist/other profession [Character Name]

[Character Name]-centric

Touch-Starved [Character Name]

[Character Name] is Bad at Feelings

[Character Name] Has Self-Esteem Issues

…and more!

Another category is tags for specific scenes, missing scenes, story arcs, episodes/chapters/parts, and so on, such as:

The Night at Crowley’s Flat (Good Omens)

Cloud Recesses Study Arc (Modao Zushi)

Post-Mogami Arc (Mob Psycho 100)

And there are plenty more that are so fandom-specific that they don’t fit an exact category:

Alternate Universe – No System (Scum Villain)

Heaven is Terrible (Good Omens)

Xianle Trio (Tian Guan Ci Fu)

4. BONUS Topic – Canon Divergence and Alternate Universes

One of the most fun parts of fanfic is toying with canon, so here’s a list of tags that can convey your fic’s relationship to the canon story. These are for fics that maintain a strong relationship with or resemblance to canon.

Pre-Canon

During Canon

Post-Canon

Canon Compliant

Not Canon Compliant

Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence

Alternate Canon

Fix-It

Not a Fix-It

Fix-It of Sorts

Some fandoms have specific tags regarding canon compliance with only parts of the given media – usually the case for franchises or works with big gaps between installments.

Not Canon Compliant With [Media Name] [Season/Episode Number]

Next are Alternate Universes (AUs), which are so divergent from canon to the point of not even being in the same world. There are more types of AU than I could dare list here, and several are also fandom-specific, but here’s some generic sorts that come to mind:

Modern Setting

Human

High School

College/University

Roommates/Housemates

Soulmates

Superheroes/Superpowers

Fairy Tale

Urban Fantasy

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Meet-Cute (can also be Alternative Universe – Different First Meeting)

Meet-Ugly

…and more!

5. BONUS BONUS Topic – Romance

Lots of fics on AO3 are written for romantic ships, and there are a LOT of tags to categorize different types and stages of these ships. These tags are useful to establish reader expectations (and again, for filtering). Some common examples:

Pre-Slash

Pre-Relationship

Developing Relationship

Established Relationship

Love Confessions

Love Realization

Drunken Confessions

Mutual Pining

Not Actually Unrequited Love

Getting Together

Getting Back Together

Moving In Together

Falling in Love

Marriage

[Friends/Enemies/Strangers/Rivals/etc.] to Lovers (can also have three stages, such as Strangers to Friends to Lovers or Lovers to Enemies to Friends)

Flirting

Slow Burn

Denial of Feelings

…and more!

There are also tags to specify what physical affection the characters engage in:

Holding Hands

Cuddling & Snuggling

Hugs

Kissing

Making Out

Almost Kiss

First Kiss

Second Kiss

Literal Sleeping Together

Non-Sexual Intimacy

No Smut

Explicit Sexual Content

Implied/Referenced Sex

…and more!

Aaaand a few non-romantic ones to toss around, for fun:

Best Friends

Platonic Relationships

Friendship

No Romantic Relationships (goes under the Relationships section, not Additional Tags)

Found Family

Friendship/Love

Ambiguous Relationships

Queerplatonic Relationships

Family

Parenthood

Love

Siblings

Developing Friendships

Parent/Child Relationship

…and more!

This guide got out of hand, and I still didn’t cover everything I could have, but I hope this was a helpful overview and makes tagging a little easier for you going forward! Here’s AO3’s tagging page for more info. Feel free to drop your own tips in a reblog/comment or ask questions if there’s something you want me to elaborate on. <3

[thousandyearphantombunker]

ah yes people who point out the misogyny and transphobia and fetishization of gay men and fandom toxicity (showing porn to minors, bullying people who dislike their preferred ships, death threats toward creators and voice actors, etc) and forced heteronormativity that fujoshi's engage in are clearly the same as the people who want to outlaw gay marriage.

(I'm chill with yaoi and it's fans but Fujoshis scare me)

Also yeah friendships are a thing and in general I like friendship. I like friends being friends (why yes I do prefer Kim and Ron and Star and Marco as friends- why does everything have to be romantic?) But I still respect people who do ship these things because unlike many Fujoshi's I don't need everyone to ship what I ship and I won't act entitled when a creator I like doesn't make my otp canon- (unless they've shown they are actually homophobic or transphobic etc and that's why the ships I like won't become canon- and then I'd just drop the media they made? Instead of acting like a psycho)

But nope. This autistic latina lesbian is clearly just an evil conservative.

Honestly I'm tired of this attitude- the whole 'everyone who criticized Steven universe were all just evil transphobic conservatives who hate immigrants and want Mexicans to mow their lawns' attitude

A lot of people who criticized su were gay or trans or black and were leftist etc

That doesn't necessarily mean that their arguments held any water (sometimes you'd hear a valid complaint but most of the time these people really just lacked media literacy) a lot of them (and I cringe when I say this) were SJWs who couldn't handle gay characters being anything less than pure and wholesome and hated the idea of nonviolence

Sometimes your own worst enemy are the people in your community who won't stop complaining/bashing other people in your community- and you need to call that shit out.

How many of us have seen a gay person go 'im gay but I'm not like those gays who are sexually active and like drag or whatever- ew' and reject almost every aspect of queer culture out of disgust because of moral purity nonsense how many of us have seen people within the autism community who go 'no autistic person is like Forrest Gump- we aren't stupid/we don't have low IQs or need diapers or need 24/7 care and blah blah'

These people are toxic and we need to call that shit out.

You are not a traitor for pointing it that people who share similar/same identities as yourself or people you share a community with are being toxic

And some of them did have very valid complaints (lots of stuff in season 1 like cool artifacts and temples etc just plain don't matter later in the series, everything being told from Steven's perspective causes massive issues, not everyone gets a satisfactory conclusion even by the time future rolls around etc)

(I'm a firm su defender BTW and will raise hell to defend that borderline masterpiece)

It's important to be critical and point out flaws within our communities. It's important to call out this shit.

It's always good when people within our communities point out toxic/abusive behaviors within our communities

I'm autistic and I will always call out people who deny the existence of people severely impaired by their autism

But it's easier to say that people who criticize your ships are homophobic and clearly evil trump supporters

It's easier to claim the gay guy who doesn't like a lot of aspects of queer culture a straight up homophobe rather than acknowledge they are probably either dealing with internalized homophobia/might even have valid complaints about the LGBTQ community (like the rampant biphobia and misogyny toward lesbians)

Its easier to call people who have autistic family members who have to be medicated to high hell and back and can't take baths by themselves ableist when they point out autism sometimes looks unaesthetic (even when they themselves are autistic)

Its easier to turn people within your own community into the 'other' or the enemy instead of acknowledging toxic aspects of your culture (whether they are criticizing the toxic aspect- like Catholics who criticize the homophobia they encounter in their community or are part of it being homophobic themselves) but it's not helpful

It's more helpful to acknowledge this shit than it is to label people who engage in the toxic bull as not actually being a part of your community- seriously wtf is this black and white thinking?

Its more helpful to be critical of your community and callout that shit (you are not a traitor for pointing out that some times gay people can be discriminatory or that many feminists are ableists) than it is to

Let the bad behaviors and issues fester out of control

You know how many trans men are uncomfortable with MLM centric fandoms because of Fujoshi's fetishizing them or acting like they are gross traps? How many gay men can also be put off by gay shit?

You know how many people are put off the rampant misogyny within fujoshi centric fandoms?

I'm not gonna criticize fujoshi's who are into rape fantasies

I'm not gonna criticize the ones who are into abuse fantasies

(we all have our kinks)

I'm gonna criticize the ones who act like people who aren't into that shit are prudes/pussies

(let me reiterate it's fine if your into these fetishes but you can't get pissy when not everyone likes it or when they criticize this stuff in stories- because while some writers know they are writing a technically problematic story that romanticizes this stuff on purpose for consenting adults to read other stories like ones aimed at kids accidentally glorify abusive relationships and rape by accident and that can mess up a kid)

I'm gonna criticize the ones who scare gay and trans men and bash female characters (because misogyny and transphobia and objectification are bad and Fujoshi's who do that shit deserve to be called out)

I'm gonna criticize the ones who show sexual content to minors and show kids unsafe media

I call out the Yuri community sometimes - shows like she ra promote a legitimately toxic couple to kids as something healthy and that's bad.

And I'm saying that as someone who is very into that shit (for adults only obviously I do not want kids getting into the shit)

You are not a traitor or evil for pointing out flaws within a community especially if it's your own

You cannot just pretend certain bad people in your community don't exist and are just made up by conservatives or ableists or whatever

His got kind of rambly but here's the tldr

Yaoi fans are cool but Fujoshis are often toxic (transphobic misogynistic etc) and we are allowed to call them out- that doesn't make us homophobes. Especially considering a lot of us are gay ourselves and proud of it

fandom antis/fujo haters 🤝 homophobic conservatives

"why do you have to make everything gay? just let men be friends"

[axolotlclown]

i wanna make a post about something im really passionate about but i need everyone to get really normal really fast

[casscainmainly]

What's your opinion on Bruce? I feel you hate him/don't really like him that much

OMG 😭 I'm really sorry if I come off that way, I actually like Bruce a lot! Hard not to when he has a gazillion good runs, but I find him a very fascinating character, realistically flawed but with a deep loving core. He's not my favourite of the Batfam, but I do really enjoy him!

I probably just reblogged too many Steph things, when I think about Steph it does get me angry at Bruce but this is a reflection of that specific scenario, not Bruce as a whole. Also I dislike Bruce's role in Duke's life, but that is definitely not a knock against Bruce's actual character (and I hate Alfred's role in Duke's life way more anyway). If I criticise a certain character in a specific dynamic, I swear it doesn't mean I dislike them as a whole!!

(Also I've been talking a lot about Bruce's sexism against Cass but I actually love Bruce in Batgirl (2000). A very nuanced and realistic depiction of a man trying to parent a girl when he has no idea what to do. It's just that recently I've been thinking about the gender angle, Bruce is actually quite a good parent in a lot of other aspects!)

Anyway I hope that cleared it up I am NOT a Bruce hater, I could never hate the top 2 parental figure in Cass' life <3.

[ninkaku]

annoying conversations happening on twitter this week about dazai and his canonical whoreness .... very ableist delivery of people treating him like a tiny 22 yr old minor who clearly doesn't know what sex is and its getting weeeeeiirrrrd ...........

[bittsandpieces]

Sometimes I get stuck in this very specific rut of executive dysfunction, and I know for a fact that having a caretaker dom who would help talk me through my tasks on bad days would be lifechanging for me. But instead I have no dom and just this stupid ass developmental disability that makes me periodically unable to function like a real human being

[spidermanifested]

doing a lot of posting this afternoon but. man. if theres anything that sets off my alarm bells its whenever i see a post thats like. Sticking It To Those Dumb Motherfuckers Who Complain About/Can't Just Suck It Up And/Don't Know How Great It Is To Engage In [INSERT SOCIAL CONVENTION HERE]

i know when i see one of these posts im going to go in the notes and see people calling op ableist, maybe in a way that comes off mean, and i know the op is going to respond calling them all terminally online sjws because of their tone, and/or playing the "so you think all autistic people are the same?? you think no autistic person can navigate social interactions like everybody else??? look at all these autistic people agreeing with me" card. the old "No You" Switcheroo

And its just, really exhausting, knowing they probably mean well but theyre operating on such faulty defensive logic that you can see from a mile away when youre in any way educated about disabilities. because the thing about disabilities is that theyre disabling. and when "difficulty with an ability" is a symptom of a disability. and then you insult people who find that ability.... difficult....... like i dont know how else to show people how to put these 2 puzzle pieces together. i dont know how else to explain that "people who cant do this one thing experience less of the full scope of humanity than me" is never a progressive statement to find yourself making

[ballercollective]

Im going to kill like 10 different people if i hear another peep about payjay because oj ans paper interact in the trailoR IM GONNA LOSE ITTTT IM GONNA GO FERAL STOPPPPPPPP

[bibiana112]

How to be less angry and spiteful and thirsting for ugly confrontations with and praying for the painful downfall of people who stand for everything you despise google search

[avatar-aaang]

oh okay so she can send out an email about staff birthdays but not the fucking schedule. got it. Priorities.

[thekimspoblog]

Demon trying to feed on my insecurities: "You're a bad driver"

Me: "Of course I am. I hate driving. Going 80 mph surrounded by tons of metal is nerve-wrecking. I try to do it as little as possible. Of course I'm bad at it"

Demon: "You're a bad writer"

Me: "Well that part's simply not true. I never claimed I was the greatest author of my generation, but when I put pen to paper I know what I want to communicate and I usually do it well. If someone isn't impressed with my work, that's unfortunate but they're entitled to their opinion"

Demon: "You're a bad leader"

Me: "Well I don't know about that! I mean there was that one time when... Ok look just because people don't see me as an authority figure doesn't mean... 😠 You know you can be a real asshole, demon!"

[songship]

My spicy tabletop take is that a lot of safety & communication tools actually make the problem worse by attempting to act as a complete substitute for communicating with the other members of your group and therefore actively stymies people's communication skills development instead of helping it

[cosmicredcadet]

THe fact that most ppl don't realize that taking someones glasses to play with/put on your own face/to shove fingers in their face to ask how many are being held up/ etc. is ablist and is actively taking away someones disability aid is fucking wild.

It took me years to realize kids were just being ableist by demanding i take my glasses off so that they could wear them and comment "How can you see out of these" "Wow you're so blind" like...

[tiredandsleepyaf]

Just letting y’all know if you ever don’t see me on here for a few days, I’m fine. I just take breaks for my mental health sometimes, especially with the state of things. Thought I should make that clear since there’s a lot of scary things going on right now. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.

[fagdykemuppet]

seeing discourse about a community i used to be in but not wanting to send op anything correcting bc its online discourse and thats tiring

[wawhii]

The older I get the more and more glad I am that I don't give a shit about internet problems anymore (I say with my fists fucking balled)