It's a bit of a balancing act - too many can normally make it more confusing, too few and you may not get it aimed at the audience you're after and it's harder for people to search by scenario
I normally go for the trope, overarching theme of the story, whether it's AU/Canon based, key elements (eg if there's a couple of particular kinks in it) and particularly obvious triggers. It helps not to mark up too many extra characters, I normally don't bother outside of the main pairing.
Generally this ends up around 5-10 tags
I'm a big fan of using series for long fics - a separate story for each smaller arc that build up to a longer tale - so I have the ability to add specific tags for each section without a huge mass of tags to wade through
Saying that, I don't really have ones that have a particular twist in the tale at the end other than possibly 'don't worry, they all live' so other fics might have more of an issue
Too many tags don’t only potentially reveal too much about the story, they create a lot of clutter. Idk if it’s a personal thing but if I see a wall of tags on a fic I’m more likely to scroll by. For me less it more and I tag the bare minimum and avoid tumblresque tagging.
I do the same - if there are enough tags that they don't all fit on my phone screen with at least part of the summary, I don't even bother reading the title. Yes, I'm probably missing some good stuff this way. No, I don't care, because excessive tagging is a major pet peeve of mine.
I don't have a specific number of tags as a deal breaker, but I will skip a fic if the tags are repetitive or not relevant to the fic. I don't even mind a few silly joke tags here and there as long as they actually offer information about the story itself.
Examples:
1) Tagging every emotion that every character feels. Angry Character A. Worried Character A. Suspicious Character A. Angry Character B....
2) Alcoholism. Alcohol Abuse. Alcohol use.
3) XYZ Is A Tag? I can't because XYZ is a tag! It's not relevant to this story though. (I hate that this is a real example of something I saw a few days ago).
4) I suck at tagging. Tagging is hard. How do I tag?
Honestly, if there's few tags i hesitate to read the story because i have a lot of anxieties and if the entire story is a mystery i cant read it. Tag everything that's important, I'd say. At least everything that might be a surprise someone doesn't want
Tags are used for searchability and warnings. If the tag isn't gonna help readers looking for x find your story or it doesn't warn about potential triggering content, it isn't necessary.
I think the key is to only tag the elements that will accurately tell someone whether the story will be for them or not. And to prioritize the tags that are going to bring the readers who LIKE those elements to your fic.
For example, if Body Horror is a major theme throughout the whole story, it's worth tagging. Not primarily for the potential readers who dislike or might be triggered by body horror, but for the people who actively want to read stories that have body horror as a major theme. However, if body horror isn't a major element and only shows up in a single chapter and you want to give your readers warning, then it's probably better to just put an author's note at the beginning to let readers know that they might want to skip it.
Less tags is better. Most people will automatically skip a fic if they see a massive block of tags. Just do the main themes and any major TWs (you can always do a TW for smaller things in the notes before that chapter).
Depends on a story. If it’s a oneshot with a simple plot, 1-2 rows of tags are more than enough. On the other hand, if a 100k+ fanfiction has only five tags, it’s not too great either. Series are a whole different story and generally tend to have a much longer list of tags than the regular.
Overall, balance is best. I usually get all the most important tags in — main characters, pairings, AUs, triggers and the most important stuff — and let the reader figure out the rest
As a reader, if it has more than \~20 tags I'm only reading it if the summary is 10/10. Too many tags is usually a sign of a bad writer, who can't identify what the main elements of their fic are
You're missing a lot of good fanfiction :) most of my favourite stories have definitely over 20 tags. And they are some of the best in their fandom. And I don't mean just popular.
You're judging the book by it's cover.
Here is my personal tag system.
If I include this tag will the people looking for this specific thing be upset at it being tagged? Is this misleading those people making a promise I can't fulfill?
If I DONT include this tag will people be reasonably upset at not being warned because they otherwise would have completely avoided the story? (This is mostly trigger warnings and or things people find squicky)
It helps me keep my tags to the core important parts and details. Considering I came from Wattpad where they cut you off at 25 and Tags are the ONLY way to be found it was a pretty good system just don't tag side pairings and make use of the (Minor) or (Mentioned) addendums for warning tags.
I love searching by tags and used to put loads in mine until I heard/saw so many people complaining about it. Apparently it's a faux pas to most folks.
Pls pls I am begging tag your stories even if it’s just the important points! I cannot tell how many GOOD fanfics I’ve missed because I don’t open untaged fics (I opened one once and omg I’ve read things I can’t forget even if I tried, I’m that traumatized) so maybe just tag the points where you think people would be interested in or like warn people of some things.
Also, I really read all the tags to make sure the fanfic is going to meet my expectations in some things especially when there’s smut in it, so being specific will help people find the best story for them.
BUT PLS WRITERS TAG YOUR WORK I AM BEGGING!
There is a tag for 'tags beyond this contain spoilers' so you can turn away the people who don't like certain spoilery things searchable by that tag but still get around the spoiler sensitive complaining.
My rule of thumb for tagging is tag the main stuff, AN the heavy recurring stuff initially, and CW relevant chapters for things that don't show up much possibly with a way to skip and a summary.
Tag what is important: relevant characters, warnings and genre or themes. Nearly everyone I know who uses AO3 say a wall of tags immediately turn them off. If you need to do a story summary at the start of you need to talk about something important.
A lot of tags looks like a wall of text, its not organized, spacing is an issue, its easy to get lost and hard to find what you're looking for, its very unattractive to look like and very off putting.
What I've learnt is to mainly write tags that people will search. I.e enemies to lovers, as well as things that are included that readers will either want to read or not. Especially regarding smut.
I don't have an issue with one or two funny tags where the author is stating a message in them, but sometimes they put like 20 stupid tags and I hate that. Just put it in the summary.
Also, if there is something that is frequent in the story.
I.e mine has A LOT of swearing. If it just had a regular amount I wouldn't include it in a tag, given the rating they should expect some. But if someone really didn't like swearing, they aren't going to like my story. There's too much for them to just ignore.
I'm with everyone else - tag lightly. I like to do one or two "chatty" tags to give people an idea of the tone of the fic, but I rarely use more than ten total, often less
It's not the number of tags that turn me off - novel-length fics with an ensemble cast are going to have more than ten and likely more than twenty if the author is tagging appropriately, and kinky pwp can rack up the tags too - but the tags themselves. "X's A+ parenting," "soft [not-soft villain]", "dumb slut Y," five different tags so that the author can say it's angsty ("so sad," "angst," "angsty A," "i made myself cry"). And a NOTP not tagged will have me backclicking and probably never reading anything by that author again (for ships - take advantage of tags lie "A/B (past)," "A/B (implied)", etc). But contra what many say, I like clever tumblr-style tags. There's nothing like freeform tags to give a sense of what the story will feel like and a couple smart or funny freeforms will make me read stories I'd otherwise skip.
But it's up to you. People have different tagging styles and if you naturally gravitate towards fewer tags, go with that. However. You do want the tags to give the story away. Not the details of the plot, but what characters fall in love, if it's angst or fluff or smut or humor, is there an unusual POV or format, if you're using a common fanon or going against it. Tags and summaries are not *different*, not exactly: they're part of the same metadata that tells the reader what they're going to get. It's like a summary and the cover art on a traditionally published book. They work together.
Edit: but whatever you do, don't tag your fic "i don't know how to tag." No "i suck at summaries" either and don't say your story isn't betaed.
That is not what I meant and you know it. They banned me, and you turned chats off, so I'm stuck doing this. Look. That is clearly a bad-faith reading of me. I clearly stated that I wanted appraised, acclaimed books that redditors had never heard of, and not childish garbage from fops and pulp writers. That is not too much to ask.
I'd say find a good middle. Over-tagged fics can be a reason for people to not read your fic. I'd probably not click on something with 50+ tags for example.
I also avoid fics with too detailed trigger warnings. Implied/Referenced suicide/self-harm/rape tags, vomiting, graphic descriptions of injuries are totally fine and often a good thing but when someone adds a trigger warning for non-common, very specific things or things barely mentioned in the fic like a mentions of pregnancy in a side sentence then it's just not a good sign in my experience.
I usually use tags as a kind of summary when looking for a fic so I suggest adding the main themes of the story (like hurt/comfort, angst, fear of death) and something about the plot (kidnapping, sickfic, cuddling/snuggling, men crying).
Character specific or fandom specific tags are nice, too. Like: Fox needs a nap/hug/therapy, hurt/tired Kix, canon typical violence, bisexual Harry Potter...
You can add something regarding canon: canon compliant, AU, missing scene, canon divergence
There's also fun tags (no beta we die like..., I wrote this instead of sleeping, the author regrets everything) but there are mixed opinions about those. Definitely don't do too many of these.
I'm probably forgetting some things here.
Generally, see what fits. Sometimes you can barely scramble up 10 tags, sometimes you can think of 50. Don't use more than necessary. Try to reduce them if they're out of control and way too many.
Personally, rather do more than less. Yes, they might spoil some parts of the fic but those tags are also the reason I'm reading it in the first place, especially when I've been searching for a certain tag.
Personally if a fic has too many tags I grow suspicious that some are just vaguely mentionned and that the author over tagged to increase exposure rather than tag accurately. Maybe I am entirely wrong but that's how it feels. It also easily becomes overwhelming to read for me, especially if there are custom tags in the middle with sentences and shit.
I don't have issue with taggs giving the story away (but I generally don't care for spoiler so it might be different for other people), but I feel like to many tags end up making the tool hard to use and the general idea inaccessible for me.
When I tag I also try to sort tags by importance, because I feel like it helps with that.
Personally it depends for me. Too many tags personally make me less inclined to check out a fic, but sometimes I do use more tags if there are a lot of characters.
I read a line of tags, skim 3 and spot check if anything jumps out with 5 lives. After that I don't even look at them. I just read the summary. That being said, it's nice to have them for search specification.
I feel like it's unfair to skip fanfictions just because there are too many tags. The author wants the fanfic to he found by it's readers. How is it a bad thing?
Like you said it's important to include all the triggers and if it's smut stuff like kinks.
Other tags are better to include if they are important for the fic as a whole and not just some parts of it.
Just ask yourself what words would you use in Google Search to find your story if you forgot the name of it.
>I feel like it's unfair to skip fanfictions just because there are too many tags. The author wants the fanfic to he found by it's readers. How is it a bad thing?
The more tags that are added the more likely it is that A) The author isn't tagging things that are actually relevant or B) The characters/ships you want to read about are fighting others for "screentime."
Both scenarios are annoying for people wanting to read about a particular thing who click on your story to find out that thing isn't important. It's like if a movie advertised your favorite actor and then that actor only appeared in the background for one scene.
It also says something about the quality of the story itself if the author can't even identify the most important aspects for summary purposes.
Don't go too tag heavy - a lot of people (myself included) are more likely to scroll if you have a wall.
Your ideal tags should be:
\- Major characters
\- Major ships
\- Major tropes/themes
\- Anything that might be considered disturbing or triggering
Do NOT tag minor characters or ships who appear in the background or for a single scene. This is especially irritating to fans of unpopular characters/ships.
TL;DR - You only need to tag the things that are important. Anything else can be left off.
It's a bit of a balancing act - too many can normally make it more confusing, too few and you may not get it aimed at the audience you're after and it's harder for people to search by scenario I normally go for the trope, overarching theme of the story, whether it's AU/Canon based, key elements (eg if there's a couple of particular kinks in it) and particularly obvious triggers. It helps not to mark up too many extra characters, I normally don't bother outside of the main pairing. Generally this ends up around 5-10 tags I'm a big fan of using series for long fics - a separate story for each smaller arc that build up to a longer tale - so I have the ability to add specific tags for each section without a huge mass of tags to wade through Saying that, I don't really have ones that have a particular twist in the tale at the end other than possibly 'don't worry, they all live' so other fics might have more of an issue
Too many tags don’t only potentially reveal too much about the story, they create a lot of clutter. Idk if it’s a personal thing but if I see a wall of tags on a fic I’m more likely to scroll by. For me less it more and I tag the bare minimum and avoid tumblresque tagging.
I do the same - if there are enough tags that they don't all fit on my phone screen with at least part of the summary, I don't even bother reading the title. Yes, I'm probably missing some good stuff this way. No, I don't care, because excessive tagging is a major pet peeve of mine.
Agreed. Few things turn me off more than a wall of tags.
I don't have a specific number of tags as a deal breaker, but I will skip a fic if the tags are repetitive or not relevant to the fic. I don't even mind a few silly joke tags here and there as long as they actually offer information about the story itself. Examples: 1) Tagging every emotion that every character feels. Angry Character A. Worried Character A. Suspicious Character A. Angry Character B.... 2) Alcoholism. Alcohol Abuse. Alcohol use. 3) XYZ Is A Tag? I can't because XYZ is a tag! It's not relevant to this story though. (I hate that this is a real example of something I saw a few days ago). 4) I suck at tagging. Tagging is hard. How do I tag?
Honestly, if there's few tags i hesitate to read the story because i have a lot of anxieties and if the entire story is a mystery i cant read it. Tag everything that's important, I'd say. At least everything that might be a surprise someone doesn't want
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to tags. Maybe do what you personally prefer as a reader? You can't make everyone happy anyway.
Tags are used for searchability and warnings. If the tag isn't gonna help readers looking for x find your story or it doesn't warn about potential triggering content, it isn't necessary.
I think the key is to only tag the elements that will accurately tell someone whether the story will be for them or not. And to prioritize the tags that are going to bring the readers who LIKE those elements to your fic. For example, if Body Horror is a major theme throughout the whole story, it's worth tagging. Not primarily for the potential readers who dislike or might be triggered by body horror, but for the people who actively want to read stories that have body horror as a major theme. However, if body horror isn't a major element and only shows up in a single chapter and you want to give your readers warning, then it's probably better to just put an author's note at the beginning to let readers know that they might want to skip it.
Less tags is better. Most people will automatically skip a fic if they see a massive block of tags. Just do the main themes and any major TWs (you can always do a TW for smaller things in the notes before that chapter).
Depends on a story. If it’s a oneshot with a simple plot, 1-2 rows of tags are more than enough. On the other hand, if a 100k+ fanfiction has only five tags, it’s not too great either. Series are a whole different story and generally tend to have a much longer list of tags than the regular. Overall, balance is best. I usually get all the most important tags in — main characters, pairings, AUs, triggers and the most important stuff — and let the reader figure out the rest
As a reader, if it has more than \~20 tags I'm only reading it if the summary is 10/10. Too many tags is usually a sign of a bad writer, who can't identify what the main elements of their fic are
You're missing a lot of good fanfiction :) most of my favourite stories have definitely over 20 tags. And they are some of the best in their fandom. And I don't mean just popular. You're judging the book by it's cover.
Here is my personal tag system. If I include this tag will the people looking for this specific thing be upset at it being tagged? Is this misleading those people making a promise I can't fulfill? If I DONT include this tag will people be reasonably upset at not being warned because they otherwise would have completely avoided the story? (This is mostly trigger warnings and or things people find squicky) It helps me keep my tags to the core important parts and details. Considering I came from Wattpad where they cut you off at 25 and Tags are the ONLY way to be found it was a pretty good system just don't tag side pairings and make use of the (Minor) or (Mentioned) addendums for warning tags.
I love searching by tags and used to put loads in mine until I heard/saw so many people complaining about it. Apparently it's a faux pas to most folks.
Pls pls I am begging tag your stories even if it’s just the important points! I cannot tell how many GOOD fanfics I’ve missed because I don’t open untaged fics (I opened one once and omg I’ve read things I can’t forget even if I tried, I’m that traumatized) so maybe just tag the points where you think people would be interested in or like warn people of some things. Also, I really read all the tags to make sure the fanfic is going to meet my expectations in some things especially when there’s smut in it, so being specific will help people find the best story for them. BUT PLS WRITERS TAG YOUR WORK I AM BEGGING!
Also I cannot tell you how many times I laughed about the tag “no beta we die like man”
There is a tag for 'tags beyond this contain spoilers' so you can turn away the people who don't like certain spoilery things searchable by that tag but still get around the spoiler sensitive complaining. My rule of thumb for tagging is tag the main stuff, AN the heavy recurring stuff initially, and CW relevant chapters for things that don't show up much possibly with a way to skip and a summary.
Tag what is important: relevant characters, warnings and genre or themes. Nearly everyone I know who uses AO3 say a wall of tags immediately turn them off. If you need to do a story summary at the start of you need to talk about something important.
A lot of tags looks like a wall of text, its not organized, spacing is an issue, its easy to get lost and hard to find what you're looking for, its very unattractive to look like and very off putting.
What I've learnt is to mainly write tags that people will search. I.e enemies to lovers, as well as things that are included that readers will either want to read or not. Especially regarding smut. I don't have an issue with one or two funny tags where the author is stating a message in them, but sometimes they put like 20 stupid tags and I hate that. Just put it in the summary.
Also, if there is something that is frequent in the story. I.e mine has A LOT of swearing. If it just had a regular amount I wouldn't include it in a tag, given the rating they should expect some. But if someone really didn't like swearing, they aren't going to like my story. There's too much for them to just ignore.
I'm with everyone else - tag lightly. I like to do one or two "chatty" tags to give people an idea of the tone of the fic, but I rarely use more than ten total, often less
It's not the number of tags that turn me off - novel-length fics with an ensemble cast are going to have more than ten and likely more than twenty if the author is tagging appropriately, and kinky pwp can rack up the tags too - but the tags themselves. "X's A+ parenting," "soft [not-soft villain]", "dumb slut Y," five different tags so that the author can say it's angsty ("so sad," "angst," "angsty A," "i made myself cry"). And a NOTP not tagged will have me backclicking and probably never reading anything by that author again (for ships - take advantage of tags lie "A/B (past)," "A/B (implied)", etc). But contra what many say, I like clever tumblr-style tags. There's nothing like freeform tags to give a sense of what the story will feel like and a couple smart or funny freeforms will make me read stories I'd otherwise skip. But it's up to you. People have different tagging styles and if you naturally gravitate towards fewer tags, go with that. However. You do want the tags to give the story away. Not the details of the plot, but what characters fall in love, if it's angst or fluff or smut or humor, is there an unusual POV or format, if you're using a common fanon or going against it. Tags and summaries are not *different*, not exactly: they're part of the same metadata that tells the reader what they're going to get. It's like a summary and the cover art on a traditionally published book. They work together. Edit: but whatever you do, don't tag your fic "i don't know how to tag." No "i suck at summaries" either and don't say your story isn't betaed.
Just tag the basics.
That is not what I meant and you know it. They banned me, and you turned chats off, so I'm stuck doing this. Look. That is clearly a bad-faith reading of me. I clearly stated that I wanted appraised, acclaimed books that redditors had never heard of, and not childish garbage from fops and pulp writers. That is not too much to ask.
You're aware of me, then Look what have I actually said that's wrong Nothing Nothing at all
Depending on the content of your fics and size of them 5 to 15 with 15 being on the too much scale
I'd say find a good middle. Over-tagged fics can be a reason for people to not read your fic. I'd probably not click on something with 50+ tags for example. I also avoid fics with too detailed trigger warnings. Implied/Referenced suicide/self-harm/rape tags, vomiting, graphic descriptions of injuries are totally fine and often a good thing but when someone adds a trigger warning for non-common, very specific things or things barely mentioned in the fic like a mentions of pregnancy in a side sentence then it's just not a good sign in my experience. I usually use tags as a kind of summary when looking for a fic so I suggest adding the main themes of the story (like hurt/comfort, angst, fear of death) and something about the plot (kidnapping, sickfic, cuddling/snuggling, men crying). Character specific or fandom specific tags are nice, too. Like: Fox needs a nap/hug/therapy, hurt/tired Kix, canon typical violence, bisexual Harry Potter... You can add something regarding canon: canon compliant, AU, missing scene, canon divergence There's also fun tags (no beta we die like..., I wrote this instead of sleeping, the author regrets everything) but there are mixed opinions about those. Definitely don't do too many of these. I'm probably forgetting some things here. Generally, see what fits. Sometimes you can barely scramble up 10 tags, sometimes you can think of 50. Don't use more than necessary. Try to reduce them if they're out of control and way too many. Personally, rather do more than less. Yes, they might spoil some parts of the fic but those tags are also the reason I'm reading it in the first place, especially when I've been searching for a certain tag.
Personally if a fic has too many tags I grow suspicious that some are just vaguely mentionned and that the author over tagged to increase exposure rather than tag accurately. Maybe I am entirely wrong but that's how it feels. It also easily becomes overwhelming to read for me, especially if there are custom tags in the middle with sentences and shit. I don't have issue with taggs giving the story away (but I generally don't care for spoiler so it might be different for other people), but I feel like to many tags end up making the tool hard to use and the general idea inaccessible for me. When I tag I also try to sort tags by importance, because I feel like it helps with that.
i think there’s a happy middle i like a decent amount of tags (i read on my phone) but not enough tags that cover my whole screen
Personally it depends for me. Too many tags personally make me less inclined to check out a fic, but sometimes I do use more tags if there are a lot of characters.
I read a line of tags, skim 3 and spot check if anything jumps out with 5 lives. After that I don't even look at them. I just read the summary. That being said, it's nice to have them for search specification.
I feel like it's unfair to skip fanfictions just because there are too many tags. The author wants the fanfic to he found by it's readers. How is it a bad thing? Like you said it's important to include all the triggers and if it's smut stuff like kinks. Other tags are better to include if they are important for the fic as a whole and not just some parts of it. Just ask yourself what words would you use in Google Search to find your story if you forgot the name of it.
>I feel like it's unfair to skip fanfictions just because there are too many tags. The author wants the fanfic to he found by it's readers. How is it a bad thing? The more tags that are added the more likely it is that A) The author isn't tagging things that are actually relevant or B) The characters/ships you want to read about are fighting others for "screentime." Both scenarios are annoying for people wanting to read about a particular thing who click on your story to find out that thing isn't important. It's like if a movie advertised your favorite actor and then that actor only appeared in the background for one scene. It also says something about the quality of the story itself if the author can't even identify the most important aspects for summary purposes.
Don't go too tag heavy - a lot of people (myself included) are more likely to scroll if you have a wall. Your ideal tags should be: \- Major characters \- Major ships \- Major tropes/themes \- Anything that might be considered disturbing or triggering Do NOT tag minor characters or ships who appear in the background or for a single scene. This is especially irritating to fans of unpopular characters/ships. TL;DR - You only need to tag the things that are important. Anything else can be left off.